cli-cs

Template for Command Line Interface (CLI) tool in C#

Development

Setup for macOS

Download the dotnet-install.sh script

curl -sSL https://dot.net/v1/dotnet-install.sh > dotnet-install.sh
chmod +x dotnet-install.sh

.NET Runtime 8.0 (LTS)

./dotnet-install.sh --runtime dotnet --channel 8.0 --version latest

or download and install from Microsoft

.NET SDK 8.0

Install with dotnet-install.sh script:

./dotnet-install.sh --channel 8.0

Test

Test that you can run the dotnet CLI (command line interface)

~/.dotnet/dotnet --version
~/.dotnet/dotnet new console --help

DocFX

Install DocFX for docs generation:

dotnet tool install -g docfx

Work on macOS

Configure project:

source configure.sh

Open the project in Visual Studio Code:

code .

Run

Build:

# build
dotnet build

# create alias for easy calling
alias cli-cs=cli-cs/bin/Debug/net8.0/cli-cs

Run the compiled program:

echo "John" > name.txt

cli-cs greet name.txt
cli-cs greet --language es name.txt
cli-cs greet -l bg name.txt

Run via the dotnet CLI without building:

echo "John" > name.txt

dotnet run --project cli-cs -- greet name.txt
dotnet run --project cli-cs -- greet --language es name.txt
dotnet run --project cli-cs -- greet -l bg name.txt

Test

dotnet test cli-cs-tests

Docs

# build
docfx docfx/docfx.json

# serve
docfx docfx/docfx.json --serve --open-browser

How to create a new project

Create .net solution

dotnet new sln --name cli-cs

Create C# project

# add cli project
dotnet new console --name cli-cs --framework net8.0
dotnet sln add cli-cs

# add packages
dotnet add cli-cs package System.CommandLine --prerelease

# add test project
dotnet new xunit --name cli-cs-tests
dotnet sln add cli-cs-tests

# add reference to the main project
dotnet add cli-cs-tests reference cli-cs

Create docfx project

mkdir -p docfx 
cd docfx
docfx init --yes