Bashkit

Make command-line apps in bash in no time will full autocompletion and command routing support

Installation

Run the following command to install bashkit

curl -fs https://raw.github.com/mafintosh/bashkit/master/install | bash && . $(bashkit rc)

This will install a commandline tool called bashkit. Run bashkit to print all available options.

My first app

After you installed bashkit you can start making your own command-line apps. The following program will print hello world.

#!/bin/bash
. $(which bashkit) # include bashkit in this program

cmd-hello () {
	# this is the hello command
	echo hello world
}

run # call run to bootstrap the program

Save the following file as my-first-app and run bashkit link my-first-app in the same folder. Afterwards you should be able to run my-first-app hello in your terminal and it should print hello world.

Similary you could a add a command called hi by defining a cmd-hi method. If you wanted to make a program with no commands you would just use the cmd () { ... } method instead.

Adding options

You can add command-line options by using the opt function.

#!/bin/bash
. $(bashkit path) # include bashkit in this program

opt --test,-t # a --test option for all commands
opt hello --world,-w # lets add a --world (-w for short) option to our hello command

cmd-hello () {
	opt --world || exit 1 # if --world or -w is not set exit
	echo hello $opt_world # the world argument is available through a env var
}

run

To set a default value for the option simply add =value i.e. opt --world,-w=my-default-world. Running the above program with my-first-app hello --world world will print hello world.

Autocompletion

All linked apps features autocompletion of commands and options. This means that typing my-first-app <tab><tab> in the terminal will print out available options.

If you want to enable autocompletion of your command-line option values or command arguments you need to define a custom tab completion method.

#!/bin/bash
. $(bashkit path) # include bashkit in this program

opt --world,-w # lets add a --world (-w for short) option to our program

# lets autocomplete the --world option
tab-opt-world () {
	echo world welt verden mundo # print out available options
}

tab-hello () {
	: # in here we could complete the hello command arguments
}

cmd-hello () {
	opt --world || exit 1 # if --world is not set exit
	echo hello $opt_world # the world argument is available in through a env var
}

run

Running my-first-app hello --world <tab><tab> will give you the above options now.

License

MIT