New wrapped CLI using `click` by Crivella · Pull Request #4961 · easybuilders/easybuild-framework

Crivella · 2025-07-17T09:27:04Z

Enabling

Using pip and optional python dependencies:

pip install easybuild-framework[eb_click]

How it works

Extract all the parameters from EasyBuildOptions and use them to generate a CLI with click
Uses click + rich_click to have a fancier looking CLI
click is only used for the nicer help and auto completion, but the parameters are still passed as is to the normal parser

Autocomplete

From click docs add the following to the .bashrc or venv activation script.

eval "$(_EB_COMPLETE=bash_source eb)"

Alternatively see aiida-core EC to activate it as a module

Advantages

Nicer looking
Automatic integration and autocomplete with bash zsh fish shells

TODO

Implement/convert more types for better autocompletion

Maybe

Add autocomplete for path options (do not think there is a way that they are flagged as such in EB right now)
Better integrate logging with rich (moved in favor of Add rich colors to print_msg #5125)
Rewrite the CLI logic to use click natively and divide the commands in subgroups to have an easier to read help (Discussion moved to Modern CLI for easybuild #5122)

How would this look like

eb --help

Error

Normal build run

Opt in/out

the new behavior will only be turned on if click is installed, otherwise the old one will be used.

boegel · 2025-07-30T14:12:16Z

This looks kind of nice, but I'm not a big fan of introducing a required 3rd party dependency.

Is there any way we can support this opt-in, for example by defining an environment variable like $EB_CLICK_CLI?

Crivella · 2025-07-30T14:52:54Z

We could make use of
https://setuptools.pypa.io/en/latest/userguide/dependency_management.html#optional-dependencies

probably not only for this but also for all the optional dependencies we specify in
https://docs.easybuild.io/installation/#optional_python_packages

Then we add a check on top of eb2 to try and import the required packages and print an error if they are not there suggesting to install the optional dependencies (if we keep eb2 and eb separate, otherwise we could just fallback to the normal eb behavior if they are not there and potentially also allow to disable the behavior with the env variable)

Crivella · 2025-07-31T13:10:28Z

@boegel

So for now the eb2 CLI is separate from the existing eb one.
I've added an optional set of install dependencies so that if one does pip install easybuild-framework[eb2] it also install the stuff required (and optional) for the new CLI.
The CLI will still be present if the dependencies are not there but will print an informative message instead of actually running

try:
    import click as original_click
except ImportError:
    def eb():
        """Placeholder function to inform the user that `click` is required."""
        print('Using `eb2` requires `click` to be installed.')
        print('Either use `eb` or install `click` with `pip install click`.')
        print('`eb2` also uses `rich` and `rich_click` as optional dependencies for enhanced CLI experience.')
        print('Exiting...')
        sys.exit(0)

The approach of using an ENV variable i think make sense if we decide to merge eb with eb2 to only have one CLI with both behaviors, but it might be difficult to reconcile the autocomplete as they come from the environment

…error

- Fixed beahvore of defaults with `store_or_None` - Fixed checking defaults vs list/tuple instead of flattened value - Added checks for list values in covert comming from the defaults

…ly converted

…tocomplete

…ing the,

Co-authored-by: Kenneth Hoste <kenneth.hoste@ugent.be>

…ramework into feature-click_cli

boegel · 2026-04-09T11:44:04Z

@Crivella FYI, I've cancelled CI workflows here to give precedence to #5166

…` is used. Allow list values to be False/None for `store_or_XXX`

Crivella · 2026-04-10T08:15:36Z

@boegel

Done
Added it manually, it was not being picked up as in the normal parser it was not added as an EasybuildOption through add_group_parser.
Added the EB_CLI_CLICK env variable as suggested. Now the question is whether we want to hard fail if click is not available with EB_CLI_CLICK=1 or revert to the old CLI like we do know (or a middle ground where we add a warning but still revert to the old CLI)
I would say it both puts in place the machinery to replace the current wrapper click CLI with a new independent one and also starts people to get used to the new auto-complete and colored CLI. The way we want to phase it out in favor of the new one will depend on how we decide to also play it with the old CLI (eg both in place with a deprecation warning).

Also modified the end2end tests to do

Everything they already did
Install deps for venv + create a virtualenv
Install the checkout branch + the easyblock and configs downloaded for the previous test
run the same tests + also a grep to check that rich_click is being used in eb --help
One thing is whether we want to do the actual builds of bzip2 in temporary dirs so we rebuild everything the second time or just run with a --rebuild

boegel · 2026-06-14T09:45:36Z

+except ImportError:
+    def eb(*args, **kwargs):
+        """Placeholder function to inform the user that `click` is required."""
+        main_with_hooks()


I doesn't make much sense to me to specify that a Click-based CLI should be used, to then fall back to a non-Click CLI when click is not found...

If click is not found, then we should fail with an error (and print a hint about unsetting $EB_CLI_CLICK to opt-out of using a Click-based CLI

boegel · 2026-06-14T09:50:20Z

+#
+# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+# along with EasyBuild.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+# #


@Crivella please add a docstring with some info on what this provides, add yourself as author

boegel · 2026-06-14T09:52:49Z

+        ])
+
+    from .options import EasyBuildCliOption, EasyconfigParam
+    from easybuild.tools.version import this_is_easybuild


Why not do these imports on top?

The second one can be outside, the first i would leave inside so that the only check we need w.r.t. click is in this file.
Originally it would cause the fallback to the normal CLI to not work (since something was still trying to import click) now it would cause an ModuleNotFound error before our new raise that replaced the CLI fallback

boegel · 2026-06-14T09:54:34Z

+                    decl = f"--{self.name}/--disable-{self.name}"
+            elif isinstance(self.default, (list, tuple)):
+                kwargs['multiple'] = True
+                kwargs['type'] = click.STRING


add else to avoid that we don't handle unknown option types?

Had to check since it has been a while, added a print to check what this would hit:

Warning: Cannot infer type for option bwrap-installpath with default value /home/crivella/.local/easybuild/bwrap, treating as string Warning: Cannot infer type for option module-naming-scheme with default value EasyBuildMNS, treating as string Warning: Cannot infer type for option packagepath with default value /home/crivella/.local/easybuild/packages, treating as string Warning: Cannot infer type for option subdir-data with default value data, treating as string Warning: Cannot infer type for option subdir-modules with default value modules, treating as string Warning: Cannot infer type for option subdir-software with default value software, treating as string Warning: Cannot infer type for option subdir-user-modules with default value None, treating as string Warning: Cannot infer type for option suffix-modules-path with default value all, treating as string Warning: Cannot infer type for option container-image-name with default value None, treating as string Warning: Cannot infer type for option container-tmpdir with default value None, treating as string Warning: Cannot infer type for option create-index with default value None, treating as string Warning: Cannot infer type for option dump-test-report with default value test_report.md, treating as string Warning: Cannot infer type for option review-pr-filter with default value None, treating as string Warning: Cannot infer type for option test-report-env-filter with default value None, treating as string Warning: Cannot infer type for option dep-graph with default value None, treating as string Warning: Cannot infer type for option search with default value None, treating as string Warning: Cannot infer type for option search-filename with default value None, treating as string Warning: Cannot infer type for option search-short with default value None, treating as string Warning: Cannot infer type for option easystack with default value None, treating as string Warning: Cannot infer type for option job-backend-config with default value None, treating as string Warning: Cannot infer type for option job-output-dir with default value /home/crivella, treating as string Warning: Cannot infer type for option job-target-resource with default value None, treating as string Warning: Cannot infer type for option backup-modules with default value None, treating as string Warning: Cannot infer type for option check-ebroot-env-vars with default value warn, treating as string Warning: Cannot infer type for option deprecated with default value None, treating as string Warning: Cannot infer type for option detect-loaded-modules with default value warn, treating as string Warning: Cannot infer type for option easyblock with default value None, treating as string Warning: Cannot infer type for option env-for-shebang with default value /usr/bin/env, treating as string Warning: Cannot infer type for option group with default value None, treating as string Warning: Cannot infer type for option http-header-fields-urlpat with default value None, treating as string Warning: Cannot infer type for option minimal-build-env with default value CC:gcc,CXX:g++, treating as string Warning: Cannot infer type for option module-cache-suffix with default value None, treating as string Warning: Cannot infer type for option mpi-cmd-template with default value None, treating as string Warning: Cannot infer type for option optarch with default value None, treating as string Warning: Cannot infer type for option rpath-override-dirs with default value None, treating as string Warning: Cannot infer type for option software-commit with default value None, treating as string Warning: Cannot infer type for option sysroot with default value None, treating as string Warning: Cannot infer type for option umask with default value None, treating as string Warning: Cannot infer type for option zip-logs with default value gzip, treating as string Warning: Cannot infer type for option package-tool with default value fpm, treating as string Warning: Cannot infer type for option package-tool-options with default value , treating as string Warning: Cannot infer type for option package-type with default value rpm, treating as string Warning: Cannot infer type for option package-release with default value 1, treating as string Warning: Cannot infer type for option aggregate-regtest with default value None, treating as string Warning: Cannot infer type for option regtest-output-dir with default value None, treating as string Warning: Cannot infer type for option amend with default value None, treating as string Warning: Cannot infer type for option software-name with default value None, treating as string Warning: Cannot infer type for option software-version with default value None, treating as string Warning: Cannot infer type for option toolchain-name with default value None, treating as string Warning: Cannot infer type for option toolchain-version with default value None, treating as string Warning: Cannot infer type for option try-amend with default value None, treating as string Warning: Cannot infer type for option try-software-name with default value None, treating as string Warning: Cannot infer type for option try-software-version with default value None, treating as string Warning: Cannot infer type for option try-toolchain-name with default value None, treating as string Warning: Cannot infer type for option try-toolchain-version with default value None, treating as string Warning: Cannot infer type for option unittest-file with default value None, treating as string

