[[!tag cliapp announcement]]

I've just released, to code.liw.fi, version 1.20130313 of cliapp, my Python framework for Unix-like command line programs. It contains the typical stuff such programs need to do, such as parsing the command line for options, and iterating over input files.

Version 1.20130313

  • Add cliapp.Application.compute_setting_values method. This allows the application to have settings with values that are computed after configuration files and the command line are parsed.
  • Cliapp now logs the Python version at startup, to aid debugging.
  • cliapp.runcmd now logs much less during execution of a command. The verbose logging was useful while developing pipeline support, but has now not been useful for months.
  • More default settings and options have an option group now, making --help output prettier.
  • The --help output and the output of the help subcommand now only list summaries for subcommands. The full documentation for a subcommand can be seen by giving the name of the subcommand to help.
  • Logging setup is now more overrideable. The setup_logging method calls setup_logging_handler_for_syslog, setup_logging_handler_for_syslog, or setup_logging_handler_to_file, and the last one calls setup_logging_format and setup_logging_timestamp to create the format strings for messages and timestamps. This allows applications to add, for example, more detailed timestamps easily.
  • The process and system CPU times, and those of the child processes, and the process wall clock duration, are now logged when the memory profiling information is logged.
  • Subcommands added with add_subcommand may now have aliases. Subcommands defined using Application class methods named cmd_* cannot have aliases.
  • Settings and subcommands may now be hidden from --help and help output. New option --help-all and new subcommand help-all show everything.
  • cliapp(5) now explains how --generate-manpage is used. Thanks to Enrico Zini for the suggestion.
  • New function cliapp.ssh_runcmd for executing a command remotely over ssh. The function automatically shell-quotes the argv array given to it so that arguments with spaces and other shell meta-characters work over ssh.
  • New function cliapp.shell_quote quotes strings for passing as shell arguments.
  • cliapp.runcmd now has a new keyword argument: log_error. If set to false, errors are not logged. Defaults to true.

Bug fixes:

  • The process title is now set only if /proc/self/comm exists. Previously, on the kernel in Debian squeeze (2.6.32), setting the process title would fail, and the error would be logged to the terminal. Reported by William Boughton.
  • A setting may no longer have a default value of None.