GLI::App

accept(object,&block) Link

Configure a type conversion not already provided by the underlying OptionParser. This works more or less like the OptionParser version. It's global.

object: the class (or whatever) that triggers the type conversion
block: the block that will be given the string argument and is expected to return the converted value

Example

accept(Hash) do |value|
  result = {}
  value.split(/,/).each do |pair|
    k,v = pair.split(/:/)
    result[k] = v
  end
  result
end

flag :properties, :type => Hash

Source: show

# File lib/gli/app.rb, line 212
def accept(object,&block)
  accepts[object] = block
end

arguments(handling_strategy) Link

How to handle argument validation.

handling_strategy

One of:

:loose: no argument validation. Use of `arg` or `arg_name` is for documentation purposes only. (Default)
:strict: arguments are validated according to their specification. action blocks may assume the value of `arguments` matches the specification provided in `arg`. Note that to use this strategy, you must also be sure that subcommand_option_handling is set.

Source: show

# File lib/gli/app.rb, line 301
def arguments(handling_strategy)
  @argument_handling_strategy = handling_strategy
end

around(&a_proc) Link

This inverts the pre/post concept. This is useful when you have a global shared resource that is governed by a block instead of separate open/close methods. The block you pass here will be given four parameters:

global options: the parsed global options
command: The GLI::Command that the user is going to invoke
options: the command specific options
args: unparsed command-line args
code: a block that you must call to execute the command.

help_now! and exit_now! work as expected; you can abort the command call by simply not calling it.

You can declare as many around blocks as you want. They will be called in the order in which they are defined.

Note that if you declare around blocks, pre and post blocks will still work. The pre is called first, followed by the around, followed by the post.

Call skips_around before a command that should not have this hook fired

Source: show

# File lib/gli/app.rb, line 147
def around(&a_proc)
  @around_blocks ||= []
  @around_blocks << a_proc
end

autocomplete_commands(boolean) Link

Enables/Disables command autocomplete, where partially spelled commands are automatically expanded to their full form

Example: When enabled, executing 'shake' would execute 'shake_hand' (if no 'shake' command is defined). When disabled, executing 'shake' would throw an UnknownCommand error

boolean: Boolean value to enable or disable autocomplete, respectively. True by default.

Source: show

# File lib/gli/app.rb, line 313
def autocomplete_commands(boolean)
  @autocomplete = boolean
end

commands_from(path) Link

Loads ruby files in the load path that start with path, which are presumed to be commands for your executable. This is useful for decomposing your bin file into different classes, but can also be used as a plugin mechanism, allowing users to provide additional commands for your app at runtime. All that being said, it's basically a glorified require.

path: a path from which to load .rb files that, presumably, contain commands. If this is an absolute path, any files in that path are loaded. If not, it is interpretted as relative to somewhere in the LOAD_PATH.

Example:

# loads *.rb from your app's install - great for decomposing your bin file
commands_from "my_app/commands"

# loads *.rb files from the user's home dir - great and an extension/plugin mechanism
commands_from File.join(ENV["HOME"],".my_app","plugins")

Source: show

# File lib/gli/app.rb, line 32
def commands_from(path)
  if Pathname.new(path).absolute? and File.exist?(path)
    load_commands(path)
  else
    $LOAD_PATH.each do |load_path|
      commands_path = File.join(load_path,path)
      load_commands(commands_path)
    end
  end
end

config_file(filename) Link

Sets that this app uses a config file as well as the name of the config file.

filename: A String representing the path to the file to use for the config file. If it's an absolute path, this is treated as the path to the file. If it's not, it's treated as relative to the user's home directory as produced by File.expand_path('~').

Source: show

# File lib/gli/app.rb, line 102
def config_file(filename)
  if filename =~ /^\//
    @config_file = filename
  else
    @config_file = File.join(File.expand_path(ENV['HOME']),filename)
  end
  commands[:initconfig] = InitConfig.new(@config_file,commands,flags,switches)
  @commands_declaration_order << commands[:initconfig]
  @config_file
end

default_command(command) Link

Sets a default command to run when none is specified on the command line. Note that if you use this, you won't be able to pass arguments, flags, or switches to the command when run in default mode. All flags and switches are treated as global, and any argument will be interpretted as the command name and likely fail.

command: Command as a Symbol to run as default

Source: show

# File lib/gli/app.rb, line 280
def default_command(command)
  @default_command = command.to_sym
end

exit_now!(message,exit_code=1) Link

Simpler means of exiting with a custom exit code. This will raise a CustomExit with the given message and exit code, which will ultimatley cause your application to exit with the given exit_code as its exit status Use help_now! if you want to show the help in addition to the error message

message: message to show the user
exit_code: exit code to exit as, defaults to 1

Source: show

# File lib/gli/app.rb, line 223
def exit_now!(message,exit_code=1)
  raise CustomExit.new(message,exit_code)
end

help_now!(message=nil) Link

Exit now, showing the user help for the command they executed. Use exit_now! to just show the error message

message: message to indicate how the user has messed up the CLI invocation or nil to just simply show help

Source: show

# File lib/gli/app.rb, line 230
def help_now!(message=nil)
  exception = OptionParser::ParseError.new(message)
  class << exception
    def exit_code; 64; end
  end
  raise exception
end

hide_commands_without_desc(hide=nil) Link

Provide a flag to choose whether to hide or not from the help the undescribed commands. By default the undescribed commands will be shown in the help.

