CLI with default task and a required argument

[wrightling]

I am creating a very simple CLI for my gem, and would like the user to be able to simply type a single word (name of the CLI), followed by some arguments, i.e.:

$ test 'arg1'

First question: is having my main class inherit from Thor::Group instead of Thor the only way to do this, as follows?

#!/usr/bin/env ruby

require 'thor'

class Test < Thor::Group
  argument :arg, type: :string
  def foo
    puts "bar"
  end
end

Test.start

Given that script, I can run it as follows without trouble:

$ ./test.rb 'some arg'

Second question: How can I make the help stop essentially listing the name of the CLI twice. Here is what "./test.rb --help" shows me:

Usage:
  test.rb test ARG

I would rather it read simply:

Usage:
  test.rb ARG

To whit, this help would be even more awkward once I package into a gem, where the help would read something like:

Usage:
  test test ARG

[christianbundy]

I'm having the exact same problem, and haven't found a solution. I'd greatly appreciate any tips or tricks to working with this. Thanks!

[arthurnn]

Hi, I am not sure if I understand the issue in here.
First of all, in order to use your command test you need to place a test file under a bin folder. Remeber that the name of the file has to be test and not test.rb.
For a better example, you can follow this gem that uses thor in a really simple way to create a exec command, https://github.com/arthurnn/cheatly/blob/master/bin/cheatly .

[christianbundy]

We want to be able to have a command with absolutely no subcommand. For example, check out christianbundy/load.

I'd like to be able to use the command:

load christianbundy/project where christianbundy/project is a subcommand.

Additionally, load help should read

Usage:
  load ARG

[philliplongman]

I would also like this, and I find it strange that it's not already the behavior of default command to try to feed args that aren't commands into the default command.

[revolter]

Same problem.

[TeWu]

First of all, I hope there will be some nicer way of doing it in future version of Thor.

My quite ugly, but working workaround:

#!/usr/bin/env ruby
require 'thor'

class MyApp < Thor
  default_task :list

  desc "TARGET_DIR", "List all files in directory and subdirectories"
  def list(target_dir)
    puts "Listing files in #{target_dir} now"
  end

  map %w[--version -v] => :version
  desc "--version, -v", "Print the version"
  def version
    puts "#{MyApp} 0.0.1"
  end

end

ARGV.unshift(MyApp.default_task) unless MyApp.all_tasks.has_key?(ARGV[0]) || MyApp.instance_variable_get(:@map).has_key?(ARGV[0])
MyApp.start(ARGV)

With this class I can run it from command line:

$ my_app --help
Commands:
  my_app --version, -v   # Print the version
  my_app TARGET_DIR      # List all files in directory and subdirectories
  my_app help [COMMAND]  # Describe available commands or one specific command

$ my_app -v
MyApp 0.0.1

$ my_app -vv
Listing files in -vv now

$ my_app path/to/some/dir
Listing files in path/to/some/dir now

$ my_app list path/to/some/dir
Listing files in path/to/some/dir now

[mohkale]

I can't find the default_task method on the wiki, it should probably be there 😅.