Cri::Scaffold

Cri is a pretty great tool. But using it can be a bit of a pain sometimes, especially if you have deeply structured commands. Cri::Scaffold exists to provide a convention-over-configuration method of defining commands. It intentionally limits the options available--every project using Cri::Scaffold works exactly the same, every time. In a nutshell:

• The root command is always cli.rb.
• Subcommands are in the cli/ directory and end in .cli.rb, i.e. cli/foo.cli.rb, which will be defined as the foo subcommand.
• Sub-subcommands (and so on and so forth) are defined in directories descending from the name of the command, i.e. foo bar would be in cli/foo/bar.rb.
• Any command with an underscore in the name is converted to a hyphen to remove the "is it an underscore or is it a hyphen?" question. Hyphens are cool. We use hyphens.

Hat-tip to my friend Sean Edwards for the idea.

Cri::Scaffold expects to be pointed at a directory containing a file called cli.rb. It returns acompletely configured Cri::Command that can be evaluated with ARGV:

#! /usr/bin/env ruby
require 'cri/scaffold'

Cri::scaffold(File.expand_path("#{__dir__}/../lib/somegem")).run(ARGV)

The contents of cli.rb, and any sub-commands, will be evaluated as a DSL, as if they were included inside of a Cri::Command block. There are two important differences when writing the root command:

• The command is created with Cri::Command.new_basic_root, not instantiated directly via Cri::Command.new.
• The variable program_name is in scope, containing File.basename($PROGRAM_NAME), to ensure a predictable help file text.

After checking out the repo, run bin/setup to install dependencies. You can also run bin/console for an interactive prompt that will allow you to experiment.

To install this gem onto your local machine, run bundle exec rake install. To release a new version, update the version number in version.rb, and then run bundle exec rake release, which will create a git tag for the version, push git commits and tags, and push the .gem file to rubygems.org.

Bug reports and pull requests are welcome on GitHub at https://github.com/eropple/cri-scaffold. This project is intended to be a safe, welcoming space for collaboration, and contributors are expected to adhere to the Contributor Covenant code of conduct.

The gem is available as open source under the terms of the MIT License.

Everyone interacting in the Cri::Scaffold project’s codebases, issue trackers, chat rooms and mailing lists is expected to follow the code of conduct.