Source code for ubelt.util_cmd

r"""
This module exposes the :func:`ubelt.cmd` command, which provides a simple
means for interacting with the command line.  This uses
:class:`subprocess.Popen` under the hood, but improves upon existing
:mod:`subprocess` functionality by:

(1) Adding the option to "tee" the output, i.e. simultaneously capture and
write to stdout and stderr.

(2) Always specify the command as a string. The :mod:`subprocess` module
expects the command as either a  ``List[str]`` if ``shell=False`` and ``str``
if ``shell=True``. If necessary, :func:`ubelt.util_cmd.cmd` will automatically
convert from one format to the other, so passing in either case will work.

(3) Specify if the process blocks or not by setting ``detach``. Note: when
``detach is True`` it is not possible to tee the output.

Example:
    >>> import ubelt as ub
    >>> # Running with verbose=1 will write to stdout in real time
    >>> info = ub.cmd('echo "write your command naturally"', verbose=1)
    write your command naturally
    >>> # The return type is a dictionary of information depending
    >>> # on how `ub.cmd` was invoked.
    >>> print('info = ' + ub.repr2(info))
    info = {
        'command': 'echo "write your command naturally"',
        'cwd': None,
        'err': '',
        'out': 'write your command naturally\n',
        'proc': <...Popen...>,
        'ret': 0,
    }


The cmd is able to handle common uses cases of the subprocess module with a
simpler interface.

.. code:: python

    import subprocess
    import ubelt as ub

Run without capturing output and without printing to the screen

.. code:: python

    # stdlib
    subprocess.run(['ls', '-l'], stdout=subprocess.DEVNULL, stderr=subprocess.DEVNULL, universal_newlines=True)

    # ubelt equivalent
    ub.cmd(['ls', '-l'], capture=False)

Print output to the screen, but no programmatic access to the data

.. code:: python

    # stdlib
    subprocess.check_call(['ls', '-l'])

    # ubelt equivalent
    ub.cmd(['ls', '-l'], verbose=1, capture=False)

Get programmatic access to the data but don't show it on screen

.. code:: python

    # stdlib
    subprocess.check_output(['ls', '-l'], universal_newlines=True)

    # ubelt equivalent
    ub.cmd(['ls', '-l'])['out']

Get programatic access AND show it on screen

.. code:: python

    # stdlib has no easy way to to this

    # ubelt has "tee" functionality
    ub.cmd(['ls', '-l'], verbose=1)
"""
import sys
import os


__pitch__ = """
The ubelt.cmd command is probably the easiest way to execute a command line program from Python. Unlike os.system, subprocess.check_output, and subprocess.call, The syntax for what you want to call is exactly the same no matter what type of configuration you are using.

Either pass the text you would execute on the command line directly or break it up into a list where each item should be considered its own argument. This works regardless of if shell=True or shell=False, so if your command doesn't work with the safer shell=False, you can turn on shell=True without modifying anything else. You can capture output, print it to the screen, or namely --- something few other packages support --- both (via tee=True or verbose>1).

You can also invoke the call via os.system instead of Popen by setting system=True (although this does come with all of the os.system benefits and restrictions).

I'm biased because I wrote it, but subprocess-tee is the only other package I know of that comes close to getting this right. Maybe invoke?
"""

# import logging
# logging.basicConfig(
#     format='[%(asctime)s %(threadName)s %(levelname)s] %(message)s',
#     level=logging.DEBUG,
#     force=True
# )
# logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)

__all__ = ['cmd']

POSIX: bool = 'posix' in sys.builtin_module_names
WIN32: bool = sys.platform == 'win32'


class CmdOutput(dict):
    """
    An container that holds the output of :func:`ubelt.cmd`.

