daniele77/cli

A library for interactive command line interfaces in modern C++

cli's Issues

Correct visualization of non english keys

In Linux (and with putty as a telnet client on windows), some keyboard keys don't work (àèéùò"£).

In windows, the arrows in the numeric pad don't work.

Linked to this problem, is the backspace that after non-English keys misbehave.

In particular (x = doesn't work):

                                  nocolor                       color
                      special char    backspace     special char    backspace
win local       
win telnet client       
win putty client                                        X
linux locale               X                            X
linux telnet                            X               X

Please note that the problem with non-English keys is only in the local echo of the characters because the cli engine receive the correct input string instead.

Putty on windows should be configured as following:

terminal -> Local echo: "Force off"
terminal -> Local line editing: "Force off"

Dinamically adding and removing commands and menu

It's useful adding and removing commands and submenus during the working session. For example, when loading/unloading a plugin at run-time we should be able to add/remove the related cli commands.

To implement this, maybe we should get rid of std::unique_ptr for commands and menus. We need to return an handle when adding commands/submenus, to remove them at a later time.

Odd behavior of history

Given the sequence of (valid) commands:

• cmd1
• cmd2
• cmd3

Using the arrow up key we get the history:

• cmd3
• cmd2
• cmd1

And that's ok. From here, if we use the arrow down key we get:

• cmd3
• cmd1
• cmd2

instead of the right sequence:

• cmd2
• cmd3
• cmd1

Manage arrow up / arrow down on local session

Pressing arrow up / arrow down on the local sessione should navigate the history

Wrong colors after CANC or BACKSPACE keypress

When you have the colors on and you edit a line by deleting a character, the part of the string following the edit becomes not colored.
This happens both with CANC and BACKSPACE keys.

Problems with putty and accented characters

Using putty terminal with the following settings:
terminal -> Local echo: "Force off"
terminal -> Local line editing: "Force off"
after enabling terminal color (e.g., with the command color in the complete example), some characters ('ò', 'à', 'è', 'é', 'ù', '£') are not echoed correctly on the screen.

Instead, backspace key does not work correctly when the characters 'ò', 'à', 'è', 'é', 'ù', '£' are echoed correctly: the backspace keeps erasing characters even after the start of the prompt...

Add vcpkg support

Would be great to use this library with cmake/vcpkg

Add a namespace and folder "detail"

Hide implementation in a folder and namespace "detail"

Allow using wrappers around custom dispatchers

Gist:
My particular use-case requires using a custom event dispatcher that selects on file descriptors. I spent a lot of time trying to make that happen with boost::asio::io_service, and concluded that it can't be done (correct me if I'm wrong).

So I'm proposing something different. Allow passing a custom wrapper type instead of boost::asio::io_service to the CliLocalTerminalSession and other objects. This can be done via a template argument defaulting to io_service, or it can be done by expecting a virtual interface that can be pre-implemented for io_service in a helper header.

I can pick this up myself as well when I get time, if there are no objections to the direction.

Basically what I would like to do in my custom wrapper interface / type is: I would make a pipe file descriptor dirty before actually calling Post on the io_service. In my main thread, the dispatcher would be calling select on the other end of the pipe (another file descriptor). It would then call poll on the io_service.

Add colored output

Consider to differentiate the prompt, the output and the input with colors.

Colors should be optional and customizable, possibly using a policy (template)

Special keys management from remote terminal

Arrow and tab keys should work also from a telnet session

Function keys in examples do not work

Hi.
Keys tab, up, down, left, right, backspace, home, end do not work in examples (asyncsession.cpp, simplesession.cpp).
I delete telnet session from complete.cpp, but the program ended immediately.

Managing commands with same name but different arity

It could be useful if the same command name can have a different number of parameters / different parameter types.

e.g.,

show
show interfaces
show interface 42

Windows telnet client does not work

Autocompletion not working

Hello.

I am facing issues with autocompletion. I noticed it works as expected when using a telnet session, but I tested all the other ones (local, file, async) and everytime I try to autocomplete, only the tab is printed as any other character, and the cli gets messed up.

I thought I was doing something wrong, but I tested the examples (generated following the README.md instructions) and experienced the same behavior. I also tested both latest master and v1.1.0 tags.

