Practicalli Clojure CLI Config

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Practicalli books use the configuration extensively to develop Clojure projects.

Practicalli Clojure CLI Config contains a deps.edn alias definitions for a wide range of community libraries and tools to that extend the features of Clojure CLI.

The configuration also contains

• GitHub workflow that runs MegaLinter and Code Quality checks (clj-kondo and cljstyle via the setup-clojure action)
• cljstyle configuration that follows the Clojure Style Guide
• Rebel Readline example configuration (supports the Rich Terminal UI used by Practicalli)
• cspell configuration for linting markdown and other text
• deps-deprecated.edn containing alias examples of tools not used by Practialli, but may be of interest

Practicalli Clojure book discusses Clojure CLI and its use, along with video walk-through of the key features.

Aliases use qualified descriptive names to avoid clashes with project specific aliases, ensuring that the user wide aliases remain available in all projects.

Common default arguments are included in an alias via :exec-args to minimise the cognitive load required to use aliases.

Aliases are used with the -A, -M, -T or -X execution options

Clojure CLI - Which execution options to use

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 ShareAlike License

Format Clojure

cljstyle is a format tool for Clojure files that supports the Clojure Style Guide, using the .cljstyle configuration file

Contents

• Install Practicalli Clojure CLI Config
• Updating practicalli/clojure-cli-config
• Common development tasks
• REPL Terminal UI I
  • Hotload dependencies I Remote REPL Connection I Socket REPL
• Development Environment
• Clojure Projects
  • Dependencies I Analysis I Packaging I Deployment
  • Searching
  • Format I Lint
  • Java sources
• Testing
  • Test runners I Clojure Spec I Performance I Security
• Databases
• Data Inspectors
  • Visualise vars and deps
• Debug
• Services
• Library Hosting Services - maven mirrors, local repositories

Install Practicalli Clojure CLI Config

Clojure CLI version 1.11.1.xxxx or later is recommended. Check the version of Clojure CLI currently installed via:

clojure -Sdescribe

Practicalli guide to installing Clojure has detailed instructions to install Clojure CLI for a specific operating system, or follow the Clojure.org Getting Started page.

When Clojure CLI runs for the first time a configuration directory is created in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/clojure or $HOME/.clojure if XDG_CONFIG_HOME not set

Practicalli recommends setting $XDG_CONFIG_HOME to $HOME/.config

Backup or delete the Clojure CLI configuration directory if it exists

Clone practicalli/clojure-cli-config repository (or create a fork and clone that instead)

git clone [email protected]:practicalli/clojure-cli-config.git $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/clojure

If $XDG_CONFIG_HOME not set, then use git clone [email protected]:practicalli/clojure-cli-config.git $HOME/.clojure

The deps.edn file in the Clojure CLI configuration directory contains all the Practicalli aliases, which are available from any Clojure CLI project for the current user account.

Windows support: Windows Sub-system for Linux (WSL) is strongly encouraged. Aliases should also work on Powershell or cmd.exe, although escape quoting of additional arguments may be required.

Location of local Maven repository

$HOME/.m2/repository is the default location of the local maven repository, the directory where library dependency jar files are cached.

:mvn/local-repo is a top-level key to set the local maven repository location, such as /home/practicalli/.cache/maven/repository to follow the XDG specification. If setting :mvn/local-repository, consider moving the contents of $HOME/.m2/repository to the new location to avoid downloading currently cached jar files (or use this as an opportunity to clear out the cache).

Update Practicalli Clojure CLI Config

The collection of aliases is regularly reviewed and additional alias suggestions and PRs are most welcome.

The versions of libraries are updated at least once per month using the :project/outdated alias, updating the deps.edn file. The antq tool is used to report new library versions, sent to an org file which is then used to update the changelog.

cd $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/clojure
clojure -T:search/outdated > outdated.org

Pull Requests from :search/outdated cannot be accepted unless full testing of every change can be demonstrated

Using Practicalli Clojure CLI Config

Any directory containing a deps.edn file is considered a Clojure project. A deps.edn file can contain an empty hash-map, {} or hash-map with configuration, usually :paths and :dependencies and perhaps some :aliases.

The project deps.edn file is merged with the user wide configuration, e.g $HOME/.clojure/deps.edn, with the project deps.edn keys taking precedence if there is duplication, otherwise they are merged.

