490 lines
17 KiB
Markdown
490 lines
17 KiB
Markdown
# Cobra
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A Commander for modern go CLI interactions
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[](https://travis-ci.org/spf13/cobra)
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## Overview
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Cobra is a commander providing a simple interface to create powerful modern CLI
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interfaces similar to git & go tools. In addition to providing an interface, Cobra
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simultaneously provides a controller to organize your application code.
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Inspired by go, go-Commander, gh and subcommand, Cobra improves on these by
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providing **fully posix compliant flags** (including short & long versions),
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**nesting commands**, and the ability to **define your own help and usage** for any or
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all commands.
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Cobra has an exceptionally clean interface and simple design without needless
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constructors or initialization methods.
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Applications built with Cobra commands are designed to be as user friendly as
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possible. Flags can be placed before or after the command (as long as a
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confusing space isn’t provided). Both short and long flags can be used. A
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command need not even be fully typed. The shortest unambiguous string will
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suffice. Help is automatically generated and available for the application or
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for a specific command using either the help command or the --help flag.
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## Concepts
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Cobra is built on a structure of commands & flags.
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**Commands** represent actions and **Flags** are modifiers for those actions.
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In the following example 'server' is a command and 'port' is a flag.
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hugo server --port=1313
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### Commands
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Command is the central point of the application. Each interaction that
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the application supports will be contained in a Command. A command can
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have children commands and optionally run an action.
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In the example above 'server' is the command
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A Command has the following structure:
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type Command struct {
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Use string // The one-line usage message.
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Short string // The short description shown in the 'help' output.
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Long string // The long message shown in the 'help <this-command>' output.
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Run func(cmd *Command, args []string) // Run runs the command.
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}
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### Flags
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A Flag is a way to modify the behavior of an command. Cobra supports
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fully posix compliant flags as well as the go flag package.
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A Cobra command can define flags that persist through to children commands
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and flags that are only available to that command.
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In the example above 'port' is the flag.
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Flag functionality is provided by the [pflag
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library](https://github.com/ogier/pflag), a fork of the flag standard library
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which maintains the same interface while adding posix compliance.
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## Usage
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Cobra works by creating a set of commands and then organizing them into a tree.
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The tree defines the structure of the application.
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Once each command is defined with it's corresponding flags, then the
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tree is assigned to the commander which is finally executed.
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### Installing
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Using Cobra is easy. First use go get to install the latest version
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of the library.
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$ go get github.com/spf13/cobra
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Next include cobra in your application.
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import "github.com/spf13/cobra"
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### Create the root command
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The root command represents your binary itself.
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Cobra doesn't require any special constructors. Simply create your commands.
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var HugoCmd = &cobra.Command{
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Use: "hugo",
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Short: "Hugo is a very fast static site generator",
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Long: `A Fast and Flexible Static Site Generator built with
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love by spf13 and friends in Go.
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Complete documentation is available at http://hugo.spf13.com`,
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Run: func(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) {
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// Do Stuff Here
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},
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}
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### Create additional commands
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Additional commands can be defined.
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var versionCmd = &cobra.Command{
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Use: "version",
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Short: "Print the version number of Hugo",
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Long: `All software has versions. This is Hugo's`,
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Run: func(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) {
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fmt.Println("Hugo Static Site Generator v0.9 -- HEAD")
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},
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}
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### Attach command to its parent
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In this example we are attaching it to the root, but commands can be attached at any level.
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HugoCmd.AddCommand(versionCmd)
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### Assign flags to a command
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Since the flags are defined and used in different locations, we need to
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define a variable outside with the correct scope to assign the flag to
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work with.
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var Verbose bool
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var Source string
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There are two different approaches to assign a flag.
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#### Persistent Flags
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A flag can be 'persistent' meaning that this flag will be available to the
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command it's assigned to as well as every command under that command. For
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global flags assign a flag as a persistent flag on the root.
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HugoCmd.PersistentFlags().BoolVarP(&Verbose, "verbose", "v", false, "verbose output")
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#### Local Flags
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A flag can also be assigned locally which will only apply to that specific command.
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HugoCmd.Flags().StringVarP(&Source, "source", "s", "", "Source directory to read from")
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### Remove a command from its parent
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Removing a command is not a common action in simple programs but it allows 3rd parties to customize an existing command tree.
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In this example, we remove the existing `VersionCmd` command of an existing root command, and we replace it by our own version.
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mainlib.RootCmd.RemoveCommand(mainlib.VersionCmd)
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mainlib.RootCmd.AddCommand(versionCmd)
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### Once all commands and flags are defined, Execute the commands
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Execute should be run on the root for clarity, though it can be called on any command.
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HugoCmd.Execute()
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## Example
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In the example below we have defined three commands. Two are at the top level
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and one (cmdTimes) is a child of one of the top commands. In this case the root
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is not executable meaning that a subcommand is required. This is accomplished
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by not providing a 'Run' for the 'rootCmd'.
