CliInvoke

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

Table of Contents

• Features
• Why CliInvoke?
• Installing CliInvoke
  • Installing CliInvoke
  • Supported Platforms
• CliInvoke Examples * Executing Commands
• Contributing to CliInvoke
• Roadmap
• License
  • CliRunner Assets
• Acknowledgements

Features

• Promotes the single responsibility principle and separation of concerns
• For .NET 8 and newer TFMs CliRunner has few dependencies.
• Compatible with .NET Standard 2.0 and 2.1 ^1
• Dependency Injection extensions to make using it easier.
• Support for specific specializations such as running executables or commands via Windows Powershell or CMD on Windows ^2
• SourceLink support

^1 - Polyfill is a dependency only required for .NET Standard 2.0 and 2.1 users. Microsoft.Bcl.HashCode is a dependency only required for .NET Standard 2.0 users.

^2 - The Specialization library is distributed separately.

Why use CliInvoke over CliWrap?

• Greater separation of concerns with the Command class - Command Building, Command Running, and Command Pipe handling are moved to separate classes.
• Supports Dependency Injection
• Classes and code follow the Single Responsibility Principle
• No hidden or additional licensing terms are required beyond the source code license.
• No imported C code - This library is entirely written in C#.
• No lock in regarding Piping support
• Uses .NET's built in Process type.

How to install and use CliInvoke

CliInvoke is available on Nuget.

These are the CliInvoke projects:

• CliInvoke - The main CliInvoke package.
• CliInvoke.Extensions
• CliInvoke.Specializations

Installing CliInvoke

CliInvoke's packages can be installed via the .NET SDK CLI, Nuget via your IDE or code editor's package interface, or via the Nuget website.

Package Name	Nuget Link	.NET SDK CLI command
AlastairLundy.CliInvoke	CliInvoke Nuget	dotnet add package AlastairLundy.CliInvoke
AlastairLundy.CliInvoke.Extensions	AlastairLundy.CliInvoke.Extensions Nuget	dotnet add package AlastairLundy.CliInvoke.Extensions
AlastairLundy.CliInvoke.Extensibility	AlastairLundy.CliInvoke.Extensibility Nuget	dotnet add package AlastairLundy.CliInvoke.Extensibility
AlastairLundy.CliInvoke.Specializations	AlastairLundy.CliInvoke.Specializations Nuget	dotnet add package AlastairLundy.CliInvoke.Specializations

Supported Platforms

CliInvoke can be added to any .NET Standard 2.0, .NET Standard 2.1, .NET 8, or .NET 9 supported project.

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

Operating System	Support Status	Notes
Windows	Fully Supported ✅
macOS	Fully Supported ✅
Mac Catalyst	Untested Platform ⚠️	Support for this platform has not been tested but should theoretically work.
Linux	Fully Supported ✅
FreeBSD	Fully Supported ✅
Android	Untested Platform ⚠️	Support for this platform has not been tested but should theoretically work.
IOS	Not Supported ❌	Not supported due to Process.Start() not supporting IOS. ^3
tvOS	Not Supported ❌	Not supported due to Process.Start() not supporting tvOS ^3
watchOS	Not Supported ❌	Not supported due to Process.Start() not supporting watchOS ^4
Browser	Not Supported and Not Planned ❌	Not supported due to not being a valid target Platform for executing programs or processes.

^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!

Using CliInvoke / Examples

One of the main use cases for CliInvoke is intended to be executing programs programatically, but other valid use cases also exist such as safer Process Running.

Executing Commands

CliInvoke enables use of a fluent builder style of syntax to easily configure and run Commands.

The following example shows how to configure and build a Command that returns a BufferedProcessResult which contains redirected StandardOutput and StandardError as strings.

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

using AlastairLundy.Extensions.Processes;

  //Namespace and classs code ommitted for clarity 

  // ServiceProvider and Dependency Injection code ommitted for clarity
  
  ICliCommandInvoker _commandInvoker = serviceProvider.GetRequiredService<ICliCommandInvoker>();

  // Fluently configure your Command.
  ICliCommandConfigurationBuilder builder = new CliCommandConfigurationBuilder("Path/To/Executable")
                            .WithArguments(["arg1", "arg2"])
                            .WithWorkingDirectory("/Path/To/Directory");
  
  // Build it as a CliCommandConfiguration object when you're ready to use it.
  CliCommandConfiguration commandConfig = builder.Build();
  
  // Execute the CliCommand through CommandRunner and get the results.
BufferedProcessResult result = await _commandInvoker.ExecuteBufferedAsync(commandConfig);

How to Build CliInvoke's code

Requirements

CliInvoke requires the latest .NET release SDK to be installed to target all supported TFM (Target Framework Moniker) build targets.

