A simple to use API for creating line-based command interpreter applications that include custom commands.

cmdr is very similar to the cmd module.

The goal with cmdr is flexibility and require as little code as possible to get up and running.

I was working on a web application using Flask and I really like how Flask uses decorators to define simple views. It was really easy to get something up and running. At the same time I was building a simple cli tool that could access backend of the web application, I thought it would be interesting to try and apply a similar design to how I built the command list.

Clone the source to a local directory:

git clone https://github.com/jamesgilbrook/cmdr

Then use the setup.py file to install it:

python setup.py install

TODO Add to pypi.

Here is a simple example to get you started::

from cmdr import Cmdr

# Create an application (give it the name of the current module)
app = Cmdr("TestApp"):

# Define simple command using a decorator, the argument passed in is the name of the command
@app.cmd("hello")
def say_hello():
    print "Hello!"

# Start the interpreter loop
app.start()

# Save the content in app.py and run it from your command line
# On launch, you'll get a prompt and when you enter "hello" the say_hello() function is called.

$ python app.py

Welcome to TestApp - Let's get started

->hello
Hello!
->exit
bye!

In this example, you have the three main interfaces of cmdr

1. Creating an app (instantiate a Cmdr class)
2. Defining and registering a command with your app
3. Starting the command interpreter (using Cmdr.start())

Additional documentation is included with the source code, and can be built and viewed with a simple make command:

make docs

This will build the documentation as HTML locally and open a web browser to the home page.

cmdr is still in development and rapidly nearing it's first release.

I am nearing my goal of being feature complete for rev1 release: Below are the features that will (need to) make it in (priority order)

Cmdr object: COMPLETE

1. Run primary interpreter loop Done
2. Provide a registration interface for commands Done.
3. Provide tab completion support Done
4. Expose builtin commands for "help" and "exit", implement each builtin. Done

Command object: COMPLETE

1. Define (finalize) the data needed by all commands (Cmdr needs these details) Done
2. Define the methods required by all commands Done
3. Allow methods to be used as sub commands Done
4. Helper properties (used by Cmdr for tab completion and easy command lookup) Done

Misc project requirements IN PROGRESS

1. Docstrings for all public classes/functions/methods/data Done
2. Passes pep8 and pyflakes Done
3. Must execute on Python 2.6 and python 2.7 In progress
4. Basic level of documentation
5. Basic level of unittests Done
6. finalize package name (cmdr has been chosenas package name!) Done
7. need setup.py and Makefile (for basic testing/docs/setup) Done
8. register and publish to pypi

Target rev1 version is 0.1. ETA: Oct 2012

All issues/features are being tracked in github