this are all variables with no specific type.
When we do not hit any of those if/else type will be left as None and click will treat the argument as a string eg:

This only come into play for the auto-completion (nothing will be suggested), not sure if it is better to enforce click.STRING as a type, but it is standard to not specify a type with click

boegel · 2026-06-14T09:54:57Z

+    meta: Dict = None
+    lst: List = None
+
+    def __post_init__(self):


please add missing docstring

boegel · 2026-06-14T09:55:28Z

+        return res
+
+
+class DelimitedString(click.ParamType):


missing docstrings in methods below

boegel · 2026-06-14T09:55:33Z

+extracter = OptionExtracter(go_args=[])
+
+
+class DelimitedPathList(click.Path):


missing docstrings in methods below

boegel · 2026-06-14T09:57:35Z

+    'buildpath',
+    'containerpath',
+    'installpath',
+    'sourcepath',


bwrap_installpath missing?

packagepath, repositorypath too?

Why not keep these alphabetically sorted?

Also, how will we keep this in sync as new options get added?

This is for convenience to allow the autocompletion to treat something that should be a string for optparse as a path to a file/directory.

Also, how will we keep this in sync as new options get added?

Right now there is no easy way to maintain this but adding stuff manually.
With a proper click CLI we will use the correct type from the outset

Why not keep these alphabetically sorted?

I think i tried to divide them logically while i was manually adding them but fine also having them alphabetically sorted

Also repositorypath is flagged as strlist and passes a list as a default so it is not compatible with click.Path the way we are setting it now

easybuild-framework/easybuild/tools/options.py

Lines 719 to 722 in daf0bac

'repositorypath': (("Repository path, used by repository "

"(is passed as list of arguments to create the repository instance). "

"For more info, use --avail-repositories."),

'strlist', 'store', self.default_repositorypath),

…not parsable as a `click.Path`

…ed in the conversion to click

boegel added the enhancement label Jul 30, 2025

boegel added this to the 5.x milestone Jul 30, 2025

Crivella changed the title ~~WIP click CLI wrapper around normal CLI~~ New experimental eb2 CLI using click Jul 31, 2025

