mix

mix is a task runner, written in LiveScript.

purpose

The purpose of mix is to simplify bootstrapping scripted tasks in a project. Over the years I have come to rely on some libraries often enough at the project scripting level that I have included those globally in the mix environment.

globals

Globally, mix provides the following names:

• mix - the mix object, containing task, option, config
• co - https://github.com/tj/co
• fs - standard lib
• fs.path - standard lib
• uuid - https://github.com/broofa/node-uuid (the version 4 function)
• glob - https://github.com/isaacs/node-glob
• clone - https://github.com/pvorb/node-clone
• Promise - https://github.com/petkaantonov/bluebird
• promise - alias to new Promise
• livescript - https://github.com/gkz/LiveScript
• watcher - https://github.com/paulmillr/chokidar
• ex wraps process.exec in a promise
• exec alias to process.exec-sync
• spawn wraps process.spawn in a promise
• color takes a number from 0-255 and a string and produces an xterm256 string
• debounce takes a time in milliseconds, and a function, and returns a debounced function
• spin takes a log line and a command that will be executed with a spinner until it is completed
• pathify add a path NODE_PATH
• decycle replace circular references in an object with $ref paths
• recycle replace $ref paths in an object and replace them with references

notes

prelude-ls is imported into global. Obj.compact is redefined to reject only undefined properties.

usage

Mix looks in the current directory for a folder called task. Tasks are written in LiveScript. Each file in the task folder refers to a top level task. Consider a file call task/ip.ls with the following code:

export encode = ->*
  info new Buffer(mix.task.2.split('.') |> map parse-int).to-string(\base64).substring 0, 6

export decode = ->*
  info (new Buffer(mix.task.2, 'base64')).join '.'

If you run

$ mix ip encode 127.0.0.1

mix will search for task/ip.ls, compile it into a module, and run the encode function, placing all arguments following mix in mix.task. Thus mix.task in this case is <[ ip encode 127.0.0.1 ]>

Note that any functions defined in a task module will be yielded, thus they must be a generator or return a promise.

Options are also supported. Thus adding --myopt foo will place the string value "foo" in the property mix.option.myopt.

Arguments that aren't options are passed to the called task function.

configuration

Mix will load any mix.ls file sitting in project folder and set it to mix.config. If a file named host.ls is also present, it is loaded and then deep-merged over the top of mix.config.

libraries

Mix tasks will be compiled with a node path that includes ./lib. It also will search your standard node path heirarchy.

daemonization

If you want to daemonize your task, call it with start.

$ mix start <task>
$ mix stop <task>