ShellBox

ShellBox helps you to organize your shellscripts by splitting them in commands libraries.

If you spend much time on unix consoles in your developer's life, you probably built a set of ninja's scripts you use everyday to work an efficient way. ShellBox's original purpose is to provide a frame to build project development Command Line Interfaces (= your set of ninja's scripts).

Features:

• Lightly standardize shellscripts:
  • Every library is composed of public commands and private functions.
  • Your libraries are directly executable: $ a_library.sb a_command opt_1 opt_2 ....
• Build libraries of reusable commands:
  • Your scripts are sliced in namespaced commands libraries.
  • Every libraries can run other's command by requiring them: require 'other_lib'; other_lib::command 'foo'.
• Designed for Command Line Interface:
  • Easily create a command that generates a "manual" from your code documentation.
  • Enjoy the bash and zsh completions of commands and options.

Getting started

Installation

git clone [email protected]:debona/ShellBox.git ShellBox
cd ShellBox
export PATH="`pwd`/bin:$PATH" # make the shellbox libraries executable
export PATH="`pwd`/box:$PATH" # make the libraries of this shellbox available in your PATH

ShellBox is now ready for your current shell session. To get it automatically available in all your shell sessions, add the PATH configuration to your .profile file.

echo "export PATH=\"`pwd`/bin:\$PATH\"" >> ~/.profile
echo "export PATH=\"`pwd`/box:\$PATH\"" >> ~/.profile

Create your commands library

Basic library example

The first library allows you to print colored messages in shell console. The library print colors iff it's called in an interactive console.

print.sb:

#!/usr/bin/env shellbox
#
# A print library.
# It's purpose is to illustrate how ShellBox is fun.

# The following lines are executed when this library is required or executed.
if [[ -t 1 ]] && [[ -t 2 ]] # if stdout and stderr are tty, then define colors
then
	reset='\033[0m'
	yellowf='\033[33m'
fi

# COMMANDS:

## Print a warning message on stderr.
#
# @params	args	The warning message
function print::warning() {
	echo -e "${yellowf} ⚑ $@${reset}" >&2
}

Make print.sb executable: chmod 755 print.sb

Now you can execute print commands in your console:

$ ./print.sb warning "printed on stderr" 1> /dev/null
 ⚑ printed on stderr

Advanced library example

This library is an example of a library that rely on other's commands libraries. The complexe.sb library require our print.sb library and the shared library.

complex.sb:

#!/usr/bin/env shellbox
#
# A complex library.
# It's purpose is to illustrate how to rely on other libraries.

require 'print' # that means the complex library rely on the `print.sb` library

# COMMANDS:

## Print each parameter in one line.
#
# @params	args	The params to print
function complex::print() {
	if [[ $# -lt 1 ]]
	then
		print::warning 'There is no parameters'
	else
		complex_print_list "$@"
	fi
}

## Display a short help of the library or the help of the library command provided
#
# @param	[command_name]	The command name
function complex::help() {
	require 'shared' # a library can be required everywhere
	shared::help 'complex' "$@"
}

# PRIVATE FUNCTIONS:

## Print all the given params separated with the delimiter
#
# @param	args	The parameters
function complex_print_list() {
	for param in "$@"
	do
		echo " ● $param"
	done
}

Make complex.sb executable: chmod 755 complex.sb

Now you can execute complex commands in your console:

$ complex.sb print `seq 1 3`
 ● 1
 ● 2
 ● 3

$ complex.sb help
Available commands for this library:
    complex help [command_name]
    complex print args*

How does it work?

Every libraries are executed through the shellbox library interpreter. This interpreter define few functions and then execute the given library command.

What happen when you execute a library command?

1. Your shell reads the first line of your script (the shebang) and runs the shellbox lib interpreter (with the lib as a parameter).
2. The interpreter declares few functions. The most important function is the require function.
3. The interpreter calls the require function on your library. The most important thing this function does is sourcing your library.
4. The interpreter looks for a function like your_lib::the_command to call, and then call it.

How does the require function look for libraries?

1. The require function look for the *.sb files available through your PATH environment var.
2. The function select the first library that match the given name.

Actual limitations

• The shellbox binary must be in your PATH when you run a library command.
  • By the way, this command will work: PATH="path/to/shellbox/bin:$PATH" my/libs/foo.sb

Licence

The code for this software is distributed under an MIT license.

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.