cli_util

A library to help in building Dart command-line apps.

In particular, cli_util provides a simple, standardized way to get the current SDK directory. Useful, especially, when building client applications that interact with the Dart SDK (such as the analyzer).

Locating the Dart SDK

import 'dart:io';

import 'package:cli_util/cli_util.dart';
import 'package:path/path.dart' as path;

main(args) {
  // Get sdk dir from cli_util.
  String sdkPath = getSdkPath();
  
  // Do stuff... For example, print version string
  File versionFile = new File(path.join(sdkPath, 'version'));
  print(versionFile.readAsStringSync());
}

Displaying output and progress

package:cli_util can also be used to help CLI tools display output and progress. It has a logging mechanism which can help differentiate between regular tool output and error messages, and can facilitate having a more verbose (-v) mode for output.

In addition, it can display an indeterminate progress spinner for longer running tasks, and optionally display the elapsed time when finished:

import 'package:cli_util/cli_logging.dart';

main(List<String> args) async {
  bool verbose = args.contains('-v');
  Logger logger = verbose ? new Logger.verbose() : new Logger.standard();

  logger.stdout('Hello world!');
  logger.trace('message 1');
  await new Future.delayed(new Duration(milliseconds: 200));
  logger.trace('message 2');
  logger.trace('message 3');

  Progress progress = logger.progress('doing some work');
  await new Future.delayed(new Duration(seconds: 2));
  progress.finish(showTiming: true);

  logger.stdout('All ${logger.ansi.emphasized('done')}.');
  logger.flush();
}

Features and bugs

Please file feature requests and bugs at the issue tracker.