CLI

Command-Line Interfaces

CLI is a thing that many of us love a lot. But CLI is as good as we make them be, obviously. Here are some links to the best practices:

  • Minimal safe Bash script template, a nice and sane “framework” for small scripts
  • 12 Factor CLI Apps from authors of The Twelve-Factor App (Heroku). Yep, some of the factors are so-so. Bot the intent itself is good. TLDR:
    1. Great help
    2. Flags instead of args
    3. Version info
    4. “stdout for output, stderr for messages”
    5. Error handling
    6. Colors plus --no-color
    7. “Prompt if you can” (interactivity)
    8. “Use tables”
    9. “Be speedy”
    10. “Encourage contributions” (“Plugins, COC, Open Source”. Meh)
    11. “Be clear about subcommands”
    12. “Follow XDG-spec” (!)

Also, it will be nice to add an /asciinema to your tool’s documentation.

Use the libraries, Luke

Implementation of the proper CLI is a though work. Hopefully, there are some shortcuts in this way. One just needs to remember about them.