[svlug] Linux Appliance Design talk

[bsmith]

Bill Kendrick wrote:
> My friend Mike was asking about CLI interface.  It sounded like maybe
> you guys didn't quite understand his question.  He was suggesting that,
> along with providing an interactive (readline()-based?) CLI, e.g.:
> 
>   $ cli
>   Welcome to the CLI
>   cli> do_something
>   ...
>   cli> something_else
>   ...
>   cli> exit
>   $ 
> 
> That you also provide a way for CLI commands to be invoked via the tool's
> command-line option, i.e. from BASH, e.g.:
> 
>   $ cli do_something
>   ...
>   $ cli something_else
>   ...
>   $
> 
> Which would allow for the CLI's capabilities to be incorporated into
> BASH shell scripts, or any other scripting language that can fire off
> shell commands (e.g., via a "system()" call), such as Perl, Python, etc. ...
> 
> He couldn't tell if you had done that or not, based on the presentation,
> but when he asked I guess you misheard him.  (The answer ended up having
> to do with line- versus char-based input in the CLI shell itself. ;^) )

Doh!  You're right, I missed the question.


The current CLI does not do what he asked for ("cli" as a
bash command).  However, the cli design is simple enough
that this functionality should be fairly easy to add.


Bob