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Introduction
The cliff framework is meant to be used to create multi-level commands such as subversion and git, where the main program handles some basic argument parsing and then invokes a sub-command to do the work.
Command Plugins
Cliff takes advantage of Python's ability to load code dynamically to allow the sub-commands of a main program to be implemented, packaged, and distributed separately from the main program. This organization provides a unified view of the command for users, while giving developers the opportunity organize source code in any way they see fit.
Cliff Objects
Cliff is organized around four objects that are combined to create a useful command line program.
The Application
An cliff.app.App
is the main program that you run from the shell command prompt. It is
responsible for global operations that apply to all of the commands,
such as configuring logging and setting up I/O streams.
The CommandManager
The cliff.commandmanager.CommandManager
knows how to
load individual command plugins. The default implementation uses setuptools
entry points but any mechanism for loading commands can be used by
replacing the default CommandManager
when instantiating an App
.
The Command
The cliff.command.Command
class is where the real work
happens. The rest of the framework is present to help the user discover
the command plugins and invoke them, and to provide runtime support for
those plugins. Each Command
subclass is responsible for taking action
based on instructions from the user. It defines its own local argument
parser (usually using argparse) and a
take_action
method
that does the appropriate work.
The Interactive Application
The main program uses an cliff.interactive.InteractiveApp
instance to provide
a command-shell mode in which the user can type multiple commands before
the program exits. Many cliff-based applications will be able to use the
default implementation of InteractiveApp
without subclassing it.