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New coapp command line interface

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mloskot edited this page Dec 15, 2011 · 15 revisions

CoApp Command line client interface

The CoApp command line client has a simple, yet flexible interface.

When redirecting or piping the results of a CoApp command, the tool will suppress cosmetic formatting and simply list the results of the given command (very useful for chaining the results of one execution into another).

General Usage:

CoApp [options] <command> <parameters>

Quick List

Command Short Command Switch Shortcut Description
list-package list -l lists packages
get-packageinfo info -g shows extended package information
install-package install -i installs a package
remove-package remove * -r removes a package
update-package update -u updates a package
trim-packages trim -t trims unnecessary packages
activate-package activate -a makes a specific package the 'current'
block-package block -b marks a package as 'blocked'
unblock-package unblock -B unblocks a package
mark-package mark -m marks a package as 'required'
unmark-package unmark -M unmarks a package as 'required'
list-feed feeds -f lists the feeds known to the system
add-feed add -A adds a feed to the system
remove-feed remove * -R removes a feed from the system

Note: the * indicates that the remove command will operate slightly differently depending on context (if you pass a feed to it, it will act as remove-feed, otherwise it will act as remove-package )

Commands

All commands are in the form verb-noun (similar to Windows PowerShell cmdlets) and can be followed by zero or more parameters.

Any commands that takes parameters after the command will accept a list of packages on the command line or via stdin.

List Packages
list-package <pkg-spec>...

Lists all packages that meet the criteria.

Get Package Information
get-packageinfo <pkg-spec>...

Returns extended package information for all packages that meet the criteria.

Install Package
install-package <pkg-spec>...

Installs all packages that meet the criteria.

Options for installing packages
Option Description
--upgrade:fail Returns an error message if a the user attempts to install a package that isn't the most recent version.
--upgrade:true Default Automatically upgrades packages to the most recent version that can be installed.
--upgrade:false Forces the package manager to install the version specified.
--force:true Forces the package manager to install the package even if the dependencies can not be resolved or installed.
Remove Package
remove-package <pkg-spec>...

Removes all packages that meet the criteria.

Update Package
update-package <pkg-spec>...

Updates all packages that meet the criteria to the latest version.

Trim unused packages
trim

Removes all unrequested and unnecessary packages.

set package to active
activate-package <pkg-spec>...

Marks a given package as the 'active' one (likely, makes it the default in the path).

Block a package from upgrading
block-package <pkg-spec>...

Marks a package so that it can't be updated or removed .

Unblock a package
unblock-package <pkg-spec>...

Marks a package so that it can be updated or removed.

Mark a package as 'user requested'
mark-package <pkg-spec>...

Marks a package as 'user requested'--so that a trim function will not remove it.

Unmark a package as 'user requested'
unmark-package <pkg-spec>...

Unmarks a package as 'user requested'--may be removed if the package isn't a dependency of another package

List Package Feeds
list-feed

Lists all the package feeds known

Add Package Feed
add-feed <feed-location>...

Adds a package feed to the system.

Remove Package Feed
remove-feed <feed-location>...

Removes a package feed from the system.

Parameters

Specifying packages
<pkg-spec>...

Packages have a canonical name (in the form packagename-##.##.##.##-arch-publickeytoken) which uniquely identifies it apart from other packages. Commands expecting a package name will always take the full canonical name or alternatively, the user can provide a partial name and CoApp will attempt to determine what the user is requesting.

Generally there are three types of inputs that can be specified for the package:

  • a canonical package name (or partial canonical name)

If a wildcard * is present in the given name, that will match against the rest of the name.

If there isn't a wildcard specfied, and the given value isn't a complete canonical name, the package manager will add a wildcard, in one of two ways:

  • if the given name contains a dash (-), a * will be appended to the end of the given name.
  • if the given name doesn't contain a dash (-), a -* will be appended to the end of the given name.

Examples:

Matching an exact package:

    firefox-1.2.3.4-x86-1234123412341234

Matching a given version from any publisher:

    firefox-1.2.3.4-x86
    firefox-1.2.3.4-x86*
    firefox-1.2.3.4-x86-*

Matching a version (will attempt to get the platform that is currently running)

    firefox-1.2.3.4-*

Match a partial version:

    firefox-1.
    firefox-1.*

Or just the package name:

    firefox                                   
    firefox-*

Or, all packages starting with firefox

    firefox*
  • a local path (to either a package file or a package directory for use as a package feed ) Examples:
    (single file examples)
    c:\desktop\myprogram-1.0.0.0-any.msi 

    (package feed examples)
    c:\users\garrett\downloads\packages
    c:\users\garrett\downloads\packages\special\*.msi
    c:\users\garrett\downloads\packages
  • a URL (to either a remote package file, or a package atom feed for use as a package feed )

Single file examples:

    http://coapp.org/repository/coapp.tools-1.2.3.4-any.msi

Package feed examples:

    http://coapp.org/feed
    http://www.somecompany.com/packages.xml
Options for filtering packages

There are several options that can be used to filter the list of packages:

Option Description
--name=<text> filters the list of packages by the given name. may contain Wildcard
--min-version=<text> filters the list of packages by packages of at least the given version
--max-version=<text> filters the list of packages by packages of at most the given version
--arch=<value> filters the list of packages by the given architecture { x86, x64, any, all }
--public-key-token=<text> filters the list of packages by the given public key token (this lets you choose packages by a particular publisher)
--installed=<value> filters based on if the package is installed { true,false,all }
--active=<value> filters based on if the package is the currently active version { true,false,all }
--required=<value> filters based on if the package is required by the user (or as a dependency of a required package) { true,false,all }
--blocked=<value> filters based on if the package is blocked { true,false,all }
--latest=<value> filters to just the highest version { true,false,all }
Specifying package feed locations
<feed-location>...

Generally there are two types of inputs that can be specified for package feeds:

  • a local path (either a package directory, or a file mask for use as a package feed)

Examples:

    c:\users\garrett\downloads\packages
    c:\users\garrett\downloads\packages\special\*.msi
    c:\users\garrett\downloads\packages
  • a URL (a package atom feed for use as a package feed )

Examples:

    http://coapp.org/feed
    http://www.somecompany.com/packages.xml

General Options

Forces feeds to be rescanned to find updated package information:

--force-scan

Examples

c:\test> coapp list-package

(lists packages)

Will list everything known to the package manager. Probably a lot!

c:\test> coapp list-package firefox

(lists all the packages with the name `firefox`)

Will list everything known to the package manager. Probably a lot!

c:\test> coapp --installed=false --highest list-package firefox | coapp install-package

Finds the package named firefox that has the highest version and pipes that to the tool to install it.

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