zoedsoupe

zoedsoupe

I’m not very used to macros/compile time manipulation, but I will explain what I want to achieve and would like to know if it’s possible by any way.

I’m building a CLI framework for Elixir, with high inspirations on clap lib for rust. There you can do something like:

use clap::{Parser, Subcommand};

#[derive(Parser)]
#[command(author, version, about, long_about = None)]
#[command(propagate_version = true)]
struct Cli {
    #[command(subcommand)]
    command: Commands,
}

#[derive(Subcommand)]
enum Commands {
    /// Adds files to myapp
    Add { name: Option<String> },
}

fn main() {
    let cli = Cli::parse();

    // You can check for the existence of subcommands, and if found use their
    // matches just as you would the top level cmd
    match &cli.command {
        Commands::Add { name } => {
            println!("'myapp add' was used, name is: {name:?}")
        }
    }
}

In other words, define a CLI struct and then parse the data structure with available/parsed input. So in the Elixir world I made some macros like: defcommand/2, defcommand/3 and defoption/2, that can be used as:

defmodule CLI do
 use Nexus

  defcommand :foo,
    required: true,
    type: :string,
    doc: "Command that receives a string as argument and prints it."

  defcommand :fizzbuzz, type: {:enum, ~w(fizz buzz)a}, doc: "Fizz bUZZ", required: true

  defcommand :foo_bar, type: :null, doc: "Teste" do
    defoption :some, short: :s
    defcommand :baz, default: "hello", doc: "Hello"
    defcommand :bar, default: "hello", doc: "Hello"
  end
end

So, basically, given that macros/definitions of commands I would like construct a %CLI{} struct, or better: a %__MODULE__{} struct with fields :foo, :fizzbuzz and submodules for subcommands like :foo_bar that would be a sub-struct with :baz, :bar fields and also typespecs for that, for example for the CLI module:

defmodule CLI do
  defmodule CLI.FooBar do
    @type t :: %__MODULE__{baz: String.t, bar: String.t}
    defstruct baz: “hello”, bar: “hello”
  end

  @type t :: %__MODULE__{foo: String.t, fizzbuzz: :fizz | :buzz, foo_bar: CLI.FooBar.t}
  defstruct foo: nil, fizzbuzz: nil, foo_bar: %FooBar{}
end

However, commands and flags will only be available after compilation of their respective macros, so, how would be possible to achieve I want?

The complete source code for my library (is already usable) can be found in GitHub - zoedsoupe/nexus: CLI framework for Elixir, with magic! · GitHub

EDIT 1: I think I could define a global macro called defcli, and then receive commands and flags definitions inside it, but I don’t think it matches my usage requirements :confused:.

defmodule CLI do
  use Nexus
  
  defcli do
    defoption :help, short: :h
    defcommand :foo, default: “bar”, type: :string
  end
end

That way I can build the typespec and struct with those definitions, but it would break the library contract for now, would be a super major change in the public API, so I would like another possible approach, if there is?

Showing Posts 1 to 3

al2o3cr

al2o3cr

One approach that can help make macros more powerful to use and easier to write: avoid parsing the contents of do blocks if you can.

An example in Ecto.Schema:

https://github.com/elixir-ecto/ecto/blob/f2a0def734dcee354acb223116550e9ae659fb0c/lib/ecto/schema.ex#L612-L617

block is the block passed to the schema macro, which sets up a “prelude” and “postlude” and then expands the block as regular AST. This side-steps the need for code like Nexus.build_subcommands and lets users do things like:

schema do
  %w(foo bar baz wat)a
  |> Enum.each(fn name ->
    field name, :string
  end)
end

Calls to field accumulate data in module attributes, then the postlude built by schema uses them to construct __schema__ and so forth.


Another spot in that file worth reviewing for inspiration - the code in embeds_one and embeds_many that handles declaring a (nested) schema inline using a nested module:

https://github.com/elixir-ecto/ecto/blob/f2a0def734dcee354acb223116550e9ae659fb0c/lib/ecto/schema.ex#L1695-L1701


One more technique to consider: use __before_compile__ to generate code “at the end” of the module.

  • use Nexus would set up a @before_compile
  • then each call to defcommand would accumulate details in module attributes
  • then the before_compile could generate the @type and defstruct lines using all the accumulated commands
zoedsoupe

zoedsoupe OP

Yeah! __before_compile__ is the way to go! Thank you so much! I really need to get more into @after_compile and @before_compile attributes!

Also the embeds_one macro technique is a good fit for my project, I’ll try to replicate to generate modules on the fly whith required env.

However, the first approach kinda struggles me as I sure can unquote the whole do/block into the module body, but then, how I could control from which command is a subcommand/flag? I mean, all flags and subcommands would be defined as global and then I lose the control I had with the

defcommand “blabla” do
  # flags
  # subcommands
end

Syntax :confused:. In this case I don’t have any other way besides changing/parsing the AST, am I right?

al2o3cr

al2o3cr

The trick is that every defcommand generates a separate module and the block gets evaluated in that module. So this code:

  defcommand :foo_bar, type: :null, doc: "Teste" do
    defoption :some, short: :s
    defcommand :baz, default: "hello", doc: "Hello"
    defcommand :bar, default: "hello", doc: "Hello"
  end

would expand to something like:

defmodule FooBar do
  use Nexus

  defoption :some, short: :s
  defcommand :baz, default: "hello", doc: "Hello"
  defcommand :bar, default: "hello", doc: "Hello"
end
stash_someplace_for_before_compile_to_use(FooBar)

The defoption and defcommands here accumulate data into module attributes on FooBar, not in the surrounding module.

— All posts loaded —

Where Next? Top

Trending in Questions Top

stjefim
Hello! Suppose you are building workflow (order / task / payment) processing system with the following requirements: Each workflow con...
New
itzmidinesh
Hi all, I’m working on a Phoenix project where I need to make external HTTP requests and I’m trying to choose between Req and HTTPoison....
New
pragdave
How do I tell Hologram not to escape HTML when substituting into templates? {Textile.render(@product.long_description)} escapes the HTM...
New
leoschweizer
Hi, we run different LLM models across a cluster, with each node loading a configurable subset. Model-specific queues let nodes consume ...
New
rlipscombe
I’d like to create a file with 600 permissions (rw-------), but there’s a race condition if I create it and then change the permissions. ...
New
saleyn
Is there a way to import record definitions in the iex shell for pretty printing (similar to the rr command in the erl shell)? This woul...
New
rlipscombe
When I use Mix.install with a git dependency, using git@github.com:... how do I change the SSH identity used? I’ve got two Github accoun...
New

Other Trending Topics Top

dominicletz
Hey there, I haven’t seen a list of useful Elixir specific skills for the popular AI tools yet so I’m starting one here with my first. ...
New
raa-ziq
Hi everyone :waving_hand: I wanted to share something I’ve been building — NowBlind, a random chat app designed to help people discover ...
New
mudasobwa
I fully migrated to my own harness from Anthropic/Gemini and I think it’s time to share it. Welcome DSH, the DeepSeek Harness, fully writ...
New
KristerV
Hey. Is there anyone here who creates agents in their apps? Not talking about using agents, but creating them. I’m finding it pretty diff...
New
OndrejValenta
(I just needed to vent somewhere and LinkedIn is full of hope, or hype, I’m not sure which exactly) AI dream has many faces, but general...
New
kip
Localize is the next generation localisation library for Elixir. Think of it as ex_cldr version 3.0. The first version will be released ...
New

We're in Beta

About us Mission Statement

Options

Thread Display Mode




Thread Preview

Skip Thread Previews