Skunk: Build a base project

Everybody enjoys a skunkworks project now and then. But keep the projects consistent! Skunk sets up the necessary directories for creating a new project.

It's also a demonstation of how to write Cookoo programs in Go.

Installation

$ cd $GOPATH
$ go get github.com/technosophos/skunk
$ cp -a src/github.com/technosophos/skunk/dot-skunk ~/.skunk
$ bin/skunk

Usage

Here's how you use it:

$ skunk ProjectName

The above will create a new project scaffolded for you. For example, using the default dot-skunk directory, you would get this:

$ skunk MyProject
$ ls -lah MyProject/
total 24
drwxr-xr-x   9 mattbutcher  staff   306B Mar  2 19:15 .
drwxr-xr-x  11 mattbutcher  staff   374B Mar  2 19:15 ..
-rw-r--r--   1 mattbutcher  staff    24B Mar  2 19:15 .gitignore
-rw-r--r--   1 mattbutcher  staff   1.1K Mar  2 19:15 LICENSE.txt
-rw-r--r--   1 mattbutcher  staff    69B Mar  2 19:15 README.md
drwxr-xr-x   2 mattbutcher  staff    68B Mar  2 19:15 build
drwxr-xr-x   2 mattbutcher  staff    68B Mar  2 19:15 docs
drwxr-xr-x   2 mattbutcher  staff    68B Mar  2 19:15 lib
drwxr-xr-x   2 mattbutcher  staff    68B Mar  2 19:15 src

Of course, all of this is customizable.

Basic help is available using the -help flag:

$ skunk -help
Usage: skunk [-OPTIONS] PROJECTNAME

OPTIONS:
  -confd="/Users/mattbutcher/.skunk": Set the directory with settings.json
  -type=[]: Project type (e.g. 'go', 'php'). Separate multiple values with ','

EXAMPLES:
skunk MyProject			# Create MyProject, using defaults.
skunk -condf=skunkd MyProject	# Create MyProject using config files in ./skunkd/.
skunk -type=go,git MyProject	# Create MyProject and use the preferences for user-defined 'go' and 'git' projects.

Options Explained

• confd: The directory that holds your Skunk configuration files. By default, Skunk looks in ~/.skunkrc. A skunk directory MUST have a settings.json file.
• type: The type of project. This allows you to add additional directories and templates for specific kinds of projects. (See below.)

Customizing

• Edit your ~/.skunk/settings.json file to your tastes.
• Create your own templates in ~/.skunk/tpl

The template format is documented in the Go documentation. Templates can range from simple to complex, including branching logic, constructing pipelines, and calling functions.

Among other things, all of the values in settings.json are available in your templates. So you can add new data to your JSON an access it in your templates.

The default settings.json file might look something like this:

{
  "author": "Matt Butcher",
  "email": "matt@example.com",

  "directories": ["src", "lib", "docs", "build"],

  "templates": {
    "tpl/README.tpl": "README.md",
    "tpl/MIT.txt": "LICENSE.txt",
    "tpl/gitignore.tpl": ".gitignore"
  }

}

Here's what these are for:

• author: A name. This is conventional (not required), and is used as a template variable in, for example, tpl/MIT.txt.
• email: This is conventional, and is used as a template variable in, for example, tpl/MIT.txt.
• directories: This is an array of directories to create. You can use nested directories like this: 'foo/bar/baz' and skunk will create the entire hierarchy for you.
• templates: This is a map of template files to destination files. Each template will be processed, and the results will be saved at the given directory (rooted from the project). So tpl/README.tpl will be run through the template engine, and then saved as $PROJECTNAME/README.md.

Say you wanted to add a template variable for subtitle. You can accomplish this by adding "subtitle": "My Subtitle" in the settings.json file, and it will thereafter be available in templates as .subtitle.

Types

In addition to basic customizations, you can declare your own type. A type, in Skunk, reflects what kind (type) of project you are creating.

In Skunk 1.0, creating types is trivially easy. You just add a type as an object in your settings.json file.

Here's an example from the default settings.json:

{
  "author": "Matt Butcher",
  "email": "technosophos@example.com",
	"description": "",
	"keywords": "",

  "directories": ["src", "lib", "docs", "build"],

  "templates": {
    "tpl/README.tpl": "README.md",
    "tpl/MIT.txt": "LICENSE.txt",
    "tpl/gitignore.tpl": ".gitignore"
  },


	"php": {
		"directories": ["vendor"],
		"templates": {
			"tpl/php/composer.json": "composer.json"
		}
	}
}

See the php entry? That's a declaration of the type php. Now, to start a new PHP project we can invoke Skunk like this:

$ skunk -type php MyProject

And this will do the following:

• It will start with the directories and tempaltes declared at the base of the settings.json file.
• It will merge the directories and templates from the php section into those lists.
• It will create MyProject along with all of the directories and templates in the final list.

You can set multiple types for a new project:

$ skunk -type php,stackato,fabric MyProject

This will merge the php, stackato, and fabric settings all into the main settings. When it comes to overwriting, order is important. The last type has the highest precendence.

License

This code is Open Source, and is licensed under the MIT license. See LICENSE.txt.