@idearium/cli

The Idearium cli, which makes working with our projects, super easy :)

Documentation

The cli is self documenting and you'll find limited information about the commands within the cli here.

Install

Via NPM:

$ npm install -DE [-g] @idearium/cli

We actually recommend installing @idearium/cli locally in your project. This allows each project to use a different version of the cli. If you do however, we also recommend adding ./node_modules/.bin to your path, so that you can run the cli via c without a global install.

Usage

Once installed, simply run c, and you'll get the help output for all commands. Running a sub-command and then --help will give you the help output for that command (i.e. c dc --help).

Requirements

The cli has been designed to work closely with infrastructure-common. Infrastructure provides MongoDB, Redis, RabbitMQ and importantly for the cli, Kubernetes ingress.

You can read more about how this all hangs together at https://github.com/idearium/developers/tree/master/stack

Commands

The following is a summary of the top level commands.

• c d is for everything Docker.
• c dc is for everything Docker Compose.
• c hosts helps with hosts management.
• c kc is for everything kubectrl.
• c mk is for everything Minikube.
• c mongo is for MongoDB connections.
• c npm is for everything NPM.
• c project is for project management.
• c yarn is for everything is for everything Yarn.

Be aware that kubectl uses a global configuration, but the c kc command supercedes those where possible and ensures kubectl runs in the context of the project you're within.

Concepts

The cli has two concepts to be aware of:

• Configuration
• State

The cli can be highly configured within information about your project, and work with Docker, NPM and Kubernetes with the information provided. All configuration is stored within a c.js file that lives in the root of your project. This file should be stored in Git.

The cli is designed to work with multiple environments. You put your project into a particular environment, and the commands run within the context of that environment. All state is stored in devops/state.json (this file should be added to .gitignore).

Configuration

The Idearium cli can be customised through configurations. Configurations are provided through a c.js file located in projects root folder.

The c.js should be a standard Node.js file. It will be loaded through require. The c.js should export an object, with the following keys representing configuration:

module.exports = {
    docker: {
        // ...
    },
    environments: {
        // ...
    },
    kubernetes: {
        // ...
    },
    mongo: {
        // ...
    },
    npm: {
        // ...
    },
    project: {
        // ...
    },
};

The command c project init can be used to initialise a project. It will generate a c.js file as a starting point, although, it will need to be completed.

Docker configuration

The Idearium cli supports a Docker configuration. The Docker configuration can be used to define locations of multiple Dockerfiles within your project.

An example Docker configuration:

'use strict';

const { exec } = require('shelljs');

module.exports = {
    docker: {
        locations: {
            'app': {
                buildArgs: {
                    NPM_AUTH_TOKEN: () => exec('c npm auth -n', { silent: true }).stdout,
                },
                path: './app',
                useTar: true,
            },
            'static': {
                path: './static',
            },
        },
    },
};

The Docker configuration supports the following keys.

locations

The locations key should be an object, describing all Dockerfile locations in your project. Each key should be the name of a Dockerfile location. You can use the name to reference the location when using the cli. Each location supports the following structure.

path

A path to the Dockerfile location.

buildArgs

An object represent key=value --build-arg flags to pass to docker build. Each property should present a build argument name, and the value for the build argument. The value can be either a static value (i.e. string, number) or a function.

useTar

If useTar is set to true, tar will be used to prepare the Docker context and package and send files to the Docker daemon. This allows for some additional flexibility such as using symlinks which point outside the Dockerfile context.

test

You can supply a test object to enable the c kc test <location> command. test has the following properties:

• cmd containing the command to run, inside the Docker container. It defaults to npm test.
• params containing an object keyed by docker run parameter name. For example: { '-e': ['foo="bar"', 'bar="foo"'], '-w': '/app' }. This allows you to customise the docker run command used when testing the image.

Environments configuration

The Idearium cli supports multiple environments. The environments can be whatever you need them to be as long as you define them in c.js. Here is an example environments configuration:

'use strict';

module.exports = {
    environments: {
        local: { url: 'http://domain.name.local' },
        production: { url: 'https://domain.name.com' },
    },
};

For each environment, you should provide a URL for the environment.

Kubernetes configuration

You can supply a Kubernetes configuration. The configuration allows you to define contexts and namespaces for each environment your project supports, along with Kubernetes locations which describe the Kubernetes objects to deploy. Here is an example kubernetes configuration:

'use strict';

module.exports = {
    kubernetes: {
        environments: {
            local: {
                context: 'minikube',
                locations: {
                    /* eslint-disable sort-keys */
                    'namespace': [
                        {
                            path: 'namespace',
                            templateLocals: ['environment', 'namespace'],
                            type: 'namespace',
                        },
                    ],
                    'app': [
                        {
                            path: 'app.deployment',
                            templateLocals: ['namespace', 'prefix', 'tag'],
                            type: 'deployment',
                        },
                        {
                            path: 'app.service',
                            templateLocals: ['namespace'],
                            type: 'service',
                        },
                    ],
                    'static': [
                        {
                            path: 'static.deployment',
                            templateLocals: ['namespace', 'prefix', 'tag'],
                            type: 'deployment',
                        },
                        {
                            path: 'static.service',
                            templateLocals: ['environment', 'namespace'],
                            type: 'service',
                        },
                    ],
                    /* eslint-enable sort-keys */
                },
                path: './manifests/local'
            },
            production: {
                context: 'gke_focus-booster_us-east1-b_focus-booster',
                namespace: 'override',
                region: 'us-east1',
            },
        }
    },
};

The kubernetes.environments path holds a descrete environment. Each Kubernetes environment supports the following keys:

• context, the kubectl context that should be used.
• locations, the Kubernetes objects to work with.
• namespace, if provied, will override the generated namespace.
• path, the path to the folder containing Kuberentes manifest YAML files.
• region, an optional region, mostly required for production.

