Custom commands

It is possible to extend fin with custom commands per project or per host.

Project-level custom commands

Create a file at this location .docksal/commands/updb with the following contents:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

## Runs drush updb
##
## Usage: fin updb [params to passthrough]

fin drush updb $1

Note: the file name should match the command name with no extension.

Make the file executable:

chmod +x .docksal/commands/updb

Now you can use it as if it was a regular fin command: fin updb. Passing parameters also works: fin updb -y. The command description will be visible in fin help and the full command help will be available via fin help updb.

Note: drush updb is a Drupal-specific example.

Available variables

These variables, provided by fin, are available for use inside you custom command scripts:

  • PROJECT_ROOT - absolute path to the project folder
  • DOCROOT - name of the docroot folder
  • VIRTUAL_HOST - the virtual host name for the project (e.g., projectname.docksal)
  • DOCKER_RUNNING - (string) “true” or “false”

Here is an example init command for a Drupal website using drush to automate the install:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

# Start containers
fin up
# Install site
fin drush site-install -y --site-name="My Drupal site"
# Get login link
cd docroot 2>dev/null
fin drush uli

Documenting custom command

Fin looks for lines starting with ## for command documentation.

## Custom command description
## Usage: fin mycommand [--force]
## Parameters:
## --force Try really hard

Fin will output the first line of custom command documentation as the short description when using fin help.
The rest of the lines will be available as advanced help via fin help command_name.

See an example of command documentation in the phpcs command (examples/.docksal/commands/phpcs located in the Docksal project.)

Global custom commands

Put your command in $HOME/.docksal/commands and it will be accessible globally. This is useful for tedious tasks that you need in every project.

Advanced use

It is not imperative to use bash. You can use any interpreter for your custom command scripts

#!/usr/bin/env python

print "Custom python command!"

#!/usr/bin/env node

/*
## Custom node command description
*/

console.log("Custom NodeJS command!")

Note in the above example for node, that custom command meta information lines are wrapped in a comment block relevant to this interpreter.

Executing commands inside cli

In some cases you’d want a command to be executed inside cli instead of the host (e.g., when you do not want to rely on any dependencies installed on the host and use the tools available in cli).

One way to achieve this is to write two commands:

  • one with the actual code, that you want to execute (e.g., mycommand-cli)
  • one that does fin exec '/var/www/.docksal/commands/mycommand-cli' (e.g., mycommand)

Users can then run the command as fin mycommand to get the mycommand-cli executed in cli.

This approach may not be very convenient.

Alternatively the following notation inside a custom command can be used to tell fin to run the command inside cli:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

#: exec_target = cli

## Lists current directory inside cli

pwd

#!/usr/bin/env node

/*
#: exec_target = cli

## Custom node command description
*/

console.log("Custom NodeJS command!")

Note in the above example for node, that custom command meta information lines are wrapped in a comment block relevant to this interpreter.

When using #: exec_target = cli for commands you have to consider the following:

  1. there is no fin in cli
  2. calling other commands can be done via ${PROJECT_ROOT}/.docksal/commands/my-command (which resolves to /var/www/.docksal/commands/my-command inside cli)
  3. the command being called cannot use fin (due to 1)
  4. variables defined in docksal.env are not passed to cli (though, they can be passed selectively via docksal.yml)

Here’s how 4 can be handled:

docksal.yml


version: '2.1'

services:
  cli:
    environment:
      # These variables are set here
      - ACAPI_EMAIL=email
      - ACAPI_KEY=key
      # These variables are passed from the host (including values in `docksal.env`/`docksal-local.env`)
      - SOURCE_ALIAS
      - VIRTUAL_HOST

Grouping Commands

Docksal allows for commands to be grouped together within folders. This is particulary useful when creating a toolkit to share with other developers. Commands can be grouped within the Global Scope ~/.docksal/commands and on a per project basis.

To view commands, run fin help and there should be similar output. This will show the available commands and prefix them within the folder they are located in.

Custom commands:
  site/init                 Initialize stack and site (full reset)
  drupal/updb [g]     	    Opens SequelPro

Commands are ran in the same exact way as normal except include the folder they are part of.

fin drupal/updb

More examples

Check the commands directory (examples/.docksal/commands) located in the Docksal project.