SYNOPSIS Running the server From your Perinci::Access::HTTP::Server-based PSGI application: use Perinci::CmdLine::Server qw(create_cmdline_server); create_cmdline_server( name => 'app1', cmdline_args => { url => '/Some/Module/some_func', log_any_app => 0, }, ); Or, shortcut for simple cases: use Perinci::CmdLine::Server -app1 => '/Some/Module/some_func'; Or, for testing using peri-htserve: % peri-htserve --gepok-unix-sockets /tmp/app1.sock \ -MPerinci::CmdLine::Server=-app1,/Some/Module/some_func \ Perinci::CmdLine::Server::app::app1,noload Using the server for completion # foo-complete #!perl use HTTP::Tiny::UNIX; use JSON; my $hres = HTTP::Tiny::UNIX->new->post_form( 'http:/tmp/app1.sock//api/Perinci/CmdLine/Server/app/app1/complete_cmdline', { cmdline => $ENV{COMP_LINE}, point => $ENV{COMP_POINT}, '-riap-fmt' => 'json', }, ); my $rres = decode_json($hres->{content}); print $rres->[2]; Activate bash tab completion: % chmod +x foo-complete % complete -C foo-complete foo % foo <Tab> Now foo will be tab-completed using Rinci specification from Some::Module's some_func. DESCRIPTION Currently, Perinci::CmdLine::Classic-based CLI applications have a perceptible startup overhead (between 0.15-0.35s or even more, depending on your hardware, those numbers are for 2011-2013 PC/laptop hardware). Some of the cause of the overhead is subroutine wrapping (see Perinci::Sub::Wrapper) which also involves compilation of Sah schemas (see Data::Sah), all of which are necessary for the convenience of using Rinci metadata to specify aspects of your functions. This level of overhead is a bit annoying when we are doing shell tab completion (Perinci::CmdLine::Classic-based applications call themselves for doing tab completion, e.g. through bash's complete -C progname progname mechanism). Ideally, tab completion should take no longer than 0.05-0.1s to feel instantaneous. One (temporary?) solution to this annoyance is to start a daemon that listens to Riap requests (either through Unix domain sockets or TCP/IP). This way, the completion external command can just be a lightweight HTTP client which asks the server for the completion and displays the result to STDOUT for bash (this only requires, e.g. HTTP::Tiny::Unix + Complete::Bash). In the future, other functionalities aside from completion can also be "off-loaded" to the server side to make the CLI program lighter and quicker to start. This might require a refactoring of Perinci::CmdLine::Classic codebase so it's more "stateless" and reusable/safer for multiple requests (perhaps will be made non-OO in the core so it's clear what states are being passed?) In the future, Perinci::CmdLine::Classic might also be configured to automatically start a daemon after the first run (and retire/kill the daemon after being idle for, say, 30 minute or an hour). How does it work? In your Perinci::Access::HTTP::Server-based PSGI application: use Perinci::CmdLine::Server qw(create_cmdline_server); create_cmdline_server( name => 'app1', cmdline_args => { url => '/Some/Module/some_func', log_any_app => 0, }, ); This will create an instance of Perinci::CmdLine::Classic object (the cmdline_args argument will be fed to the constructor). It will also create a Perl package dynamically (the default is Perinci::CmdLine::Server::app:: + application name specified in name argument). The package will contain several functions along with their Rinci metadata. The functions can then be accessed over Riap protocol. So far, the only function available is: complete_cmdline. You can use it to request command-line completion. The Perinci::CmdLine::Classic object will persist as long as the process lives. You can of course start several applications. Caveats Leaving daemons around could give rise to some security and resource-usage issues. It is ideal in situations where you already have a daemon for other purposes (for example, in Spanel there is already an API daemon service running; the command-line client uses this daemon to request for tab completion). Some code which normally runs on the client-side will now run on the server-side. For example, the custom_completer and custom_arg_completer code. You have to make sure that authentication and authorization issues are handled. SEE ALSO Perinci::CmdLine::Classic Perinci::Access::HTTP::Server