Standard Commands

With the newly created project as your current directory, you can get its list of commands by using the project's bld instead of the global one:

./bld

You'll see a similar output as you saw in the installation section, but this time only the commands that your project supports are listed:

Welcome to bld 2.1.0.

The bld CLI provides its features through a series of commands that
perform specific tasks.

The following commands are supported:

  clean            Cleans the build files
  compile          Compiles the project
  dependency-tree  Outputs the dependency tree of the project
  download         Downloads all dependencies of the project
  help             Provides help about any of the other commands
  jar              Creates a jar archive for the project
  jar-javadoc      Creates a javadoc jar archive for the project
  jar-sources      Creates a sources jar archive for the project
  javadoc          Generates javadoc for the project
  precompile       Pre-compiles RIFE2 templates to class files
  publish          Publishes the artifacts of your web project
  publish-local    Publishes to the local maven repository
  purge            Purges all unused artifacts from the project
  run              Runs the project (take option)
  test             Tests the project with JUnit (takes options)
  uberjar          Creates an UberJar archive for the project
  updates          Checks for updates of the project dependencies
  version          Outputs the version of the build system
  war              Creates a war archive for the project

The following bld arguments are supported:

  --offline         Works without Internet (only as first argument)
  -?, -h, --help    Shows the help
  -D<name>=<value>  Sets a JVM system property
  -s, --stacktrace  Prints out the stacktrace for exceptions

NOTE: As your project's build logic evolves, it's entirely possible that more commands get added, or that existing commands get changed.

TIP: bld searches for an existing command when there's no exact match, meaning that bld updates could be bld update, or even bld ud, or bld download purge could be bld do pur. As long as there's no ambiguity about which command to use, it will be executed.

compile and run

To compile the project and run it, simply type:

./bld compile run

Now visit http://localhost:8080 in your browser to see the application running.

Press control+c to quit the running application.

bld automatically figures out the classpath entries necessary for the compilation of your sources. Note that this simply happens by putting jar files in the relevant lib directories. If you don't want to use the dependency system, this is an easy way to set up a local project with files you already have.

TIP: If you're developing a RIFE2 project, you can freely edit the main resources while the application is running, the IDE projects and bld are set up in such a way that RIFE2's auto-reloading features work out of the box.

clean

If you've used any other build tool before, clean does exactly what it says, it cleans all the files that were generated by the build system.

This is very useful if you want to be absolutely sure that no older lingering files are present, which is probably what you want when you create an archive for distribution.

dependency-tree

This outputs the full dependency tree of all the extension and the dependency scopes, making it easy to understand why certain jar files might be pulled in.

download

Downloads all the files that are part of your project's dependencies. Any files that were already downloaded and that are identical, will not be downloaded again. This is an easy way to get new files when you update your dependencies.

NOTE: If you're fine with bld automatically managing your dependency downloads, similarly to other build tools like Maven or Gradle, you can set the autoDownloadPurge option in your project to true.

help

Outputs the main help, but can also provide additional help about any of the other commands, for instance:

./bld help test
Welcome to bld 2.1.0.

Tests the project with JUnit.

Additional JUnit console launcher options can be
provided after the command.

These commandline options are provided by this command:
--junit-help   see the full list of JUnit launcher options
--junit-clear  clear the JUnit launcher options the build uses
               (needs to be provided before other options)

Usage : test [OPTIONS]

jar

This commands creates a jar archive of the compiled classes from your main source files. When the command finishes, it lets you know where the archive is that was created:

The jar archive was created at '/Users/youruser/myapp/build/dist/myapp-0.1.0.jar'

jar-javadoc

This commands creates a javadoc archive of your main source files. When the command finishes, it lets you know where the archive is that was created:

The jar archive was created at '/Users/youruser/myapp/build/dist/myapp-0.1.0-javadoc.jar'

jar-sources

This commands creates an archive of your main source files. When the command finishes, it lets you know where the archive is that was created:

The jar archive was created at '/Users/youruser/myapp/build/dist/myapp-0.1.0-sources.jar'

javadoc

The command generates javadoc for the main source files of your project.

precompile

RIFE2's templates can be precompiled to Java classes for production deployment. This command looks at the templates in your main resources and precompiles the types that were added to the precompiledTemplateTypes of your project.

publish

Builds the 'jar' artifact of a project, and also the 'uberjar' and 'war' artifacts of a web project, publishing them to a Maven-compatible repository when successful.

In order for publishing to succeed, you need to set the publishRepository. Some information can be inferred by bld, though it's recommended to configure the publishing metadata by also setting publishInfo in your project.

publish-local

Performs the exact same logic as the publish command, but replaces all the public repositories with your local maven repository.

purge

Resolves all the dependencies in your project and deletes the lib files that don't correspond. Using download purge as commands in succession, is a convenient way to update all your libraries to your latest dependency versions and to have nothing lingering in your classpath.

test

Runs the tests that are available in your project.

The blank and RIFE2 projects use JUnit 5 and its execution tool by default, the base project uses your main file in the test sources as the tool. This behavior can be changed by customizing your project.

Don't forget to compile your sources before running the tests, or the execution will fail.

The blank and RIFE2 projects JUnit 5 command has a default configuration set that can be customized either in your build project, or through the commandline. The JUnitOptions javadocs provide information on how to change your build, and typing ./bld help test will give you additional command line information:

./bld help test
Welcome to bld 2.1.0.

Tests the project with JUnit.

Additional JUnit console launcher options can be
provided after the command.

These commandline options are provided by this command:
--junit-help   see the full list of JUnit launcher options
--junit-clear  clear the JUnit launcher options the build uses
               (needs to be provided before other options)

Usage : test [OPTIONS]

If you for instance only want to test a particular package, you could type:

./bld test --select-package=package.to.test

uberjar

An UberJar contains all the classes required to run your application, even those of your dependencies. When the command finishes, it lets you know where the archive is that was created:

The uberjar archive was created at '/Users/youruser/myapp/build/dist/myapp-0.1.0-uber.jar'

To launch the application with the UberJar, simply type:

java -jar myapp-0.1.0-uber.jar

updates

Resolves all your dependencies and checks if newer version are available. This command doesn't make any changes to your build files but simply lists what is available, for example:

The following dependency updates were found.
compile:
    com.uwyn.rife2:rife2:1.7.0
standalone:
    org.eclipse.jetty:jetty-server:11.0.15
    org.slf4j:slf4j-simple:2.0.7

If you want to change your dependencies to newer versions, manually update the build files and use bld to download and purge.

version

Outputs the version of bld that you're using.

war

Creates a war archive that can be deployed in a Java servlet container. The structure of your project dictates how the files in your war archive are organized. When the command finishes, it lets you know where the archive is that was created:

The war archive was created at '/Users/youruser/myapp/build/dist/myapp-0.1.0.war'

---

Next learn more about Custom Bld Commands