# Welcome to Runfile

Runfile is a command line utility and a Ruby library that helps you create feature-rich command line utilities for your projects.

You create a runfile, and execute commands with run command arguments -and --flags.

If you are familiar with Ruby's Rake, or with Makefile, then the concept of Runfile should be familiar to you.

Under the hood, Runfile makes use of the Docopt library, so that you can define your command's argument in an intuitive way, and create expressive command line utilities with ease.

For example, the below usage methods uses a docopt string, to define a command named greet with one required argument (NAME) and one optional flag ( [--color]).

usage 'greet NAME [--color]'

Runfile is:

1. A command line utility named run
2. A Domain Specific Language (DSL) in the form of Ruby methods, to help you define your program's behavior.

A simple runfile looks like this:

usage  "greet NAME"
help   "Say hello"
action :greet do |args|
  puts "Hello #{args['NAME']}" 
end

And this Runfile can be executed by running:

$ run
Usage:
  run greet NAME
  run (--help | -h)

$ run greet you
Hello you

The GitHub repository of Runfile contains many examples, showing different aspects of its functionality.

For convenience, you can also get these examples directly in your terminal by running any of these commands in a directory without any runfile:

$ run example --help

# Show list
$ run example

# Copy examples files for a given example to the current directory
$ run example minimal

Open Examples

Runfile comes as a Ruby gem and is primarily designed for Ruby developers.

To install Runfile, run:

$ gem install runfile

$ run new        # create a new runfile
$ run --help     # show the usage patterns
$ vi runfile     # edit the runfile