bstools

bstools is a command line utility that allows other command line utilities and scripts to be conveniently organized, located, and executed. Support is available to:

• Execute other executables
• Create easy to remember aliases for other commands
• Execute Python scripts
• Execute Java JAR files
• Pass arguments to commands

Commands can be grouped into logical categories. For example, if you were to create a script called generate_uuid.py and place it in a directory called dev within the python directory of the bstools home directory, it would be possible to execute the script with the following command:

bs dev generate_uuid.py

If you were unable to remember the name of the script, you could execute the following command to see a listing of scripts available within the dev directory:

bs dev

Executing bs would display a listing of directories and commands available at the root level.

Configuration

bstools will prompt you to create necessary environment variables.

BS_HOME

The BS_HOME environment variable must contain a path to a directory where commands will be located. The following directories will be automatically created within the BS_HOME directory:

• commands
  • Stores aliases for existing commands.
• data
  • Stores data to be used by other command line utilities.
• executables
  • Stores executable files.
• java
  • Stores executable JAR files.
• python
  • Stores Python scripts.

BS_PYTHON

The BS_PYTHON environment variable must contain a path to the Python executable to use when executing Python scripts.

Examples

Commands

The commands directory contains aliases for existing commands. For example, say the following file was created:

[BS-HOME]/commands/network/ping_alias

The ping_alias file could contain the following contents:

ping -n %s -4 %s

bstools will replace the %s tokens within the file with arguments supplied at the command line. The command could then be executed like so:

bs network ping_alias 5 localhost

bstools can also append arguments supplied at the command line to the command that it is executing. For example, the contents of the ping_alias file could be changed to the following:

ping -n %s -4

The ping_alias command could still be executed like so:

bs network ping_alias 5 localhost

Executables

The executables directory stores other executable files to be executed by bstools. For example, say the following executable file existed at:

[BS-HOME]/executables/tools/example.exe

Say also that example.exe expected the following command line arguments:

-v -s test1 test2

bstools could execute example.exe with the following command:

bs tools example.exe -v -s test1 test2

Java

The java directory stores executable JAR files to be executed by bstools. For example, say the following file existed at:

[BS-HOME]/java/tools/doSomething.jar

bstools could execute doSomething.jar with the following command:

bs tools doSomething.jar

If doSomething.jar accepted optional arguments, they could be provided like so:

bs tools doSomething.jar -v testIt

Python

The python directory stores Python scripts to be executed by bstools. For example, say the following Python script existed at:

[BS-HOME]/python/dev/generate_uuid.py

Say also that generate_uuid.py expected a command line argument that determined how many UUIDs to generate.

bstools could execute generate_uuid.py with the following command to generate 10 UUIDs:

bs dev generate_uuid.py 10

Finding Commands

bstools will list the available directories and commands. Assuming all of the previous examples were available in the [BS-HOME] directory, executing bs would display the following options:

• dev
• network
• tools

Executing bs dev would display generate_uuid.py as an option.

Executing bs network would display ping_alias as an option.

Executing bs tools would display example.exe and doSomething.jar as options.