Creating a library is great, in particular if one wants to avoid doing duplicated code, but the library can also be released with a command line interface for simple tasks (or tests).
A Dart package (or library) can be created using dart create command, the --template flag define which kind of skeleton will be used for the project, in this case, it will be a package project.
dart create --template package mycli
The tree generated is straightforward and contains only the required files to do a successful build.
$ tree
.
├── analysis_options.yaml
├── CHANGELOG.md
├── example
│ └── mycli_example.dart
├── lib
│ ├── mycli.dart
│ └── src
│ └── mycli_base.dart
├── pubspec.lock
├── pubspec.yaml
├── README.md
└── test
└── mycli_test.dart
5 directories, 9 files
Let try to run the code with dart run.
$ dart run
Resolving dependencies in `/home/user/tmp/dart/mycli`...
Downloading packages...
Got dependencies in `/home/user/tmp/dart/mycli`.
Could not find `bin/mycli.dart` in package `mycli`.
It fails. Why? Because no executables entry-points have been defined somewhere. Let creates ./bin/main.dart file, simply containing a main() function.
mkdir bin
cat > bin/mycli.dart << EOF
void main() {
print("hello");
}
EOF
Now, we can try to run it. It should not fail.
$ dart run
hello
It works! If you want to define custom command line application, a list of executables can be defined in pubspec.yaml.
Image Cover by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash