AlastairLundy.CliInvoke 2.0.0-rc.1

CliInvoke

<img src="https://github.com/alastairlundy/CliInvoke/blob/main/.assets/icon.png" width="192" height="192" alt="CliInvoke Logo">

CliInvoke is a .NET library for interacting with Command Line Interfaces and wrapping around executables.

Launch processes, redirect standard input and output streams, await process completion and much more.

Features

• Clear separation of concerns between Process Configuration Builders, Process Configuration Models, and Invokers.
• Supports .NET Standard 2.0, .NET 8 and newer TFMs, and has few dependencies.
• Has Dependency Injection extensions to make using it a breeze.
• Support for specific specializations such as running executables or commands via Windows Powershell or CMD on Windows ¹
• SourceLink support

¹ Specializations library distributed separately.

Why CliInvoke?

Installing CliInvoke

CliInvoke is available on the Nuget Gallery but call be also installed via the dotnet sdk cli.

The package(s) to install depends on your use case:

• For use in a .NET library - Install the Abstractions Package, your developer users can install the Implementation and Dependency Injection packages.
• For use in a .NET app - Install the Implementation Package and the Dependency Injection Extensions Package

Abstractions Package

CliInvoke.Core Nuget

dotnet add package AlastairLundy.CliInvoke.Core

Implementation Package

CliInvoke Nuget

dotnet add package AlastairLundy.CliInvoke

Extensions Package

CliInvoke.Extensions Nuget

dotnet add package AlastairLundy.CliInvoke.Extensions

Specializations Package

CliInvoke.Specializations Nuget

dotnet add package AlastairLundy.CliInvoke.Specializations

Supported Platforms

CliInvoke can currently be added to .NET Standard 2.0, .NET 8, or .NET 9 or newer supported projects.

The following table details which target platforms are supported for executing commands via CliInvoke.

³ - See the Process class documentation for more info.

⁴ - Lack of watchOS support is implied by lack of IOS support since watchOS is based on IOS.

Note: This library has not been tested on Android or Tizen.

Examples

Simple ProcessConfiguration creation with Factory Pattern

This approach uses the IProcessConfigurationFactory interface factory to create a ProcessConfiguration. It requires fewer parameters and sets up more defaults for you.

It can be provided with a Action<IProcessConfigurationBuilder> configure optional parameter where greater control is desired.

Non-Buffered Execution Example

This example gets a non buffered ProcessResult that contains basic process exit code, id, and other information.

using AlastairLundy.CliInvoke.Core.Factories;
using AlastairLundy.CliInvoke.Core;
using AlastairLundy.CliIinvoke;

using Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection;

// Dependency Injection setup code ommitted for clarity

// Get IProcessConfigurationFactory 
IProcessConfigurationFactory processConfigFactory = serviceProvider.GetRequiredService<IProcessConfigurationFactory>();

// Get IProcessConfigurationInvoker
IProcessConfigurationInvoker _invoker_ = serviceProvider.GetRequiredService<IProcessConfigurationInvoker>();

// Simply create the process configuration.
ProcessConfiguration configuration = processConfigFactory.Create("path/to/exe", "arguments");

// Run the process configuration and get the results.
ProcessResult result = await _invoker.ExecuteAsync(configuration, CancellationToken.None);

Buffered Execution Example

This example gets a BufferedProcessResult which contains redirected StandardOutput and StandardError as strings.

using AlastairLundy.CliInvoke.Core.Factories;
using AlastairLundy.CliInvoke.Core;
using AlastairLundy.CliIinvoke;

using Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection;

// Dependency Injection setup code ommitted for clarity

// Get IProcessConfigurationFactory 
IProcessConfigurationFactory processConfigFactory = serviceProvider.GetRequiredService<IProcessConfigurationFactory>();

// Get IProcessConfigurationInvoker
IProcessConfigurationInvoker _invoker_ = serviceProvider.GetRequiredService<IProcessConfigurationInvoker>();

// Simply create the process configuration.
ProcessConfiguration configuration = processConfigFactory.Create("path/to/exe", "arguments");

// Run the process configuration and get the results.
BufferedProcessResult result = await _invoker.ExecuteBufferedAsync(configuration, CancellationToken.None);

Advanced Configuration with Builders

The following examples shows how to configure and build a ProcessConfiguration depending on whether Buffering the output is desired.

Non-Buffered Execution Example

This example gets a non buffered ProcessResult that contains basic process exit code, id, and other information.

using AlastairLundy.CliInvoke;
using AlastairLundy.CliInvoke.Core;

using AlastairLundy.CliInvoke.Builders;
using AlastairLundy.CliInvoke.Core.Builders;

using Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection;

  //Namespace and class code ommitted for clarity 

  // ServiceProvider and Dependency Injection setup code ommitted for clarity
  
  IProcessInvoker _processInvoker = serviceProvider.GetRequiredService<IProcessInvoker>();

  // Fluently configure your Command.
  IProcessConfigurationBuilder builder = new ProcessConfigurationBuilder("Path/To/Executable")
                            .WithArguments(["arg1", "arg2"])
                            .WithWorkingDirectory("/Path/To/Directory");
  
  // Build it as a ProcessConfiguration object when you're ready to use it.
  ProcessConfiguration config = builder.Build();
  
  // Execute the process through ProcessInvoker and get the results.
ProcessResult result = await _processConfigInvoker.ExecuteAsync(config);

Buffered Execution Example

This example gets a BufferedProcessResult which contains redirected StandardOutput and StandardError as strings.

using AlastairLundy.CliInvoke;
using AlastairLundy.CliInvoke.Builders;

using AlastairLundy.CliInvoke.Core;
using AlastairLundy.CliInvoke.Core.Builders;

using Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection;


  //Namespace and class code ommitted for clarity 

  // ServiceProvider and Dependency Injection setup code ommitted for clarity
  
  IProcessInvoker _processInvoker = serviceProvider.GetRequiredService<IProcessInvoker>();

  // Fluently configure your Command.
  IProcessConfigurationBuilder builder = new ProcessConfigurationBuilder("Path/To/Executable")
                            .WithArguments(["arg1", "arg2"])
                            .WithWorkingDirectory("/Path/To/Directory")
                            .RedirectStandardOutput(true)
                           .RedirectStandardError(true);
  
  // Build it as a ProcessConfiguration object when you're ready to use it.
  ProcessConfiguration config = builder.Build();
  
  // Execute the process through ProcessInvoker and get the results.
BufferedProcessResult result = await _processInvoker.ExecuteBufferedAsync(config);

License

CliInvoke is licensed under the MPL 2.0 license. You can learn more about it here

If you use CliInvoke in your project please make an exact copy of the contents of CliInvoke's LICENSE.txt file available either in your third party licenses txt file or as a separate txt file.

Acknowledgements

Projects

This project would like to thank the following projects for their work:

• CliWrap for inspiring this project
• Polyfill for simplifying .NET Standard 2.0 support

For more information, please see the THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES file.