CliWrap

✅ Project status: active.

CliWrap is a library for interacting with external command line interfaces. It provides a convenient model for launching processes, redirecting input and output streams, awaiting completion, handling cancellation, and more.

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📦 NuGet: dotnet add package CliWrap

Features

• Airtight abstraction over System.Diagnostics.Process
• Fluent configuration interface
• Flexible support for piping
• Fully asynchronous and cancellation-aware API
• Designed with strict immutability in mind
• Provides safety against typical deadlock scenarios
• Tested on Windows, Linux, and macOS
• Targets .NET Standard 2.0+, .NET Core 3.0+, .NET Framework 4.6.1+
• No external dependencies

Usage

Quick overview

Similar to a shell, CliWrap's base unit of execution is a command -- an object that encodes instructions for running a process. To build a command, start by calling Cli.Wrap(...) with the executable path, and then use the provided fluent interface to configure arguments, working directory, and other options:

using CliWrap;

// Create a command
var cmd = Cli.Wrap("path/to/exe")
    .WithArguments("--foo bar")
    .WithWorkingDirectory("work/dir/path");

Once the command has been created, you can run it by using the ExecuteAsync() method:

// Execute the command
var result = await cmd.ExecuteAsync();

// Result contains:
// -- result.ExitCode        (int)
// -- result.StartTime       (DateTimeOffset)
// -- result.ExitTime        (DateTimeOffset)
// -- result.RunTime         (TimeSpan)

The code above spawns a child process with the configured command line arguments and working directory, and then asynchronously waits for it to exit. After the task has completed, it resolves a CommandResult object that contains the process exit code and other related information.

Note that ExecuteAsync() will throw an exception if the underlying process returns a non-zero exit code, as it usually indicates an error. You can override this behavior by disabling result validation using WithValidation(CommandResultValidation.None).

By default, the process's standard input, output and error streams are routed to CliWrap's equivalent of null device, which represents an empty source and a target that discards all data. This can be changed by calling WithStandardInputPipe(...), WithStandardOutputPipe(...), or WithStandardErrorPipe(...) to configure pipes for the corresponding streams.

For example, here's the same command from earlier, with its output and error streams redirected into separate StringBuilder instances:

var stdOutBuffer = new StringBuilder();
var stdErrBuffer = new StringBuilder();

var result = await Cli.Wrap("path/to/exe")
    .WithArguments("--foo bar")
    .WithWorkingDirectory("work/dir/path")
    .WithStandardOutputPipe(PipeTarget.ToStringBuilder(stdOutBuffer))
    .WithStandardErrorPipe(PipeTarget.ToStringBuilder(stderrBuffer))
    .ExecuteAsync();
    
// Contains stdOut/stdErr buffered in-memory as string
var stdOut = stdOutBuffer.ToString(); 
var stdErr = stdErrBuffer.ToString();

In this case, instead of being ignored, the data written to standard output and error streams is decoded as text and buffered in-memory. After the command has finished executing, you can inspect the contents of the buffers to see what the process has printed to the console during its runtime.

Handling command output is a very common use case, so CliWrap offers a few high-level execution models to make things simpler. In particular, the same thing shown in the above example can also be achieved more succinctly by using the ExecuteBufferedAsync() extension method:

using CliWrap;
using CliWrap.Buffered;

// Calling `ExecuteBufferedAsync()` instead of `ExecuteAsync()`
// implicitly configures pipes that write to in-memory buffers.
var result = await Cli.Wrap("path/to/exe")
    .WithArguments("--foo bar")
    .WithWorkingDirectory("work/dir/path")
    .ExecuteBufferedAsync();

// Result contains:
// -- result.StandardOutput  (string)
// -- result.StandardError   (string)
// -- result.ExitCode        (int)
// -- result.StartTime       (DateTimeOffset)
// -- result.ExitTime        (DateTimeOffset)
// -- result.RunTime         (TimeSpan)

Here, calling ExecuteBufferedAsync() starts the process and implicitly wires its output and error streams to in-memory buffers. Similarly to ExecuteAsync(), this method returns a result object containing runtime information, with the addition of StandardOutput and StandardError properties.

