How to make a python CLI tool

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Index

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Directory Structure:

├── bin
│   └── cli_script
├── setup.py
└── some_module
    ├── __init__.py
    └── some_module.py

Procedure: To make a Python script usable as a CLI (Command Line Interface) tool, follow these steps:

1. You need to create a setup script to package and install your Python script as a CLI tool. Create a new file named setup.py in the same directory as your Python script.

2. In setup.py, use the setuptools module to define the scripts and packages that should be installed:

from setuptools import find_packages, setup
 
setup(
    name='some_module',
    version='1.0'
    packages=find_packages(),
    scripts=['bin/cli_script']
)

3. Replace your_script with the name of your Python script (without the .py extension), and bin/your_script with the path to the script in the bin directory of your project.

4. To install your CLI tool, run the following command in the terminal:

pip install -e .

Replace . with the path to your project directory if you’re not currently in the directory containing setup.py.

5. Once installed, you can run your CLI tool from the terminal by typing its name followed by the required arguments:

your-cli-tool-name input_file.txt -v

Replace input_file.txt with the path to your input file and add any other required arguments or flags.

By following these steps, you can create a Python script that can be used as a CLI tool. The argparse module provides a simple way to define and parse command-line arguments, and the setuptools module allows you to package and install your script as a CLI tool.