    This inherits from dictionary to be backwards compatible with older
    versions of ubelt, but also includes methods that ducktype the stdlib
    :class:`subprocess.CompletedProcess`, which makes it easier for existing
    code that uses :func:`subprocess.run` to switch to :func:`ubelt.cmd`.
    """

    @property
    def stdout(self):
        """
        Returns:
            str | bytes
        """
        return self['out']

    @property
    def stderr(self):
        """
        Returns:
            str | bytes
        """
        return self['err']

    @property
    def returncode(self):
        """
        Returns:
            int
        """
        return self['ret']

    def check_returncode(self):
        """Raise CalledProcessError if the exit code is non-zero."""
        import subprocess
        if self.returncode:
            raise subprocess.CalledProcessError(
                self.returncode, self.args, self.stdout, self.stderr)


[docs] def cmd(command, shell=False, detach=False, verbose=0, tee=None, cwd=None, env=None, tee_backend='auto', check=False, system=False, timeout=None, capture=True): """ Executes a command in a subprocess. The advantage of this wrapper around subprocess is that (1) you control if the subprocess prints to stdout, (2) the text written to stdout and stderr is returned for parsing, (3) cross platform behavior that lets you specify the command as a string or tuple regardless of whether or not shell=True. (4) ability to detach, return the process object and allow the process to run in the background (eventually we may return a Future object instead). Args: command (str | List[str]): command string, tuple of executable and args, or shell command. shell (bool): if True, process is run in shell. Defaults to False. detach (bool): if True, process is detached and run in background. Defaults to False. verbose (int): verbosity mode. Can be 0, 1, 2, or 3. Defaults to 0. tee (bool | None): if True, simultaneously writes to stdout while capturing output from the command. If not specified, defaults to True if verbose > 0. If detach is True, then this argument is ignored. cwd (str | PathLike | None): Path to run command. Defaults to current working directory if unspecified. env (Dict[str, str] | None): environment passed to Popen tee_backend (str): backend for tee output. Valid choices are: "auto", "select" (POSIX only), and "thread". Defaults to "auto". check (bool): if True, check that the return code was zero before returning, otherwise raise a :class:`subprocess.CalledProcessError`. Does nothing if detach is True. Defaults to False. system (bool): if True, most other considerations are dropped, and :func:`os.system` is used to execute the command in a platform dependant way. Other arguments such as env, tee, timeout, and shell are all ignored. Defaults to False. (New in version 1.1.0) timeout (float | None): If the process does not complete in ``timeout`` seconds, raise a :class:`subprocess.TimeoutExpired`. (New in version 1.1.0). capture (bool): if True, the stdout/stderr are captured and returned in the information dictionary. Ignored if detatch or system is True. Returns: dict | CmdOutput: info - information about command status. if detach is False ``info`` contains captured standard out, standard error, and the return code if detach is True ``info`` contains a reference to the process. Raises: ValueError - on an invalid configuration subprocess.TimeoutExpired - if the timeout limit is exceeded subprocess.CalledProcessError - if check and the return value is non zero Note: When using the tee output, the stdout and stderr may be shuffled from what they would be on the command line. Related Work: Similar to other libraries: [SubprocTee]_, [ShellJob]_, [CmdRunner]_, [PyInvoke]_. References: .. [SO_11495783] https://stackoverflow.com/questions/11495783/redirect-subprocess-stderr-to-stdout .. [SO_7729336] https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7729336/how-can-i-print-and-display-subprocess-stdout-and-stderr-output-without-distorti .. [SO_33560364] https://stackoverflow.com/questions/33560364/python-windows-parsing-command-lines-with-shlex .. [SubprocTee] https://github.com/pycontribs/subprocess-tee .. [ShellJob] https://github.com/mortoray/shelljob .. [CmdRunner] https://github.com/netinvent/command_runner .. [PyInvoke] https://www.pyinvoke.org/prior-art.html CommandLine: xdoctest -m ubelt.util_cmd cmd:6 python -c "import ubelt as ub; ub.cmd('ping localhost -c 2', verbose=2)" pytest "$(python -c 'import ubelt; print(ubelt.util_cmd.