Configuration passed via the command line when running clojure or the clj wrapper will take precedence over the project and user level configuration if there is duplication, otherwise they are merged.

See the rest of this readme for examples of how to use each alias this configuration contains.

Common development tasks

How to run common tasks for Clojure development.

• Built-in tasks require no additional configuration.
• User aliases should be added to ~/.clojure/deps.edn.
• Project aliases should be added to the individual project deps.edn file (or may be part of a template).
• User/Project alias can be defined in both user and project deps.edn files (add to project deps.edn for Continuous Integration)

REPL terminal UI

Run an interactive REPL on the command line with the basic built-in REPL UI or Rebel for a feature rich REPL experience.

nREPL server is started for all Clojure repl aliases along with the cider-nrepl middleware, so Clojure editors can connect to the REPL process started on the command line.

Use :env/dev with the :repl/rebel aliases to include dev/ in classpath and configure REPL startup actions using dev/user.clj

Hotload Libraries

clojure -M:repl/reloaded provides common tools to enhance the REPL workflow (hotload libraries, refresh code changes, inspect data, advanced test runner, log & trace)

Use :dev/reloaded with Editor jack-in commands or other aliases to start a REPL process, e.g. clj -M:dev/reloaded:repl/basic for a reloaded REPL workflow with a basic terminal REPL prompt.

Remote REPL connection

Connect to the nREPL server of a remote REPL using nREPL connect, using a simple terminal UI

clojure -M:repl/remote --host hostname --port 12345

As above but using the enhanced Rebel Readline UI

clojure -M:repl/rebel-remote --host hostname --port 12345

Socket REPL

Clojure 1.10.x onward can run a Socket Server for serving a socket-based REPL (Clojure and ClojureScript).

tubular is a Socket Server client for Clojure and Clojurescript REPL processes.

Development Environment

Environment settings and libraries to support REPL driven development

• :env/dev - add dev directory to class path - e.g. include dev/user.clj to configure REPL startup
• :dev/reloaded - reloaded workflow, dev and test paths, testing libraries
• :lib/hotload - include org.clojure/tools.deps.alpha add-libs commit to hotload libraries into a running REPL
• :lib/tools-ns - include org.clojure/tools.namespace to refresh the current namespace in a running REPL
• :lib/reloaded - combination of hotload and tools-ns aliases
• :lib/pretty-errors - highlight important aspects of error stack trace using ANSI formatting

Clojure Projects

Create Clojure CLI configured projects, either built-in or practicalli/project-templates to provide REPL Reloaded tools and production-level CI workflows.

Default values (can be over-ridden on the command line)

• :template project/application template, includes REPL Reloaded workflow, GitHub workflows, Dockerfile & compose.yaml, Makefile tasks
• :name practicalli/playground creates a practicalli domain containing playground namespace and example Clojure code

:project/new - uses clj-new which is an archived project, although can still be used to create projects using Leiningen style templates. A Clojure CLI configuration must be manually added if these templates do not provide one.

| clojure -T:project/new :template app :name practicalli/my-application | App project with given name | | clojure -T:project/new :template luminus :name practicalli/full-stack-app :args '["+http-kit" "+h2"]' | Luminus project with given name and template options | | clojure -T:project/new :template figwheel-main :name practicalli/landing-page :args '["--reagent"]' | ClojureScript Figwheel-main project with reagent |

Running projects

Run project using clojure.main with or without an alias:

clojure -M:alias-name -m domain.app-name
clojure -M -m domain.app-name

The -M flag specified running the Clojure code with clojure.main library, so -M' is required even if an alias is not included in the running of the application. A warning will be displayed if the -M option is missing.

In the project deps.edn file it could be useful to define an alias to run the project, specifying the main namespace, the function to run and optionally any default arguments that are passed to that function.

:project/run
{:ns-default domain.main-namespace
 :exec-fn -main
 :exec-args {:port 8888}}

Then the project can be run using clojure -X:project/run and arguments can optionally be included in this command line, to complement or replace any default arguments in exec-args.