I am testing using Ubuntu 18.04. Boost version is 1.68. I observe the same behavior in regular terminal as inside vscode terminal. I this a bug, or I am doing something wrong?

Thanks in advance

Windows keyboard input

Add the keyboard management for windows, to make work history and autocompletion.

Session context in menu items

Is it possible to get some context related to the session in the function defined for the menu? One example would be a menu command to enable / disable debug output but only on that session - it wouldn't affect all sessions connected.

"Any suggestion for a good name?"

icli

Optionally delimitate string parameters by "

Currently, you cannot use strings with spaces as parameters to commands. It would be useful to use the symbol " to optionally delimitate a string argument.

Of course, it should be provided an escape mechanism also.

Add a global output stream

When you register a callback for a command, you get an output stream to provide output on the terminal you gave the command.

It would be useful to provide a "global" output stream (e.g., on the Cli class) to output "broadcast" messages on all the sessions (including remotes one).

Be careful that the global output can be asyncronous, and this could interfere with colors and autocompletion.

Bind to specific address

Hello. I really like your library, thanks for it. I'm confident it will get better as more functionalities are added.

I am actually using it on an new project, but I am facing the following issue: I need to bind the telnet server to a single address for security reasons. I was checking the source code, but I think that currently it cann't be controlled when creating a CliTelnetServer instance. It seems to listen in all available interfaces by default, am I right?

https://github.com/daniele77/cli/blob/master/include/cli/server.h#L126

If that's the case, can we add a constructor that will allow the developer to specify the IP address he wants the server to listen to? I am willing to help with this PR.

Thanks.

Move AsyncCli from sample to the library

Make AsyncCli working both on linux (with boost async file descriptor) and on windows (spawning a std::thread).

Backspace from remote terminal

It looks like backspace may not be properly handled (at least on Windows with the Windows telnet client). With a debugger I can see '\b' in the strings that are matched to commands or arguments. Backspace is properly echoed though. Might be an issue with the telnet client and its configuration.

Add an example with a blocking call in the main (single thread)

Boost requirement

Nice work! How much would be needed to remove the boost dependency?

Check for invalid streams in CliFileSession class

The class CliFileSession does not check for invalid streams passed as argument (for input and output).
Should add the check.

Completion for user-defined arguments

How hard would it be to extend it to allow completion also for arguments?
Let's say, for example, I have an command, that can only be called in the following way to be valid:
set_state RUNNING, set_state WAITING and set_state TERMINATED.
I want to have completion of set_state R to set_state RUNNING in this case.

Provide unique header file for the library

Consider to provide one header file that contains the others.
It could be useful to have two header file: one for the local session and one for the telnet server (or one for the core and the other for the asio part)

User-defined arguments

The library currently supports only arguments of type:

• char
• unsigned char
• short
• unsigned short
• int
• unsigned int
• long
• unsigned long
• float
• double
• long double
• bool
• std::string
• std::vector<std::string>

However, I see two big improvements:

1. restrict to a subset of values of a type (e.g., an int variable that can only assume the values: {-1000, 0, 1000} or a std::string that can only assume the values: {"red", "green", "blue"}).
2. use a custom type (e.g., a struct or a class).

See also #157

Build fails...

Boost Version: 1.70.0
OS: Debian GNU/Linux 9 (stretch) 64-bit / Gnome Version 3.22.2
Error Message:

/home/adem/LibSrc/cli/include/cli/remotecli.h:446:28: error: ‘boost::asio::ip::tcp::socket {aka class boost::asio::basic_stream_socket<boost::asio::ip::tcp>}’ has no member named ‘get_io_service’
         InputDevice(socket.get_io_service()),
                            ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~
examples/CMakeFiles/complete.dir/build.make:62: recipe for target 'examples/CMakeFiles/complete.dir/complete.cpp.o' failed

Linker error when building examples using cmake in Visual Studio 2019

Hey,

I am trying to build the project in Visual Studio 2019, building it as a CMake project. I get the linker error:

"fatal error LNK1104: cannot open file 'libboost_date_time-vc142-mt-gd-x64-1_70.lib'"

I just dont understand where the dependancy on boosts date_time comes into play. Another curious thing is that it is only building complete.cpp and pluginmanager.cpp that fails. The exe files to filesession.cpp and simplelocalsession.cpp are building correctly without errors. Hope you could shed some light on this issue.

