Verdeter

Verdeter is a library to write configuration easily with cobra and viper for distributed applications. Verdeter bring the power of cobra and viper in a single library.

It should be consider as a wrapper for cobra and viper that allow developers to code apps that are POSIX compliant by default.

The api is susceptible to change at any point in time until the v1 is released.

Verdeter allow developers to bind a posix compliant flag, an environment variable and a variable in a config file to a viper key with a single line of code. Verdeter also comes with extra features such as:

• support for normalize function, ex: LowerString (lower the input string)
• support for key specific checks, ex: StringNotEmpty(check if the input string is empty), CheckIsHighPort(check is the input integer is a high tcp port), or AuthorizedValues(check if the value of a config key is contained in a defined array of authorized values))
• support for constraints, ex: check for specific arch
• support for dynamic default values (named Computed values), ex: set time.Now().Unix() as a default for a "time" key

How Verdeter differ from viper in handling configuration value

Verdeter uses the following precedence order. Each item takes precedence over the item below it:

1. Explicit call to viper.Set:

   viper.Set(key) set the key to a fixed value

   Example: viper.Set("age", 25) will set the key "age" to 25

2. POSIX flags

   Cli flags are handled by cobra using pflag

   Example: appending the flag --age 25 will set the key "age" to 25

3. Environment variables

   Environment Variable are handled by viper (read more here)

   Example: running export <APP_NAME>_age will export an environment variable (the <APP_NAME> is set by verdeter). Verdeter will bind automatically the environment variable name to a viper key when the developer will define the key he needs. Then, when the developer retreive a value for the "age" key with a call to viper.Get("age), viper get all the environment variable and find the value of <APP_NAME>_age.

4. Value in a config file

   Viper support reading from JSON, TOML, YAML, HCL, envfile and Java properties config files. The developer need to set a key named "config_path" to set the path to the config file or the path to the config directory.

   Example: Let's say the "config_path" is set to ./conf.yml and the file looks like below

   # conf.yml
   author:
       name: bob
   age: 25

   Then you would use viper.Get("author.name") to access the value bob and viper.Get("age") to access the value 25.

5. Dynamic default values (computed values)

   Verdeter allow the user of "computed values" as dynamic default values. It means that the developer can values returned by functions as default values.

   Example: The function defaultTime will provide a unix time integer.

   var defaultTime verdeter.models.DefaultValueFunction :=  func () interface{} {
       return time.Now().Unix()
   }

   We bind this function to the key time using verdeter.

   (*VerdeterCommand).SetComputedValue("time", defaultTime)

   Then the value can be retreived easily using viper.Get("time") as usual

6. static default

   Static defaults can be set using verdeter

   // of course here the value is static
   (*VerdeterCommand).SetDefault("time", 1661957668)

   Alternatively you can use viper directly to do exactly the same thing (please note that we will use (*VerdeterCommand).SetDefault in the rest of the documentation).

   viper.SetDefault("time", 1661957668)

7. type default (0 for an integer)

   If a key is not set and not marked as required (using (*VerdeterCommand).SetRequired(<key_name>)), then a call to viper.Get<Type>(<key_name>) will return the default value for this <Type>.

   Example: let's say thay we did not call (*VerdeterCommand).SetRequired("time") to set the key "time" as required. Then a call to viper.GetInt("time") will return 0. (please note that a call to viper.Get(<key>) returns an interface{} wich has no "defaut value").

Basic Example

Let's create a rootCommand named "myApp"

var rootCommand = verdeter.NewConfigCmd(
	// Name of the app 
    "myApp", 
    
    // A short description
    "myApp is an amazing piece of software",
    
    // A longer description
    `myApp is an amazing piece of software,
that everyone can use thanks to verdeter`,

    // Callback
	func(cfg *verdeter.VerdeterCommand, args []string) {
        key := "author.name"
		fmt.Printf("value for %q is %q\n", key, viper.GetString(key))
	})

You might to receive args on the command line, set the number of args you want. If more are provided, Cobra will throw an error.

// only 2 args please
rootCommand.SetNbArgs(2)

Then I want to add configuration to this command, for example to bind an address and a port to myApp.

// Adding a local key.
rootCommand.LKey("addr", verdeter.IsStr, "a", "bind to IPV4 addr")
rootCommand.LKey("port", verdeter.IsInt, "p", "bind to TCP port")

/* if you want sub commands to inherit this flag, 
   use (*verdeter.VerdeterCommand).GKey instead */

The config types availables are verdeter.IsStr, verdeter.IsInt, verdeter.IsUint and verdeter.IsBool.

A default value can be set for each config key

rootCommand.SetDefault("addr", "127.0.0.1")
rootCommand.SetDefault("port", 7070)

A validator can be bound to a config key.

// creating a validator from scratch 
addrValidator := models.Validator{
    // the name of the validator
    Name: "IPV4 validator",

    // the actual validation function
    Func: func (input interface{}) error {
        valueStr, ok := input.(string)
        if !ok {
            return fmt.Error("wrong input type")
        }
        parts := strings.Split(".")
        if len(parts)!=4 {
            return fmt.Errorf("An IPv4 is composed of four 8bit integers, fount  %d", len(parts))
        }
        for _,p := parts {
            intVal, err := strconv.Atoi(p)
            if err != nil {
                return err
            }
            if intVal<0 || intVal >255 {
                return fmt.Error("one of the part in the string is not a byte")
            }
            
        }
    },
}

// using the validator we just created
rootCommand.SetValidator("addr", addrValidator)

// verdeter comes with some predefined validators
rootCommand.SetValidator("port", verdeter.validators.CheckTCPHighPort)

Config key can be marked as required. The cobra function (* cobra.Command).PreRunE will fail if the designated config key is not provided, preventing the callback to run.

rootCommand.SetRequired("addr")

To actually run the command, use this code in your main.go

func main() {
   

    /*
        YOUR CODE HERE
    */

    // Launch the command
    rootCommand.Execute()

}

Contributing Guidelines

See CONTRIBUTING