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We have only defined one flag for a single command.
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More documentation about flags is available at https://github.com/spf13/pflag
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import(
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"github.com/spf13/cobra"
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"fmt"
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"strings"
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)
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func main() {
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var echoTimes int
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var cmdPrint = &cobra.Command{
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Use: "print [string to print]",
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Short: "Print anything to the screen",
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Long: `print is for printing anything back to the screen.
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For many years people have printed back to the screen.
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`,
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Run: func(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) {
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fmt.Println("Print: " + strings.Join(args, " "))
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},
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}
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var cmdEcho = &cobra.Command{
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Use: "echo [string to echo]",
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Short: "Echo anything to the screen",
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Long: `echo is for echoing anything back.
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Echo works a lot like print, except it has a child command.
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`,
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Run: func(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) {
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fmt.Println("Print: " + strings.Join(args, " "))
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},
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}
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var cmdTimes = &cobra.Command{
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Use: "times [# times] [string to echo]",
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Short: "Echo anything to the screen more times",
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Long: `echo things multiple times back to the user by providing
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a count and a string.`,
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Run: func(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) {
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for i:=0; i < echoTimes; i++ {
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fmt.Println("Echo: " + strings.Join(args, " "))
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}
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},
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}
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cmdTimes.Flags().IntVarP(&echoTimes, "times", "t", 1, "times to echo the input")
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var rootCmd = &cobra.Command{Use: "app"}
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rootCmd.AddCommand(cmdPrint, cmdEcho)
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cmdEcho.AddCommand(cmdTimes)
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rootCmd.Execute()
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}
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For a more complete example of a larger application, please checkout [Hugo](http://hugo.spf13.com)
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## The Help Command
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Cobra automatically adds a help command to your application when you have subcommands.
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This will be called when a user runs 'app help'. Additionally help will also
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support all other commands as input. Say for instance you have a command called
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'create' without any additional configuration cobra will work when 'app help
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create' is called. Every command will automatically have the '--help' flag added.
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### Example
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The following output is automatically generated by cobra. Nothing beyond the
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command and flag definitions are needed.
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> hugo help
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A Fast and Flexible Static Site Generator built with
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love by spf13 and friends in Go.
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Complete documentation is available at http://hugo.spf13.com
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Usage:
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hugo [flags]
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hugo [command]
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Available Commands:
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server :: Hugo runs it's own a webserver to render the files
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version :: Print the version number of Hugo
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check :: Check content in the source directory
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benchmark :: Benchmark hugo by building a site a number of times
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help [command] :: Help about any command
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Available Flags:
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-b, --base-url="": hostname (and path) to the root eg. http://spf13.com/
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-D, --build-drafts=false: include content marked as draft
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--config="": config file (default is path/config.yaml|json|toml)
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-d, --destination="": filesystem path to write files to
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-s, --source="": filesystem path to read files relative from
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--stepAnalysis=false: display memory and timing of different steps of the program
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--uglyurls=false: if true, use /filename.html instead of /filename/
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-v, --verbose=false: verbose output
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-w, --watch=false: watch filesystem for changes and recreate as needed
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Use "hugo help [command]" for more information about that command.
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Help is just a command like any other. There is no special logic or behavior
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around it. In fact you can provide your own if you want.
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### Defining your own help
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You can provide your own Help command or you own template for the default command to use.
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The default help command is
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func (c *Command) initHelp() {
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if c.helpCommand == nil {
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c.helpCommand = &Command{
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Use: "help [command]",
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Short: "Help about any command",
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Long: `Help provides help for any command in the application.
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Simply type ` + c.Name() + ` help [path to command] for full details.`,
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Run: c.HelpFunc(),
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}
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}
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c.AddCommand(c.helpCommand)
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}
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You can provide your own command, function or template through the following methods.
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command.SetHelpCommand(cmd *Command)
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command.SetHelpFunc(f func(*Command, []string))
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command.SetHelpTemplate(s string)
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The latter two will also apply to any children commands.
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## Usage
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When the user provides an invalid flag or invalid command Cobra responds by
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showing the user the 'usage'
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### Example
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You may recognize this from the help above. That's because the default help
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embeds the usage as part of it's output.
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Usage:
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hugo [flags]
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hugo [command]
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Available Commands:
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server Hugo runs it's own a webserver to render the files
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version Print the version number of Hugo
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check Check content in the source directory
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benchmark Benchmark hugo by building a site a number of times
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help [command] Help about any command
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Available Flags:
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-b, --base-url="": hostname (and path) to the root eg. http://spf13.com/
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-D, --build-drafts=false: include content marked as draft
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--config="": config file (default is path/config.yaml|json|toml)
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-d, --destination="": filesystem path to write files to
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-s, --source="": filesystem path to read files relative from
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--stepAnalysis=false: display memory and timing of different steps of the program
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--uglyurls=false: if true, use /filename.html instead of /filename/
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-v, --verbose=false: verbose output
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-w, --watch=false: watch filesystem for changes and recreate as needed
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### Defining your own usage
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You can provide your own usage function or template for cobra to use.
