Baker 1.3

Easy, powerful access to Python functions from the command line

History
=======

Version 1.3
* Better Python 3 support.
* Improved test coverage.
* Fixed #22: *varargs are now displayed in command help.
* Fixed annoying beavhior of *varargs help when no keyword
arguments are present.

Version 1.2
* Python 3 support!
* Runs from Python 2.6 up to 3.2.
* More unit tests.
* Code coverage to 89%.
* Single-letter arguments are now automatically added to shortopts.
* Fixed #14: Unable to mix varargs and kwargs.

Version 1.1
* ``baker.run()`` now prints the return value of the command function.
* Command usage help now shows help for optional arguments.
* Added options to ``baker.run()``.
* Added ``baker.usage([commandname])``.
* Added unit tests.
* Fixed bugs.


Overview
========

Baker lets you easily add a command line interface to your Python functions
using a simple decorator, to create scripts with "sub-commands", similar to
Django's ``manage.py``, ``svn``, ``hg``, etc.::

#!python
import baker

# An imaginary script full of useful Python functions

@baker.command
def set(name, value=None, overwrite=False):
"""Sets the value of a key in the database.

If you don't specify a value, the named key is deleted. Overwriting
a value may not be visible to all clients until the next full sync.
"""

db = get_database()
if overwrite or name not in db:
if value is None:
db.delete(name)
print "Deleted %s" % name
else:
db.set(name, value)
print "Set %s to %s" % (name, value)
else:
print "Key exists!"

@baker.command
def get(name):
"Prints the value of a key in the database."

db = get_database()
print db.get(name)

baker.run()

You can then run the script and use your function names and parameters as the
command line interface, using ``optparse``-style options::

$ script.py set alfa bravo
Set alfa to bravo

$ script.py set --overwrite alfa charlie
Set alfa to charlie

$ script.py get alfa
charlie

$ script.py --help

Available commands:

get Prints the value of a key in the database.
set Sets the value of a key in the database

Use "script.py <command> --help" for individual command help.

$ script.py set --help

Usage: script.py set <name> [<value>]

Sets the value of a key in the database.

If you don't specify a value, the named key is deleted. Overwriting
a value may not be visible to all clients until the next full sync.

Options:

--overwrite


Arguments
=========

Baker maps command line options to function parameters in the most natural way
available.

Bare arguments are used to fill in required parameters::

@baker.command
def test(a, b, c):
print "a=", a, "b=", b, "c=", c

$ script.py test 1 2 3
a= 1 b= 2 c= 3

``--option`` arguments are used to fill in keyword parameters. You can use
``--option value`` or ``--option=value``, as in optparse::

@baker.command
def test(key="C"):
print "In the key of:", key

$ script.py test
In the key of: C
$ script.py test --key A
In the key of: A
$ script.py test --key=Gb
In the key of: Gb

Function parameters where the default is ``None`` are considered optional
arguments and will be filled if extra arguments are available. Otherwise,
extra bare arguments never fill in keyword parameters::

@baker.command
def test(start, end=None, sortby="time"):
print "start=", start, "end=", end, "sort=", sortby

$ script.py --sortby name 1
start= 1 end= sortby= name
$ script.py 1 2
start= 1 end= 2 sortby= time

If a keyword parameter's default is an int or float, Baker will try to
convert the option's string to the same type::

@baker.command
def test(limit=10):
print type(limit)

$ script.py test --limit 10
<type 'int'>

If the default of a parameter is a boolean, the corresponding command line
option is a flag that sets the opposite of the default::

@baker.command
def test(name, verbose=False):
if verbose: print "Opening", name

$ script.py test --verbose alfa
Opening alfa

If the function takes ``*`` and/or ``**`` parameters, any leftover arguments
and options will fill them in.


Parameter help
==============

Baker lets you specify help for parameters in three ways.

In the decorator::

@baker.command(params={"force": "Delete even if the file exists"})
def delete(filename, force=False):
"Deletes a file."
if force or not os.path.exists(filename):
os.remove(filename)

In Python 3.x, you can use parameter annotations to associate doc strings
with parameters::

@baker.command
def delete(filename, force:"Delete even if the file exists."=False):
"Deletes a file."
if force or not os.path.exists(filename):
os.remove(filename)

Baker can parse the function's docstring for Sphinx-style ``:param`` blocks::

@baker.command
def delete(filename, force=False):
"""Deletes a file.

:param force: Delete even if the file exists.
"""
if force or not os.path.exists(filename):
os.remove(filename)


Short options
=============

To allow single-character short options (e.g. ``-v`` for ``--verbose``), use
the ``shortopts`` keyword on the decorator::

@baker.command(shortopts={"verbose": "v"}, params={"verbose", "Spew lots"})
def test(verbose=False):
pass

$ script.py test --help

Usage: script.py test

Options:

-v --verbose Spew lots

You can group multiple short flag options together (``-xvc``). You can also
optionally not put a space between a short option and its argument, for
example ``-nCASE`` instead of ``-n CASE``.


``run()`` function
==================

The ``run()`` function has a few useful options.

* ``argv``: the list of options to parse. Default is ``sys.argv``.
* ``main``: if True (the default), this function acts like the main function
of the module -- it prints errors instead of raising exceptions, prints
the return value of the command function, and exits with an error code on
errors.
* ``help_on_error``: if True, when an error occurs, automatically prints
the usage help after the error message. Default is False.
* ``outfile``, ``errorfile``, ``helpfile``: the files to use for output,
errors, and usage help. Defaults are stdout, stderr, and stdout.
* ``errorcode``: if main=True and this value is not 0, calls ``sys.exit()``
with this code in the event of an error


``usage()`` function
====================

Use the ``usage()`` function if you need to print the usage help
programmatically::

# Print overall help
baker.usage()

# Print help for a command
baker.usage("commandname")

# Print to a file
baker.usage("commandname", file=sys.stdout)


Miscellaneous
=============

Instead of ``baker.run()``, you can use ``baker.test()`` to print out how
Baker will call your function based on the given command line.

As in many UNIX command line utilities, if you specify a single hyphen
(``-``) as a bare argument, any subsequent arguments will not parsed as
options, even if they start with ``--``.

Commands are automatically given the same name as the decorated function.
To give a command a different name, use the ``name`` keyword on the
decorator. This is especially useful when the command name you want
isn't a valid Python identifier::

@baker.command(name="track-all")
def trackall():
pass

You can specify a "default" command that is used when the first argument
to the script doesn't look like a command name::

@baker.command(default=True)
def here(back=False):
print "here! back=", back

@baker.command
def there(back=False):
print "there! back=", back

$ script.py --back
here! back= True

The ``baker`` module contains a ``Baker`` class you can instantiate if you
don't want to use the global functions::

mybaker = baker.Baker()

@mybaker.command
def test():
print "hello"

mybaker.run()


About Baker
===========

Created by Matt Chaput.

Released under the
`Apache 2.0 license <http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0>`_

Please file bugs in the BitBucket issue tracker.

http://bitbucket.org/mchaput/baker