4 ms·

Things that might be generally useful for cli programs: creating GUI interfaces for them (what this does) enhancing CLI interface to include autocomplete in

Things that might be generally useful for cli programs: creating GUI interfaces for them (what this does) enhancing CLI interface to include autocomplete including help with options and arguments wrapping CLI commands to turn them into APIs/make them programmable

tomc1985 7y ago
> wrapping CLI commands to turn them into APIs/make them programmable CLI apps are already very programmable. How would you API-ify them even more? system('yourapp --option1 --option2=something')
- spullara 7y ago
  Input and output types would be a good start.
  - NullPrefix 7y ago
    --output=json
    - spullara 7y ago
      That isn't a type, but I like the direction you're going.
  - nicolapcweek94 7y ago
    Powershell kinda does this, but people are still debating if it's a good thing or not. (personally, I think it is, and helps give structure to the sometimes too "dynamic" world that is shell scripting)
- tlrobinson 7y ago
  Avoiding entire classes of escaping/parsing vulnerabilities.
  - tomc1985 7y ago
    By burying them in the framework....
    - HelloNurse 7y ago
      Yes, exactly, just like database query processing in ORM systems and the like "buries" SQL injection countermeasures in a single place. It's a good thing.
      - TeMPOraL 7y ago
        There's abstraction confusion here, though. All SQL injection countermeasures and all it would take to protect the above CLI call is respecting the actual language you're using. That is, not gluing a query/command from strings. Starting a subprocess via shell is could in particular be solved by a simple API of the form of: system('yourapp', ['option1', {'option2' : 'something'}]); in your favourite language. Handling pipes and redirects gets more complex, but I see no prima facie reason why it couldn't look like this: pipe(system('yourapp', ['option1', {'option2' : 'something'}]), system('grep', ['n', 'i', 'foobar']), system('somethingelse', [], null, file("/dev/null")));
        account42 7y ago
        This assumes the --option=value syntax which while a de-facto standard on Unix-like systems is unfortunately not supported by all programs. I agree that system() (in C and other langues that simply copied it) is a bad API. For shell escaping a command to start a process with a list of arguments would be enough, and even POSIX C has you covered there with vararg and array variants. [1] [1] http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man3/posix_spawn.3.html http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man3/posix_spawn.3.html (or fork() + exec())
dsego 7y ago
Shouldn't all programs be written as APIs anyway? Than you can add a command line interface or a graphical interface on top as wished.

tomc1985 7y ago

> wrapping CLI commands to turn them into APIs/make them programmable CLI apps are already very programmable. How would you API-ify them even more? system('yourapp --option1 --option2=something')

spullara 7y ago
Input and output types would be a good start.
- NullPrefix 7y ago
  --output=json
  - spullara 7y ago
    That isn't a type, but I like the direction you're going.
- nicolapcweek94 7y ago
  Powershell kinda does this, but people are still debating if it's a good thing or not. (personally, I think it is, and helps give structure to the sometimes too "dynamic" world that is shell scripting)
tlrobinson 7y ago
Avoiding entire classes of escaping/parsing vulnerabilities.
- tomc1985 7y ago
  By burying them in the framework....
  - HelloNurse 7y ago
    Yes, exactly, just like database query processing in ORM systems and the like "buries" SQL injection countermeasures in a single place. It's a good thing.
    - TeMPOraL 7y ago
      There's abstraction confusion here, though. All SQL injection countermeasures and all it would take to protect the above CLI call is respecting the actual language you're using. That is, not gluing a query/command from strings. Starting a subprocess via shell is could in particular be solved by a simple API of the form of: system('yourapp', ['option1', {'option2' : 'something'}]); in your favourite language. Handling pipes and redirects gets more complex, but I see no prima facie reason why it couldn't look like this: pipe(system('yourapp', ['option1', {'option2' : 'something'}]), system('grep', ['n', 'i', 'foobar']), system('somethingelse', [], null, file("/dev/null")));
      - account42 7y ago
        This assumes the --option=value syntax which while a de-facto standard on Unix-like systems is unfortunately not supported by all programs. I agree that system() (in C and other langues that simply copied it) is a bad API. For shell escaping a command to start a process with a list of arguments would be enough, and even POSIX C has you covered there with vararg and array variants. [1] [1] http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man3/posix_spawn.3.html http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man3/posix_spawn.3.html (or fork() + exec())

dsego 7y ago

Shouldn't all programs be written as APIs anyway? Than you can add a command line interface or a graphical interface on top as wished.