__file__)')" -sv --xdoctest-verbose 2 Example: >>> import ubelt as ub >>> info = ub.cmd(('echo', 'simple cmdline interface'), verbose=1) simple cmdline interface >>> assert info['ret'] == 0 >>> assert info['out'].strip() == 'simple cmdline interface' >>> assert info['err'].strip() == '' Example: >>> import ubelt as ub >>> info = ub.cmd('echo str noshell', verbose=0) >>> assert info['out'].strip() == 'str noshell' Example: >>> # windows echo will output extra single quotes >>> import ubelt as ub >>> info = ub.cmd(('echo', 'tuple noshell'), verbose=0) >>> assert info['out'].strip().strip("'") == 'tuple noshell' Example: >>> # Note this command is formatted to work on win32 and unix >>> import ubelt as ub >>> info = ub.cmd('echo str&&echo shell', verbose=0, shell=True) >>> assert info['out'].strip() == 'str' + chr(10) + 'shell' Example: >>> import ubelt as ub >>> info = ub.cmd(('echo', 'tuple shell'), verbose=0, shell=True) >>> assert info['out'].strip().strip("'") == 'tuple shell' Example: >>> import pytest >>> import ubelt as ub >>> info = ub.cmd('echo hi', check=True) >>> import subprocess >>> with pytest.raises(subprocess.CalledProcessError): >>> ub.cmd('exit 1', check=True, shell=True) Example: >>> import ubelt as ub >>> from os.path import join, exists >>> dpath = ub.Path.appdir('ubelt', 'test').ensuredir() >>> fpath1 = (dpath / 'cmdout1.txt').delete() >>> fpath2 = (dpath / 'cmdout2.txt').delete() >>> # Start up two processes that run simultaneously in the background >>> info1 = ub.cmd(('touch', str(fpath1)), detach=True) >>> info2 = ub.cmd('echo writing2 > ' + str(fpath2), shell=True, detach=True) >>> # Detached processes are running in the background >>> # We can run other code while we wait for them. >>> while not exists(fpath1): ... pass >>> while not exists(fpath2): ... pass >>> # communicate with the process before you finish >>> # (otherwise you may leak a text wrapper) >>> info1['proc'].communicate() >>> info2['proc'].communicate() >>> # Check that the process actually did finish >>> assert (info1['proc'].wait()) == 0 >>> assert (info2['proc'].wait()) == 0 >>> # Check that the process did what we expect >>> assert fpath1.read_text() == '' >>> assert fpath2.read_text().strip() == 'writing2' Example: >>> # Can also use ub.cmd to call os.system >>> import pytest >>> import ubelt as ub >>> import subprocess >>> info = ub.cmd('echo hi', check=True, system=True) >>> with pytest.raises(subprocess.CalledProcessError): >>> ub.cmd('exit 1', check=True, shell=True) """ # In the future we might allow the user to pass a custom log function # But this has weird interactions with how the tee process works # because of the assumption stdout.write does not emit a newline # TODO: # log (Callable | None): # If specified, verbose output is written using this function, # otherwise the builtin print function is used. log = print import subprocess # TODO: stdout, stderr - experimental - custom file to pipe stdout/stderr to # Determine if command is specified as text or a tuple if isinstance(command, str): command_text = command command_tup = None elif isinstance(command, os.PathLike): command_text = os.fspath(command) command_tup = None else: import shlex command_parts = [] # Allow the user to specify paths as part of the command for part in command: if isinstance(part, os.PathLike): part = os.fspath(part) command_parts.append(part) command_tup = list(command_parts) command_text = ' '.join(list(map(shlex.quote, command_tup))) # Inputs can either be text or tuple based. On UNIX we ensure conversion # to text if shell is True, and to tuple if shell is False. On windows, # the input is text if shell is True, but can be either if shell is # False as noted in [SO_33560364]_. if shell or system: # When shell=True, args is sent to the shell (e.g. bin/sh) as text args = command_text else: # When shell=False, args is a list of executable and arguments if command_tup is None: if sys.platform.startswith('win32'): # nocover # On windows when shell=False, args can be a str | List[str] # as noted in [SO_33560364] args = command_text else: # On linux when shell=False, args must be a List[str] import shlex args = shlex.split(command_text) else: args = command_tup if tee is None: tee = verbose > 0 if tee and tee_backend not in {'auto', 'thread', 'select'}: raise ValueError('tee_backend must be select, thread, or auto') # note: we use ``tee`` as a proxy for "show" # we may upgrade show to an actual argument show = tee if show and not capture: # even though tee was probably true, semantically it should be # considered false unless we are doing both. # when show