JBZoo / Cli

• Why?
• Live Demo
  • Output regular messages
  • Progress Bar Demo
• Quick Start - Build your first CLI App
  • Installing
  • File Structure
  • Composer file
  • Binary file
  • Simple CLI Action
• Built-in Functionality
  • Sanitize input variables
  • Rendering text in different colors and styles
  • Verbosity Levels
  • Memory and time profiling
• Progress Bar
  • Simple example
  • Advanced usage
• Helper Functions
  • Regular question
  • Ask user's password
  • Ask user to select the option
  • Represent a yes/no question
  • Rendering key=>value list
• Easy logging
  • Simple log
  • Crontab
  • Elasticsearch / Logstash (ELK)
• Multi processing
• Tips & Tricks
• Contributing
• Useful projects and links
• License
• See Also

Why?

JBZoo CLI Framework is a powerful PHP library that significantly extends Symfony Console functionality, making it easier and faster to create robust command-line applications. Built for PHP 8.2+, it provides enhanced features for professional CLI development.

Key Features

Enhanced Progress Bars

• Advanced progress bars with debugging information and profiling capabilities
• Simple API: $this->progressBar($items, $callback) replaces complex Symfony ProgressBar setup
• Real-time memory and performance monitoring during execution
• See Live Demo

Strict Type Conversion

• Type-safe option parsing with methods like getOptInt(), getOptBool(), getOptString()
• Built-in validation for allowed values and data integrity
• Eliminates common runtime errors from loose type handling

Professional Output System

• Simplified output API: $this->_($message, $level, $context) instead of verbose Symfony methods
• Rich styling with HTML-like tags: <red>Error</red>, <green-b>Success</green-b>
• Context-aware JSON logging for structured data

Multiple Output Modes

• --output-mode=text - User-friendly console output (default)
• --output-mode=cron - Optimized for crontab logging with timestamps and profiling
• --output-mode=logstash - JSON format for ELK Stack integration

Performance & Debugging

• Built-in profiling with --profile flag showing memory usage and execution time
• Timestamping with --timestamp for detailed logging
• Verbosity levels from quiet (-q) to debug (-vvv)

Advanced Features

• Multiprocessing support for parallel execution (not multithreading)
• Interactive helpers for user input, confirmations, and selections
• Error handling with configurable exit codes and output streams

Live Demo

Output regular messages

Progress Bar Demo

Quick Start - Build your first CLI App

Installing

composer require jbzoo/cli

The simplest CLI application has the following file structure. See the Demo App for more details.

File Structure

/path/to/app/
    my-app                      # Binary file (See below)
    composer.json               # Composer file
    /Commands/                  # Commands directory
        Simple.php              # One of the commands (See below)
    /vendor/
        autoload.php            # Composer autoload

Composer file

./demo/composer.json

See Details

{
    "name"        : "vendor/my-app",
    "type"        : "project",
    "description" : "Example of CLI App based on JBZoo/CLI",
    "license"     : "MIT",
    "keywords"    : ["cli", "application", "example"],

    "require"     : {
        "php"       : "^8.2",
        "jbzoo/cli" : "^7.0"
    },

    "autoload"    : {
        "psr-4" : {"DemoApp\\" : ""}
    },

    "bin"         : ["my-app"]
}

Binary file

Binary file: demo/my-app

See Details

#!/usr/bin/env php
<?php declare(strict_types=1);

namespace DemoApp;

use JBZoo\Cli\CliApplication;

// Init composer autoloader
require_once __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

// Optional. Set your application name and version.
$application = new CliApplication('My Console Application', 'v1.0.0');

