Example Third Party Plugin

This is included as an example of how to develop a third party plugin for the Linode CLI. There are only two files:

example_third_party_plugin.py

This file contains the python source code for your plugin. Notably, it is a valid plugin because it exposes two attributes at the module level:

• PLUGIN_NAME - a constant whose value is the string used to invoke the plugin once it's registered
• call(args, context) - a function called when the plugin is invoked

While this example is a single file, a module that exposes those two attributes at the top level is also a valid CLI plugin (define or import them in the module's __init__.py file to expose them at the module level).

setup.py

This file is used by setuptools to create a python module. This example is very sparse, but is enough to install the module locally and get you started. Please see the setuptools docs for all available options.

Installation

To install this example plugin, run the following in this directory:

python setup.py install

Registration and Invocation

Once installed, you have to register the plugin with the Linode CLI by python module name (as defined in setup.py):

linode-cli register-plugin example_third_party_plugin

The CLI will print out the command to invoke this plugin, which in this example is:

linode-cli example-plugin

Doing so will print Hello world! and exit.

Development

To begin working from this base, simply edit example_third_party_plugin.py and add whatever features you need. When it comes time to distribute your plugin, copy this entire directory elsewhere and modify the setup.py file as described within it to create your own module.

To test your changes, simply reinstall the plugin as described above. This does not require reregistering it, as it references the installed module and will invoke the updated code next time it's called.