deps-new

A new, simpler alternative to clj-new.

Intended to be installed as a "tool" (Clojure CLI 1.10.3.933 or later).

clojure -Ttools install io.github.seancorfield/deps-new '{:git/tag "v0.5.2"}' :as new

Note: if you are on Windows, read Quoting keys and values in the official Deps and CLI Reference documentation to understand how the above command needs to look on Powershell. Or take a look at the Babashka CLI library support.

deps-new only supports :local/root and git-based coordinates, not Maven/Clojars coordinates. If you want an alternative that supports distributing your templates using Maven/Clojars look at clj-new but bear in mind I am no longer actively maintaining that.

Note: if you see instructions to use a template that look like clojure -A:new some-template :name whatever or clojure -Tnew some-template :name whatever, where some-template is not one of the built-in templates (app, lib, pom, scratch, template), those probably refer to clj-new rather than deps-new. Any templates other than the built-in ones are created and maintained by the community in repositories elsewhere, so please open issues or ask questions of the appropriate maintainer (not me).

The documentation here is structured as follows:

• Motivation -- why does deps-new exist?
• Create an Application -- how to create a basic application project, that can build an uberjar
• Create a Library -- how to create a basic library project, that can build a JAR and deploy to Clojars
• Create a Template -- how to create your own deps-new template project
• Additional projects/files that deps-new can create (scratch, pom.xml)
• More General Usage -- this includes links to additional documentation:
  • Project Names and Variables to see how the project name (:name) is used to derive the default values of all the built-in substitution variables
  • All the Options for the full list of command-line options available when invoking deps-new
  • Writing Templates for documentation on how to write your own templates

Followed by sections listing some community deps-new templates, integration with Emacs, some notes about the generated LICENSE file, and finally how to use deps-new with the Babashka CLI library.

Motivation

clj-new inherently carries along all of the baggage of lein new and boot new, including a modified chunk of Leiningen itself, as well as depending on Pomegranate for loading dependencies (so as to be compatible with Leiningen and Boot), and Stencil for the variable substitution in templates. The recently-released tools.build library, from the core Clojure team, provides all of the functionality needed to create new projects from templates, so deps-new aims to provide a wrapper around tools.build, some standard templates "out of the box", and machinery to allow you to easily write your own templates, mostly with no code needed at all.

The app and lib templates in deps-new are currently almost identical to those in clj-new, in terms of what they provide in generated projects, although they need no code: deps-new templates are primarily declarative, using a template.edn file to describe how parts of the template are copied into the target project folder.

You can get help on the available functions like this:

clojure -A:deps -Tnew help/doc

Create an Application

clojure -Tnew app :name myusername/mynewapp

Creates a directory mynewapp containing a new application project, with myusername as the "top" namespace and mynewapp as the main project namespace:

;; mynewapp/src/myusername/mynewapp.clj
(ns myusername.mynewapp
  (:gen-class))

(defn greet
  "Callable entry point to the application."
  [data]
  (println (str "Hello, " (or (:name data) "World") "!")))

(defn -main
  "I don't do a whole lot ... yet."
  [& args]
  (greet {:name (first args)}))

Create a Library

clojure -Tnew lib :name myusername/mycoollib

Creates a directory mycoollib containing a new library project, with myusername as the "top" namespace and mycoollib as the main project namespace under that.

If you want to generate the project into a different directory than the project name, use the :target-dir option to specify a path to the directory that should be created:

clojure -Tnew lib :name myusername/mycoollib :target-dir projects/newlib

Creates a directory projects/newlib containing a new library project, with myusername as the "top" namespace and mycoollib as the main project namespace under that.

Create a Template

clojure -Tnew template :name myusername/mytemplate

Creates a directory mytemplate containing a new template project, with myusername as the "top" namespace and mytemplate as the main project namespace under that. The generated template project will work as a template that produces a library project, but you can change it to produce whatever you want.

If you want to generate the project into a different directory than the project name, use the :target-dir option to specify a path to the directory that should be created:

clojure -Tnew template :name myusername/mytemplate :target-dir projects/newtemplate

Creates a directory projects/newtemplate containing a new library project, with myusername as the "top" namespace and mytemplate as the main project namespace under that.

Create a Minimal "scratch" Project

If you just want a very minimal deps.edn project to experiment with:

clojure -Tnew scratch :name play

Creates a directory play containing an empty deps.edn file and src/scratch.clj with a simple exec function (you can invoke via clojure -X scratch/exec) and a simple -main function (you can invoke via clojure -M -m scratch). This is intended to be a minimal "playground" to get started with deps.edn and the CLI.

If you want the scratch.clj file to have a different name, you can override the default with :scratch:

clojure -Tnew scratch :name play :scratch ground

The created file will be src/ground.clj in the play folder. :scratch can be a path:

clojure -Tnew scratch :name play :scratch play/ground

The created file will be src/play/ground.clj in the play folder.

