Pla

Pla helps you automate workflows in a very simple way. Much like make, but with a yaml file structure.

It's a coder's simplest workflow automation tool.

Install

Pla requires Python 2.x. Use the pip installer to install Pla.

$ (sudo) pip install pla

If pip is not present on your system:

$ sudo easy_install pip

Note: OS X Users reported that Homebrew's version of Python works better than the stock one.

Upgrade an existing installation

When installed with Pip you can upgrade to the latest version using:

$ (sudo) pip install pla --upgrade

Install from git

To install Pla from git you first need to make sure Pla is uninstalled. Then you must clone the repository and install the development version:

$ pip uninstall pla
$ git clone git@github.com:rtuin/pla.git
$ cd pla
$ pip install -e .

Usage

$ pla [target]

If you do not provide a target, the default target called all will run.

Start working with Pla

Pla works similar to Make. You define the targets in a Yaml file called Plafile.yml and run the targets from the command line.

Lets say we use Pla to kickstart our working day. We will make a Plafile which starts our local dev server, starts our IDE and opens the application we're working on in the browser.

First create the Plafile with a target called dev:

# Plafile.yml
dev:
  - docker-compose up -d
  - pstorm .
  - open http://local.project.url/

Then simply run Pla from the command line:

$ pla dev

Pla will then run the shell commands you specified in the Plafile.

About the current working directory

Pla will use the directory of the Plafile as its current working directory. As of v0.6 Pla looks for the Plafile.yml in the parent directory if there is none in the directory that you're running Pla from.

For example, let's say this is your project file structure:

your-project/
├── Plafile.yml
└── subdirectory
    └── somefile

And this is your Plafile.yml:

test:
  - echo $(pwd); exit 1

When you run Pla from the project root (where the Plafile.yml is), you will see this:

rtuin at localhost in ~/your-project
$ pla test
Pla master by Richard Tuin - Coder's simplest workflow automation tool.

Running target "test":
    ✘ echo $(pwd); exit 1:
        /Users/rtuin/projects/your-project

And when you run Pla from the subdirectory, you will see this:

rtuin at localhost in ~/your-project/subdirectory
$ pla test
Pla master by Richard Tuin - Coder's simplest workflow automation tool.

Running target "test":
    ✘ echo $(pwd); exit 1:
        /Users/rtuin/projects/your-project

Features

Linking targets

As of Pla v0.2 it is possible to let your targets call each other. This is simply done by refering to the target prepended with an = sign. Like so:

# Plafile.yml
up:
  - docker-compose up -d
  - =updatecode
  - pstorm .
  - open http://local.project.url/

updatecode:
  - git submodule update --init --recursive
  - composer install

Target parameters

Pla v0.3 gives you the ability to variables in target commands. This feature is called target parameters.

Simply define the parameters in the target definition, and put them in your command. Enclosing the parameters name with % signs. For example:

# Plafile.yml
pr[number]:
  - git pr %number%
  - git pull upstream master

You can then call the target like this:

$ pla pr 123

Disclaimer The current implementation of target parameters is built to work only when you directly call the parametrized target.

Command OS filter

When you run the same Pla target on multiple operating systems you might want to specify which command to execute on what OS. You can do this by prefixing your command with a filter that indicates the OS's family name.

# Plafile
os:
  - (darwin) echo "Mac OS"
  - (redhat) echo "RedHat family"
  - (ubuntu|darwin) echo "Ubuntu or Mac OS"
  - (debian) echo "Debian"

If you run pla os on a Mac, you'll get the following output:

Running target "os":
    ✔ (darwin) echo "Mac OS"
    . (redhat) echo "RedHat family"
    ✔ (ubuntu|darwin) echo "Ubuntu or Mac OS"
    . (debian) echo "Debian"

Operating systems matches

System/Family	Match
Linux	linux
Ubuntu	ubuntu
Red Hat	redhat
Mac OS	darwin
Windows	windows

Target descriptions

Sometimes you want insight in which part of the Plafile is running. You can do this by giving targets descriptions. A description can be added in the form of a comment on the same line as the target definition, like so:

targetname: # Echo sleep and echo
  - echo "ohai"
  - sleep 1
  - echo "bar"

This will generate the following output:

$ pla targetname
Pla master by Richard Tuin - Coder's simplest workflow automation tool.

Running target "targetname":
  Echo sleep and echo
    ✔ echo "ohai"
    ✔ sleep 1
    ✔ echo "bar"

Pla

Coder's simplest workflow automation tool.

Pla