becomes an arguments we should do error handling for # inconsistency here tee = False if verbose > 1: import platform import getpass from ubelt import shrinkuser if verbose > 2: try: log('┌─── START CMD ───') except Exception: # nocover log('+=== START CMD ===') cwd_ = os.getcwd() if cwd is None else cwd compname = platform.node() username = getpass.getuser() cwd_ = shrinkuser(cwd_) ps1 = '[ubelt.cmd] {}@{}:{}$ '.format(username, compname, cwd_) log(ps1 + command_text) # Create a new process to execute the command def make_proc(): # delay the creation of the process until we validate all args popen_kwargs = {'cwd': cwd, 'env': env, 'shell': shell} popen_kwargs['universal_newlines'] = True if capture: popen_kwargs['stdout'] = subprocess.PIPE popen_kwargs['stderr'] = subprocess.PIPE elif not show: # The only way to suppress printing to the screen is by # piping to devnull popen_kwargs['stdout'] = subprocess.DEVNULL popen_kwargs['stderr'] = subprocess.DEVNULL proc = subprocess.Popen(args, **popen_kwargs) return proc if system: from ubelt.util_path import ChDir with ChDir(cwd): ret = os.system(command_text) info = CmdOutput(**{ 'out': None, 'err': None, 'ret': ret, 'cwd': cwd, 'command': command_text, }) elif detach: info = CmdOutput(**{ # Not including out/err/ret because the user could still compute # them via proc. I'm open to reconsidering this design decision. 'proc': make_proc(), 'cwd': cwd, 'command': command_text }) if verbose > 1: # nocover log('...detaching') else: if tee: # tee means both capture and show are true. # We logging stdout and stderr, while simultaneously piping it to # another stream. stdout = sys.stdout stderr = sys.stderr proc = make_proc() with proc: out, err = _tee_output( proc=proc, stdout=stdout, stderr=stderr, backend=tee_backend, timeout=timeout, command_text=command_text) (out_, err_) = proc.communicate(timeout=timeout) elif capture: proc = make_proc() # Follow the error handling in the stdlib implementation of # subprocess.run with proc: try: (out, err) = proc.communicate(timeout=timeout) except subprocess.TimeoutExpired as exc: proc.kill() if WIN32: # nocover # Win32 needs a communicate after the kill to get the # output. See stdlib for details. exc.stdout, exc.stderr = proc.communicate() else: # Posix implementations already handle the populate. proc.wait() raise else: # Not capturing output, but it might print to the screen # i.e. capture is False, but show might be True or False proc = make_proc() out = None err = None # Follow the error handling in the stdlib implementation of # subprocess.call with proc: try: proc.wait(timeout=timeout) except: # NOQA # Including KeyboardInterrupt, wait handled that. proc.kill() # We don't call p.wait() again as p.__exit__ does that for us. raise # We used the popen context manager, which means that wait was called, # the process has existed, so it is safe to return a reference to the # process object. ret = proc.poll() info = CmdOutput(**{ 'out': out, 'err': err, 'ret': ret, 'proc': proc, 'cwd': cwd, 'command': command_text, }) # For subprocess compatability info.args = args if not detach: if verbose > 2: # https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Box-drawing_character try: log('└─── END CMD ───') except Exception: # nocover log('L___ END CMD ___') if check: if info['ret'] != 0: raise subprocess.CalledProcessError( info['ret'], info['command'], info['out'], info['err']) return info
def _textio_iterlines(stream): """ Iterates over lines in a TextIO stream until an EOF is encountered. This is the iterator version of stream.readlines() Args: stream (io.TextIOWrapper): The stream to finish reading. Yields: str: a line read from the stream. """ try: # These if statements help mitigate race conditions but does not solve # them if the stream closes in the middle of a readline. if stream.closed: # nocover return line = stream.readline() while line != '': yield line if stream.closed: # nocover return line = stream.readline() except ValueError: # nocover # Ignore I/O operation on closed files, the process was likely # killed. raise ... def _proc_async_iter_stream(proc, stream, buffersize=1, timeout=None): """ Reads output from a process in a separate thread Args: proc (subprocess.Popen): The process being run stream (io.TextIOWrapper): A stream belonging to the process e.g. ``proc.stdout`` or ``proc.stderr``. buffersize (int): Size of the returned queue. Returns: queue.Queue: The queue that the output lines will be asynchronously written to as they are read from the stream. """ import queue import threading # logger.debug(f"Create