invoke: A Python repository from pekkaklarck

Invoke is a Python (2.6+ and 3.3+) task execution tool & library, drawing inspiration from various sources to arrive at a powerful & clean feature set.

Like Ruby's Rake tool and Invoke's own predecessor Fabric 1.x, it provides a clean, high level API for running shell commands and defining/organizing task functions from a tasks.py file:

from invoke import task

@task
def clean(ctx, docs=False, bytecode=False, extra=''):
    patterns = ['build']
    if docs:
        patterns.append('docs/_build')
    if bytecode:
        patterns.append('**/*.pyc')
    if extra:
        patterns.append(extra)
    for pattern in patterns:
        ctx.run("rm -rf {0}".format(pattern))

@task
def build(ctx, docs=False):
    ctx.run("python setup.py build")
    if docs:
        ctx.run("sphinx-build docs docs/_build")

From GNU Make, it inherits an emphasis on minimal boilerplate for common patterns and the ability to run multiple tasks in a single invocation:
```
$ invoke clean build
```

Where Fabric 1.x considered the command-line approach the default mode of use, Invoke (and tools built on it) are equally at home embedded in your own Python code or a REPL:

.. testsetup:: blurb

    fakeout = """
    Hello, this is pip
    Installing is fun
    Fake output is fake
    Successfully installed invocations-0.13.0 pep8-1.5.7 spec-1.3.1
    """
    proc = MockSubprocess(out=fakeout, exit=0)

.. testcleanup:: blurb

    proc.stop()

>>> from invoke import run
>>> cmd = "pip install -r requirements.txt"
>>> result = run(cmd, hide=True, warn=True)
>>> print(result.ok)
True
>>> print(result.stdout.splitlines()[-1])
Successfully installed invocations-0.13.0 pep8-1.5.7 spec-1.3.1

Following the lead of most Unix CLI applications, it offers a traditional flag-based style of command-line parsing, deriving flag names and value types from task signatures (optionally, of course!):
```
$ invoke clean --docs --bytecode build --docs --extra='**/*.pyo'
$ invoke clean -d -b build --docs -e '**/*.pyo'
$ invoke clean -db build -de '**/*.pyo'
```
Like many of its predecessors, it offers advanced features as well -- namespacing, task aliasing, before/after hooks, parallel execution and more.

For documentation, including detailed installation information, please see http://pyinvoke.org. Post-install usage information may be found in invoke --help.

You can install the development version via pip install -e git+https://github.com/pyinvoke/invoke#egg=invoke.

pekkaklarck/invoke