CCFE - the Curses Command Front-end
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CCFE is a simple tool to quickly supply an interactive screen-oriented interface
to command line scripts and commands: it prompts users for the informations
needed to run them, and can be programmed with your preferred shell to provide
predefined selections and/or run-time defaults.
It provides:
* A generic curses form-based interface to enter options and arguments required
by scripts/commands;
* A menu system to hierarchically organize them;
* A viewer to browse the standard output and standard error of the invoked
script/command.
In its simplest usage, you only have to describe the data type requested by the
command and specify the command itself: user interaction and screen layout are
automatically adapted so you don't have to care about it, but for complex
situations, CCFE is programmable with your preferred shell command language
interpreter and can propose lists of admitted values selectable by user for
parameters to enter.
CCFE don't need changes to called scripts or commands, so they can indifferently
be executed with CCFE interface or CLI interface, as preferred by users.
CCFE may be useful for:
* Consolidate all your system administration scripts in an organized menu tree;
this is very useful to access immediately to not often used scripts, and to
not forget that they exists(!) and their location in the filesystem;
* Assist the Sysadmin/Operation team when they run critical commands for system
operation, minimizing errors by the selection of verifiyed command options and
arguments value;
* Create menus for Operation team for stopping and starting jobs;
* Create forms for the Operations team to simply reconfigure systems or
applications, without directly editing text files and manually restart
services;
* Provide the same administration interface to Operation team of data centers
with mixed O.S. (for example Linux and FreeBSD). Note that in case of Linux
(or FreeBSD) and AIX hosts, CCFE can be configured to appears very similar to
the System Management Information Tool (SMIT) of the IBM AIX Operating System.
* Hide the CLI shell to not skilled end users or occasional users who must have
restricted system access.
* Provide a user friendly interface on Linux-based appliances.
FEATURES
* Plugins (or modules) support: menu items, menus, forms and external scripts
can be packaged for software distribution or to easily add functionalities;
* Shortcuts permits to go directly to a specific menu or form; the list of
available shortcuts can be obtained calling CCFE with option -s;
* The command or script executed in CCFE can be saved as shell script
immediately usable from CLI;
* If you want to distribute a software application with the CCFE interface, it
is possible to include the required menus and forms in its software package,
so it is immediately accessible in the CCFE main menu;
* It is possible to call interactive commands or other curses-based commands
(for example top(1)) from a menu or a form;
* Multilingual support is not yet available, but all messages can be completely
customized or translated;
* Screen layout and video attributes can be configured;
* Instances support: CCFE can be invoked with different names, and every one
have its private configuration, messages and collection of menu and forms.
Sometimes, this can be better than shortcuts to group functionalities that
requires many menus and forms;
* Users can configure their private preferences and make their private forms and
menus for every CCFE instance;
* Dynamic forms: shell scripts can be embedded in forms and can change them;
* Dynamic menus: items of menu can be added or removed by simply adding or
removing a file in a directory;
* Temporary shell escape;
* Recursivity: a menu can call another menu or a form; a form can call another
form;
* Automatic management of options and arguments associated to form fields;
* Programmable function keys F1,F2,..,F10;
* Minimal dependencies: only Perl and Perl Curses module are required.
PREREQUISITES
* A UNIX or UNIX-like Operating System
* Perl version >= 5.8.x
* Curses Perl module version >= 1.12
INSTALLING
Binary packages in RPM and DEB format will be available soon, but for the
present:
gzip -d < ccfe-X.YY.tar.gz | tar xvf -
cd ccfe-X.YY
./install.sh
In its most simplest form, install.sh is the CCFE interactive installation
program. It is possible to make a batch installation invoking it with:
./install.sh -b
(Please see ./install.sh -h for help on available options).
install.sh requires a POSIX.2 compatible shell, like sh(1), bash(1) or ksh(1).
UPDATING
When you install CCFE, a file named ccfeinstall.conf is created in the CCFE
configuration directory: it contains the user selected destinations for
CCFE objects.
You can update the current installation with a new version by selecting
"Change mode" from menu: you will be promped for a list of standard directories
where search for ccfeinstall.conf file, then the CCFE installation program will
read from it the directories where the files to update are.
The update process will not modify all user customized files (configurations,
messages, etc.), but only:
* The ccfe Perl script
* All CCFE manpages
* All README files (README, ChangeLog, AUTHORS, etc.)
If configuration and/or messages files are provided with a new release, they
will be installed with the release number as filename extension, so your current
configuration will be preserved. Please refer to README file for specific notes.
It is possible to make a batch update with the following command:
./install.sh -b -u <ConfigurationPath>
where <ConfigurationPath> is the directory of the CCFE configuration (.conf):
for example:
./install.sh -b -u /etc/ccfe
LICENSE
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL), version 2, or (at your
option) any later version.
CONTACTS
To contact the author and report bugs, please send an e-mail to
Massimo Loschi <README_MAIL_PLACEHOLDER>
________________________________________________________________________________
IBM and AIX are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the
United States, other countries, or both.
