sedind/cli

Simple library for making cli apps

cli

cli is a simple package for building command line apps in Go. The goal is to enable developers to write fast and distributable command line applications in an expressive way.

Installation

Using this package requires a working Go environment. See the install instructions for Go.

Go Modules are required when using this package. See the go blog guide on using Go Modules.

$ GO111MODULE=on go get github.com/sedind/cli

...
import (
  "github.com/sedind/cli"
)
...

Usage Documentation

Getting Started

One of the philosophies behind cli is that an API should be playful and full of discovery. So a cli app can be as little as one line of code in main().

package main

import (
  "os"

  "github.com/sedind/cli"
)

func main() {
  cli.New().Run(os.Args)
}

This app will run and show help text, but is not very useful. Let's give an action to execute and some help documentation:

package main

import (
  "fmt"
  "log"
  "os"

  "github.com/sedind/cli"
)

func main() {
  app := cli.New()
  app.Name = "greet"
  app.Description =  "creates greeting message"
  app.Action =  func(c *cli.Context) error {
    fmt.Println("Howdy!")
    return nil
  }
  

  err := app.Run(os.Args)
  if err != nil {
    log.Fatal(err)
  }
}

Install our command to the $GOPATH/bin directory:

$ go install

Finally run our new command:

$ greet
Howdy!

cli also generates neat help text:

$ greet help
creates greeting message

Usage:	build [flags] [args...]
	-help	    h	Prints application help (false)
	-version	v	Prints application version (false)

GOPATH

Make sure your PATH includes the $GOPATH/bin directory so your commands can be easily used:

export PATH=$PATH:$GOPATH/bin

Supported platforms

cli is tested against multiple versions of Go on Linux, and against the latest released version of Go on OS X and Windows.