Note that standard streams are not limited to text and can contain raw binary data. Additionally, the size of the data may make it inefficient to store in-memory. For more complex scenarios, CliWrap also provides other piping options, which are covered in the Piping section.

Command configuration

The fluent interface provided by the command object allows you to configure various options related to its execution. Below list covers all available configuration methods and their usage:

WithArguments(...)

Sets the command line arguments that will be passed to the child process.

Default: empty.

Set arguments directly from a string:

var cmd = Cli.Wrap("git")
    .WithArguments("commit -m \"my commit\"");

Set arguments from a list (each element is treated as a separate argument; spaces are escaped automatically):

var cmd = Cli.Wrap("git")
    .WithArguments(new[] {"commit", "-m", "my commit"});

Set arguments using a builder (same as above, but also automatically converts certain values to their string representations):

var cmd = Cli.Wrap("git")
    .WithArguments(args => args
        .Add("clone")
        .Add("https://github.com/Tyrrrz/CliWrap")
        .Add("--depth")
        .Add(20)); // <- formatted to a string

WithWorkingDirectory(...)

Sets the working directory of the child process.

Default: current working directory, i.e. Directory.GetCurrentDirectory().

var cmd = Cli.Wrap("git")
    .WithWorkingDirectory("c:/projects/my project/");

WithEnvironmentVariables(...)

Sets additional environment variables that will be exposed to the child process.

Default: empty.

Set environment variables from a dictionary:

var cmd = Cli.Wrap("git")
    .WithEnvironmentVariables(new Dictionary<string, string>
    {
        ["GIT_AUTHOR_NAME"] = "John",
        ["GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL"] = "[email protected]"
    });

Set environment variables using a builder:

var cmd = Cli.Wrap("git")
    .WithEnvironmentVariables(env => env
        .Set("GIT_AUTHOR_NAME", "John")
        .Set("GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL", "[email protected]"));

Note that these environment variables are set on top of the default environment variables inherited from the parent process. If you provide a variable with the same name as one of the inherited variables, the provided value will take precedence.

WithCredentials(...)

Sets domain, name and password of the user, under whom the child process will be started.

Default: no credentials.

Set credentials directly:

var cmd = Cli.Wrap("git")
    .WithCredentials(new Credentials(
        "some_workspace",
        "johndoe",
        "securepassword123"
    ));

Set credentials using a builder:

var cmd = Cli.Wrap("git")
    .WithCredentials(creds => creds
       .SetDomain("some_workspace")
       .SetUserName("johndoe")
       .SetPassword("securepassword123"));

Note that specifying domain and password is only supported on Windows and will result in an exception on other operating systems. Specifying username, on the other hand, is supported across all platforms.

WithValidation(...)

Sets the strategy for validating the result of an execution.

The following modes are available:

• CommandResultValidation.None -- no validation
• CommandResultValidation.ZeroExitCode -- ensures zero exit code when the process exits

Default: CommandResultValidation.ZeroExitCode.

Disable validation:

var cmd = Cli.Wrap("git")
    .WithValidation(CommandResultValidation.None);

Enable validation:

// Ensure that exit code is zero after the process exits (otherwise throw an exception)
var cmd = Cli.Wrap("git")
    .WithValidation(CommandResultValidation.ZeroExitCode);

WithStandardInputPipe(...)

Sets the pipe source that will be used for the standard input stream of the process.

Default: PipeSource.Null.

Read more about this method in the Piping section.

WithStandardOutputPipe(...)

Sets the pipe target that will be used for the standard output stream of the process.

Default: PipeTarget.Null.

Read more about this method in the Piping section.

WithStandardErrorPipe(...)

Sets the pipe target that will be used for the standard error stream of the process.

