Patterns

Description

Patterns are parts of the configuration that will be replaced by its value when evaluated by exec-helper. The patterns keyword describes a list of patterns identified by their key. See the ‘patterns’ section for more information about how to define a pattern.

Patterns can be used to:

• add options to the exec-helper command line
• centralize a value in a variable
• allow iterating over multiple configurations
• control the configurations to iterate over

Patterns

A pattern can contain the following fields:

default-values

A list of default values to use when no values have been defined.

short-option

The short option on the command line associated with this pattern

long-option

The long option on the command line associated with this pattern

Predefined patterns

Exec-helper predefines some specific patterns for convenience:

• EH_ROOT_DIR: contains the absolute path to the directory where the exec-helper configuration is located. Useful for converting relative paths to absolute paths for tools that require it (e.g. when setting your PATH)
• EH_WORKING_DIR: contains the working directory from where the exec-helper executable is called.

Example configuration

commands:                       # The mandatory commands key
    build: Build the project    # A map of command keys with their explanation
    clean: Clean the project
    rebuild: Build + clean

patterns:                       # Declare the patterns for this configuration file
    COMPILER:                   # Declare the COMPILER pattern
        default-values:         # Default values to use for the pattern
            - g++
            - clang++
        short-option: c         # Declare values for this pattern by using the -c [VALUES] option when calling exec-helper
        long-option: compiler   # Declare values for this pattern by using the --compiler [VALUES] option when calling exec-helper
    MODE:                       # Declare the MODE pattern
        default-values:
            - debug
            - release
        short-option: m
        long-option: mode

additional-search-paths:
    - /tmp

# Define the commands listed under 'commands'
build:
    - command-line-command      # Use the command-line-command plugin when using the 'build' command

clean:
    - command-line-command      # Use the command-line-command plugin when using the 'clean' command

rebuild:
    - clean                     # Call the 'clean' command when calling the 'rebuild' command
    - build                     # Call the 'build' command when calling the 'rebuild' command

command-line-command:           # Configure the command-line-command
    patterns:                   # Define the default patterns to use
        - COMPILER
        - MODE

    command-line:               # Configure the execution when the specific command is not listed. Will be executed from the directory of this configuration file
        - echo
        - building
        - using
        - "{COMPILER}"          # This value will be replaced by the COMPILER pattern value
        - in
        - "{MODE}"              # This value will be replaced by the MODE pattern value
        - mode.
        - wd=$(pwd)             # This command will be executed in a subshell and replaced by its value before the actual command is executed

    clean:                      # Configure the execution of the build command
        patterns:               # Overwrite the parent patterns
            - MODE
            - EH_WORKING_DIR    # Use the EH_WORKING_DIR pattern
        command-line:
            - echo
            - cleaning
            - mode.
            - "{MODE}"          # This value will be replaced by the MODE pattern value
            - wd=$(pwd)
        working-dir: "{EH_WORKING_DIR}" # The command will be executed from the current working directory rather than from the directory of this configuration file

See also

See Configuration (5) for information about the configuration file.