This document discusses how to build and distribute a command line interface (CLI) tool in Golang in 15 minutes. It recommends using the urfave/cli package to build commands, subcommands, options, and arguments. It also provides tips for compiling with gox, releasing on GitHub, and distributing through Homebrew. The overall process is to define the CLI structure with urfave/cli, compile for different platforms with gox, release binaries on GitHub, and optionally create a Homebrew formula.

1. How to build and
distribute CLI tool in15
Minutes with Golang
@kohei_kimura

2. Today’s topic:
CLI tool with Golang

3. Main Targets
• Beginners
• want to build something with Golang.
• have not used Golang since A Tour of Go.

4. • I’m not a beginner!
• I’d like to hear stories about parallel
processing!
Sorry, please install and try stopho, my CLI tool:
or
go get -d github.com/kohei-kimura/stopho
brew tap kohei-kimura/homebrew-stopho
brew install stopho

5. stopho →
CLI tool to generate search URLs from stock
photos web sites

6. Why CLI tools with Golang?

7. Why CLI tools with Golang?
A lot of library for CLI tools
Cross compile
Not have to write CSS!

8. Building CLI tools is
tiresome?
• sub commands
• options
• arguments
• helps …

9. Humanity has urfave/cli
Package for building command line apps
https://github.com/urfave/cli

10. app.Commands = []cli.Command{
{
Name: "search", // Sub command: `stopho search`
ShortName: "s", // Alias: `stopho s`
Usage: "Generate search URLs from stock photos web sites",
Action: command.CmdSearch,
Flags: []cli.Flag{ // Options
cli.BoolFlag{ // TRUE or FALSE
Name: "japan, j", // `stopho s --japan` or `stopho s -j`
Usage: "Enable Japan mode",
},
cli.StringFlag{ // `stopho s -s $SITE_NAME`
Name: "site, s",
Usage: "Display only sites matched `value`",
},
},
},
}

11. func CmdSearch(c *cli.Context) {
// Arguments
term := c.Args().Get(0)
// Bool Options
if c.Bool("japan") {
// japan mode
}
// String Options
fmt.Println(c.String("site"))
}
Function

12. // Set Writer
outStream = new(bytes.Buffer)
app.Writer = outStream
~~~~~~
// Use `fmt.Fprintf`
fmt.Fprintf(c.App.Writer, ...)
Testing

13. tcnksm/gcli
• generate CLI skeleton
• urfave/cli and other CLI frameworks

14. Distribution

15. Compile by `gox`
• done!
• easy!
go get github.com/mitchellh/gox
gox

16. GitHub Releases
1. `Releases` tab in repository page
2. `Create a new release` button
3. Upload binary files
4. done!

17. Homebew
• ruby script for building apps
• https://github.com/Homebrew/brew/blob/
master/docs/Formula-Cookbook.md
$ brew create --set-name $APP_NAME $URL
# edit your `$APPNAME.rb`!
$ git push

18. Summary
Framework: urfave/cli
Generator: tcnksm/gcli
Compile tool: mitchellh/gox
Release platform: GitHub Releases

19. Tips
Build a simple and small tool!
Refer to famous tools! - e.g. git, docker, …
Provide aliases of subcommands and options!
Add GIF animation in README.md
Promote on reddit and twitter

21. @kohei_kimura
Ɠ IDC Frontier Inc.
Developing IoT Platform
Back-end on the activity recognition project
@kohei_kimura
kohei-kimura
kohei-kimura.github.io
♥ Visual Studio Code
Kitakyushu -> Yokohama -> Fukuoka

22. IDCF Cloud - One coin IaaS

23. Enjoy your Go programming!
Please star my Stopho! ->
Please follow me! ->