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Ask HN: What do you use to make CLIs?
I am curious what people reach for when writing CLIs these days; specifically what language, libraries (if any), and why?
By CLI, I mean any executable program or script like git that supports commands, sub-commands, and POSIX-style flags.
I mostly work in Go, and have been happy with the standard library[1] or Cobra[2]. I also write a lot of shell scripts.
I thought it would be interesting to see some other approaches.
[1]: https://pkg.go.dev/flag
[2]: https://cobra.dev
- IceMetalPunk 4y agoI'm a JavaScript dev, so I tend to go for Node with Inquirer + Commander.
- zem 4y agomostly ruby or python, though I would like to explore ocaml more for the purpose
- FujiApple 4y agoRust + Clap: https://github.com/clap-rs/clap https://github.com/clap-rs/clap
- stop50 4y agoFor python i like the builtin argparse.
- asicsp 4y agoI use a lot of CLI tools, but haven't written many for myself. Mostly, aliases/functions and some scripts in Bash/Python. 1) Extract details for command options from man/help: https://github.com/learnbyexample/command_help/blob/master/ch https://github.com/learnbyexample/command_help/blob/master/c... 2) cut-like syntax for field manipulations with regexp, negative indexing, etc: https://github.com/learnbyexample/regexp-cut/blob/main/rcut https://github.com/learnbyexample/regexp-cut/blob/main/rcut 3) Simple calculator using python syntax: https://learnbyexample.github.io/practice_python_projects/calculator/calc_py_cli.html https://learnbyexample.github.io/practice_python_projects/ca...
- linkdd 4y agoRust + Clap Go + Cobra Python + Click
- wizwit999 4y agoOclif is pretty nice for NodeJS, we use it for https://github.com/matanolabs/matano https://github.com/matanolabs/matano . https://github.com/charmbracelet/bubbletea https://github.com/charmbracelet/bubbletea looks really beautiful, if you use Go.
- jathu 4y agoI made fx at Flexport, which hosted many of our CLI tools. I liked it a lot, so I made one for myself when I left: https://github.com/jathu/fx https://github.com/jathu/fx fx is a workspace tool manager. It allows you to create consistent, discoverable, language-neutral and developer friendly command line tools.
- drakonka 4y agoI usually turn to Go for all of my CLI needs.
- marek_leisk2 4y agohttps://typer.tiangolo.com/ https://typer.tiangolo.com/
- ezekg 4y agoI use Go and Cobra for my business’s CLI [0]. I like it. Go is pretty unmatched for CLIs. [0]: https://github.com/keygen-sh/keygen-cli https://github.com/keygen-sh/keygen-cli
- pez_dev 4y agoMostly go whenever shell scripts are not enough. Check out the libraries from charm (charm.sh). They really make the command line glamorous!
- simonblack 4y agoSorry. Unless I'm missing something completely, I have to ask: 'Why would you bother to reinvent the wheel?' If you want something like bash, just use bash. If you want a CLI in a GUI environment, just use 'terminal', or'xterm' or similar. If you're talking about apps that run in a CLI, then the world is your oyster. Use whatever you need depending on what the app requires. If you're talking about what language to use, then just use which ever language that you're comfortable with that can/will produce a text output.
- rurban 4y ago95% C (with occasional Windows quirks), 5% shell. previously lots of perl