From 7c5094265c782d61bf77277c14f13660ff22728e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Mitja Felicijan Date: Sat, 3 Jun 2023 16:47:03 +0200 Subject: Format a post --- ...nting-task-runner-that-i-actually-used-daily.md | 114 +++++++++++++++------ 1 file changed, 85 insertions(+), 29 deletions(-) (limited to 'content/posts') diff --git a/content/posts/2023-05-31-re-inventing-task-runner-that-i-actually-used-daily.md b/content/posts/2023-05-31-re-inventing-task-runner-that-i-actually-used-daily.md index f2c19fa..17fdaf6 100644 --- a/content/posts/2023-05-31-re-inventing-task-runner-that-i-actually-used-daily.md +++ b/content/posts/2023-05-31-re-inventing-task-runner-that-i-actually-used-daily.md @@ -1,34 +1,59 @@ --- -title: "Re Inventing Task Runner That I Actually Used Daily" +title: "Re-Inventing Task Runner That I Actually Used Daily" url: re-inventing-task-runner-that-i-actually-used-daily.html date: 2023-05-31T12:21:10+02:00 draft: false --- -Couple of months ago I had this brilliant idea of re-inventing the wheel by making an alternative for make. And so I went. Boldly into the battle. And to my big surprise my attempt resulted in not a completely useless piece of software. +Couple of months ago I had this brilliant idea of re-inventing the wheel +by making an alternative for make. And so I went. Boldly into the +battle. And to my big surprise my attempt resulted in not a completely +useless piece of software. -My initial requirements were quite simple but soon grow into something more ambitious. And looking back I should have stuck to the simple version. My laziness was on my side this time though. Because I haven’t implemented some of the features I now realise I really didn’t need them and they would bog the whole program and make it be something it was never meant to be. +My initial requirements were quite simple but soon grow into something +more ambitious. And looking back I should have stuck to the simple +version. My laziness was on my side this time though. Because I haven’t +implemented some of the features I now realise I really didn’t need them +and they would bog the whole program and make it be something it was +never meant to be. My basic requirements were following: - Syntax should be a tiny bit inspired by Rake and Rakefiles. - Should borrow the overall feel of a unit test experience. - Using something like Python would be a bit of an overkill. -- The program must be statically compiled, so it can run on same architecture without libc, musl dependencies or things like that. -- Install ruby for rake is a bit overkill and can not be done with certain really lightweight distributions like Alpine Linux. This tool would be usable on such lightweight systems for remote debugging. -- I want to use it for more than just compiling things. I want to use it as an entry-point into a project, and I want this to help me indirectly document the project as well. -- It should be an abstraction over bash shell or the default system shell. +- The program must be statically compiled, so it can run on same + architecture without libc, musl dependencies or things like that. +- Install ruby for rake is a bit overkill and can not be done + with certain really lightweight distributions like Alpine + Linux. This tool would be usable on such lightweight systems + for remote debugging. +- I want to use it for more than just compiling things. I want to + use it as an entry-point into a project, and I want this to + help me indirectly document the project as well. +- It should be an abstraction over bash shell or the default + system shell. - Each task essentially becomes its own shell instance. - Must work on Linux and macOS systems. -- By default, running `erd` list all the available tasks (when I use make, I usually put a disclaimer that you should check Makefile to see all available target). +- By default, running `erd` list all the available tasks (when + I use make, I usually put a disclaimer that you should check + Makefile to see all available target). - Should support passing arguments when you run it from a shell. -- Normal variable as the same as environmental variables. There is no distinction. Every variable is also essentially an environment variable and can be used by other programs. -- State between tasks is not shared, and this makes this “pure” shell instances. -- Should be single-threaded for the start and later expanded with `@spawn` command. +- Normal variable as the same as environmental variables. There + is no distinction. Every variable is also essentially an + environment variable and can be used by other programs. +- State between tasks is not shared, and this makes this “pure” + shell instances. +- Should be single-threaded for the start and later expanded + with `@spawn` command. - Variables behave like macros and are preprocessed before evaluation. -- Should support something like `assure` that would check if programs like C compiler or Python (whatever the project requires) are installed on a machine. +- Should support something like `assure` that would check if + programs like C compiler or Python (whatever the project + requires) are installed on a machine. -Quite a reasonable list of requirements. I do this things already in my Makefiles or/and Bash scripts. But I would like to avoid repeating myself