CommandBox CLI

CommandBox is the de facto standard for CFML development and execution

CommandBox is an amalgamation of many different tools and borrows concepts from NPM, Grunt/Gulp, Maven, ANT, Node, and much more. Features include:

  • True Command Line for ColdFusion (CFML)

  • Operation System integration for executing commands

  • Ability to create and execute commands built using ColdFusion (CFML)

  • ForgeBox integration for cloud package management and installations

  • ColdBox Platform, TestBox, and ContentBox CMS Integrations

  • Integrated servlet server with rewrite capabilities

  • Ability to create command recipes and execution

  • REPL (Read-Evaluate-Print-Loop) console for immediate ColdFusion

    (CFML) interaction

  • Ability to interact with users via CLI and create workflows and

    installers

  • Ability to execute workflows and tasks

  • Built-in Help system

Installation

CommandBox is a Java-based executable that will run on the most recent desktop operating systems (Linux, Mac OS X, Windows). Since it is a command line tool that uses a shell interface, it does not require an operating system using a GUI. Below is a simple guideline to get you up and running, but an in-depth guide can be found here: https://commandbox.ortusbooks.com/setup

Requirements

  • 256MB+ RAM

  • 250MB+ free hard drive space

  • Multi-core CPU recommended

  • JRE/JDK 8+

Download

If you already have a Java JRE installed level 8 or higher (and set in your environment variables), you can download the non-JRE version for your Operating System. If you don't have a JRE installed or aren't sure, we recommend downloading the version with a JRE included.

Regardless of where you place the box binary, the first time you execute it, a .CommandBox folder will be created in your user's home directory, and CommandBox will be extracted into that location. If you delete this directory, it will be replaced the next time the CommandBox executable is run.

Windows

Unzip the executable box.exe and double-click on it to open the shell. When you are finished running commands, you can close the window or type exit.

Hint: You can make the box.exe available in any Windows terminal by adding its location to the PATH system environment variable. See http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000549.htm

Homebrew (Mac)

Homebrew is a great Mac package manager; it can easily install and keep your CommandBox installation up to date (even binary releases); just run the following for stable releases:

brew install commandbox

To stay with current bleeding edge releases, use the following:

brew tap ortus-solutions/boxtap
brew tap-pin ortus-solutions/boxtap
brew install --devel commandbox

Then run the box binary to begin the one-time unpacking process.

Versions will be installed in /usr/local/Cellar/commandbox. To switch between versions, use brew switch commandbox [version number]

Manual Linux/Mac

Unzip the binary box and double-click on it to open the shell terminal. When you are finished running commands, you can close the window or type exit.

Hint You can place the binary in your /usr/bin or /usr/local/bin directory so it can be available system-wide via the box command in any terminal window.

Linux apt-get

Run the following commands to add the Ortus signing key, register our Debian repo, and install CommandBox.

curl -fsSl https://downloads.ortussolutions.com/debs/gpg | sudo apt-key add -
echo "deb https://downloads.ortussolutions.com/debs/noarch /" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/commandbox.list
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install commandbox

Linux yum

Add the following to: /etc/yum.repos.d/commandbox.repo

[CommandBox]
name=CommandBox $releasever - $basearch
failovermethod=priority
baseurl=http://downloads.ortussolutions.com/RPMS/noarch
enabled=1
metadata_expire=7d
gpgcheck=0

Then run a sudo yum install commandbox and be up and running

Getting Started

We have created a small getting started guide that will give you enough skills to move forward with any CommandBox development. You can find it here: https://commandbox.ortusbooks.com/content/getting_started_guide.html

Last updated

Ortus Solutions, Corp