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Alexey Melezhik
Alexey Melezhik

Posted on • Updated on

An Informal Introduction Into Sparrow6

#raku #rakulang #automation #powershell

Sparrow6 is an automation framework enables scripting and tasks automation in efficient manner.

#     _____                                                      __  
#    / ____|                                                    / /  
#   | (___    _ __     __ _   _ __   _ __    ___   __      __  / /_  
#    \___ \  | '_ \   / _` | | '__| | '__|  / _ \  \ \ /\ / / | '_ \ 
#    ____) | | |_) | | (_| | | |    | |    | (_) |  \ V  V /  | (_) |
#   |_____/  | .__/   \__,_| |_|    |_|     \___/    \_/\_/    \___/ 
#            | |                                                     
#            |_|
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Install

zef install Sparrow6

First task

nano task.pl6

#!perl6

say 'Hello World'
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Run task:

perl6 -MSparrow6::DSL -e task-run:

14:47:32 10/29/2019 [C:\Users\melezhik\projects\Sparrow6Intro] Hello World
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Configuring task

Just create a file named config.yaml and place it in the root directory:

nano config.yaml

birds:
 - sparrow
 - crow
 - tomtit
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To access configuration file inside task call config() function:

nano task.pl6

#!perl6

say "Hello World";

for config()<birds><> -> $b {
    say $b
}
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perl6 -MSparrow6::DSL -e task-run

14:51:56 10/29/2019 [C:\Users\melezhik\projects\Sparrow6Intro] Hello World
14:51:56 10/29/2019 [C:\Users\melezhik\projects\Sparrow6Intro] sparrow
14:51:56 10/29/2019 [C:\Users\melezhik\projects\Sparrow6Intro] crow
14:51:56 10/29/2019 [C:\Users\melezhik\projects\Sparrow6Intro] tomtit
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To override tasks parameters use Sparrow6 Rakudo API:

nano run.pl6

#!perl6

task-run ".", %(
   birds => ( 'wren', 'owl', 'eagle' )
)
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perl6 -MSparrow6::DSL run.pl6:

14:56:43 10/29/2019 [.] Hello World
14:56:43 10/29/2019 [.] wren
14:56:43 10/29/2019 [.] owl
14:56:43 10/29/2019 [.] eagle
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Multi language support

Do you know, that Sparrow6 allows you to create tasks not only on Raku? Choose the one you like:

  • Perl
  • Bash
  • Python
  • Ruby
  • Powershell

Sparrow6 is a language friendly framework. Why? Sometime I find it's more efficient to create tasks in the language more suitable to the problem being solved.

There is more then one language to do it - TIMTOLTDI.

As an example let's rewrite our task in Powershell, it will work just fine.

nano task.ps1

Write-Host "Hello Powershell"

foreach ( $b in config birds ) {
   Write-Host $b
}
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perl6 -MSparrow6::DSL run.pl6:

15:19:59 10/29/2019 [.] Hello Powershell
15:19:59 10/29/2019 [.] wren
15:19:59 10/29/2019 [.] owl
15:19:59 10/29/2019 [.] eagle
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TDD

Sparrow6 enables embedded test facilities so one can "inject" tests right into scripts.

Let's ensure that our script is friendly and greets every time:

nano task.check

regexp: Hello \s+ \S
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perl6 -MSparrow6::DSL run.pl6:

15:23:29 10/29/2019 [.] Hello Powershell
15:23:29 10/29/2019 [.] wren
15:23:29 10/29/2019 [.] owl
15:23:29 10/29/2019 [.] eagle
[task check] stdout match <Hello \s+ \S> True
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Task Check DSL allows many other things to do to verify and parse arbitrary text output.

You don't need a dedicated testing framework, to test your scripts. Batteries are included!

Task - functions

Sparrow6 tasks could act as functions returning values one can handle in high-level Raku scenarios.

