ciel/docs/scripting.md

Scripting

Note: this is brand new! Expect limitations and changes.

Get the ciel binary and call it with your .lisp script:

$ ciel script.lisp

(or ./script.lisp, see below)

Call built-in scripts:

$ ciel --script simpleHTTPserver 9000

An example script:

;; Start your script with this to access all CIEL goodies:
(in-package :ciel-user)

(defun hello (name)
  "Say hello."
  ;; format! prints on standard output and flushes the streams.
  (format! t "Hello ~a!~&" name))

;; Access CLI args:
(hello (second uiop:*command-line-arguments*))

;; We have access to the DICT notation for hash-tables:
(print "testing dict:")
(print (dict :a 1 :b 2))

;; We can run shell commands:
(cmd:cmd "ls")

;; Access environment variables:
(hello (os:getenv "USER"))  ;; os is a nickname for uiop/os

(format! t "Let's define an alias to run shell commands with '!'. This gives: ")
(defalias ! #'cmd:cmd)
(! "pwd")

;; In cas of an error, we can ask for a CIEL toplevel REPL:
(handler-case
    (error "oh no")
  (error (c)
    (format! t "An error occured: ~a" c)
    (format! t "Here's a CIEL top level REPL: ")
    (sbcli::repl :noinform t)))

Output:

$ ciel script.lisp you
=>

Hello you!
"testing dict:"

 (dict
  :A 1
  :B 2
 )
cmd? ABOUT.org	    ciel		     ciel-core
   bin  		    docs		     src
 […]
Hello vindarel!
Let's define an alias to run shell commands with '!'. This gives:
/home/vindarel/projets/ciel
ciel-user>

Command line arguments

Access them with uiop:*command-line-arguments.

This list of arguments can be modified by us (especially if you call scripts with the -s option). You can always check the full original list with (uiop:command-line-arguments).

You can use a proper command-line options parser, which is shipped with CIEL: Clingon. This top-notch library supports:

• Short and long option names support
• Automatic generation of help/usage information for commands and sub-commands
• Support for various kinds of options like string, integer, boolean, switches, enums, list, counter, filepath, etc.
• Out of the box support for --version and --help flags
• Subcommands
• Support for pre-hook and post-hook actions for commands, which allows invoking functions before and after the respective handler of the command is executed
• Support for Bash and Zsh shell completions
• and more.

Executable file and shebang line

We can also make a CIEL file executable and run it directly, like this:

$ chmod +x script.lisp
$ ./script.lisp

Add the following shebang at the beginning:

#!/usr/bin/env ciel

(in-package :ciel-user)
;; lisp code follows.

You also need to add the ciel binary in your path. A possibility:

$ ln -s /home/path/to/ciel/bin/ciel ~/.local/bin/ciel

It magically works because before LOAD-ing this Lisp file, we remove the shebang line, and load the remaining Lisp code.

Eval and one-liners

Use --eval or -e to eval some lisp code.

Example:

$ ciel -e "(uiop:file-exists-p \"README.org\")"
/home/vindarel/projets/ciel/README.org

$ ciel -e "(-> \"README.org\" (uiop:file-exists-p))"
/home/vindarel/projets/ciel/README.org

$ ciel -e "(-> (http:get \"https://fakestoreapi.com/products/1\") (json:read-json))"

 (dict
  "id" 1
  "title" "Fjallraven - Foldsack No. 1 Backpack, Fits 15 Laptops"
  "price" 109.95
  "description" "Your perfect pack for everyday use and walks in the forest. Stash your laptop (up to 15 inches) in the padded sleeve, your everyday"
  "category" "men's clothing"
  "image" "https://fakestoreapi.com/img/81fPKd-2AYL._AC_SL1500_.jpg"
  "rating"
  (dict
   "rate" 3.9
   "count" 120
  )
 )

Built-in scripts

Call built-in scripts with --script or -s.

Simple HTTP server

$ ciel -s simpleHTTPserver 9000

see src/scripts/simpleHTTPserver.lisp in the CIEL repository.

(in-package :ciel-user)

;; CLI args: the script name, an optional port number.
(defparameter *port* (or (ignore-errors (parse-integer (second uiop:*command-line-arguments*)))
                         8000))

(defvar *acceptor* (make-instance 'hunchentoot:easy-acceptor
                     :document-root "./"
                     :port *port*))
(hunchentoot:start *acceptor*)  ;; async, runs in its own thread.

(format! t "~&Serving files on port ~a…~&" *port*)
(handler-case
    ;; The server runs on another thread, don't quit instantly.
    (sleep most-positive-fixnum)
  ;; Catch a C-c and quit gracefully.
  (sb-sys:interactive-interrupt ()
    (format! t "Bye!")
    (hunchentoot:stop *acceptor*)))

Given you have an index.html file:

<html>
  <head>
    <title>Hello!</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h1>Hello CIEL!</h1>
    <p>
    We just served our own files.
    </p>
  </body>
</html>

If you want to serve static assets under a static/ directory:

;; Serve static assets under static/
(push (hunchentoot:create-folder-dispatcher-and-handler
       "/static/"  "static/"
       )
      hunchentoot:*dispatch-table*)

Now load a .js file as usual in your template:

    <script src="/static/ciel.js"></script>

which can be:

// ciel.js
alert("hello CIEL!");

Example output:

$ ciel src/scripts/simpleHTTPserver.lisp 4444
Serving files on port 4444…
127.0.0.1 - [2022-12-14 12:06:00] "GET / HTTP/1.1" 200 200 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:103.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/103.0"

Quicksearch

Search for Lisp libraries on Quicklisp, Cliki and Github.

see src/scripts/quicksearch.lisp.

$ ciel -s quicksearch color

SEARCH-RESULTS: "color"
=======================

 Quicklisp
 ---------
  cl-colors
      /home/vince/quicklisp/dists/quicklisp/software/cl-colors-20180328-git/
      http://beta.quicklisp.org/archive/cl-colors/2018-03-28/cl-colors-20180328-git.tgz
      http://quickdocs.org/cl-colors/
[…]
 Cliki
 -----
  colorize
      http://www.cliki.net/colorize
      Colorize is an Application for colorizing chunks of Common Lisp, Scheme,
      Elisp, C, C++, or Java code
[…]
 GitHub
 ------
  colorize
      https://github.com/kingcons/colorize
      A Syntax Highlighting library
  cl-colors
      https://github.com/tpapp/cl-colors
      Simple color library for Common Lisp
[…]

---

Now, let us iron out the details ;)