Default: PipeTarget.Null.

Read more about this method in the Piping section.

Note that Command is an immutable object, so all configuration methods (i.e. those prefixed by With...) return a new instance instead of modifying existing one. This means that you can safely reuse commands without worrying about potential side-effects.

Piping

CliWrap provides a very powerful and flexible piping model that allows you to redirect process's streams, transform input and output data, and even chain multiple commands together with minimal effort. At its core, it's based on two abstractions: PipeSource which provides data for standard input stream, and PipeTarget which reads data coming from standard output stream or standard error stream.

By default, command's input pipe is set to PipeSource.Null and the output and error pipes are set to PipeTarget.Null. These objects effectively represent no-op stubs that provide empty input and discard all output respectively.

You can specify your own PipeSource and PipeTarget instances by calling the corresponding configuration methods on the command:

await using var input = File.OpenRead("input.txt");
await using var output = File.Create("output.txt");

await Cli.Wrap("foo")
    .WithStandardInputPipe(PipeSource.FromStream(input))
    .WithStandardOutputPipe(PipeTarget.ToStream(output))
    .ExecuteAsync();

Alternatively, pipes can also be configured in a slightly terser way by using pipe operators:

await using var input = File.OpenRead("input.txt");
await using var output = File.Create("output.txt");

await (input | Cli.Wrap("foo") | output).ExecuteAsync();

Both PipeSource and PipeTarget have many factory methods that let you create pipe implementations to fit different use cases:

• PipeSource.Null -- represents an empty pipe source
• PipeSource.FromStream() -- pipes data from any readable stream
• PipeSource.FromFile() -- pipes data from a file
• PipeSource.FromBytes() -- pipes data from a byte array
• PipeSource.FromString() -- pipes from a text string (supports custom encoding)
• PipeSource.FromCommand() -- pipes data from standard output of another command
• PipeTarget.Null -- represents a pipe target that discards all data
• PipeTarget.ToStream() -- pipes data into any writeable stream
• PipeTarget.ToFile() -- pipes data into a file
• PipeTarget.ToStringBuilder() -- pipes data as text into StringBuilder (supports custom encoding)
• PipeTarget.ToDelegate() -- pipes data as text, line-by-line, into Action<string> or Func<string, Task> (supports custom encoding)
• PipeTarget.Merge() -- merges multiple outbound pipes by replicating the same data across all of them

The pipe operator also has overloads for most of these as well. Below you can see some examples of what you can achieve with the help of CliWrap's piping feature.

Pipe a string into stdin:

var cmd = "Hello world" | Cli.Wrap("foo");
await cmd.ExecuteAsync();

Pipe stdout as text into a StringBuilder:

var stdOutBuffer = new StringBuilder();

var cmd = Cli.Wrap("foo") | stdOutBuffer;
await cmd.ExecuteAsync();

Pipe a binary HTTP stream into stdin:

using var httpClient = new HttpClient();
await using var input = await httpClient.GetStreamAsync("https://example.com/image.png");

var cmd = input | Cli.Wrap("foo");
await cmd.ExecuteAsync();

Pipe stdout of one command into stdin of another:

var cmd = Cli.Wrap("foo") | Cli.Wrap("bar") | Cli.Wrap("baz");
await cmd.ExecuteAsync();

Pipe stdout and stderr into those of parent process:

await using var stdOut = Console.OpenStandardOutput();
await using var stdErr = Console.OpenStandardError();

var cmd = Cli.Wrap("foo") | (stdOut, stdErr);
await cmd.ExecuteAsync();

Pipe stdout to a delegate:

var cmd = Cli.Wrap("foo") | Debug.WriteLine;
await cmd.ExecuteAsync();

Pipe stdout into a file and stderr into a StringBuilder:

var buffer = new StringBuilder();

var cmd = Cli.Wrap("foo") |
    (PipeTarget.ToFile("output.txt"), PipeTarget.ToStringBuilder(buffer));

await cmd.ExecuteAsync();

