cli-util

cli-util is an extension of apache common's java command line interface (commons-cli) library. It adds sub commands, more type safely and a declarative style for defining commands, their options, flags and arguments.

Example

BullhornApplication.java

...
public static void main(String[] args) {
  CommandSet app = new CommandSet("bullhorn");
  app.addSubCommands(Yell.class);
  app.invoke(args);
}
...

Yell.java

...
@Arg(name="Text to yell")
public String text;

@Opt(opt="n", longOpt="repeat", description="Number of times to yell the text")
public Number yells = 0;

@Override
public void exec(CommandContext commandLine) throws CommandError, Exception {
  for(int i = 0; i < yells.intValue(); i++) System.out.println(text);
}
...

Try it out

Maven required.

First, install cli-util into your maven repo.

$ mvn install

Next, open your .bashrc, .profile, or whatever you use and add a BULLHORN_HOME environment variable pointing to your cli-util working directory. Also, the cli bin to the PATH. Lastly, Make sure the JAVA_HOME environment variable is pointing to a JDK.

For bash style shells:

export BULLHORN_HOME=<cli-util-path>/cli-util/example
export PATH=$PATH:$BULLHORN_HOME/bin

Build it:

$ cd $BULLHORN_HOME
$ mvn package

Run the cli:

$ bullhorn yell

Classpath Setup Hints

Command line interfaces should be run from a simple shell script. For java, the shell script load a classpath. Setting up a classpath correctly is depends a lot on the particulars of the project it is added to. Some hints:

1. Require a "project home" environment variable. Usually this is a PROJECT_NAME_HOME variable.
2. Make locations in the classpath relative to the project home environment variable when possible.
3. If the classpath is non-trivial or may change, autogenerate the classpath with your build tool.
4. Pass arguments through to java app with "$@" (include the quotes)
5. Provide a PROJECT_NAME_OPT environment variable that is passed in to the jvmargs that can be optionally set.

See sample-bin/bullhorn for an example bash shell script.

Maven

The simplest approach is to using the jar-with-dependencies assembly build plugin (see pom.xml) and then reference it in the shell script.

pom.xml:

<project>
  ...
  <build>
    <plugins>
      <plugin>
        <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>2.2.1</version>
        <configuration>
          <descriptorRefs>
            <descriptorRef>jar-with-dependencies</descriptorRef>
          </descriptorRefs>
        </configuration>
        <executions>
          <execution>
            <id>make-bullhorn</id> <!-- this is used for inheritance merges -->
            <phase>package</phase> <!-- bind to the packaging phase -->
            <goals>
              <goal>single</goal>
            </goals>
          </execution>
        </executions>
      </plugin>
    </plugins>
  </build>
</project>

shell script:

#!/bin/bash
java -cp $BULLHORN_HOME/target/bullhorn-1.0-SNAPSHOT-jar-with-dependencies.jar \
  $BULLHORN_OPTS \
  jpbetz.cli.BullhornApplication \
  "$@"

Gradle

Add a custom task to generate the classpath. This can either be used to generate the shell script, or be written to a plain file which is used in the shell script.

build.gradle:

task cliClasspath << {
  new File("$projectDir/bin/classpath").withWriter { out ->
    runtimeClasspath.each { File file -> out.print file.absolutePath + ':' }
  }
}
compileJava.dependsOn cliClasspath

shell script:

#!/bin/bash
java -cp `cat $BULLHORN_HOME/bin/classpath` \
  $BULLHORN_OPTS \
  jpbetz.cli.BullhornApplication \
  "$@"

Ant

??? Suggestions welcome.