shared-cmd

A rewritting of cmd, but for .NET Standard 2.0 only

A C# Library to run external programs / commands in a simpler way. It is inspired from the cmd library that is used to showcase the features of C# DLR (Dynamic Language Runtime) and it's heavily inspired on sh Python library.

How to get it?

Shared Cmd is available through the Nuget Package Manager.

Or, you can build it from source.

How to use it?

Create a dynamic instance of Cmd/Powershell/Bash or create your own:

dynamic cmd = new Cmd();
dynamic powershell = new Powershell();
dynamic bash = new Bash();

Now, you can call commands off cmd:

cmd.git.clone("http://github.com/manojlds/cmd");
cmd["git clone"]("http://github.com/manojlds/cmd");

The above would be equivalent to git clone http://github.com/manojlds/cmd.

You can pass flags by naming the arguments:

/*
Not possible, due to some command prompts do not work only with - and --, 
for e.g on windows command prompt you may prefix a command with '/'.
So the client decides how the flag prefix will be made.
*/
cmd.git.log(grep: "test"); //This line don't work, it will be translated to cmd /c git log testgrep.
cmd.git.log["--grep"]("test"); //Use this instead.
cmd.git.log("test", grep: "--"); //or this.
cmd.git.log(grep: "--", test: true); //you can trick the compiler.
cmd.git.log["--grep test"](); //it simply works.
cmd["git log --grep test"](); //this is particularly useful at building your own cmd. No support to redirecting input though.

The above would be equivalent to git log --grep test

Also, non-string values are ignored and if there is no flag, the argument is not considered.

You can call multiple commands off the same instance of cmd:

var gitOutput = cmd.git();
var svnOutput = cmd.svn();

Note that the commands can be case sensitive, and as such cmd.git is not same as, say, cmd.Git.

How to set environment variables?

Environment variables can be set for the process by calling ._Env method on an instance of Cli and pass the set of environment variables with their values as a ValueTuple<string, string>, Tuple<string, string>, Dictionary<string, string>, IEnumerable<(string, string)>:

cmd._Env(("PATH", @"C:\"));

Note that this replaces existing variables with the new values.

var env = new (string, string)[]
{
  ("PATH", @"C:\"),
  ("A", "B")
};
cmd._Env(env);

Shells

You can use cmd to run command on, well, cmd, Powershell, Bash. Choose the shell you want to use while creating cmd:

dynamic cmd = new Cmd();
dynamic posh = new Powershell();
cmd.dir();
posh.ls();

cmd.dir() is equivalent to cmd /c dir

Etimology

The name is almost the same than cmd, but is prefixed with shared meaning that any person can extend it by adding it's own cli

How to add your own CLI

1. First you need to add a class that extends the CommandoBase abstract class or implement the ICommando interface and inherit from DynamicObject.

This class will parse arguments and commands, and resolve when invoking, getting, indexing a member

2. Extends the ShellBase abstract class or implement IRunner, ICommander interface and inherit from DynamicObject

A shell let's you interact with your operating system through CLI or GUI.

This class will execute the command on your cli.

3. Extends the Cli abstract class.

you just need to add your constructor to call the base one

You can extend Argument or implement IArgument and change the way arguments are parsed

The library is fully extensible (you can extend any point of it)