Pipe stdout into multiple files simultaneously:

var target = PipeTarget.Merge(
    PipeTarget.ToFile("file1.txt"),
    PipeTarget.ToFile("file2.txt"),
    PipeTarget.ToFile("file3.txt")
);

var cmd = Cli.Wrap("foo") | target;
await cmd.ExecuteAsync();

Pipe a string into a command, that command into another command, and then into parent's stdout and stderr:

var cmd = "Hello world" | Cli.Wrap("foo")
    .WithArguments("print random") | Cli.Wrap("bar")
    .WithArguments("reverse") | (Console.WriteLine, Console.Error.WriteLine);

await cmd.ExecuteAsync();

Execution models

CliWrap provides a few high-level execution models, which are essentially just extension methods that offer alternative ways to reason about command execution. Under the hood, they are all built by leveraging the piping feature shown earlier.

Buffered execution

This execution model lets you run a process while buffering its standard output and error streams in-memory. The buffered data can then be accessed after the command finishes executing.

In order to execute a command with buffering, call the ExecuteBufferedAsync() extension method:

using CliWrap;
using CliWrap.Buffered;

var result = await Cli.Wrap("path/to/exe")
    .WithArguments("--foo bar")
    .ExecuteBufferedAsync();

var exitCode = result.ExitCode;    
var stdOut = result.StandardOutput;
var stdErr = result.StandardError;

By default, ExecuteBufferedAsync() assumes that the underlying process uses default encoding (Console.OutputEncoding) for writing text to the console. To override this, specify the encoding explicitly by using one of the available overloads:

// Treat both stdout and stderr as UTF8-encoded text streams
var result = await Cli.Wrap("path/to/exe")
    .WithArguments("--foo bar")
    .ExecuteBufferedAsync(Encoding.UTF8);

// Treat stdout as ASCII-encoded and stderr as UTF8-encoded
var result = await Cli.Wrap("path/to/exe")
    .WithArguments("--foo bar")
    .ExecuteBufferedAsync(Encoding.ASCII, Encoding.UTF8);

Pull-based event stream

Besides executing a command as a task, CliWrap also supports an alternative model, in which the execution is represented as an event stream. This lets you start a command and react to the events it produces in real-time.

Those events are:

• StartedCommandEvent -- received just once, when the command starts executing (contains process ID)
• StandardOutputCommandEvent -- received every time the underlying process writes a new line to the output stream (contains the text as string)
• StandardErrorCommandEvent -- received every time the underlying process writes a new line to the error stream (contains the text as string)
• ExitedCommandEvent -- received just once, when the command finishes executing (contains exit code)

To execute a command as a pull-based event stream, use the ListenAsync() extension method:

using CliWrap;
using CliWrap.EventStream;

var cmd = Cli.Wrap("foo").WithArguments("bar");

await foreach (var cmdEvent in cmd.ListenAsync())
{
    switch (cmdEvent)
    {
        case StartedCommandEvent started:
            _output.WriteLine($"Process started; ID: {started.ProcessId}");
            break;
        case StandardOutputCommandEvent stdOut:
            _output.WriteLine($"Out> {stdOut.Text}");
            break;
        case StandardErrorCommandEvent stdErr:
            _output.WriteLine($"Err> {stdErr.Text}");
            break;
        case ExitedCommandEvent exited:
            _output.WriteLine($"Process exited; Code: {exited.ExitCode}");
            break;
    }
}

The ListenAsync() method starts the command and returns an object of type IAsyncEnumerable<CommandEvent>, which you can iterate using the await foreach construct introduced in C# 8. When using this execution model, back pressure is facilitated by locking the pipes between each iteration of the loop, preventing unnecessary buffering of data in-memory.