Crivella marked this pull request as ready for review July 31, 2025 13:05

Crivella added 17 commits February 9, 2026 15:53

WIP test click CI wrapper

4c8a6e8

Install as a console script

0ff09eb

Avoid warning of double arg initialization if prepare_main did not …

60229a0

…error

Move to static method

b6990fc

Added list paramter conversion and better autocomplete

08b0365

Removed comments

eb7af72

Fix potential missing attribute

12dfbf6

Added autocompletion for EC files

5109e31

Better checks for default values

f3972f8

- Fixed behavior of bool --X/--disable-X

530db73

- Fixed beahvore of defaults with `store_or_None` - Fixed checking defaults vs list/tuple instead of flattened value - Added checks for list values in covert comming from the defaults

Do not resolve full path to avoid : in robot-paths being improper…

b42d59a

…ly converted

Ensure that if click is not present a nicer message is shown

8f6e863

Use pathsep as delimiter for paths and allow empty initial path in au…

9385b52

…tocomplete

Passthrough the arguments from the CLI to optparse instead of rebuild…

50ba676

…ing the,

Improve autocomplete

75fbc67

Improve help metadata

a015eaa

Lint and better comments

d2dd8b2

Crivella force-pushed the feature-click_cli branch 2 times, most recently from a07c32e to 681e781 Compare February 9, 2026 18:15

Added optional dependencies eb2 to install packages required by eb2

755d496

Crivella force-pushed the feature-click_cli branch from 681e781 to 755d496 Compare February 10, 2026 11:02

Crivella added 2 commits February 11, 2026 09:53

Merge branch 'develop' into feature-click_cli

9daea7d

Make the click based CLI opt-in only if you have click installed

f04fe9e

boegel modified the milestones: next release (5.3.0), release after 5.3.0 Apr 8, 2026

Crivella and others added 6 commits April 9, 2026 10:35

Apply suggestion from @boegel

5872704

Co-authored-by: Kenneth Hoste <kenneth.hoste@ugent.be>

Merge branch 'develop' of https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild-f…

1f5e1b4

…ramework into feature-click_cli

Add copyright/license headers to new files

cc0f0d9

Add version option to the click CLI

e1120f0

Add end2end test on ubuntu 24 using the new click CLI

d858e66

Get correct VENV directory

0267a3c

Crivella force-pushed the feature-click_cli branch from b8c5791 to 0267a3c Compare April 9, 2026 11:01

Crivella added 2 commits April 9, 2026 13:17

Run new CLI test on all end2end containers

bfc24d8

Make old python happy with typehints

fc21888

Crivella added 3 commits April 9, 2026 15:20

choices should probably not be a flag by default unless `store_or_XXX…

42a1536

…` is used. Allow list values to be False/None for `store_or_XXX`

Only chown user as group might not exist

86b0ab3

Add --rebuild to the end2end test with click

5413db8

boegel reviewed Jun 14, 2026

View reviewed changes

boegel modified the milestones: next release (5.3.1?), release after 5.3.1 Jun 14, 2026

Crivella added 4 commits June 15, 2026 12:17

Address PR comments

74f07b4

Merge branch 'develop' into feature-click_cli

a55b273

repositorypat is a strlist already and defaults to a list which is …

fcf2dad

…not parsable as a `click.Path`

Add guard to ensure that all custom optparse types are being consider…

fe84da6

…ed in the conversion to click

		extracter = OptionExtracter(go_args=[])


		class DelimitedPathList(click.Path):

	'repositorypath': (("Repository path, used by repository "
	"(is passed as list of arguments to create the repository instance). "
	"For more info, use --avail-repositories."),
	'strlist', 'store', self.default_repositorypath),

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Crivella commented Jul 17, 2025 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

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Enabling

How it works

Autocomplete

Advantages

TODO

Maybe

How would this look like

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boegel commented Jul 30, 2025

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Crivella commented Jul 30, 2025

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Crivella commented Jul 31, 2025

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boegel commented Apr 9, 2026

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Crivella Jun 15, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

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Crivella commented Jul 17, 2025 •

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Crivella Jun 15, 2026 •

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