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The default usage function is
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return func(c *Command) error {
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err := tmpl(c.Out(), c.UsageTemplate(), c)
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return err
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}
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Like help the function and template are over ridable through public methods.
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command.SetUsageFunc(f func(*Command) error)
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command.SetUsageTemplate(s string)
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## PreRun or PostRun Hooks
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It is possible to run functions before or after the main `Run` function of your command. The `PersistentPreRun` and `PreRun` functions will be executed before `Run`. `PersistendPostRun` and `PostRun` will be executed after `Run`. The `Persistent*Run` functions will be inherrited by children if they do not declare their own. These function are run in the following order:
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- `PersistentPreRun`
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- `PreRun`
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- `Run`
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- `PostRun`
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- `PersistenPostRun`
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And example of two commands which use all of these features is below. When the subcommand in executed it will run the root command's `PersistentPreRun` but not the root command's `PersistentPostRun`
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```go
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package main
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import (
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"fmt"
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"github.com/spf13/cobra"
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)
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func main() {
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var rootCmd = &cobra.Command{
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Use: "root [sub]",
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Short: "My root command",
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PersistentPreRun: func(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) {
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fmt.Printf("Inside rootCmd PersistentPreRun with args: %v\n", args)
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},
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PreRun: func(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) {
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fmt.Printf("Inside rootCmd PreRun with args: %v\n", args)
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},
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Run: func(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) {
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fmt.Printf("Inside rootCmd Run with args: %v\n", args)
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},
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PostRun: func(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) {
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fmt.Printf("Inside rootCmd PostRun with args: %v\n", args)
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},
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PersistentPostRun: func(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) {
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fmt.Printf("Inside rootCmd PersistentPostRun with args: %v\n", args)
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},
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}
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var subCmd = &cobra.Command{
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Use: "sub [no options!]",
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Short: "My sub command",
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PreRun: func(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) {
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fmt.Printf("Inside subCmd PreRun with args: %v\n", args)
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},
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Run: func(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) {
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fmt.Printf("Inside subCmd Run with args: %v\n", args)
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},
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PostRun: func(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) {
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fmt.Printf("Inside subCmd PostRun with args: %v\n", args)
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},
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PersistentPostRun: func(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) {
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fmt.Printf("Inside subCmd PersistentPostRun with args: %v\n", args)
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},
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}
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rootCmd.AddCommand(subCmd)
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rootCmd.SetArgs([]string{""})
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_ = rootCmd.Execute()
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fmt.Print("\n")
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rootCmd.SetArgs([]string{"sub", "arg1", "arg2"})
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_ = rootCmd.Execute()
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}
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```
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## Generating markdown formatted documentation for your command
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Cobra can generate a markdown formatted document based on the subcommands, flags, etc. A simple example of how to do this for your command can be found in [Markdown Docs](md_docs.md)
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## Generating man pages for your command
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Cobra can generate a man page based on the subcommands, flags, etc. A simple example of how to do this for your command can be found in [Man Docs](man_docs.md)
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## Generating bash completions for your command
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Cobra can generate a bash completions file. If you add more information to your command these completions can be amazingly powerful and flexible. Read more about [Bash Completions](bash_completions.md)
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## Debugging
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Cobra provides a ‘DebugFlags’ method on a command which when called will print
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out everything Cobra knows about the flags for each command
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### Example
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command.DebugFlags()
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## Release Notes
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* **0.9.0** June 17, 2014
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* flags can appears anywhere in the args (provided they are unambiguous)
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* --help prints usage screen for app or command
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* Prefix matching for commands
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* Cleaner looking help and usage output
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* Extensive test suite
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* **0.8.0** Nov 5, 2013
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* Reworked interface to remove commander completely
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* Command now primary structure
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* No initialization needed
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* Usage & Help templates & functions definable at any level
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* Updated Readme
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* **0.7.0** Sept 24, 2013
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* Needs more eyes
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* Test suite
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* Support for automatic error messages
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* Support for help command
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* Support for printing to any io.Writer instead of os.Stderr
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* Support for persistent flags which cascade down tree
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* Ready for integration into Hugo
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* **0.1.0** Sept 3, 2013
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* Implement first draft
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## ToDo
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* Launch proper documentation site
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## Contributing
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1. Fork it
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2. Create your feature branch (`git checkout -b my-new-feature`)
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3. Commit your changes (`git commit -am 'Add some feature'`)
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4. Push to the branch (`git push origin my-new-feature`)
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5. Create new Pull Request
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## Contributors
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Names in no particular order:
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* [spf13](https://github.com/spf13)
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## License
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Cobra is released under the Apache 2.0 license. See [LICENSE.txt](https://github.com/spf13/cobra/blob/master/LICENSE.txt)
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[](https://bitdeli.com/free "Bitdeli Badge")
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