// Optional. Looks at the online generator of ASCII logos
// https://patorjk.com/software/taag/#p=testall&f=Epic&t=My%20Console%20App
$application->setLogo(
  <<<'EOF'
        __  __          _____                      _
       |  \/  |        / ____|                    | |          /\
       | \  / |_   _  | |     ___  _ __  ___  ___ | | ___     /  \   _ __  _ __
       | |\/| | | | | | |    / _ \| '_ \/ __|/ _ \| |/ _ \   / /\ \ | '_ \| '_ \
       | |  | | |_| | | |___| (_) | | | \__ \ (_) | |  __/  / ____ \| |_) | |_) |
       |_|  |_|\__, |  \_____\___/|_| |_|___/\___/|_|\___| /_/    \_\ .__/| .__/
                __/ |                                               | |   | |
               |___/                                                |_|   |_|
      EOF,
);

// Scan directory to find commands.
//  * It doesn't work recursively!
//  * They must extend the class \JBZoo\Cli\CliCommand
$application->registerCommandsByPath(__DIR__ . '/Commands', __NAMESPACE__);

// Optional. Action name by default (if there is no arguments)
$application->setDefaultCommand('list');

// Run application
$application->run();

Simple CLI Action

The simplest CLI action: ./demo/Commands/DemoSimple.php

See Details

<?php declare(strict_types=1);

namespace DemoApp\Commands;

use JBZoo\Cli\CliCommand;
use JBZoo\Cli\Codes;

class Simple extends CliCommand
{
    protected function configure(): void
    {
        // Action name. It will be used in command line.
        // Example: `./my-app simple`
        $this->setName('simple');

        // Define inherited CLI options. See ./src/CliCommand.php for details.
        parent::configure();
    }

    protected function executeAction(): int
    {
        // Your code here
        $this->_('Hello world!');

        // Exit code. 0 - success, 1 - error.
        return self::SUCCESS;
    }
}

Built-in Functionality

Sanitize input variables

As live-demo take a look at demo application - ./demo/Commands/DemoOptionsStrictTypes.php.

Try to launch ./my-app options-strict-types.

// If the option has `InputOption::VALUE_NONE` it returns true/false.
// --option-name
$value = $this->getOpt('option-name'); // `$value === true`

// --option-name="    123.6   "
$value = $this->getOpt('option-name'); // Returns the value AS-IS. `$value ===  "   123.6   "`

// --option-name="    123.6   "
$value = $this->getOptBool('option-name'); // Converts an input variable to boolean. `$value === true`

// --option-name="    123.6   "
$value = $this->getOptInt('option-name'); // Converts an input variable to integer. `$value === 123`
$value = $this->getOptInt('option-name', 42, [1, 2, 42]); // Strict comparing with allowed values

// --option-name="    123.6   "
$value = $this->getOptFloat('option-name'); // Converts an input variable to float. `$value === 123.6`
$value = $this->getOptFloat('option-name', 1.0, [1.0, 2.0, 3.0]); // Strict comparing with allowed values

// --option-name="    123.6   "
$value = $this->getOptString('option-name'); // Converts an input variable to trimmed string. `$value === "123.6"`
$value = $this->getOptString('option-name', 'default', ['default', 'mini', 'full']); // Strict comparing with allowed values

// --option-name=123.6
$value = $this->getOptArray('option-name'); // Converts an input variable to trimmed string. `$value === ["123.6"]`

// --option-name="15 July 2021 13:48:00"
$value = $this->getOptDatetime('option-name'); // Converts an input variable to \DateTimeImmutable object.

// Use standard input as input variable.
// Example. `echo " Qwerty 123 " | php ./my-app agruments`
$value = self::getStdIn(); // Reads StdIn as string value. `$value === " Qwerty 123 \n"`

Rendering text in different colors and styles

There are list of predefined colors

<black>  Text in Black color  </black>
<red>    Text in Red Color    </red>
<green>  Text in Green Color  </green>
<yellow> Text in Yellow Color </yellow>
<blue>   Text in Blue Color   </blue>
<magenta>Text in Magenta Color</magenta>
<cyan>   Text in Cyan Color   </cyan>
<white>  Text in White Color  </white>

<!-- Usually default color is white. It depends on terminal settings. -->
<!-- You should use it only to overwrite nested tags. -->
<default>Text in Default Color</default>

There are list of predefined styles

<bl>Blinked Text</bl>
<b>Bold Text</b>
<u>Underlined Text</u>
<r>Reverse Color/Backgroud</r>
<bg>Change Background Only</bg>

Also, you can combine colors and styles.

