cac
Advanced tools
Package description
The cac npm package is a simple yet powerful framework for building command-line applications. It allows developers to parse arguments, generate help messages, and create commands with options and sub-commands.
Command Parsing
This feature allows you to define commands with required and optional arguments. The code sample demonstrates how to create a command 'init' that requires a project name and accepts an optional type argument.
{"const cac = require('cac');\nconst cli = cac();\ncli.command('init <name>', 'Initialize a project')\n .option('--type <type>', 'Project type')\n .action((name, options) => {\n console.log(`Initializing project: ${name} with type: ${options.type}`);\n });\ncli.help();\ncli.parse();"}Help Generation
Automatically generates help information for the defined commands and options. The code sample shows how to define a 'build' command and an option to minify the output, with automatic help generation.
{"const cac = require('cac');\nconst cli = cac();\ncli.command('build', 'Build the project')\n .option('--minify', 'Minify the output')\ncli.help();\ncli.parse();"}Sub-commands
Supports the creation of sub-commands for more complex CLI structures. The code sample illustrates how to create a 'deploy' command with sub-commands for different deployment providers like AWS and Azure.
{"const cac = require('cac');\nconst cli = cac();\nconst deploy = cli.command('deploy <provider>', 'Deploy your project');\ndeploy.command('aws', 'Deploy to AWS')\n .action(() => {\n console.log('Deploying to AWS...');\n });\ndeploy.command('azure', 'Deploy to Azure')\n .action(() => {\n console.log('Deploying to Azure...');\n });\ncli.help();\ncli.parse();"}Commander is one of the most popular npm packages for building command-line interfaces. It offers similar functionalities to cac, such as command parsing, option management, and automatic help generation. Commander has a more extensive feature set and a larger community, but cac is known for its simplicity and ease of use.
Yargs is another well-known package for building command-line tools. It provides a rich API for argument parsing, command chaining, and validation. Yargs is more verbose and configurable compared to cac, which might be preferred for more complex CLI applications.
Meow is a lightweight CLI helper with a minimalistic approach. It is less feature-rich than cac but is very straightforward to use for simple command-line applications. Meow is a good choice for those who need something simpler than cac and do not require complex command structures.
Readme
Command And Conquer, the queen living in your command line.
$ npm install --save cac
const cac = require('cac')
// initialize your cli program
const cli = cac()
// add your very first command
cli.command('hi', 'Say hi!', (input) => {
console.log(`hi ${input[1] || 'boy'}!`)
})
// parse arguments and bootstrap
cli.parse()
--help -h --version -vhelp
string, it could be option or option, alias or alias, option, the order does not matter. eg: .option('install, i')string, option description, will be used to output cli usageany, give a default value to this optionstring, it could be command or command, alias or alias, command, the order does not matter. eg: .command('clone, c'). It can also be a wildcard symbol *, which means always been triggered if no command was specified by user.string, command description, will be used to output cli usagefunction, command function, will be triggered when this command matches user's input, the function takes two arguments:
array, default is process.argv.slice(2)function, triggered when your program throws an error or was rejected by a Promise call.MIT © egoist
FAQs
Simple yet powerful framework for building command-line apps.
The npm package cac receives a total of 4,789,990 weekly downloads. As such, cac popularity was classified as popular.
We found that cac demonstrated a not healthy version release cadence and project activity because the last version was released a year ago. It has 3 open source maintainers collaborating on the project.
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