MooseX::App - Write user-friendly command line apps with even less suffering
In your base class:
package MyApp; use MooseX::App qw(Color); option 'global_option' => ( is => 'rw', isa => 'Bool', documentation => q[Enable this to do fancy stuff], ); # Global option has 'private' => ( is => 'rw', ); # not exposed
Write multiple command classes (If you have only a single command class you should use MooseX::App::Simple instead)
package MyApp::SomeCommand; use MooseX::App::Command; # important (also imports Moose) extends qw(MyApp); # optional, only if you want to use global options from base class # Positional parameter parameter 'some_parameter' => ( is => 'rw', isa => 'Str', required => 1, documentation => q[Some parameter that you need to supply], ); option 'some_option' => ( is => 'rw', isa => 'Int', required => 1, documentation => q[Very important option!], ); # Option sub run { my ($self) = @_; # Do something }
And then you need a simple wrapper script (called eg. myapp):
#!/usr/bin/env perl use MyApp; MyApp->new_with_command->run;
On the command line:
bash$ myapp help usage: myapp <command> [long options...] myapp help global options: --global_option Enable this to do fancy stuff [Flag] --help --usage -? Prints this usage information. [Flag] available commands: some_command Description of some command another_command Description of another command help Prints this usage information
or
bash$ myapp some_command --help usage: myapp some_command <SOME_PARAMETER> [long options...] myapp help myapp some_command --help parameters: some_parameter Some parameter that you need to supply [Required] options: --global_option Enable this to do fancy stuff [Flag] --some_option Very important option! [Int,Required] --help --usage -? Prints this usage information. [Flag]
MooseX-App is a highly customisable helper to write user-friendly command line applications without having to worry about most of the annoying things usually involved. Just take any existing Moose class, add a single line (use MooseX-App qw(PluginA PluginB ...);) and create one class for each command in an underlying namespace. Options and positional parameters can be defined as simple Moose accessors.
use MooseX-App qw(PluginA PluginB ...);
MooseX-App will then
Find, load and initialise the command classes (see MooseX-App-Simple for single command applications)
Create automated help and documentation from modules POD as well as attributes metadata and type constraints
Read, encode and validate the command line options and positional parameters entered by the user from @ARGV and %ENV
Provide helpful error messages if user input cannot be validated ( either missing or wrong attributes or Moose type constraints not satisfied)
Commandline options are defined using the 'option' keyword which accepts the same attributes as Moose' 'has' keyword.
option 'some_option' => ( is => 'rw', isa => 'Str', );
This is equivalent to
has 'some_option' => ( is => 'rw', isa => 'Str', traits => ['AppOption'], # Load extra metaclass cmd_type => 'option', # Set attribute type );
Positional parameters are defined with the 'parameter' keyword
parameter 'some_option' => ( is => 'rw', isa => 'Str', );
has 'some_option' => ( is => 'rw', isa => 'Str', traits => ['AppOption'], cmd_type => 'parameter', );
Furthermore all options and parameters can also be suplied vie %ENV
option 'some_option' => ( is => 'rw', isa => 'Str', cmd_env => 'SOME_OPTION', );
Read the Tutorial for getting started with a simple MooseX::App command line application.
my $myapp_command = MyApp->new_with_command();
This constructor reads the command line arguments and tries to create a command class instance. If it fails it retuns a MooseX::App::Message::Envelope object holding an error message.
You can pass a hash of default/fallback params to new_with_command
my $obj = MyApp->new_with_command(%default);
my $obj = MyApp->initialize_command_class($command_name,%default);
Helper method to instantiate the command class for the given command.
app_base 'my_script'; # Defaults to $0
Usually MooseX::App will take the name of the calling wrapper script to construct the program name in various help messages. This name can be changed via the app_base function.
app_namespace 'MyApp::Commands', 'YourApp::MoreCommands';
Usually MooseX::App will take the package name of the base class as the namespace for commands. This namespace can be changed and you can add multiple extra namespaces.
app_fuzzy(1); # default OR app_fuzzy(0);
Enables fuzzy matching of commands and attributes. Is turned on by default.
app_strict(0); # default OR app_strict(1);
If strict is enabled the program will terminate with an error message if superfluous/unknown positional parameters are supplied. If disabled all extra parameters will be copied to the extra_argv attribute.
