cmdln

node-cmdln is a node.js helper lib for creating CLI tools with subcommands (think git, svn, zfs, brew, etc.). It is a sister of my earlier Python lib for this.

Follow @trentmick for updates to node-cmdln.

Usage

You define a subclass of Cmdln and subcommands as do_NAME methods. Minimally you could have a "conan.js" as follows:

#!/usr/bin/env node
var util = require('util');
var Cmdln = require('cmdln').Cmdln;

function Conan() {
    Cmdln.call(this, {
        name: 'conan',
        desc: 'What is best in life?'
    });
}
util.inherits(Conan, Cmdln);

Conan.prototype.do_crush = function do_crush(subcmd, opts, args, callback) {
    console.log('Yargh!');
    callback();
};
Conan.prototype.do_crush.help = 'Crush your enemies.';

// mainline
var cli = new Conan();
cli.main(process.argv, function (err) {
    if (err) {
        console.error('conan: error: %s', err);
        process.exit(1);
    }
    process.exit(0);
});

With this, you get the following behaviour:

$ node conan.js
What is best in life?

Usage:
    conan [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS...]
    conan help COMMAND

Options:
    -h, --help      Show this help message and exit.

Commands:
    help (?)        Help on a specific sub-command.
    crush           Crush your enemies.

$ node conan.js help crush
Crush your enemies.

$ node conan.js crush
Yargh!

See "examples/conan.js" for a larger example, including option processing and help templating. node example/conan.js ... to try it out.

Option processing

Option processing (using dashdash) is integrated. do_crush above could be replaced with:

Conan.prototype.do_crush = function (subcmd, opts, args, callback) {
    console.log('Yargh!');
    callback();
};
Conan.prototype.do_crush = function (subcmd, opts, args, callback) {
    if (opts.help) {
        this.do_help('help', {}, [subcmd], callback);
        return;
    }
    if (!args.length) {
        console.log('No enemies? Yarg!');
    } else {
        args.forEach(function (enemy) {
            console.log('Smite %s with a %s!', enemy, opts.weapon);
        });
    }
    callback();
};
Conan.prototype.do_crush.options = [
    {
        names: ['help', 'h'],
        type: 'bool',
        help: 'Show this help.'
    },
    {
        names: ['weapon', 'w'],
        helpArg: 'WEAPON',
        type: 'string',
        default: 'sword',
        help: 'Weapon with which to smite.'
    }
];
Conan.prototype.do_crush.help = (
    'Crush your enemies.\n'
    + '\n'
    + 'Usage:\n'
    + '     conan crush [OPTIONS] [ENEMIES...]\n'
    + '\n'
    + '{{options}}'
);

Then we get this behaviour:

$ node conan.js crush Bob
Smite Bob with a sword!

$ node conan.js crush Bob Linda --weapon mattock
Smite Bob with a mattock!
Smite Linda with a mattock!

$ node conan.js crush -h
Crush your enemies.

Usage:
     conan crush [OPTIONS] [ENEMIES...]

Options:
    -h, --help                  Show this help.
    -w WEAPON, --weapon=WEAPON  Weapon with which to smite.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.txt

Changelog

1.0.1

• Fix for a subcmd calling do_help on itself.