and start thread for {id(stream)}") out_queue = queue.Queue(maxsize=buffersize) control_queue = queue.Queue(maxsize=1) io_thread = threading.Thread( target=_enqueue_output_thread_worker, args=( proc, stream, out_queue, control_queue, timeout)) io_thread.daemon = True # thread dies with the program io_thread.start() return io_thread, out_queue, control_queue def _enqueue_output_thread_worker(proc, stream, out_queue, control_queue, timeout=None): """ Thread worker function This follows a similar strategy employed in http://eyalarubas.com/python-subproc-nonblock.html and https://stackoverflow.com/questions/375427/a-non-blocking-read-on-a-subprocess-pipe-in-python/4896288#4896288 Args: proc (subprocess.Popen): The process being run stream (io.TextIOWrapper): A stream belonging to the process e.g. ``proc.stdout`` or ``proc.stderr``. out_queue (queue.Queue): The queue to write to. control_queue (queue.Queue): For sending a signal to stop the thread timeout (None | float): amount of time to allow before stopping """ import queue # logger.debug(f"Start worker for {id(stream)=} with {timeout=}") def _check_if_stopped(): # nocover try: # Check if we were told to stop control_queue.get_nowait() except queue.Empty: ... else: # logger.debug(f"Thread acknowledges stop request for {id(stream)}") return True def enqueue(item): # nocover # Alternate between checking if we were stopped and putting the item in # the queue. This helps with the issue of an open process stream on # exit but it doesn't fully solve the issue because we still might # block on the stream.readline, therefore we can't guarantee this # thread will exit before the process does. if timeout is None: # If timeout is None, we can optimize this and just use the # blocking call. out_queue.put(item) return True # logger.debug('Waiting to put in item') while True: if _check_if_stopped(): return False try: out_queue.put(item, block=False) # logger.debug('Thread put in item') except queue.Full: pass else: return True while proc.poll() is None: # Note: if the underlying process has buffered output, we may get this # line well after it is initially emitted and thus be stuck waiting # here for some time. # logger.debug(f"ENQUEUE Waiting for line {id(stream)}") line = stream.readline() # logger.debug(f"ENQUEUE LIVE {id(stream)} {line!r}") if not enqueue(line): # nocover return if _check_if_stopped(): # nocover return # Coverage note: on Python 3.10 it seems like the tests don't always cover # these lines. We don't have much control over if this happens or not, so # we will exclude them from coverage checks. for line in _textio_iterlines(stream): # nocover # logger.debug(f"ENQUEUE FINAL {id(stream)} {line!r}") if not enqueue(line): # nocover return # logger.debug(f"STREAM IS DONE {id(stream)}") # signal that the stream is finished if not enqueue(None): # nocover return def _proc_iteroutput_thread(proc, timeout=None): """ Iterates over output from a process line by line. Follows the answers from [SO_375427]_. Note: WARNING. Current implementation might have bugs with other threads. This behavior was seen when using earlier versions of tqdm. I'm not sure if this was our bug or tqdm's. Newer versions of tqdm fix this, but I cannot guarantee that there isn't an issue on our end. Yields: Tuple[str, str]: oline, eline - stdout and stderr line References: .. [SO_375427] https://stackoverflow.com/questions/375427/non-blocking-read-subproc """ import queue # logger.debug("Create stdout/stderr streams") # Create threads that read stdout / stderr and queue up the output stdout_thread, stdout_queue, stdout_ctrl = _proc_async_iter_stream(proc, proc.stdout, timeout=timeout) stderr_thread, stderr_queue, stderr_ctrl = _proc_async_iter_stream(proc, proc.stderr, timeout=timeout) stdout_live = True stderr_live = True if timeout is not None: from time import monotonic as _time import subprocess start_time = _time() # read from the output asynchronously until while stdout_live or stderr_live: # Note: This function loop happens very quickly. # # logger.debug("Fast loop: check stdout / stderr threads") if timeout is not None: # Check for timeouts elapsed = _time() - start_time if elapsed >= timeout: stdout_ctrl.put('STOP') stderr_ctrl.put('STOP') # Unfortunately we can't guarantee that the threads will stop # because they might get stuck in a readline # stdout_thread.join() # stderr_thread.join() yield subprocess.TimeoutExpired, subprocess.TimeoutExpired if stdout_live: # pragma: nobranch try: oline = stdout_queue.get_nowait() stdout_live = oline is not None except queue.Empty: oline = None