1) In order to add new commands a monolithic executable (which uses the library) needs to be recompiled, after editing the source code to add the newly required commands and actions.
2) libcli takes responsiblity for attaching to a socket (telnet-like). This limits the usage of the CLI; difficult to use over SSH for example, similarly cannot get the menus directly from an existing shell.
3) The implementation of the command actions is hard-linked into the monolithic executable, this can cause licence concerns/issues when a commercial company wishes to control proprietry software from within the CLI.
4) libcli takes responsiblity for the authentication of the user. This is different from other "shells" which do not deal with authentication, but are simply spawned as the required user.
The software was initially developed as part of some internal work at 3Com and due to the dependancy on 3rd party open-source packages, and it's self contained nature, it is being released into the public domain.
It is designed to run on any *NIX system e.g. Linux, BSD, Cygwin and makes use of the following other opensource packages (glibc,tinyxml,doxygen)
This application will spawn a TCL interpreter when started, and the contents of the ACTION tags will be interpreted as TCL scripts within that interpreter for the duration of the shell.
"clish" makes use of multiple XML files to define it's behaviour these...
This directory contains some example XML files which indicate some of what can be acheived with the CLISH library. The action fields are 'sh' scripts and were developed and tested on a cygwin system so some of the command options to things like "ping" may be different on different systems. (you should only need to change the ACTION tag to get them to work...) To use these files set CLISH_PATH to point to this directory and launch clish. \note Thanks to Tom Williams who gave me the basis for the "clock" command example.
Some of the example files are put here for reference:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <CLISH_MODULE xmlns="http://clish.sourceforge.net/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://clish.sourceforge.net/XMLSchema http://clish.sourceforge.net/XMLSchema/clish.xsd"> <!--=======================================================--> <COMMAND name="help" help="Display an overview of the CLI syntax"> <ACTION builtin="clish_overview"/> </COMMAND> <!--=======================================================--> <COMMAND name="logout" help="Logout of the current CLI session"> <ACTION builtin="clish_close"/> </COMMAND> <!--=======================================================--> <COMMAND name="top" help="Return to the default mode" view="root-view" viewid=""/> <!--=======================================================--> <COMMAND name="debug" help="Change to the debug mode" view="debug-view"> <ACTION>echo "Entering debug mode..."</ACTION> </COMMAND> <!--=======================================================--> <COMMAND name="script" help="Change to the script demo mode" view="script-view"/> <!--=======================================================--> <COMMAND name="history" help="Display the current session's command line history"> <PARAM name="limit" help="Set the size of history list (zero means unbounded)" ptype="UINT" default=""/> <ACTION builtin="clish_history">${limit}</ACTION> </COMMAND> <!--=======================================================--> </CLISH_MODULE>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <CLISH_MODULE xmlns="http://clish.sourceforge.net/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://clish.sourceforge.net/XMLSchema http://clish.sourceforge.net/XMLSchema/clish.xsd"> <!--=======================================================--> <OVERVIEW> CONTEXT SENSITIVE HELP [?] - Display context sensitive help. This is either a list of possible command completions with summaries, or the full syntax of the current command. A subsequent repeat of this key, when a command has been resolved, will display a detailed reference. AUTO-COMPLETION The following keys both perform auto-completion for the current command line. If the command prefix is not unique then the bell will ring and a subsequent repeat of the key will display possible completions. [enter] - Auto-completes, syntax-checks then executes a command. If there is a syntax error then offending part of the command line will be highlighted and explained. [space] - Auto-completes, or if the command is already resolved inserts a space. MOVEMENT KEYS [CTRL-A] - Move to the start of the line [CTRL-E] - Move to the end of the line. [up] - Move to the previous command line held in history. [down] - Move to the next command line held in history. [left] - Move the insertion point left one character. [right] - Move the insertion point right one character. DELETION KEYS [CTRL-C] - Delete and abort the current line [CTRL-D] - Delete the character to the right on the insertion point. [CTRL-K] - Delete all the characters to the right of the insertion point. [CTRL-U] - Delete the whole line. [backspace] - Delete the character to the left of the insertion point. ESCAPE SEQUENCES !! - Subsitute the the last command line. !N - Substitute the Nth command line (absolute as per 'history' command) !-N - Substitute the command line entered N lines before (relative) </OVERVIEW> <!--=======================================================--> <STARTUP view="root-view"> <DETAIL> ******************************************** * CLISH (see-lish) * * * * WARNING: Authorised Access Only * ******************************************** </DETAIL> <ACTION>echo "Welcome `whoami` it is `date`"</ACTION> </STARTUP> <!--=======================================================--> </CLISH_MODULE>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <CLISH_MODULE xmlns="http://clish.sourceforge.net/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://clish.sourceforge.net/XMLSchema http://clish.sourceforge.net/XMLSchema/clish.xsd"> <!--=======================================================--> <PTYPE name="VLAN_ID" pattern="(409[0-5]|40[0-8][0-9]|[1-3][0-9]{3}|[1-9][0-9]{2}|[1-9][0-9]|[1-9])" help="Number in the range 1-4095"/> <!--=======================================================--> <PTYPE name="IP_ADDR" pattern="(((25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)\.){3}(25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?))" help="IP address AAA.BBB.CCC.DDD where each part is in the range 0-255"/> <!--=======================================================--> <PTYPE name="UINT" pattern="[0-9]+" help="Unsigned integer"/> <!--=======================================================--> <PTYPE name="STRING" pattern="[^\-]+" help="String"/> <!--=======================================================--> <PTYPE name="BOOL" pattern="true(1) false(0)" help="Boolean choice"/> <!--=======================================================--> </CLISH_MODULE>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <CLISH_MODULE xmlns="http://clish.sourceforge.net/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://clish.sourceforge.net/XMLSchema http://clish.sourceforge.net/XMLSchema/clish.xsd"> <VIEW name="debug-view" prompt="debug> "> <COMMAND name="sh" help="launch a full shell"> <ACTION>bash</ACTION> </COMMAND> <COMMAND name="ps" help="give details of current processes"> <ACTION>ps -f</ACTION> </COMMAND> <COMMAND name="ls" help="List the files in the current directory"> <ACTION>echo ${PWD};ls -F -l -a</ACTION> </COMMAND> <COMMAND name="exit" help="Go back to main menu" view="root-view"> <ACTION>echo "Leaving diagnostic mode..."</ACTION> </COMMAND> </VIEW> </CLISH_MODULE>
1.5.1