Project dependencies

• :project/check - detailed report of compilation errors for a project
• :project/graph-deps - graph of project dependencies (png image)
• :search/libraries - fuzzy search for libraries to add as dependencies
• :search/outdated - report newer versions for maven and git dependencies
• :search/outdated-mvn - check for newer dependencies (maven only)

:search/libraries will show warnings about unqualified libraries the first time it is used, which can safely be ignored

Project analysis

Carve - static analysis of code (clj-kondo) and remove or report unused vars

• :project/carve - remove / report unused vars
• :project/unused - alternative alias name for :project/carve
• :project/unused-vars - alternative alias name for :project/carve

Generate report in a file:

clojure -M:project/unused --opts '{:paths ["src" "test"] :report {:format :ignore}}' > .carve/ignore

Project packaging

tools.build is a library for creating scripts to manage packaging the projects to a fine level of control. Projects start with common tasks for builind a jar or uberjar from the project.

Project Deployment

Deploy a library jar locally using the built-in :deps alias of Clojure CLI or to Clojars.org using slipset/deps-deploy project.

• -X:deps mvn-install built-in Clojure CLI alias to deploy a Jar locally in the ~/.m2/repository directory
• :deploy/clojars - deploy jar to clojars.org
• :deploy/clojars-signed - sign and deploy jar to clojars.org

Set Clojars username/token in CLOJARS_USERNAME and CLOJARS_PASSWORD environment variables.

Set fully qualified artifact-name and version in project pom.xml file

Path to project.jar can also be set in alias to simplify the Clojure command.

clojure -X:deps mvn-install :jar '"project.jar"' for local deployment of jars is part of the 1.10.1.697 release of the Clojure CLI in September 2020.

Searching

Tools to search through code and libraries

• -M:search/errors clj-check - search each namespace and report compilation warnings and errors
• -M::search/unused-vars Carve - search code for unused vars and remove them - optionally specifying paths --opts '{:paths ["src" "test"]}'
• -M:search/libraries - find-deps - fuzzy search Maven & Clojars and add deps to deps.edn
• -T:search/outdated - liquidz/antq - check for newer versions of libraries, updating deps.edn if :update true passed as argument

Searching library options

A fuzzy search for a library by name, passing multiple names to search for

clojure -M:search/libraries http-kit ring compojure

Add the matching library as a dependency into the project deps.edn file

clojure -M:search/libraries --format:merge http-kit

Format code

• :lib/pprint-sorted - pretty printing with sorted keys and set values
• :format/cljstyle - check format of all Clojure, Edn and ClojureScript files in the project or a given file and show a diff of format changes
• :format/cljstyle! - automatically correct format of all Clojure, Edn and ClojureScript files in the project or a given file
• :format/zprint - check format of Clojure code and Edn data structures in the given file, or use file pattern **/*.clj **/*.edn
• :format/zprint! - format Clojure code and Edn data structures in the given file, or use file pattern **/*.clj **/*.edn
• :format/cljfmt - check clojure code and Edn data structures in the given file(s) using cljfmt
• :format/cljfmt! - format clojure code and Edn data structures in the given file(s) using cljfmt

Java Sources

Include Java source on the classpath to look up Java Class and method definitions, eg. cider-find-var in Emacs

Requires: Java sources installed locally (e.g. "/usr/lib/jvm/openjdk-17/lib/src.zip")

• :src/java17
• :src/clojure

Use the aliases with either -A, -M or -X execution options on the Clojure command line.

Clone clojure/clojure repository. Clojure core Java source code in src/jvm/clojure/lang/

Databases and drivers

Databases and drivers, typically for development time inclusion such as embedded databases

• :database/h2 - H2 embedded database library and next.jdbc

clojure -M:database/h2 - run a REPL with an embedded H2 database and next.jdbc libraries

Use the aliases with either -M or -X flags on the Clojure command line.

Data Inspectors

REPL driven data inspectors and tap> sources for visualising data.

Portal

Navigate data in the form of edn, json and transit Practicalli Clojure -data browsers section - portal

• inspect/portal-cli - Clojure CLI (simplest approach)
• inspect/portal-web - Web ClojureScript REPL
• inspect/portal-node - node ClojureScript REPL

Using Portal once running (require '[portal.api :as portal]) once the REPL starts. For inspect/portal-web use (require '[portal.web :as portal]) instead

(portal/open) to open the web based inspector window in a browser.

(portal/tap) to add portal as a tap target (add-tap)

(tap> {:accounts [{:name "jen" :email "[email protected]"} {:name "sara" :email "[email protected]"}]}) to send data to the portal inspector window (or any other data you wish to send)

(portal/clear) to clear all values from the portal inspector window.

(portal/close) to close the inspector window.

Debug Tools

Emacs CIDER has a built in debug tool that requires no dependencies (other than Cider itself).

Sayid is a comprehensive debug and profile tool (which requires your code to compile) and generated a full and detailed history of an evaluation.

• :repl/debug run basic REPL prompt with sayid, and cider-nrepl middleware
• :repl/debug-refactor run basic REPL prompt with sayid, clj-refactor and cider-nrepl middleware
• :repl/rebel-debug run Rebel rich UI REPL prompt with sayid, and cider-nrepl middleware
• :repl/rebel-debug-refactor run Rebel rich UI REPL prompt with sayid, clj-refactor and cider-nrepl middleware

Practicalli Spacemacs - Sayid debug and profile tool covers the use of these aliases in more detail

Clojure Specification

Clojure spec, generators and test.check

• :lib/spec-test - generative testing with Clojure test.check
• :lib/spec2 - experiment with the next version of Clojure spec - alpha: design may change

Unit Testing frameworks

Unit test libraries and configuration. The Clojure standard library includes the clojure.test namespace, so no alias is required.

• :env/test - add test directory to classpath

Test runners and Test Coverage tools

Practicalli Clojure: Unit testing covers many aspects of testing for projects. Kaocha is the main test runner used by Practicalli as it is simple to use and easily configurable to create an effective test workflow.

Run unit tests in a project which are defined under the test path. See

:lib/kaocha alias adds kaocha as a library to the class path, enabling scripts such as kaocha-runner.el to run Kaocha test runner from Emacs Cider

A test.edn configuration file can be used with the :test/run alias instead of using various aliases defined above

Lint tools

Static analysis tools to help maintain code quality and suggest Clojure idioms.

• :lint/clj-kondo - comprehensive and fast static analysis lint tool
• :lint/eastwood - classic lint tool for Clojure
• :lint/idiom-check - checking for idiomatic Clojure code with Kibit

Visualising project vars and library dependencies

Create Graphviz graphs of project and library dependencies

Install Graphviz to generate PNG and SVG images. Or use the Edotor website to convert .dot files to PNG or SVG images and select different graph layout engines.

Var dependencies

Generate dependency graphs for Vars in Clojure & ClojureScript namespaces

• :graph/vars - generate graph of vars in a project as a .dot file
• :graph/vars-png - generate graph of vars in a project as a .png file using src and test paths
• :graph/vars-svg - generate graph of vars in a project as a .svg file using src and test paths

Use -f command line argument to over-ride file type created, i.e -f png

Namespace dependencies

Vizns creates graphs of relationships between namespaces and their dependencies

• clojure -M:graph/ns-deps - generate a single deps-graph SVG image
• clojure -M:graph/ns-deps-png as above with PNG image

Other options described in the visns project readme:

Project Dependency Relationships

Visualise the relationships between dependencies in the project (or given deps.edn configuration). Shows the fully qualified name of a dependency, its version and size.

Generate a PNG image from the project deps.edn configuration and save to project-dependencies-graph.png file

clojure -T:graph/deps

Options available

• :deps - Path to deps file (default = "deps.edn")
• :trace - images showing individual trace images of dependency relations (default = false)
• :trace-file - Path to trace.edn file to read
• :output - file name string to save the generated image, :output '"deps.png"'
• :trace-omit - Collection of lib symbols to omit in trace output
• :size - Boolean flag to include sizes in images (default = false)

Performance testing

Performance testing tools for the REPL

• :performance/benchmark

Use the aliases with either -M or -X flags on the Clojure command line.

clojure -M:performance/benchmark:repl/rebel

(require '[criterium.core :refer [bench quick-bench]])
(bench (expression-to-test))

Performance test a project in the REPL

clojure -M:performance/benchmark:repl/rebel

(require '[practicalli/namespace-name]) ; require project code
(in-ns 'practicalli/namespace-name)
(quick-bench (project-function args))

• :performance/memory-meter - memory usage

Use the aliases with either -M or -X flags on the Clojure command line.

In the REPL:

  (require '[clj-memory-meter.core :as memory-meter])
   (memory-meter/measure (your-expression))

Services

Web servers and other standalone services run with Clojure CLI

• :service/http - serve files from current directory or specified directory and port. More options at kachayev/nasus project.

Use Ctrl-c to stop the server when running in the foreground

Security

DEPRECATED: :security/nvd Using clojure-nvd via an alias checks for security issues in clojure-nvd and its dependencies as they merged into the classpath.

The maintainer of clojure-nvd suggested several ways to avoid classpath interference

• :service/nvd - check library dependencies of a project against the National Vulnerability Database using nvd-clojure

The first "" is required argument and can contain a filename to a json file of additional configuration. The second argument, "$(clojure -Spath)", passes the project classpath to be analysed as a string.

Community activities

The Clojurians Zulip CLI provides a simple way to register community events.

• :community/zulip-event create an event on the Clojurians Zulip community

Set an environment variable called ZULIP_AUTH to your account email, followed by the account token (see Account & privacy), e.g.

[email protected]:493u984u3249834uo4u

Create an event using the following command

Show help and options

clojure -M:community/zulip-event create -h

Announce an meetup.com event (you'll be asked for confirmation before posting)

clojure -M:community/zulip-event create --zulip-auth "${ZULIP_AUTH}" --url https://www.meetup.com/some-group/events/123/

Full example

clojure -M:community/zulip-event create --zulip-auth "${ZULIP_AUTH}" \
--title 'Practicalli Live - Exercism.io challenges' \
--start '2020-11-14T09:00+00:00' \
--duration 1 \
--url https://youtu.be/Z5C7X1UN8yo \
--description 'Walking through solutions to the Exercism.io challenges'

Take care to get the timezone notation correct.

Library Hosting Services

Repositories that host libraries for Clojure.

central and clojars are the man repositories for Clojure development are consulted in order.

central and clojars repos can be removed from consideration by setting their configuration hash-map to nil in ~/.clojure/deps.edn. For example, {:mvn/repos {"central" nil}}.

The order of additional repositories consulted is not guaranteed, so may cause unpredictable side effects in the project build especially if RELEASE or LATEST tags are used rather than a numeric library version.

Maven supports explicit mirror definition in ~/.m2/settings.xml and Clojure CLI supports this configuration. Adding Maven Central or a mirror to ~/.m2/settings.xml negates the need for its entry in deps.edn configuration.

Recommended repositories

• central - Maven Central, the canonical repository for JVM libraries, including Clojure releases
• clojars - clojars.org, the canonical repositories for Clojure community libraries fronted by a contend delivery network service

Optional repositories

• sonatype - snapshots of Clojure development releases, useful for testing against before new stable releases.
• business-area - example of adding a local Artifactory server for your team or business area.
• google-maven-central - Maven Central mirror hosted on Google Cloud Storage - Americas, Asia, Europe

Use only one entry for a specific repository to ensure a repeatable build. For example, avoid having Maven Central and a Maven Central mirror both included.

Business area

Example of local Artifactory repository configuration

 :mvn/repos
 {"business-area" {:url "https://artifacts.internal-server.com:443/artifactory/business-area-maven-local"}

Americas mirrors

 :mvn/repos
 {"google-maven-central" {:url "https://maven-central.storage-download.googleapis.com/maven2/"}}

Europe mirrors

 :mvn/repos
 {"google-maven-central" {:url "https://maven-central-eu.storage-download.googleapis.com/maven2/"}

 ;; CDN access to clojars
 "clojars" {:url "https://repo.clojars.org/"}}

Asian Region Mirrors

 :mvn/repos
 {"google-maven-central" {:url "https://maven-central-asia.storage-download.googleapis.com/maven2/"}

 ;; Community mirror
 "clojars-china-mirror" {:url "https://mirrors.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/clojars/"}

 ;; CDN access to clojars
 "clojars" {:url "https://repo.clojars.org/"}}

Maven local repository

Define a local Maven repository. Useful if you wish to specify an alternative to the default ~/.m2/ directory.

 :mvn/local-repo "/cache/.m2"

NOTE: using clojure -Sforce forces a classpath recompute, deleting the contents of .cpcache