<magenta-bl>Blinked text in magenta color</magenta-bl>
<magenta-b>Bold text in magenta color</magenta-b>
<magenta-u>Underlined text in magenta color</magenta-u>
<magenta-r>Reverse text in magenta color</magenta-r>
<magenta-bg>Reverse only background of text in magenta color</magenta-bg>

And predefined shortcuts for standard styles of Symfony Console

<i> alias for <info>
<c> alias for <commnet>
<q> alias for <question>
<e> alias for <error>

Verbosity Levels

Console commands have different verbosity levels, which determine the messages displayed in their output.

For a live demonstration, see the demo application ./demo/Commands/DemoOutput.php and watch the Demo video.

Example of usage of verbosity levels

// There are two recommended output methods:

/**
 * Prints a message to the output in the command class which inherits from the class \JBZoo\Cli\CliCommand
 *
 * @param string|string[] $messages     Output message(s). Can be an array of strings or a string. Array of strings will be imploded with new line.
 * @param string          $verboseLevel is one of value form the class \JBZoo\Cli\OutLvl::*
 * @param string          $context      is array of extra info. Will be serialized to JSON and displayed in the end of the message.
 */
$this->_($messages, $verboseLevel, $context);

/**
 * This is a global alias function of `$this->_(...)`.
 * Use this when you need to display text from classes that don't extend CliCommand.
 */
JBZoo\Cli\cli($messages, $verboseLevel, $context);

# Do not output any message
./my-app output -q
./my-app output --quiet

# Normal behavior, no option required. Only the most useful messages.
./my-app output

# Increase verbosity of messages
./my-app output -v

# Display also the informative non essential messages
./my-app output -vv

# Display all messages (useful to debug errors)
./my-app output -vvv

Memory and time profiling

As live-demo take a look at demo application - ./demo/Commands/DemoProfile.php.

Try to launch ./my-app profile --profile.

Progress Bar

As live-demo take a look at demo application - ./demo/Commands/DemoProgressBar.php and Live Demo.

You can consider this as a substitute for the long cycles you want to profile.

Keep in mind that there is an additional overhead for memory and runtime to calculate all the extra debugging information in --verbose mode.

Simple example

$this->progressBar(5, function (): void {
    // Some code in loop
});

Advanced usage

$this->progressBar($arrayOfSomething, function ($value, $key, $step) {
    // Some code in loop

    if ($step === 3) {
        throw new ExceptionBreak("Something went wrong with \$value={$value}. Stop the loop!");
    }

    return "<c>Callback Args</c> \$value=<i>{$value}</i>, \$key=<i>{$key}</i>, \$step=<i>{$step}</i>";
}, 'Custom messages based on callback arguments', $throwBatchException);

Helper Functions

As live-demo take a look at demo application - ./demo/Commands/DemoHelpers.php.

Try to launch ./my-app helpers.

JBZoo/Cli uses Symfony Question Helper as base for aliases.

Regular question

Ask any custom question and wait for a user's input. There is an option to set a default value.

$yourName = $this->ask("What's your name?", 'Default Noname');
$this->_("Your name is \"{$yourName}\"");

Ask user's password

Ask a question and hide the response. This is particularly convenient for passwords. There is an option to set a random value as default value.

$yourSecret = $this->askPassword("New password?", true);
$this->_("Your secret is \"{$yourSecret}\"");

Ask user to select the option

If you have a predefined set of answers the user can choose from, you could use a method askOption which makes sure that the user can only enter a valid string from a predefined list. There is an option to set a default option (index or string).

$selectedColor = $this->askOption("What's your favorite color?", ['Red', 'Blue', 'Yellow'], 'Blue');
$this->_("Selected color is {$selectedColor}");

Represent a yes/no question

Suppose you want to confirm an action before actually executing it. Add the following to your command.

