更好的命令行界面

Question

I have developed a application which caches multiple packages. The CLI interface for this application is as follows

submit -z pkg1.zip -c pkgChecksum1 -t pkgType1 -s pkgSize1 -z pkg2.zip -c pkgChecksum2 -t pkgType2 -s pkgSize2 

So this submits 2 packages pkg1.zip and pkg2.zip which have checksum pkgChecksum1 and pkgChecksum2 respectively, package type as pkgType1 and pkgType2, and size as pkgSize1 and pkgSize2 respectively.

We also provide XML Based input to the application which is as follows

submit --script an.xml

where an.xml is

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<packages>
<package name="pkg1.zip" checksum="pkgChecksum1" type="pkgType1" size="pkgSize1" />
<package name="pkg2.zip" checksum="pkgChecksum2" type="pkgType2" size="pkgSize2" />
</packages>

This is the functional equivalent of the first CLI method.

We were planning to make this more user friendly, any ideas to improve?

Answer 1

Are all the options required? Or are there defaults for type and size and checksum? If there are no defaults, you could get rid of the tags and just require arguments in groups of four.

submit pkg1.zip pkg1Cksum pkg1type pkg1sz pkg2.zip pkg2Cksum pkg2type pkg2sz 

Another option in this case is to use the tags, but prompt the user for missing values.

If there are defaults (can the checksum and size be calculated automatically?), allow seletive overrides:

submit pkg1.zip -t pkg1type pkg2.zip -t pkg2type -s pkg2szOverride

Another option that might be helpful is a -a existingCache , which appends to an existing file (or creates it if not present). This would let the user break it up into several maneagable command lines

   submit -a mycache pkg1.zip -t pkg1type -s pkg1sz
   submit -a mycache pkg2.zip -t pkg2type -s pkg2sz

One more option, based on the comments:

  submit -x pkg1.zip:2034 0x232D -y pkg2.zip pkg3.zip:123

where -x,-y, etc are flags for the different supported "types". So this line submits pkg1 with size 2034, type X, and a checksum; pkg2 of type y, no size or checksum specified; and pkg3 of size 123 with no type or checksum specified.

Answer 2

You should provide long options along with short option for the various parameters in the CLI. For example

submit --package pkg1.zip --checksum pkgChecksum1 --type pkgType1 --size pkgSize1 --package  pkg2.zip -checksum pkgChecksum2 --type pkgType2 --size pkgSize2

Answer 3

It's hard to tell what you should do. It depends on who is the target audience of your application. Two possible options:

1. GUI interface, for users that don't know / are scared of using CLI
2. Interactive CLI, similar to this:

 Package name: > pkg1.zip Checksum: > pkgChecksum1 Type: pkgType1 

Answer 4

Another option that occurs to me:

submit pkg1.zip:type:2034:0x232D     pkg2.zip:type2:2034:0x232D

I think that the problem is that submit can manage multiple options for each parameter, so adding each of them at once could make the interface simpler. Remebering type, size and chksum for each one should not be difficult. After all, it seems that all parameters are mandatory. This way, it is not possible to mess the options for one package with the options for the other one.