hide: A Bool for hide the undescribed commands

Source: show

# File lib/gli/app.rb, line 69
def hide_commands_without_desc(hide=nil)
  unless hide.nil?
    @hide_commands_without_desc = hide
  end
  @hide_commands_without_desc || false
end

on_error(&a_proc) Link

Define a block to run if an error occurs. The block will receive any Exception that was caught. It should evaluate to false to avoid the built-in error handling (which basically just prints out a message). GLI uses a variety of exceptions that you can use to find out what errors might've occurred during command-line parsing:

Source: show

# File lib/gli/app.rb, line 162
def on_error(&a_proc)
  @error_block = a_proc
end

post(&a_proc) Link

Define a block to run after the command was executed, only if there was not an error. The block will receive the global-options,command,options, and arguments

Source: show

# File lib/gli/app.rb, line 126
def post(&a_proc)
  @post_block = a_proc
end

pre(&a_proc) Link

Define a block to run after command line arguments are parsed but before any command is run. If this block raises an exception the command specified will not be executed. The block will receive the global-options,command,options, and arguments If this block evaluates to true, the program will proceed; otherwise the program will end immediately and exit nonzero

Source: show

# File lib/gli/app.rb, line 119
def pre(&a_proc)
  @pre_block = a_proc
end

preserve_argv(preserve=true) Link

By default, GLI mutates the argument passed to it. This is consistent with OptionParser, but be less than ideal. Since that value, for scaffolded apps, is ARGV, you might want to refer to the entire command-line via ARGV and thus not want it mutated.

Source: show

# File lib/gli/app.rb, line 179
def preserve_argv(preserve=true)
  @preserve_argv = preserve
end

program_desc(description=nil) Link

Describe the overall application/programm. This should be a one-sentence summary of what your program does that will appear in the help output.

description: A String of the short description of your program's purpose

Source: show

# File lib/gli/app.rb, line 47
def program_desc(description=nil)
  if description
    @program_desc = description
  end
  @program_desc
end

program_long_desc(description=nil) Link

Provide a longer description of the program. This can be as long as needed, and use double-newlines for paragraphs. This will show up in the help output.

description: A String for the description

Source: show

# File lib/gli/app.rb, line 58
def program_long_desc(description=nil)
  if description
    @program_long_desc = description
  end
  @program_long_desc
end

skips_around() Link

Use this if the following command should not have the around block executed. By default, the around block is executed, but for commands that might not want the setup to happen, this can be handy

Source: show

# File lib/gli/app.rb, line 93
def skips_around
  @skips_around = true
end

skips_post() Link

Use this if the following command should not have the post block executed. By default, the post block is executed after each command. Using this will avoid that behavior for the following command

Source: show

# File lib/gli/app.rb, line 86
def skips_post
  @skips_post = true
end

skips_pre() Link

Use this if the following command should not have the pre block executed. By default, the pre block is executed before each command and can result in aborting the call. Using this will avoid that behavior for the following command

Source: show

# File lib/gli/app.rb, line 79
def skips_pre
  @skips_pre = true
end

sort_help(sort_type) Link

Control how commands and options are sorted in help output. By default, they are sorted alphabetically.

sort_type

How you want help commands/options sorted:

:manually: help commands/options are ordered in the order declared.
:alpha: sort alphabetically (default)

Source: show

# File lib/gli/app.rb, line 243
def sort_help(sort_type)
  @help_sort_type = sort_type
end

subcommand_option_handling(handling_strategy) Link

How to handle subcommand options. In general, you want to set this to :normal, which treats each subcommand as establishing its own namespace for options. This is what the scaffolding should generate, but it is not what GLI 2.5.x and lower apps had as a default. To maintain backwards compatibility, the default is :legacy, which is that all subcommands of a particular command share a namespace for options, making it impossible for two subcommands to have options of the same name.

Source: show

# File lib/gli/app.rb, line 290
def subcommand_option_handling(handling_strategy)
  @subcommand_option_handling_strategy = handling_strategy
end

synopsis_format(format) Link

Control how the SYNOPSIS is formatted.

format

one of:

:full: the default, show subcommand options and flags inline
:terminal: if :full would be wider than the terminal, use :compact
:compact: use a simpler and shorter SYNOPSIS. Useful if your app has a lot of options and showing them in the SYNOPSIS makes things more confusing

Source: show

# File lib/gli/app.rb, line 265
def synopsis_format(format)
  @synopsis_format_type = format
end

use_openstruct(use_openstruct) Link

Call this with true will cause the global_options and options passed to your code to be wrapped in Options, which is a subclass of OpenStruct that adds [] and []= methods.

use_openstruct: a Boolean indicating if we should use OpenStruct instead of Hashes

Source: show

# File lib/gli/app.rb, line 189
def use_openstruct(use_openstruct)
  @use_openstruct = use_openstruct
end

version(version) Link

Indicate the version of your application

version: String containing the version of your application.

Source: show

# File lib/gli/app.rb, line 169
def version(version)
  @version = version
  desc 'Display the program version'
  switch :version, :negatable => false
end

wrap_help_text(wrap_type) Link

Set how help text is wrapped.

wrap_type

Symbol indicating how you'd like text wrapped:

:to_terminal: Wrap text based on the width of the terminal (default)
:verbatim: Format text exactly as it was given to the various methods. This is useful if your output has formatted output, e.g. ascii tables and you don't want it messed with.
:one_line: Do not wrap text at all. This will bring all help content onto one line, removing any newlines
:tty_only: Wrap like :to_terminal if this output is going to a TTY, otherwise don't wrap (like :one_line)

Source: show

# File lib/gli/app.rb, line 255
def wrap_help_text(wrap_type)
  @help_text_wrap_type = wrap_type
end

Module GLI::App

Example: