Feature: Add variables as arguments

[l1n3n01z]

Passing variables as environment variables is fine for configuration variables, but having used ain a bit, I feel that passing variables as arguments would be much more natural when the variable in question varies often. This applies both when scripting and on the command line.

Using a double hyphen to denote that the following arguments are variables might be a good way to do this. It would allow easy editing of parameters when calling the same endpoint a few times.

$ ain -e config.env base.ain specific_query.ain -- --id=2
push up arrow and change the id
$ ain -e config.env base.ain specific_query.ain -- --id=3

When scripting

NB: I'm using camelCase for my variables that I know change often

Before

#!/usr/bin/env bash
packageSearch=$1
#search for the package to find the id
packageId=$(searchTerm=$packageSearch ain package_service_template.ain search_package.ain | jq '.[] | .id')
#view simplified event history 
id=$packageId ain keycafe_template.ain package_events.ain | jq '.[] | {eventName, user, dateCreated, location}'

After

#!/usr/bin/env bash
packageSearch=$1
#search for the package to find the id
packageId=$(ain package_service_template.ain search_package.ain -- --searchTerm=$packageSearch | jq '.[] | .id')
#view simplified event history 
ain keycafe_template.ain package_events.ain -- --id=$packageId | jq '.[] | {eventName, user, dateCreated, location}'

[jonaslu]

Hi, is it merely because of convenience?

The reason I'm asking is because scripting out having arguments last after some special syntax such as '--' via a wrapper-script is very doable and doesn't introduce another syntax for something that is already solved via widely used methods.

[jonaslu]

Closing due to inactivity.

For reference, here's a bash-script that inverts the way variables are passed:

#!/bin/bash

delim_found=false
for arg in "$@"; do
    if $delim_found; then
        env_vars+=("$arg")
    elif [ "$arg" == "--" ]; then
        delim_found=true
    else
        command_args+=("$arg")
    fi
done

# Execute the command with environment variables first
env "${env_vars[@]}" ain "${command_args[@]}"

Usage with script saved as ain.sh. A single -- delimiter between command line arguments and variables:

ain.sh template1.ain template2.ain -- VAR1=1 VAR2=2 

[jonaslu]

Hi @l1n3n01z ! I thought about this some more and decided to add --vars VAR=value as documented here thanks to your issue!

Not only does it make arrow up easier, but on windows cmd.exe setting environment-variables is involved, and --vars will help there.

It's on master right now but hasn't been released yet.