Creating nested subcommands using Thor

Question

I'd like to create a CLI tool which has commands in a format something like this:

clitool jobs execute some-job --arg1 value --arg2 another_value

Is it possible to have a subcommand of a subcommand within Thor? I would also like to preserve the class_options that I have defined in the class for the clitool jobs execute subcommand for any other subcommands under execute.

Answer 1

I have successfully used subcommands of subcommands, although there is a small bug. I haven't tried preserving class_options for subcommands, so I don't have an answer for that.

For nested subcommands, the following works:

class Execute < Thor
  desc 'some_job', 'Execute something'
  option :arg1, type: :string, desc: 'First option'
  option :arg2, type: :string, desc: 'Second option'
  def some_job
    puts "Executing some_job:"
    puts "  --arg1 = #{options[:arg1]}"
    puts "  --arg2 = #{options[:arg2]}"
  end
end # class Execute

class Jobs < Thor
  # Other task definitions
  desc 'execute', 'Execute jobs'
  subcommand 'execute', Execute
end # class Jobs

class CliTool < Thor
  # Other task definitions
  desc 'jobs', 'Do stuff with jobs'
  subcommand 'jobs', Jobs
end

CliTool.start

This seems to do what you want:

$ clitool jobs execute some-job --arg1 value --arg2 another_value
Executing some_job:
  --arg1 = value
  --arg2 = another_value

$

There appears to be a bug: the help text for subcommands of subcommands doesn't work properly:

$ clitool help
Commands:
  clitool help [COMMAND] # Describe subcommands or one specific subcommand
  clitool jobs           # Do stuff with jobs

$ clitool jobs help
Commands:
  clitool jobs execute        # Execute jobs
  clitool jobs help [COMMAND] # Describe subcommands or one specific subcommand

$ clitool jobs help execute
Commands:
  clitool execute help [COMMAND] # Describe subcommands or one specific subcommand
  clitool execute some_job       # Execute something

$

The last help text should show "clitool jobs execute some_job...", but the prefix jobs gets omitted. Perhaps there's a guru out there who can show me how to correct that.