ConsoleFx

ConsoleFx is a suite of .NET libraries for building command-line (CLI) applications.

Build console apps with command line arguments

The following code simulates the following made-up console app:

COPY <source file> [<destination dir>] [--overwrite | o] [--create-dir | c]

public class Program : ConsoleProgram
{
    [Argument, ArgumentHelp("source file", "File to copy")]
    [ValidateFile(ShouldExist = true)]
    public string SourceFile { get; set; }
    
    [Argument(Optional = true)]
    [ArgumentHelp("destination dir", "Directory to copy the file")]
    [ValidateDirectory]
    public string DestinationDir { get; set; } = ".";
    
    [Flag("overwrite", "o")]
    [FlagHelp("Specify to allow overwriting the file if it already exists")]
    public bool OverwriteExistingFile { get; set; }
    
    [Flag("create-dir", "c")]
    [FlagHelp("Specify to create the destination directory if it does not exist")]
    public bool CreateDirIfMissing { get; set; }
    
    protected int HandleCommand()
    {
        Console.WriteLine($"You want to copy {SourceFile} to {DestinationDir}");
        Console.WriteLine($"Overwrite file if it exists: {OverwriteExistingFile}");
        Console.WriteLine($"Create destination directory if it does not exist: {CreateDirIfMissing}");
        return 0;
    }
    
    public static async Task<int> Main(string[] args)
    {
        var program = new Program();
        return await program.RunAsync(args);
    }
}

Packages

ConsoleFx consists of the following NuGet packages. Development packages from continuous integration builds are available on MyGet.

Package	Description	Dev Build
ConsoleFx.CmdLine.Program	Write command line programs with sophisticated argument parsing, including error handling, automatic help generation and rich validation support. Supports both Unix and Windows-style arguments.
ConsoleFx.CmdLine.Parser	Standalone argument parser that is used by ConsoleFx.CmdLine.Program. Can be used in non-console program such as Windows Forms, WPF, REPL, etc. to parse command line arguments in a similar fashion.
ConsoleFx.ConsoleExtensions	Extended console capabilities like color output, prompts, inputting secrets, outputting indented text, progress bars, etc.
ConsoleFx.Prompter	Rich interactive framework for getting inputs from users. Inspired by the Inquirer.js framework for JavaScript.

Metapackage

ConsoleFx includes a metapackage that contains all the major packages that would typically needed to build a complex console application.

Under development

The following packages are under development and expected in a future release.

Package	Description	Expected Version
ConsoleFx.Art	Output ASCII art in different styles.	2.1
ConsoleFx.UI	Dynamic creation of Windows Forms and WPF UI to visually input command-line arguments.	TBD