The command_strict config in the command classes allows one to set this option individually for each command.
app_prefer_commandline(0); # default or app_prefer_commandline(1);
Specifies if parameters/options supplied via @ARGV,%ENV should take precedence over arguments passed to new_with_command.
app_command_name { my ($package) = shift; # munge package name; return $command_name; };
This sub can be used to control how package names should be translated to command names.
Set the description. If not set this information will be taken from the Pod DESCRIPTION or OVERVIEW sections.
Set custom usage. If not set this will be taken from the Pod SYNOPSIS or USAGE section. If those sections are not available, the usage information will be autogenerated.
All MooseX::App classes will have two extra attributes
Carries all parameters from @ARGV that were not consumed (only if app_strict is turned off, otherwise superfluous parameters will raise an exception).
Help flag that is set when help was requested.
cmd_tags - Extra tags
cmd_flag - Override option name
cmd_aliases - Alternative option names
cmd_split - Split values
cmd_position - Option/Parameter order
cmd_env - Read options from %ENV
Refer to MooseX::App::Meta::Role::Attribute::Option for detailed documentation.
MooseX::App will use your class metadata and POD to construct the commands and helpful error- or usage- messages. These bits of information are utilised and should be provided if possible:
Package names
required options for Moose attributes
documentation options for Moose attributes
Moose type constraints (Bool, ArrayRef, HashRef, Int, Num, and Enum)
POD (NAME, ABSTRACT, DESCRIPTION, USAGE, SYNOPSIS and OVERVIEW sections)
Dzil ABSTRACT tag if no POD is available yet
The behaviour of MooseX-App can be customised with plugins. To load a plugin just pass a list of plugin names after the use MooseX-App statement. (Attention: order sometimes matters)
use MooseX-App
use MooseX::App qw(PluginA PluginB);
Currently the following plugins are shipped with MooseX::App
MooseX::App::Plugin::BashCompletion
Adds a command that genereates a bash completion script for your application
MooseX::App::Plugin::Color
Colorful output for your MooseX::App applications
MooseX::App::Plugin::Config
Config files for MooseX::App applications
MooseX::App::Plugin::ConfigHome
Search config files in users home directory
MooseX::App::Plugin::Term
Prompt user for options and parameters that were not provided via options or params
MooseX::App::Plugin::Typo
Handle typos in command names
MooseX::App::Plugin::Version
Adds a command to display the version and license of your application
MooseX::App::Plugin::Man
Display full manpage
Refer to Writing MooseX-App Plugins for documentation on how to create your own plugins.
Startup time may be an issue - escpecially if you load many plugins. If you do not require the functionality of plugins and ability for fine grained customisation (or Moose for that matter) then you should probably use MooX::Options or MooX::Cmd.
In some cases - especially when using non-standard class inheritance - you may end up with command classes lacking the help attribute. In this case you need to include the following line in your base class
with qw(MooseX::App::Role::Common);
For alternatives you can check out
MooseX::App::Cmd, MooseX::Getopt, MooX::Options, MooX::Cmd and App::Cmd
Please report any bugs or feature requests to bug-moosex-app@rt.cpan.org, or through the web interface at http://rt.cpan.org/Public/Bug/Report.html?Queue=MooseX-App. I will be notified, and then you'll automatically be notified of progress on your report as I make changes.
bug-moosex-app@rt.cpan.org
Maroš Kollár CPAN ID: MAROS maros [at] k-1.com http://www.k-1.com
In no particular order: Andrew Jones, George Hartzell, Steve Nolte, Michael G, Thomas Klausner, Yanick Champoux, Edward Baudrez, David Golden, J.R. Mash, Thilo Fester, Gregor Herrmann
MooseX::App is Copyright (c) 2012-14 Maroš Kollár.
This library is free software and may be distributed under the same terms as perl itself. The full text of the licence can be found in the LICENCE file included with this module.
To install MooseX::App, copy and paste the appropriate command in to your terminal.
cpanm
cpanm MooseX::App
CPAN shell
perl -MCPAN -e shell install MooseX::App
For more information on module installation, please visit the detailed CPAN module installation guide.