$isConfirmed = $this->confirmation('Are you ready to execute the script?');
$this->_("Is confirmed: " . ($isConfirmed ? 'Yes' : 'No'));

Rendering key=>value list

If you need to show an aligned list, use the following code.

use JBZoo\Cli\CliRender;

$this->_(CliRender::list([
    "It's like a title",
    'Option Name' => 'Option Value',
    'Key' => 'Value',
    'Another Key #2' => 'Qwerty',
], '*')); // It's bullet character

 * It's like a title
 * Option Name   : Option Value
 * Key           : Value
 * Another Key #2: Qwerty

Easy logging

Simple log

./my-app output --timestamp >> /path/to/crontab/logs/$(date +%Y-%m-%d).log 2>&1

Crontab

Just add the --output-mode=cron flag and save the output to a file. Especially, this is very handy for saving logs for Crontab.

./my-app output --output-mode=cron >> /path/to/crontab/logs/$(date +%Y-%m-%d).log 2>&1

Elasticsearch / Logstash (ELK)

Just add the --output-mode=logstash flag and save the output to a file. Especially, this is very handy for saving logs for ELK Stack.

./my-app output --output-mode=logstash >> /path/to/logstash/logs/$(date +%Y-%m-%d).log 2>&1

Multi processing

There is a multiprocess mode (please don't confuse it with multithreading) to speed up work with a monotonous dataset. Basically, JBZoo\Cli will start a separate child process (not a thread!) for each dataset and wait for all of them to execute (like a Promise). This is how you get acceleration, which will depend on the power of your server and the data processing algorithm.

You will see a simple progress bar, but you won't be able to profile and log nicely, as it works for normal mode.

You can find examples here

• ./tests/TestApp/Commands/TestSleepMulti.php - Parent command
• ./tests/TestApp/Commands/TestSleep.php - Child command

Notes:

• Pay attention on the method executeOneProcess() and getListOfChildIds() which are used to manage child processes. They are inherited from CliCommandMultiProc class.
• Optimal number of child processes is Number of CPU cores - 1 . You can override this value by setting cli options. See them here ./src/CliCommandMultiProc.php.
• Be really careful with concurrency. It's not easy to debug. Try to use -vvv option to see all errors and warnings.

Tips & Tricks

• Use class \JBZoo\Cli\Codes to get all available exit codes.
• You can add extra context to any message. It will be serialized to JSON and displayed at the end of the message. Just use CliHelper::getInstance()->appendExtraContext(['section' => ['var' => 'value']]);
• You can define constant \JBZOO_CLI_TIMESTAMP_REAL=true to add timestamp_real as extra context. Sometimes it's useful for logstash if the default value @timestamp doesn't work for you.

Contributing

# Fork the repo and build project
make update

# Make your local changes

# Run all tests and check code style
make test-all

# Create your pull request and check all tests on GitHub Actions page

Useful projects and links

• Symfony/Console Docs
• kevinlebrun/colors.php - New colors for the terminal
• php-school/cli-menu - Interactive menu with nested items
• nunomaduro/collision - Beautiful error reporting
• splitbrain/php-cli - Lightweight and no dependencies CLI framework
• thephpleague/climate - Allows you to easily output colored text, special formats
• Exit Codes With Special Meanings
• How to redirect standard (stderr) error in bash

License

MIT

See Also

• CI-Report-Converter - Converting different error reports for deep compatibility with popular CI systems.
• Composer-Diff - See what packages have changed after composer update.
• Composer-Graph - Dependency graph visualization of composer.json based on mermaid-js.
• Mermaid-PHP - Generate diagrams and flowcharts with the help of the mermaid script language.
• Utils - Collection of useful PHP functions, mini-classes, and snippets for every day.
• Image - Package provides object-oriented way to manipulate with images as simple as possible.
• Data - Extended implementation of ArrayObject. Use files as config/array.
• Retry - Tiny PHP library providing retry/backoff functionality with multiple backoff strategies and jitter support.
• SimpleTypes - Converting any values and measures - money, weight, exchange rates, length, ...