Currently, the required .NET SDK is .NET 9.

The current build targets include:

• .NET 8
• .NET 9
• .NET Standard 2.0
• .NET Standard 2.1

Any version of the .NET 9 SDK can be used, but using the latest version is preferred.

Versioning new releases

CliInvoke aims to follow Semantic versioning with [Major].[Minor].[Build] for most circumstances and an optional .[Revision] when only a configuration change is made, or a new build of a preview release is made.

Pre-releases

Pre-release versions should have a suffix of -alpha, -beta, -rc, or -preview followed by a . and what pre-release version number they are. The number should be incremented by 1 after each release unless it only contains a configuration change, or another packaging, or build change. An example pre-release version may look like 1.1.0-alpha.2 , this version string would indicate it is the 2nd alpha pre-release version of 1.1.0 .

Stable Releases

Stable versions should follow semantic versioning and should only increment the Revision number if a release only contains configuration or build packaging changes, with no change in functionality, features, or even bug or security fixes.

Releases that only implement bug fixes should see the Build version incremented.

Releases that add new non-breaking changes should increment the Minor version. Minor breaking changes may be permitted in Minor version releases where doing so is necessary to maintain compatibility with an existing supported platform, or an existing piece of code that requires a breaking change to continue to function as intended.

Releases that add major breaking changes or significantly affect the API should increment the Major version. Major version releases should not be released with excessive frequency and should be released when there is a genuine need for the API to change significantly for the improvement of the project.

Building for Testing

You can build for testing by building the desired project within your IDE or VS Code, or manually by entering the following command: dotnet build -c Debug.

If you encounter any bugs or issues, try running the CliInvoke.Tests project and setting breakpoints in the affected CliInvoke project's code where appropriate. Failing that, please report the issue if one doesn't already exist for the bug(s).

Building for Release

Before building a release build, ensure you apply the relevant changes to the relevant .csproj file corresponding to the package you are trying to build:

• Update the Package Version variable
• Update the project file's Changelog
• Remove/replace the CliInvoke icon if distributing a non-official release build to a wider audience. See CliInvoke Assets for more details.

You should ensure the project builds under debug settings before producing a release build.

Producing Release Builds

To manually build a project for release, enter dotnet build -c Release /p:ContinuousIntegrationBuild=true for a release with SourceLink enabled or just dotnet build -c Release for a build without SourceLink.

Builds should generally always include Source Link and symbol packages if intended for wider distribution.

NOTES:

• CliInvoke.Specializations and CliInvoke.Extensions.DependencyInjection both take a dependency on the CliInvoke base package from Nuget - For the respective libraries to use a newer CliInvoke version, that version must be published on Nuget.

How to Contribute to CliInvoke

Thank you in advance for considering contributing to CliInvoke.

Please see the CONTRIBUTING.md file for code and localization contributions.

If you want to file a bug report or suggest a potential feature to add, please check out the GitHub issues page to see if a similar or identical issue is already open. If there is not already a relevant issue filed, please file one here and follow the respective guidance from the appropriate issue template.

Thanks.

CliInvoke's Roadmap

CliInvoke aims to make working with Commands and external processes easier.

Whilst an initial set of features are available in version 1, there is room for more features, and for modifications of existing features in future updates.

That being said, all stable releases from 1.0 onwards must be stable and should not contain regressions.

Future updates should aim focus on one or more of the following:

• Improved ease of use
• Improved stability
• New features
• Enhancing existing features

License

CliInvoke is licensed under the MPL 2.0 license. If you modify any of CliInvoke's files then the modified files must be licensed under the MPL 2.0 .

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.

CliInvoke Assets

CliInvoke's Icon is NOT licensed under the MPL 2.0 license and is licensed under Copyright with all rights reserved to me (Alastair Lundy).

If you fork CliInvoke and re-distribute it, please replace the usage of the icon unless you have prior written agreements from me.

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 & 2.1 support

For more information, please see the THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES file.