if stderr_live: try: eline = stderr_queue.get_nowait() stderr_live = eline is not None except queue.Empty: eline = None if oline is not None or eline is not None: yield oline, eline def _proc_iteroutput_select(proc, timeout=None): """ Iterates over output from a process line by line UNIX only. Use :func:`_proc_iteroutput_thread` instead for a cross platform solution based on threads. Args: proc (subprocess.Popen): the process being run timeout (None | float): amount of time to allow before stopping Yields: Tuple[str, str]: oline, eline - stdout and stderr line """ from itertools import zip_longest import select if timeout is not None: from time import monotonic as _time import subprocess start_time = _time() # Read output while the external program is running while proc.poll() is None: if timeout is not None: elapsed = _time() - start_time if elapsed >= timeout: yield subprocess.TimeoutExpired, subprocess.TimeoutExpired return # nocover reads = [proc.stdout.fileno(), proc.stderr.fileno()] ret = select.select(reads, [], [], timeout) oline = eline = None for fd in ret[0]: if fd == proc.stdout.fileno(): oline = proc.stdout.readline() if fd == proc.stderr.fileno(): eline = proc.stderr.readline() yield oline, eline # Grab any remaining data in stdout and stderr after the process finishes oline_iter = _textio_iterlines(proc.stdout) eline_iter = _textio_iterlines(proc.stderr) for oline, eline in zip_longest(oline_iter, eline_iter): yield oline, eline def _tee_output(proc, stdout=None, stderr=None, backend='thread', timeout=None, command_text=None): """ Simultaneously reports and captures stdout and stderr from a process subprocess must be created using (stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE) Args: proc (subprocess.Popen): the process being run stdout (io.TextIOWrapper): typically sys.stdout stderr (io.TextIOWrapper): typically sys.stderr backend (str): thread, select or auto timeout (None | float): time before raising a timeout error command_text (str): used only to construct a TimeoutExpired error. Returns: Tuple[str, str]: recorded stdout and stderr """ import subprocess logged_out = [] logged_err = [] if backend == 'auto': # backend = 'select' if POSIX else 'thread' backend = 'thread' if backend == 'select': if not POSIX: # nocover raise NotImplementedError('select is only available on posix') # the select-based version is stable, but slow _proc_iteroutput = _proc_iteroutput_select elif backend == 'thread': # the thread version is fast, but might run into issues. _proc_iteroutput = _proc_iteroutput_thread else: # nocover # The value of "backend" should be checked before we create the # processes, otherwise we will have a dangling process raise AssertionError( 'Invalid backend, but the check should have already a happened') output_gen = _proc_iteroutput(proc, timeout=timeout) # logger.debug("Start waiting for buffered output") for oline, eline in output_gen: if timeout is not None: if oline is subprocess.TimeoutExpired or eline is subprocess.TimeoutExpired: # logger.error("Timeout error triggered!") try: out = ''.join(logged_out) except UnicodeDecodeError: # nocover out = '\n'.join(_.decode('utf-8') for _ in logged_out) try: err = ''.join(logged_err) except UnicodeDecodeError: # nocover err = '\n'.join(_.decode('utf-8') for _ in logged_err) # Following the standard library implementation of # :func:`subprocess.run`, we kill (not terminate) the process # when the timeout expires. We shouldn't need the extra # communicate fix for windows because we report the tee-ed # output that already exists. But lets see what the CI says. proc.kill() proc.wait() raise subprocess.TimeoutExpired(command_text, timeout, out, err) if oline: # logger.debug("Write oline to stdout.write and logged_out") if stdout: # pragma: nobranch stdout.write(oline) stdout.flush() logged_out.append(oline) if eline: # logger.debug("Write eline to stderr.write and logged_err") if stderr: # pragma: nobranch stderr.write(eline) stderr.flush() logged_err.append(eline) # logger.debug("Continue waiting for buffered output") # The motivation for this logic is unclear. # In what cases is the logged output returned as bytes or text? # Using a bytes join probably makes more sense in most cases. try: out = ''.join(logged_out) except UnicodeDecodeError: # nocover out = '\n'.join(_.decode('utf-8') for _ in logged_out) try: err = ''.join(logged_err) except UnicodeDecodeError: # nocover err = '\n'.join(_.decode('utf-8') for _ in logged_err) return out, err # Stub for possible object oriented interface # class Command: # """ # TODO # """ # ...