If any other information is needed, please let me know

More samples

assyncsession not supported on Windows

(and any other non-posix OS) Due to this line
https://github.com/daniele77/cli/blob/master/cli/cliasyncsession.h#L90

Could possibly give a diagnostic?

#if _WIN32
#error "Currently not supported. #issue"
#endif
//or
#if !__has_include(<unistd.h>)
#error "Currently not supported. #issue"
#endif

Of the compilers on Godbolt that support C++14 but not __has_include are gcc 4.9.0 and 4.9.1
Edit: 🤦‍♂️ just realised that Boost has several macros to be able to test for this...

Make autocompletion work for direct submenu commands

When you have a menu structure like this:

main
  submenu
    cmd1
    cmd2

and you're in the main menu, the TAB key should autocomplete with:

submenu
submenu cmd1
submenu cmd2

Persistent history

It would be useful to (optionally) make persistent the cli history.

The local session and each remote session should maintain its own history.
But how to identify remote sessions?
According to the client IP address?
Or more simply by providing one history for the local session and just one for all the remote sessions? In this case, what happens when more than one client is connected simultaneously?

Maybe we could start by providing persistent history just for the local session.

Authentication feature

Hi @daniele77.

Do you believe it would be easy to add authentication to the library?. I know the scope of such a feature can be huge (for instance, supporting multiple authentication mechanisms, supporting multiple users, supporting different set of commands based on permissions and so on), but we could start with a simple scope, something easy like storing a local credentials file (like htpasswd).

My main concern is that right now any APP using the telnet server is open to the public, and the only way to restrict access is protecting it with networking workarounds like firewall rules. What do you think?

Thanks,

problems when using telnet when server is running as service

Hi,
i am running a gateway fw as a service on an 'bionic-armhf' machine (ubuntu 18.04 TLS).
this service acts as the cli server (like in the 'complete' example).
when trying to telnet, it stuck and takes forever to respond.
when running the gateway fw from bash (not as a service), the telnet works just fine.
any idea?

i might have some clue:
when running the complete example as a service, the cpu usage is ~98%.
when running it from bash, the cpu usage is ~1%.

Add history of the commands

Memorize in a circular queue the commands with valid syntax.
Add an optional command to show the history.

Customizable messages

Currently, every library message printed to the user (eg help, errors, ...) is in english.
It would be nice to let the user to (optionally) specify those strings at library initialization.

Duplicate autocompletion

If the same command name is used with different arity, the autocompletion (tab) shows the command duplicated.

Default input handler without specifying a command

Like the switch grammar, how about register a default handler for input?
For example: just input three integers after the prompt, and then call the Add command by default.

cli> 1 2 3
6
cli>

It would be nice when a single command is massively used.

BTW, cli now supports Insert a command name of std::string(""), but it seems this command would never be called.

Autocompletion

Using tab key should autocomplete the input

TAB autocompletion when many results with same prefix

When you have many results of autocompletion that have the same prefix, pressing the tab key should autocomplete with the whole common prefix.

E.g.,
commands: hello, hello_everybody available
When you digit "hel" and press the tab key, the cli should autocomplete with "hello" (the common prefix)

Direct specification of a submenu command

Entering a line of the kind:
<menu> <cmd>
Should be the same as
<menu>
<cmd>

Telnet server echo

Running the server on either Windows or Linux, I can't make the server echo the commands (or the autocompletion). Is this something that is not impelemented yet? A quick grep on the codebase finds a void TelnetSession::Echo( char c ) that is commented.

C++14 features

Take advantage of unique_ptr and move.
Remove cxx0x.h header file.

Global and per session "exit action"

Actually it's not so clear when the exit actions (cli, session, server) are called.

Feed the cli with user strings

Restore the possibility to feed the cli directly with user strings (without the special key handling) and check that AsyncInput class is still working.

Avoid duplicated commands on history

Hello. I would like to ask if there is a way to avoid storing the same command over and over on history. If it is not possible right now, can you please provide some hint on the relevant classes/functions to modify to make it work? I will be willing to add it and send a PR. Thanks.

Assertion in `History::Next()`

Steps to reproduce

1. Start examples/pluginmanager
2. Press key-down

cli> pluginmanager: include/cli/history.h:99: std::string cli::detail::History::Next(): Assertion `current < buffer.size()' failed.
Aborted