commist

What is commist?

The 'commist' npm package is a command-line argument parser that helps in managing and dispatching commands in a CLI application. It allows you to define commands and their respective handlers, making it easier to build complex command-line tools.

What are commist's main functionalities?

Command Registration

This feature allows you to register a command and its handler. In this example, the 'hello' command is registered, and when invoked, it prints 'Hello, world!' to the console.

const commist = require('commist')();

commist.register('hello', () => {
  console.log('Hello, world!');
});

commist.parse(process.argv.slice(2));

Subcommand Handling

This feature allows you to handle subcommands within a command. In this example, the 'greet' command can handle 'morning' and 'evening' subcommands, printing different messages accordingly.

const commist = require('commist')();

commist.register('greet', (args) => {
  if (args[0] === 'morning') {
    console.log('Good morning!');
  } else if (args[0] === 'evening') {
    console.log('Good evening!');
  } else {
    console.log('Hello!');
  }
});

commist.parse(process.argv.slice(2));

Default Command

This feature allows you to define a default command that will be executed if no other command matches. In this example, a default command is registered to print a message.

const commist = require('commist')();

commist.register('default', () => {
  console.log('This is the default command.');
});

commist.parse(process.argv.slice(2));

Other packages similar to commist

commander

Commander is a popular command-line interface (CLI) library for Node.js. It provides a comprehensive solution for parsing command-line arguments and managing commands. Compared to commist, Commander offers more features such as automatic help generation, option parsing, and command aliasing.

yargs

Yargs is another powerful CLI library for Node.js that helps in building interactive command-line tools. It provides features like argument parsing, command handling, and generating help documentation. Yargs is more feature-rich compared to commist and is widely used for complex CLI applications.

minimist

Minimist is a lightweight library for parsing command-line arguments. It is simpler and more minimalistic compared to commist, focusing primarily on argument parsing without the additional command management features that commist provides.

README

commist

Build command line application with multiple commands the easy way. To be used with minimist.

'use strict'

const program = require('commist')()
const result = program
  .register('abcd', function(args) {
    console.log('just do', args)
  })
  .register({ command: 'restore', equals: true }, function(args) {
    console.log('restore', args)
  })
  .register('args', function(args) {
    args = minimist(args)
    console.log('just do', args)
  })
  .register('abcde code', function(args) {
    console.log('doing something', args)
  })
  .register('another command', function(args) {
    console.log('anothering', args)
  })
  .parse(process.argv.splice(2))

if (result) {
  console.log('no command called, args', result)
}

To handle async operations, use parseAsync instead, which let you await on registered commands execution.

'use strict'

const program = require('commist')()

const result = await program
  .register('abcd', async function(args) {
    await executeCommand(args)
    await doOtherStuff()
  })
  .parseAsync(process.argv.splice(2))

if (result) {
  console.log('no command called, args', result)
}

When calling commist programs, you can abbreviate down to three char words. In the above example, these are valid commands:

node example.js abc
node example.js abc cod
node example.js anot comm

Moreover, little spelling mistakes are corrected too:

node example.js abcs cod

If you want that the command must be strict equals, you can register the command with the json configuration:

  program.register({ command: 'restore', strict: true }, function(args) {
    console.log('restore', args)
  })

If you want to limit the maximum levenshtein distance of your commands, you can use maxDistance: 2:

const program = require('commist')()
const minimist = require('minimist')

const result = program
  .register('abcd', function(args) {
    console.log('just do', args)
  })
  .register({ command: 'restore', equals: true }, function(args) {
    console.log('restore', args)
  })
  .register('args', function(args) {
    args = minimist(args)
    console.log('just do', args)
  })
  .register('abcde code', function(args) {
    console.log('doing something', args)
  })
  .register('another command', function(args) {
    console.log('anothering', args)
  })
  .parse(process.argv.splice(2))

if (result) {
  console.log('no command called, args', result)
}

License

MIT