Create a Fully-Fleshed pom.xml

clojure -Tnew pom :name com.acme/cool-lib :target-dir .

Creates a pom.xml file in the current directory (overwriting any existing file!) that has all the fields needed to publish a project to Clojars and have cljdoc.org generate the documentation, e.g.,

  <groupId>com.acme</groupId>
  <artifactId>cool-lib</artifactId>
  <version>0.1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
  <name>com.acme/cool-lib</name>
  <description>FIXME: my new org.corfield.new/pom project.</description>
  <url>https://github.com/com.acme/cool-lib</url>
...
  <scm>
    <url>https://github.com/acme/cool-lib</url>
    <connection>scm:git:git://github.com/acme/cool-lib.git</connection>
    <developerConnection>scm:git:ssh://[email protected]/acme/cool-lib.git</developerConnection>
    <tag>v0.1.0-SNAPSHOT</tag>
  </scm>

You should run clojure -X:deps mvn-pom to synchronize the <dependencies> from your deps.edn file.

More General Usage

Currently those are the only five built-in templates (app, lib, pom, scratch, and template).

More general usage:

clojure -A:somealias -Tnew create :template com.acme.project/cool-lib :name myusername/mynewproject

Looks for com/acme/project/cool_lib/template.edn on the classpath (based on the :somealias alias) and, if present, uses that template to create a project, in mynewproject. Instead of -A:somealias, you could use -Sdeps to specify the dependencies needed to make the template available:

clojure -Sdeps '{:deps {com.acme.project/cool-lib COORDINATES}}' -Tnew create :template com.acme.project/cool-lib :name myusername/mynewproject

The COORDINATES could be something like {:local/root "/path/to/cool-lib"} for a template that exists on the local filesystem, or it could be based on :git/url/:git/sha etc for a template that exists in a git repository.

Note: because deps-new is based on tools.build and uses its file copying functions, the template must ultimately live on the filesystem, so :local/root and git-based coordinates are supported, but Maven/Clojars coordinates are not.

See Project Names and Variables to see how the project name (:name) is used to derive the default values of all the built-in substitution variables. See All the Options for the full list of command-line options available when invoking deps-new. See Writing Templates for documentation on how to write your own templates.

Practical.li also has an excellent guide to writing deps-new templates.

Templates

The following templates are available externally. If you have written a template and would like to add it to the list, please make a PR.

• avil-template - A template for projects using anvil and blocks
• clerk-utils - Create a fully-configured Clerk notebook project
• deps-new-lib-adoc-template - The default lib template, but using AsciiDoc
• practical.li templates - Well-documented, well-maintained, fully-fleshed out templates for creating applications and services (with more to come)
• re-marfer - A minimal re-frame SPA template

Emacs Integration

An emacs package is available which provides a Magit-style interface to clj-new and deps-new. It includes some community templates and welcomes for recommendations for more.

The Generated LICENSE File

The generated projects (from the built-in app, lib, and template templates) all contain a LICENSE file which is the Eclipse Public License (version 1.0) and that is also mentioned in the generated README.md files. This is a tradition that started with Leiningen's lein new and carried over into boot new and now clj-new. The idea is that it's better to ensure any open source projects created have a valid license of some sort, as a starting point, and historically most Clojure projects use the EPLv1.0 because Clojure itself and the Contrib libraries have all used this license for a long time.

You are not required to open source your generated project! Just because the projects are generated with an open source LICENSE file and have a License section in their README.md files does not mean you need to keep that license in place, if you do not want your project to be open source.

You are not required to use EPLv1.0 for your project! If you prefer a different license, use it! Replace the LICENSE file and update the README.md file to reflect your personal preference in licensing (I have tended to use the Apache License 2.0 in most of my open source projects, prior to working with Clojure, but see Prefer the MIT License for an alternative viewpoint from the folks who wrote XTDB).

Note: if you incorporate any source code from other people's open source projects, be aware of the legal implications and that you must respect whatever license they have used for that code (which may require you to release your enhancements under the same license and will, most likely, require you to include their copyright notices, etc). Do not copy other people's code without attribution!

Babashka CLI

The babashka CLI library allows you to call an -X (exec) function in a more Unixy way, without writing EDN on the command line. If you are dealing with quoting issues in your shell, this could be a viable alternative:

:new {:deps {org.babashka/cli {:mvn/version "0.2.15"}
             io.github.seancorfield/deps-new {:git/tag "v0.5.2"
                                              :git/sha "253f32a"}}
      :ns-default org.corfield.new
      :exec-args {} ;; insert default arguments here
      :main-opts ["-m" "babashka.cli.exec"]}

This allows you to call deps-new on the command line as:

$ clj -M:new app --name foo/bar --overwrite delete

License

Copyright © 2021-2023 Sean Corfield

Distributed under the Eclipse Public License version 1.0.