Let's say we want to return one random bird from the input list. Update original code of task.pl6:

#!perl6

say "Hello World";

for config()<birds><> -> $b {
  say $b
}

update_state %( random-bird => config()<birds>.pick )
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And handle the value inside Raku high-level scenario run.pl6:

#!perl6

my %state = task-run ".", %(
   birds => ( 'wren', 'owl', 'eagle' )
);

say %state.perl;
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And now run it:

perl6 -MSparrow6::DSL run.pl6:

18:03:16 10/29/2019 [.] Hello World
18:03:16 10/29/2019 [.] wren
18:03:16 10/29/2019 [.] owl
18:03:16 10/29/2019 [.] eagle
[task check] stdout match <Hello \s+ \S> True
{:random-bird("eagle")}
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Today we have a rain of eagles, huh?

Packaging and distribution

Once you're happy enough with your task and think it could be reusable by others, it's dead easy to wrap it in Sparrow6 package and distribute as a Sparrow6 plugin. Just add a couple of files.

Documentation

It's should Readme.md documentation file in markdown format.

nano Readme.md


# Birds

Prints birds' names. 

# Install

s6 --install birds. 

# Install

s6 --install birds
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Sparrow6 meta file

Create a file called sparrow.json to define plugin meta data:

nano sparrow.json

{
  "name": "birds",
  "description": "Prints birds names",
  "version": "0.1.0"
}
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To upload plugin run s6 Sparrow6 cli.

s6 --upload:

15:33:41 10/29/2019 [repository] upload plugin
15:33:41 10/29/2019 [repository] upload birds@0.1.0
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Now someone else could enjoy reading beautiful birds' names:

s6 --index-update:

15:36:15 10/29/2019 [repository] update local index
15:36:15 10/29/2019 [repository] index updated from file://C:\Users\melezhik/repo/api/v1/index
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s6 --install birds:

15:37:49 10/29/2019 [repository] install plugin birds
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Either through cli:

s6 --plg-run birds:

15:38:44 10/29/2019 [task-cli] run plg birds
15:38:44 10/29/2019 [task-cli] run thing birds
15:38:45 10/29/2019 [birds] Hello Powershell
15:38:45 10/29/2019 [birds] sparrow
15:38:45 10/29/2019 [birds] crow
15:38:45 10/29/2019 [birds] tomtit
[task check] stdout match <Hello \s+ \S> True
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Or by Raku API

tom --edit birds

#!perl6

task-run "print birds names", "birds", %(
  birds => (
   'GreenSparrow',
   'BlackSparrow',
   'YellowSparrow'
  )
)
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tom birds:

15:43:38 10/29/2019 [repository] index updated from file://C:\Users\melezhik/repo/api/v1/index
15:43:39 10/29/2019 [print birds names] Hello Powershell
15:43:39 10/29/2019 [print birds names] GreenSparrow
15:43:39 10/29/2019 [print birds names] BlackSparrow
15:43:39 10/29/2019 [print birds names] YellowSparrow
[task check] stdout match <Hello \s+ \S> True
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Conclusion

This was informal introduction into Sparrow6 - Raku automation framework.

Thank you for reading. Follow Sparrow6 to know more. I hope you'll find Sparrow6 a useful tool and start using it, as I do in my daily @work.

Top comments (4)

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dominix profile image
dominix •

Nice introduction, it shows capabilities of sparrow but
Birds do not speak to administrators IMHO. it could have been more demonstrative to show file manipulation, transfer or remote execution in place of birds. Don't you think ?

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melezhik profile image
Alexey Melezhik •

here are some practical examples to look at:

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melezhik profile image
Alexey Melezhik •

Hi @dominix . Yes it makes a sense. What kind of tasks you want to see examples? I might right another post on this ...

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mshazic profile image
Mshazic •

Hy Alexey can you please assist I'm new on gulp scss, I have installed bootstrap using npm command. When I execute the solution using command gulp I'm getting an error "internal/modules/cjs/loader.Js"

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