Get your coding project off the ground

Liftoff tries to resemble and is inspired by Rusts cargo new foo --<some_option> command and aims to get you up and running with coding as fast as possible, in any language.

• Example
• Install
• How To
  • Usage and Options
  • Licenses
• Templates
• Writing Config Files
  • Top Level Variables
  • Files
  • Directories
  • Variable Substitution
  • Identifiers
  • CI
• Building

Example

Simple python project in folder my_python_project:

$ liftoff new my_python_project --config file/to/template.sane

generates this file tree

.
├── my_python_project
│  ├── __init__.py
│  ├── core.py
│  └── helpers.py
├── README.md
├── requirements.txt
├── LICENSE.txt
└── setup.py

from this config file:

language = "python"
git = true
license = "Unlicense"

directories = [
    {
        name = "$(project)",
        files = [
            { name = "helpers.py" },
            { name = "core.py" },
            { name = "__init__.py" }
        ]
    },
]

files = [
    {
        name = "setup.py",
        template = "http://www.alink.com/a_file.py"
    },
    {
        name = "README.md",
        content = "# $(project)"
    },
    {
        name = "requirements.txt"
    },
]

Install

with cargo

cargo install liftoff

binary releases are in the works...

After having a binary on your system, run

liftoff install

Disclaimer: this will download template and license files to ~/.kick/

How To

Usage and Options

General

liftoff - get your coding project off the ground 

USAGE:
    liftoff [SUBCOMMAND]

FLAGS:
    -h, --help       Prints help information
    -V, --version    Prints version information

SUBCOMMANDS:
    help         Prints this message or the help of the given subcommand(s)
    install      Installs liftoff files
    new          Create new project
    uninstall    Uninstalls liftoff files

Create a new Project

USAGE:
    liftoff new [FLAGS] [OPTIONS] --config <FILE> [NAME]

FLAGS:
    -h, --help       Prints help information
        --nogit      Git will not be initialized in project
    -V, --version    Prints version information

OPTIONS:
    -a, --author <NAME>      Author. Needed for some licenses: MIT, BSD*
        --ci <CI_SERVICE>    Git will not be initialized in project
    -c, --config <FILE>      The config file from file path or template, e.g. "cpp" (template), "path/python.sane" (file
                             path)
    -l, --license <NAME>     License to be used
    -r, --root <PATH>        Root directory in which project <NAME> will be created. Default: $PWD

ARGS:
    <NAME>  

All OPTIONS can optionally be explicitly set in the config file itself. See Working with Files.

Licenses

The following Licenses can be chosen from the command line --license <Identifier> or set in the config file license = <Identifier>

Disclaimer: I am not responsible for legal damages due to license issues. Double check the generated license

CI Options

The following Ci Services can be chosen from the command line --ci <Identifier> or set in the config file ci = <Identifier>.

Templates

These Templates are available after installation.

Using default Templates

If you want to use a default template, just choose the base name of the config file (without the file extenstion) as the --config <NAME> parameter. E.g.

 $ liftoff new myproject --config cpp

for cpp.sane

Custom Templates

If you are not happy with the templates given, you can do two things:

a) quickly adapt a template

 $ liftoff prep <config_id> --name my_<config_id>.sane

with e.g. template cpp copies base template cpp.sane to $PWD/my_cpp.sane, edit it to your taste!. Now simply run liftoff with the adapted template

 $ liftoff new a_project --config my_cpp.sane 

Want to save the adjusted config?

 $ liftoff save my_cpp.sane

The adjusted template will be placed to $HOME/.liftoff/configs/ and can be used with --config my_cpp (without the file extension)

b) see next section

Writing Config Files

The config files follow the sane specification by Bloom. Here's a quick overview of the format.

Top Level Variables

All OPTIONS in liftoff new -h can be manually set in a file OR manually set with command line options (although command line options always overwrite file defaults) The only top level variables, that have to exist are

• language: language identifier matching the gitignore.io api names

Files

Individual files are described by

• name: a file name
• template (optional): a file template: web link or file path
• content (optional): a string that will be echoed into the file. If template AND content is set, the file will be overwritten by content!

but must be wrapped into a Files list:

files = [
  { 
      name = "a_file_name", 
      template = "some_file", # optional, web link or file path
      content = "Hi there" # optional
  },
  ... # more files
]

Directories

• name: a directory name
• file or list of files consisting of
  • name: a file name
  • template (optional): a file template: web link or file path
  • content (optional): a string that will be echoed into the file. If template AND content is set, the file will be overwritten by content!

files in directory must be wrapped into a directories list:

directories = [
    {
        name = "$(project)", 
        files = [ # multiple files
            { 
                name = "helper.py",
                template = "/a/path/to/file.py"
            },
            { 
                name = "another_helper.py",
                content = "import numpy as np"
            },  
        ]
    },
    {
        {
            name = "$(project)_copy", 
            file = { # single file
                name = "helper_copy.py",
                template = "http://somewebsite.com"
            }
        },
    }
]

Variable Substitution

You can set variables, enclosed in $(<variable>) in the config file. Supported substitutable variables are

• project
• author (if set)
• language
• license
• date
• year
• month
• day

E.g. config file

language = "c++" 
git = false                                            
...
files = [
    { 
        name = "README_$(project).md", # just an example
        content = "# $(project)\n* in $(language)\n* with [liftoff](www.github.com/juliangaal/liftoff)"
    },
    ...
]

with liftoff command liftoff new test_project --config /path/to/config.sane will be evaluated into README_test_project.md (Note: Markdown not rendered here)

# test_project
* in c++
* with [liftoff](www.github.com/juliangaal/liftoff)

CI

Supported Services

A service is described by

• name: see Identifier above
• template (optional): web link or file path

ci = {
    name = "circleci", # see support CI Services in section Options
    template = "some_file" # optional: web link or file path!
}

Building

Requirements:

• rust >= 1.26.0 (fs::read_to_string())
• libssl-dev