`processing cli` does not support sketches with a different `main.pde` file

[Stefterv]

Most appropriate sub-area of Processing 4?

PDE

Processing version

4.4.6

Operating system

macOS

Bug description

When running the Processing cli, having a sketch with a different main file, e.g. sketch/main.pde the cli returns that the sketch is not a valid sketch folder, sketch/sketch.pde does not exist.

Steps to reproduce this

1. Create a new sketch

2. Rename the main file

3. Try to run the sketch with the cli

snippet

No response

Additional context

No response

Would you like to work on the issue?

No, I’m just reporting the issue

[stepperpig]

Hi @Stefterv, I'd be interested in looking into this issue.

[Stefterv]

Hi @stepperpig Great that you are interested, could you give us a quick overview of what your approach would be?

[skools-here]

Hi, I’d like to work on this issue.

According to me currently, the CLI enforces the rule that the main .pde file must match the sketch folder name (e.g. sketch/sketch.pde). If the file is renamed (e.g. main.pde), it fails.

Instead, it must:

First look for a .pde file matching the folder name (current behavior).

If not found, fall back to the first .pde file in the sketch folder (same behavior the PDE GUI uses).

Add tests to ensure sketches with main.pde or other names can still run from the CLI.

I think this will work good.

[Stefterv]

Hi @skools-here thank you for this description! I can tell you that the PDE looks for the sketch defined in the sketch.properties file if no matching PDE is found, if no sketch.properties exists then the process should error out.

[skools-here]

Thanks for the clarification!

So for the fix, I can update the CLI so that:

It first looks for .pde as it does now.

If that’s missing, it will check sketch.properties for the main entry and use that file as the entry point.

If neither .pde nor sketch.properties exists, the CLI will return an error.

This should bring the CLI in line with the PDE’s behavior. I’ll also add/update tests to cover the cases with main.pde and with/without sketch.properties.