runx

Cross-platform, zero-install, Ruby-based task runner.

runx enables you to script command-line-friendly tasks in Ruby that you can then run across platforms without needing to have Ruby installed.

Setup

Download the zero-install binary to a directory on your PATH.

Usage

Create a Runfile with your tasks:

doc 'Start server.'
run :up do
  system 'docker-compose -f services.yml -f env.yml up --build'
end

doc 'Stop server.'
run :down do
  system 'docker-compose -f services.yml -f env.yml down'
end

doc 'Create database migration.'
run 'migrate:make' do |*args|
  system *%w(docker-compose -f services.yml -f env.yml exec app php /src/artisan migrate:make) + args
end

Run runx to see available tasks:

$ runx
[runx] In /Users/schmich.

Tasks:
  up                Start server.
  down              Stop server.
  migrate:make      Create database migration.

Run runx <task> to run a task:

$ runx up
[runx] In /Users/schmich.
Building app
Step 1 : FROM php:7-fpm-alpine
 ---> a0955c912431
...

$ runx migrate:make create_some_table
[runx] In /Users/schmich/test.
Created Migration: 2016_10_06_133147_create_some_table
Generating optimized class loader

Advanced

Command-line arguments are passed to the task block:

run :show do |*args|
  p args
end

$ runx show abc 123 "quoted arg"
[runx] In /Users/schmich.
["abc", "123", "quoted arg"]

A task can be marked as auto to automatically run when no task is specified:

run :baz do
  puts 'Baz task.'
end

auto
run :quux do
  puts 'Quux task.'
end

$ runx
[runx] In /Users/schmich.
Quux task.

You can run tasks from other tasks:

run :add do |x, y|
  puts x.to_i + y.to_i
end

run :add5 do |x|
  run :add, 5, x
end

$ runx add 10 20
[runx] In /Users/schmich.
30

$ runx add5 10
[runx] In /Users/schmich.
15

At runtime:

• When locating the Runfile, directories are searched up to the root until it's found, so you can invoke runx in project subdirectories.
• All tasks are run with the working directory set to the directory containing the Runfile.
• The bundled Ruby version is 2.1.5.

How It Works

The Go-built runx binary contains an OS-specific version of Phusion's Traveling Ruby runtime, embedded with Jim Teeuwen's go-bindata. At runtime, the Ruby distribution is extracted to ~/.runx/<hash>, the runx binary spawns ruby, which then loads the runx Ruby library, which finally loads the Runfile and runs tasks.

License

Copyright © 2016 Chris Schmich
MIT License. See LICENSE for details.