About subcommand directory

[mloskot]

This is transfer of @fanux's https://github.com/spf13/cobra/issues/1059 as suggested there by @johnSchnake

---

➜  app cobra add create
create created at /Users/fanux/work/src/app/cmd/create.go
➜  app cobra add user -p create
user created at /Users/fanux/work/src/app/cmd/user.go
➜  app tree
.
├── LICENSE
├── cmd
│   ├── create.go
│   ├── root.go
│   └── user.go
└── main.go

cobra generates subcommand user in the same dir of its parent dir, it not very nice.

If I add a command user this user command is not create subcommand:

 cobra add user
Error: /Users/fanux/work/src/app/cmd/user.go already exists

So I think, create subcommand in a sub dir is better, like this:

.
├── LICENSE
├── cmd
│   ├── create.go
│   ├── root.go
|   |---create
│       └── user.go
└── main.go

This will not conflict

[mloskot]

(Copying myself from https://github.com/spf13/cobra/issues/1059#issuecomment-1855063174)

Interestingly, the user_guide.md displays how to organise subcomands in folders but does or could cobra-cli support it?

[nirs]

The current behavior is good, it is useful for the common case of single package command. I think the missing part is to support also the hierarchical layout when initializing a project or adding a command.

I can think of 2 ways to solve this:

add flag

Adding a child command as a package:

cobra-cli add --package foo

Will create:

cmd/
    root.go
    foo/
        foo.go

Adding a sub command of foo:

cobra-cli add --parent foo bar

Will create:

cmd/
    root.go
    foo/
        foo.go
        bar.go

Adding a sub package for foo:

cobra-cli add --package --parent foo bar

cmd/
    root.go
    foo/
        foo.go
        bar/
            bar.go

Generator option

Add an option the the .cobra.yaml to use single package or multi-package layout. This will make it easier to have consistent initialization in the entire project.

Example yaml for single package (default):

layout: single-package

With this child commands are created in the same package as root and add the child command to the root command in the child init().

Example yaml for multi-package layout (new):

layout: multi-package

With this child command is created in a new package and parent init() is changed to add the child command.

This does not solve he issue of adding a leaf command in a sub package, in this case we most likely want to keep the leaf file in the parent package.

[mloskot]

I think the missing part is to support also the hierarchical layout when initializing a project or adding a command.

Yes, I think so. Yesterday I found this video where the author presents a simple semi-manual workaround how to use Cobra CLI and maintain folder-based structure of commands. Here is the specific moment linked How to write beautiful Golang CLI