New wrapped CLI using click

.github/workflows/end2end.yml

@@ -60,3 +60,48 @@ jobs:
         shell: bash
         run: |
           sudo -u easybuild bash -l -c "source /tmp/eb_env; eb flex-2.6.4.eb --trace --robot"
+
+      - name: Ensure `python3 -m venv` can be used
+        if: startsWith(matrix.container, 'ubuntu')
+        shell: bash
+        run: |
+          apt update && apt install -y python3-venv
+
+      - name: Create a virtual environment and install EasyBuild with the click cli extra
+        shell: bash
+        run: |
+          export VENVDIR=/home/easybuild/venv
+          python3 -m venv $VENVDIR
+          source $VENVDIR/bin/activate
+          pip install --upgrade pip
+          pip install .[eb_click]
+          pip install $HOME/easybuild-easyblocks-develop
+          pip install $HOME/easybuild-easyconfigs-develop
+          chown -R easybuild $VENVDIR
+
+      - name: Run commands to check test environment using the click cli
+        shell: bash
+        run: |
+          export VENVDIR=/home/easybuild/venv
+          cmds=(
+            "whoami"
+            "pwd"
+            "env | sort"
+            "eb --help"
+            "eb --version"
+            "eb --help | grep '─ Options ─'"
+            "eb --show-system-info"
+            "eb --check-eb-deps"
+            "eb --show-config"
+            "eb -x bzip2-1.0.8.eb"
+          )
+          for cmd in "${cmds[@]}"; do
+              echo ">>> $cmd"
+              sudo -u easybuild bash -l -c "export EB_CLI_CLICK=1; source $VENVDIR/bin/activate; $cmd"
+          done
+
+      - name: End-to-end test of installing flex with EasyBuild using the click cli
+        shell: bash
+        run: |
+          export VENVDIR=/home/easybuild/venv
+          sudo -u easybuild bash -l -c "export EB_CLI_CLICK=1; source $VENVDIR/bin/activate; eb flex-2.6.4.eb --rebuild --trace --robot"

easybuild/cli/__init__.py

@@ -0,0 +1,70 @@
+# #
+# Copyright 2009-2026 Ghent University
+#
+# This file is part of EasyBuild,
+# originally created by the HPC team of Ghent University (http://ugent.be/hpc/en),
+# with support of Ghent University (http://ugent.be/hpc),
+# the Flemish Supercomputer Centre (VSC) (https://www.vscentrum.be),
+# Flemish Research Foundation (FWO) (http://www.fwo.be/en)
+# and the Department of Economy, Science and Innovation (EWI) (http://www.ewi-vlaanderen.be/en).
+#
+# https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild
+#
+# EasyBuild is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+# the Free Software Foundation v2.
+#
+# EasyBuild is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+# GNU General Public License for more details.
+#
+# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+# along with EasyBuild.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+# #
+"""
+Click-based command line interface entrypoints that wraps the old optparse-based CLI.
+The actual argument parsing is still done by optparse, here we just offer the other features of click:
+- automatic shell autocompletion for different shells
+- better help/error messages (requires also rich_click)
+
+Authors:
+
+* Davide Grassano (CECAM)
+"""
+from easybuild.main import main_with_hooks
+from easybuild.tools.version import this_is_easybuild
+
+try:
+    import click as original_click
+except ImportError:
+    raise ImportError(
+        "`EB_CLI_CLICK` was set to use the `click`-based CLI but click cannot be found. "
+        "Please install click to use the new CLI or unset `EB_CLI_CLICK` (or different from '1') to use the old CLI."
+    )
+else:
+    try:
+        import rich_click as click
+    except ImportError:
+        import click
+
+    try:
+        from rich.traceback import install
+    except ImportError:
+        pass
+    else:
+        install(suppress=[
+            click, original_click
+        ])
+
+    from .options import EasyBuildCliOption, EasyconfigParam
+
+    @click.command()
+    @EasyBuildCliOption.apply_options
+    @click.argument('other_args', nargs=-1, type=EasyconfigParam(), required=False)
+    @click.version_option(version=this_is_easybuild(), message='%(version)s')
+    def eb(other_args):
+        """EasyBuild command line interface."""
+        # Really no need to re-build the arguments if we support the exact same syntax we can just let them pass
+        # through to optparse
+        main_with_hooks()

easybuild/cli/__main__.py

@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+# #
+# Copyright 2009-2026 Ghent University
+#
+# This file is part of EasyBuild,
+# originally created by the HPC team of Ghent University (http://ugent.be/hpc/en),
+# with support of Ghent University (http://ugent.be/hpc),
+# the Flemish Supercomputer Centre (VSC) (https://www.vscentrum.be),
+# Flemish Research Foundation (FWO) (http://www.fwo.be/en)
+# and the Department of Economy, Science and Innovation (EWI) (http://www.ewi-vlaanderen.be/en).
+#
+# https://github.com/easybuilders/easybuild
+#
+# EasyBuild is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+# the Free Software Foundation v2.
+#
+# EasyBuild is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+# GNU General Public License for more details.
+#
+# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+# along with EasyBuild.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+# #
+from easybuild.cli import eb
+
+# Ensure Click to recognizes the program name as `eb` when invoked as `python -m easybuild.cli` or similar
+eb(prog_name='eb')