every time I start working on something new. +Quite a reasonable list of requirements. I do this things already in my +Makefiles or/and Bash scripts. But I would like to avoid repeating +myself every time I start working on something new. So I started with the following syntax. @@ -86,7 +111,13 @@ end end ``` -One thing that I really like about Errand. Yes, this is what it is called. And it is available at https://git.mitjafelicijan.com/errand.git/about/. Moving on. One thing that I really like is that a task is a persistent shell. By that I mean, that the whole task, even if it contains multiple command in one shell. In make each line in a target is that and you need to combine lines or add `\` at the end of the line. +One thing that I really like about Errand. Yes, this is what it is +called. And it is available at +https://git.mitjafelicijan.com/errand.git/about/. Moving on. One thing +that I really like is that a task is a persistent shell. By that I mean, +that the whole task, even if it contains multiple command in one shell. +In make each line in a target is that and you need to combine lines or +add `\` at the end of the line. ```bash # How you do this things in make. @@ -95,18 +126,43 @@ target: python script.py ``` -This solves this problem. Consider each task and what is being executed in that task a shell that will only close when all the tasks are completed. - -By self-documenting I mean that if you are in a directory with `Errandfile` in, if you only type `erd` and press enter it should by default display all the possible targets. In make i was doing this by having a first target be something like `default` that echos the message “Check Makefile for all available target.” Because all of the tasks in Errand require a message I use that to display let’s call it table of contents. - -Because I don’t use any external dependencies this whole thing can be statically compiled. So that also checked one of the boxes. - -It works on Linux and on a Mac so that’s also a bonus. I don’t believe this would work on Windows machines because of the way that I use shell instances. By you could use something like Windows Subsystem for Linux and run it in there. That is a valid option. - -To finish this essay off, how was it to use it in “real life”. I have to be honest. Some of the missing features still bother me. `@dotenv` directive is still missing and I need to implement this ASAP. - -Another thing that needs to happen is support for streaming output. Currently commands like `docker-compose` that runs in foreground mode is not compatible with Errand. So commands that stream output are an issue. I need to revisit how I initiate shell and how I read stdout and stderr. But that shouldn’t be a problem. - -I have been very satisfied with this thing. I am pleasantly surprised by how useful it is. I really wanted to test this in the wild before I commit to it. I have more abandoned project than Google and it’s bringing a massive shame to my family at this point. So I wanted to be sure that this is even useful. And it actually is. Quite surprised at myself. - -I really need to package this now and write proper docs. And maybe rewrite tokeniser. Its atrocious right now. Site to behold! But that is an issue for another time. +This solves this problem. Consider each task and what is being executed +in that task a shell that will only close when all the tasks are +completed. + +By self-documenting I mean that if you are in a directory with +`Errandfile` in, if you only type `erd` and press enter it should by +default display all the possible targets. In make i was doing this by +having a first target be something like `default` that echos the message +“Check Makefile for all available target.” Because all of the tasks in +Errand require a message I use that to display let’s call it table of +contents. + +Because I don’t use any external dependencies this whole thing can be +statically compiled. So that also checked one of the boxes. + +It works on Linux and on a Mac so that’s also a bonus. I don’t believe +this would work on Windows machines because of the way that I use shell +instances. By you could use something like Windows Subsystem for Linux +and run it in there. That is a valid option. + +To finish this essay off, how was it to use it in “real life”. I have to +be honest. Some of the missing features still bother me. `@dotenv` +directive is still missing and I need to implement this ASAP. + +Another thing that needs to happen is support for streaming output. +Currently commands like `docker-compose` that runs in foreground mode is +not compatible with Errand. So commands that stream output are an issue. +I need to revisit how I initiate shell and how I read stdout and stderr. +But that shouldn’t be a problem. + +I have been very satisfied with this thing. I am pleasantly surprised by +how useful it is. I really wanted to test this in the wild before I +commit to it. I have more abandoned project than Google and it’s +bringing a massive shame to my family at this point. So I wanted to be +sure that this is even useful. And it actually is. Quite surprised at +myself. + +I really need to package this now and write proper docs. And maybe +rewrite tokeniser. Its atrocious right now. Site to behold! But that is +an issue for another time. -- cgit v1.2.3