If you also need to specify custom encoding, you can use one of the available overloads:

await foreach (var cmdEvent in cmd.ListenAsync(Encoding.UTF8))
{
    // ...
}

await foreach (var cmdEvent in cmd.ListenAsync(Encoding.ASCII, Encoding.UTF8))
{
    // ...
}

Push-based event stream

Similarly to the pull-based stream, you can also execute a command as a push-based event stream instead:

using CliWrap;
using CliWrap.EventStream;
using System.Reactive;

await cmd.Observe().ForEachAsync(cmdEvent =>
{
    switch (cmdEvent)
    {
        case StartedCommandEvent started:
            _output.WriteLine($"Process started; ID: {started.ProcessId}");
            break;
        case StandardOutputCommandEvent stdOut:
            _output.WriteLine($"Out> {stdOut.Text}");
            break;
        case StandardErrorCommandEvent stdErr:
            _output.WriteLine($"Err> {stdErr.Text}");
            break;
        case ExitedCommandEvent exited:
            _output.WriteLine($"Process exited; Code: {exited.ExitCode}");
            break;
    }
});

In this case, Observe() returns a cold IObservable<CommandEvent> that represents an observable stream of command events. You can use the set of extensions provided by Rx.NET to transform, filter, throttle, or otherwise manipulate this stream.

Unlike with the pull-based event stream, this execution model does not involve any back pressure, meaning that the data is pushed to the observer at the rate it becomes available.

Likewise, if you also need to specify custom encoding, you can use one of the available overloads:

var cmdEvents = cmd.Observe(Encoding.UTF8);

// ...

var cmdEvents = cmd.Observe(Encoding.ASCII, Encoding.UTF8);

// ...

Combining execution models with custom pipes

The different execution models shown above are based on the piping model, but those two concepts are not mutually exclusive. That's because internally they all rely on PipeTarget.Merge(), which allows them to wire new pipes while still preserving those configured earlier.

This means that, for example, you can create a piped command and also execute it as an event stream:

var cmd =
    PipeSource.FromFile("input.txt") |
    Cli.Wrap("foo") |
    PipeSource.ToFile("output.txt");

// Iterate as an event stream and pipe to file at the same time
// (pipes are combined, not overriden)
await foreach (var cmdEvent in cmd.ListenAsync())
{
    // ...
}

Timeout and cancellation

Command execution is asynchronous in nature as it involves a completely separate process. In many cases, it may be useful to implement an abortion mechanism to stop the execution before it finishes, either through a manual trigger or a timeout.

To do that, just pass the corresponding CancellationToken when calling ExecuteAsync():

using var cts = new CancellationTokenSource();

// Cancel automatically after a timeout of 10 seconds
cts.CancelAfter(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(10));

var result = await Cli.Wrap("path/to/exe").ExecuteAsync(cts.Token);

In the event that the cancellation is requested, the underlying process will get killed and the ExecuteAsync() will throw an exception of type OperationCanceledException (or its derivative, TaskCanceledException). You will need to catch this exception in your code to recover from cancellation.

Similarly to ExecuteAsync(), cancellation is also supported by ExecuteBufferedAsync(), ListenAsync(), and Observe():

// Cancellation with buffered execution
var result = await Cli.Wrap("path/to/exe").ExecuteBufferedAsync(cts.Token);

// Cancellation with pull-based event stream
await foreach (Cli.Wrap("path/to/exe").ListenAsync(cts.Token))
{
    // ...
}

// Cancellation with push-based event stream
var cmdEvents = Cli.Wrap("path/to/exe").Observe(cts.Token);

Retrieving process ID

The task returned by ExecuteAsync() and ExecuteBufferedAsync() is in fact not a regular Task<T>, but an instance of CommandTask<T>. This is a special awaitable object that contains additional information related to a command which is currently executing.

You can inspect the task while it's running to get the ID of the process that was started by the associated command:

var task = Cli.Wrap("path/to/exe")
    .WithArguments("--foo bar")
    .ExecuteAsync();

// Get the process ID (for example, for logging purposes)
var processId = task.ProcessId;

// Wait for the task to complete
await task;