User guide

Installation

$ pip install mr.bob

Usage

Once you install mr.bob, the mrbob command is available:

$ mrbob --help
usage: mrbob [-h] [-O TARGET_DIRECTORY] [-v] [-c CONFIG] [-V] [-l] [-w] [-n]
             [-q]
             [template]

Filesystem template renderer

positional arguments:
  template              Template name to use for rendering. See http://mrbob.r
                        eadthedocs.org/en/latest/userguide.html#usage for a
                        guide to template syntax

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -O TARGET_DIRECTORY, --target-directory TARGET_DIRECTORY
                        Where to output rendered structure. Defaults to
                        current directory
  -v, --verbose         Print more output for debugging
  -c CONFIG, --config CONFIG
                        Configuration file to specify either [mr.bob] or
                        [variables] sections
  -V, --version         Display version number
  -l, --list-questions  List all questions needed for the template
  -w, --remember-answers
                        Remember answers to .mrbob.ini file inside output
                        directory
  -n, --non-interactive
                        Don't prompt for input. Fail if questions are required
                        but not answered
  -q, --quiet           Suppress all but necessary output

By default, the target directory is the current folder. The most basic use case is rendering a template from a relative folder:

$ mrbob ../template_folder/

Or from a package:

$ mrbob some.package:template_folder/

Or from a zip file:

$ mrbob https://github.com/iElectric/mr.bob/zipball/master

Or from a relative path in a zip file:

$ mrbob https://github.com/iElectric/mr.bob/zipball/master#mrbob/template_sample

Sample template to try out

$ mrbob mrbob:template_sample/
Welcome to mr.bob interactive mode. Before we generate directory structure, some questions need to be answered.

Answer with a question mark to display help.
Value in square brackets at the end of the questions present default value if there is no answer.


--> How old are you? [24]:

--> What is your name?: Foobar

--> Enter password:


Generated file structure at /current/directory/

Listing all questions needed to have corresponding variable for a template

$ mrbob --list-questions mrbob:template_sample/
author.age.default = 24
author.age.help = We need your age information to render the template
author.age.question = How old are you?
author.name.question = What is your name?
author.name.required = True
author.password.command_prompt = getpass:getpass
author.password.question = Enter password

Remember answers to a config file

Running:

$ mrbob --remember-answers -O new_dir mrbob:template_sample/
...

When everything is done, all answers are stored in new_dir/.mrbob.ini so later you reuse them:

$ mrbob --config new_dir/.mrbob.ini -O new_dir another_template/
...

Using non-interactive mode

Sometimes you might want to automate a script and use mrbob. It is wise to tell mrbob to not prompt for any input. mrbob will use given answers and defaults if answers are missing. In case a question is required and doesn’t have a default, error will be thrown.

Configuration

Configuration is done with .ini style files. There are two sections for configuration: mr.bob and variables.

Example of global config file ~/.mrbob or command line parameter mrbob –config foo.ini.

[mr.bob]
verbose = True

[variables]
author.name = Domen Kožar
author.email = domen@dev.si

Specifying answers

To answer some questions from a config file instead of interactively. Given me.ini:

[variables]
author.name = Domen Kožar
author.email = domen@dev.si
author.age = 24

do:

$ mrbob --config me.ini mrbob:template_sample/

Specifying defaults

Sometimes you might want to override defaults for a template. Given me.ini:

[defaults]
author.name = Domen Kožar
author.email = domen@dev.si
author.age = 24

do:

$ mrbob --config me.ini mrbob:template_sample/

mrbob will as you questions but default values will be also taken from config file.

Remote configuration

Config file can also be loaded from a remote location:

$ mrbob --config https://raw.github.com/iElectric/mr.bob/master/mrbob/tests/example.ini mrbob:template_sample/

Configuration inheritance

Configuration can be specified in multiple ways. See flow of mr.bob on the documentation front page to know how options are preferred.

Nesting variables into namespaces called groups

All variables can be specified in namespaces, such as author.name. Currently namespaces don’t do anything special besides providing readability.

mr.bob section reference

Parameter Default Explanation
verbose False Output more information, useful for debugging
quiet False Don’t output anything except necessary
remember_answers False Write answers to .mrbob.ini file inside output directory
non_interactive False Don’t prompt for input. Fail if questions are required but not answered

Collection of community managed templates

You are encouraged to use the bobtemplates.something Python egg namespace to write templates and contribute them to this list by making a pull request.