cli
A cross-platform header only C++14 library for interactive command line interfaces (Cisco style)
Features
- Header only
- Cross-platform (linux and windows)
- Menus and submenus
- Remote sessions (telnet)
- Persistent history (navigation with arrow keys)
- Autocompletion (with TAB key)
- Async interface
- Colors
How to get CLI library
Dependencies
The library depends on asio (either the standalone version or the boost version) only to provide telnet server. Therefore, the library has no dependencies if you don't need remote sessions.
Installation
The library is header-only: it consists entirely of header files containing templates and inline functions, and require no separately-compiled library binaries or special treatment when linking.
Extract the archive wherever you want.
Now you must only remember to specify the cli (and optionally asio or boost) paths when compiling your source code.
If you fancy it, a Cmake script is provided. To install you can use:
mkdir build && cd build
cmake ..
sudo make install
and, if you want to specify the installation path:
mkdir build && cd build
cmake .. -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX:PATH=<cli_install_location>
make install
Compilation of the examples
You can find some examples in the directory "examples". Each .cpp file corresponds to an executable. You can compile each example by including cli (and optionally asio/boost header files) and linking pthread on linux (and optionally boost system).
To compile the examples using cmake, use:
mkdir build
cd build
cmake .. -DCLI_BuildExamples=ON
# or: cmake .. -DCLI_BuildExamples=ON -DBOOST_INCLUDEDIR=<boost_include_directory>
make all
# or: cmake --build .
In the same directory you can also find:
- a GNU make file (Makefile)
- a Windows nmake file (makefile.win)
- a Visual Studio solution
You can specify boost library path in the following ways:
GNU Make
make CXXFLAGS="-isystem <boost_include>" LDFLAGS="-L<boost_lib>"
example:
make CXXFLAGS="-isystem /opt/boost_1_66_0/install/x86/include" LDFLAGS="-L/opt/boost_1_66_0/install/x86/lib"
(if you want to use clang instead of gcc, you can set the variable CXX=clang++)
Windows nmake
Optionally set the environment variable ASIO or BOOST to provide the library path. Then, from a visual studio console, start nmake passing one of the makefile.*.win files.
E.g., from a visual studio console, use one of the following commands:
# only compile examples that do not require asio
nmake /f makefile.noasio.win
# compile examples using boost asio
set BOOST=<path of boost libraries>
nmake /f makefile.boostasio.win
# compile examples using standalone asio
set ASIO=<path of asio library>
nmake /f makefile.standaloneasio.win
Visual Studio solution
Set the environment variable BOOST. Then, open the file cli/examples/examples.sln
CLI usage
The cli interpreter can manage correctly sentences using quote (') and double quote ("). Any character (spaces too) comprises between quotes or double quotes are considered as a single parameter of a command. The characters ' and " can be used inside a command parameter by escaping them with a backslash.
Some example:
cli> echo "this is a single parameter"
this is a single parameter
cli> echo 'this too is a single parameter'
this too is a single parameter
cli> echo "you can use 'single quotes' inside double quoted parameters"
you can use 'single quotes' inside double quoted parameters
cli> echo 'you can use "double quotes" inside single quoted parameters'
you can use "double quotes" inside single quoted parameters
cli> echo "you can escape \"quotes\" inside a parameter"
you can escape "quotes" inside a parameter
cli> echo 'you can escape \'single quotes\' inside a parameter'
you can escape 'single quotes' inside a parameter
cli> echo "you can also show backslash \\ ... "
you can also show backslash \ ...
License
Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. (See accompanying file LICENSE.txt or copy at http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt)
Contact
Please report issues here: http://github.com/daniele77/cli/issues
and questions, feature requests, ideas, anything else here: http://github.com/daniele77/cli/discussions
You can always contact me via twitter at @DPallastrelli
Contributing (We Need Your Help!)
Any feedback from users and stakeholders, even simple questions about how things work or why they were done a certain way, carries value and can be used to improve the library.
Even if you just have questions, asking them in GitHub Discussions provides valuable information that can be used to improve the library - do not hesitate, no question is insignificant or unimportant!
If you or your company uses cli library, please consider becoming a sponsor to keep the project strong and dependable.
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