NAME

Scriptalicious - Delicious scripting goodies

SYNOPSIS

use Scriptalicious
     -progname => "pu";

our $VERSION = "1.00";

my $url = ".";
getopt("u|url" => \$url);

run("echo", "doing something with $url");
my $output = capture("svn", "info", $url);

__END__

=head1 NAME

pu - an uncarved block of wood

=head1 SYNOPSIS

pu [options] arguments

=head1 DESCRIPTION

This script's function is to be a blank example that many
great and simple scripts may be built upon.

Remember, you cannot carve rotten wood.

=head1 COMMAND LINE OPTIONS

=over

=item B<-h, --help>

Display a program usage screen and exit.

=item B<-V, --version>

Display program version and exit.

=item B<-v, --verbose>

Verbose command execution, displaying things like the
commands run, their output, etc.

=item B<-q, --quiet>

Suppress all normal program output; only display errors and
warnings.

=item B<-d, --debug>

Display output to help someone debug this script, not the
process going on.

=back

DESCRIPTION

This module helps you write scripts, quickly. Just include the above as a template. Unfortunately, it is not possible to have a `use' dependency automatically add structure to your POD yet, so you have to include the above manually. If you want your help message to be meaningful, that is.

To avoid all that unnecessary explicit importing of symbols, the following symbols and functions are exported into the caller's namespace:

getopt(@getopt_args)

This just calls Getopt::Long::GetOptions (see Getopt::Long for details). It automatically adds to the arguments you give it some "standard" command line options.

$VERBOSE

Set to 0 by default, and 1 if -v or --verbose was found during the call to getopt(). Extra -v's or --debug will push this variable higher. If -q or <--quiet> is specified, this will be less than one.

$PROGNAME

It is recommended that you only ever read this variable, and pass it in via the import. This is not automatically extracted from the POD for performance reasons.

getopt(@getopt_args)

Fetch arguments via Getopt::Long::GetOptions. The bundling option is enabled by default - which differs from the standard configuration of Getopt::Long. To alter the configuration, simply call Getopt::Long::config. See Getopt::Long for more information.

say "something"

Prints a message to standard output, unless quiet mode (-q or --quiet) was specified. For normal program messages.

mutter "progress"

Prints a message to standard output, if verbose mode (-v) or debug mode (-d) is enabled (ie, if $VERBOSE > 0). For messages designed to help a user of the script to see more information about what is going on.

whisper "detail"

Prints a message to standard output, if debug mode (-d) is enabled or multiple verbose options were passed (ie, if $VERBOSE > 1). For messages designed to help a person debugging the script to see more information about what is going on internally to the script.

abort "won't go to sea in a storm"

Prints a short program usage message (extracted from the POD synopsis) and exits with an error code.

moan "weather is miserable"

Prints a warning to standard error. It is preceded with the text warning:. The program does not exit.

barf "hit an iceberg"

Prints a warning to standard error. It is preceded with the text warning:. The program does not exit.

run("command", "arg1", "arg2")

Runs a command or closure, barf's with a relevant error message if there is a problem. Program output is suppressed unless running in verbose mode.

run_err("command", "arg2", "arg1")

Same as run, but returns the error code rather than assuming that the command will successfully complete. Again, output it suppressed.

capture("command", "1gra", "2gra")

runs a command, capturing its output, barfs if there is a problem. Returns the output of the command as a list.

capture_err("command", "foo")

Works as capture, but the first returned item is the error code of the command ($?) rather than the first line of its output.

Usage:

my ($rc, @output) = capture_err("somecommand", @args);

capture2("command", "--opt")

Like capture, but returns two strings - one the standard output stream of the program, and one the standard error. Normally the two streams are combined. Currently unimplemented - contact the author to contribute an implementation.

foo()

If you've got a short little Perl function that implements something useful for people writing Shell scripts in Perl, then please feel free to contribute it. And if it really is scriptalicious, you can bet your momma on it getting into this module!

SEE ALSO

Simon Cozen's Getopt::Auto module does a very similar thing to this module, in a quite different way. However, it is missing say, run, etc. So you'll need to use some other module for those. But it does have some other features you might like and is probably engineered better.

There's a template script at "Documentation and help texts" in Getopt::Long that contains a script template that demonstrates what is necessary to get the basic man page / usage things working with the traditional Getopt::Long and Pod::Usage combination.

Getopt::Plus is a swiss army chainsaw of Getopt::* style modules, contrasting to this module's approach of elegant simplicity (quiet in the cheap seats!).

If you have solved this problem in a new and interesting way, or even rehashed it in an old, boring and inelegant way and want your module to be listed here, please contact the

AUTHOR

Sam Vilain, samv@cpan.org