Kubernetes locations

The Kuberentes locations object describes all Kubernetes objects for that Kuberentes environment. Each location should contain the following ({} used to represent meaning):

locations: {
    {location-name}: [
        {
            dockerLocation: '',
            path: '',
            templateLocals: [],
            type: '',
        }
    ]
}

The location-name should be unique, and can be used within the cli commands to target a specific Kubernetes location.

Each location should be an array of services. One Kubernetes location can contain multiple services.

Each service object should provide:

• dockerLocation (optional): The Docker location that a particular Kubernetes service object is associated with. This is usually provided with a deployment or pod object.
• path: The filename within the Kubernetes environment path. The filename should not include the extension; but only yaml and yaml.tmpl are supported.
• templateLocals: An array to provide a list of locals that should be passed to a tmpl file to create a yaml file.
• type: The type of Kubernetes object this service describes (i.e. pod, deployment, namespace).

YAML templates

The c kc apply command supports templates, which will generate yaml files which will be used to deploy Kuberntes objects.

It supports templates, because you'll often want to substitute specific information for Kubernetes during development. A good example is the tag that should be used with a particular image.

If you'd like to use a template create Kubernetes manifest file ending in .yaml.tmpl rather than tmpl. The path in the Kubernetes location service object, should not contain the extension. In the template file use {{tag}} to substitute with an actual value before being applied to Kubernetes.

You'll then need to supply all of the values that the template file requires. You provide this via the templateLocals array in the Kubernetes location service object. Here is an example:

{
    path: 'app.deployment',
    templateLocals: ['namespace', 'prefix', 'tag', () => { label: 'a', value: 'b' }],
    type: 'deployment'
}

The c kc apply will automatically provide the values for namespace, prefix and tag. If you'd like to provide something else, simply write a function that returns an object with label and value. Then use the value of label within a template placeholder (i.e. {{a}}) and it will be updated with the value (i.e. {{b}}).

MongoDB configuration

The Idearium cli supports a MongoDB configuration. The MongoDB configuration can be used to access local and remote databases.

An example MongoDB configuration:

'use strict';

module.exports = {
    mongo: {
        beta: {
            host: 'dbhost.com',
            name: 'db-beta',
            password: 'password',
            port: '12345',
            ssl: true,
            user: 'user',
        },
        local: {
            host: 'db.common.idearium.local',
            name: 'db',
            port: '27017',
            ssl: false,
        },
        beta: {
            host: 'dbhost.com',
            name: 'db',
            password: 'password',
            port: '12345',
            ssl: true,
            user: 'user',
        },
    },
};

The MongoDB configuration supports the following keys.

Environment

Each top level key will be used as an env variable, setting the context for the commands. e.g. c mongo connect local.

Each environment can contain the following keys host, name, password, port, ssl, and user.

password and user are currently optional for local connections.

NPM configuration

The Idearium cli supports an NPM configuration. The configuration can be used to provide the cli without information about where NPM commands can be run. To provide this information, add an npm property in c.js like so:

'use strict';

module.exports = {
    npm: {
        locations: {
            name: './app/root/app/',
            project: './',
        },
    },
};

You should customise it, but you need to provide a locations key, containing an object with a name and folder for each NPM location in your project. You'll use the name to reference the location.

For example, the c npm proxy command can be used to run a NPM command, at a specific location or all locations:

• Execute c npm proxy all install -SE logentries to install the logentries module at all NPM locations in your project.
• Execute c npm proxy project install -DE jest to install the jest module at the project location in your project.

Project configuration

The Idearium cli supports a project configuration. This configuration is used to provide some general information about the project. This information is also used to automatically generate some strings such as the project prefix, and Kubernetes namespaces. Here is an example project configuration:

'use strict';

module.exports = {
    project: {
        name: 'www',
        organisation: 'fb'
    },
};

State

The Idearium cli, understands the concept of state. The only state it manages at present is the environment of your project. The current environment of your project will be used in certain commands, but not all commands.

State is stored in a JSON file at ./devops/state.json, and is created and written to by the c project env set and c project setup commands.

Ngrok

The Idearium cli can be used to easily expose a Kubernetes service to the world via Ngrok, and the c kc ngrok command.

To use this command, however, you need to provide a configuration file for Ngrok. Follow these steps.

1. Create a file at ./manifests/local/ngrok.configmap.yaml.tmpl.
2. Add the code from the Manifest template (below) to the file and update <authtoken> with your Ngrok authtoken (or remove that line) and update <hostname> with the hostname you'd like the tunnel to be exposed at.
3. Added the code from the Kubernetes location (below) to c.js in the kubernetes.environments.local.locations array.
4. Then run c kc ngrok start in a new terminal (after running c mk docker-env).
5. To stop, issue CTRL + C, then run c kc ngrok stop to stop ngrok.

Manifest template:

apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: ngrok
  namespace: {{namespace}}
data:
  ngrok.yaml: |
    authtoken: <authtoken>
    console_ui: false
    log: stdout
    region: au
    tunnels:
      http:
        proto: http
        bind_tls: false
        addr: static:80
        hostname: <hostname>
    update: false

Kubernetes location:

'ngrok': [
    {
        path: 'ngrok.configmap',
        templateLocals: ['namespace'],
        type: 'configmap',
    },
],