💻 Command line interface - sheldon docs

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# 💻 Command line interface

Sheldon has three different types of commands.

- `init` initializes a new config file.
- `lock` and `source` deal with plugin downloading, installation, and generation of shell source code.
- `add`, `edit`, and `remove` automate editing of the config file.

## `init`

This command initializes a new config file. If a config file exists then this command does nothing.

For example

    sheldon init

Or you can specify the shell.

    sheldon init --shell bash

or

    sheldon init --shell zsh

## `lock`

The `lock` command installs the plugins sources and generates the lock file. Rerunning this command without any extra options will not reinstall plugin sources, just verify that they are correctly installed. It will always regenerate the lock file.

    sheldon lock

To update all plugin sources you can use the `--update` flag.

    sheldon lock --update

To force a reinstall of all plugin sources you can use the `--reinstall` flag.

    sheldon lock --reinstall

## `source`

This command generates the shell script. This command will first check if there is an up to date lock file, if not, then it will first do the equivalent of the lock command above. This command is usually used with the built-in shell `eval` command.

    eval "$(sheldon source)"

But you can also run it directly to inspect the output. The output of this command is highly configurable. You can define your own custom templates to apply to your plugins.

## `add`

This command adds a new plugin to the config file. It does nothing else but edit the config file. In the following command we add a GitHub repository as a source.

    sheldon add my-repo --git https://github.com/owner/repo.git

An example usage of this command for each source type is shown in the Configuration section.

## `edit`

This command will open the config file in the default editor and only overwrite the contents if the updated config file is valid. To override the editor that is used you should set the `EDITOR` environment variable.

For example using `vim`

    EDITOR=vim sheldon edit

Or with Visual Studio Code

    EDITOR="code --wait" sheldon edit

## `remove`

This command removes a plugin from the config file. It does nothing else but edit the config file. In the following command we remove the plugin with name `my-repo`.

    sheldon remove my-repo

## Options

Sheldon accepts the following global command line options and environment variables. You can also view all options by running Sheldon with `-h` or `--help`. The value that will be used for the option follows the following priority.

1. Command line option.
2. Environment variable.
3. Default value.

#### `--color <when>`

Set the output coloring.

- `always`: Always use colored output.
- `auto`: Automatically determine whether to use colored output (default).
- `never`: Never use colored output.

#### `--config-dir <path>`

Environment variable: `SHELDON_CONFIG_DIR`

Set the config directory where the configuration file will be stored. This defaults to `$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/sheldon` or `~/.config/sheldon`.

#### `--data-dir <path>`

Environment variable: `SHELDON_DATA_DIR`

Set the data directory where plugins will be downloaded to. This defaults to `$XDG_DATA_HOME/sheldon` or `~/.local/share/sheldon`.

#### `--config-file <path>`

Environment variable: `SHELDON_CONFIG_FILE`

Set the path to the config file. This defaults to `<config-dir>/plugins.toml` where `<config-dir>` is the config directory.

#### `--profile <profile>`

Environment variable: `SHELDON_PROFILE`

Specify the profile to match plugins against. Plugins which have profiles configured will only get loaded if one of the given profiles matches the profile.

## Completions

Shell completion scripts for Bash and Zsh are available. If Sheldon was installed via Homebrew then the completions should have been installed automatically.

They can also be generated by Sheldon using the `completions` subcommand which will output the completions to stdout. Refer to your specific shell documentation for more details on how to install these.

    sheldon completions --shell bash > /path/to/completions/sheldon.bash

or

    sheldon completions --shell zsh > /path/to/completions/_sheldon