Getting Started with Updates to CouchDocs

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I have been using my couch_docs gem quite a bit while working through my second chain and I must say, it is getting on my nerves. A short list of improvements that I would like includes:

• Better command line experience.
  • Should default to current directory.
  • Should print help without args / better format
• Should use the bulk docs
• Should support the !json and !code macros from couchapp
• Should support a flag to only work on design docs (mostly for export).
• Should create the DB if it doesn't already exist

I wrote the gem and I don't remember how to use it. At the very least, I'd like a quick refresher from the command line. Unfortunately this is what I get:

cstrom@whitefall:~/repos/couch_docs$ couch-docs
/home/cstrom/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/couch_docs-1.0.0/lib/couch_docs/command_line.rb:24:in `run': Unknown command  (ArgumentError)
        from /home/cstrom/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/couch_docs-1.0.0/lib/couch_docs/command_line.rb:4:in `run'
        from /home/cstrom/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/couch_docs-1.0.0/bin/couch-docs:8
        from /home/cstrom/.gem/ruby/1.8/bin/couch-docs:19:in `load'
        from /home/cstrom/.gem/ruby/1.8/bin/couch-docs:19

Bah! That's much too much junk. Even when I ask for help, I get too much path information:

cstrom@whitefall:~/repos/couch_docs$ ./bin/couch-docs -h
/home/cstrom/.gem/ruby/1.8/bin/couch-docs load dir         couchdb_uri
/home/cstrom/.gem/ruby/1.8/bin/couch-docs dump couchdb_uri dir

Getting just the basename is trivial as is displaying help info with no command line options:

      when "help", "--help", "-h", nil
        puts "#{File.basename($0)} load <dir>         <couchdb_uri>"
        puts "#{File.basename($0)} dump <couchdb_uri> <dir>"

That makes for much better output:

cstrom@whitefall:~/repos/couch_docs$ ./bin/couch-docs
couch-docs load <dir>         <couchdb_uri>
couch-docs dump <couchdb_uri> <dir>

As I have been using couch_docs, I have always loaded from or dumped documents to the current working directory:

cstrom@whitefall:~/tmp/seed$ ./bin/couch-docs dump http://localhost:5984/eee .

Maybe it is silly, but I would just as soon not have to type the dot. Besides, after using couchapp for a while, I have gotten used to not having to type this. It is easy enough to add the current working directory to the options:

    def initialize(args)
      @command = args.shift
      @options = args
      @options.push('.') if @options.size == 1
    end

An Unexpected Tangent

I have long since forgotten what I meant to do next, but at some point I tried running rake -T only to be told:

cstrom@whitefall:~/repos/couch_docs$ rake -T
(in /home/cstrom/repos/couch_docs)   
rake aborted!
### please install the "bones" gem ###
/home/cstrom/repos/couch_docs/Rakefile:12
(See full trace by running task with --trace)

I installed bones (which I used to create couch_docs in the first place):

cstrom@whitefall:~/repos/couch_docs$ gem install bones
WARNING:  Installing to ~/.gem since /var/lib/gems/1.8 and
          /var/lib/gems/1.8/bin aren't both writable.
--------------------------
 Keep rattlin' dem bones!
--------------------------
Successfully installed rake-0.8.7
Successfully installed little-plugger-1.1.2
Successfully installed loquacious-1.4.2
Successfully installed bones-3.2.1   
4 gems installed

When I run rake -T now, I find:

cstrom@whitefall:~/repos/couch_docs$ rake -T
(in /home/cstrom/repos/couch_docs)   
rake aborted!
### please install the "bones" gem ###
/home/cstrom/repos/couch_docs/Rakefile:12
(See full trace by running task with --trace)

At first I suspected a require 'rubygems' problem, but the rake task that I am using does require rubygems:

cstrom@whitefall:~/repos/couch_docs$ which rake
/home/cstrom/.gem/ruby/1.8/bin/rake
cstrom@whitefall:~/repos/couch_docs$ cat /home/cstrom/.gem/ruby/1.8/bin/rake
#!/usr/bin/ruby1.8
#
# This file was generated by RubyGems.
#
# The application 'rake' is installed as part of a gem, and
# this file is here to facilitate running it.
#

require 'rubygems'

version = ">= 0"

if ARGV.first =~ /^_(.*)_$/ and Gem::Version.correct? $1 then
  version = $1
  ARGV.shift
end

gem 'rake', version
load Gem.bin_path('rake', 'rake', version)

I eventually trace this back to the wrong version of the bones gem:

cstrom@whitefall:~/repos/couch_docs$ gem list | grep bones
bones (3.2.1)

I had originally used version 2.5 of bones to build my gem. After uninstalling the latest version of bones and installing 2.5, the problem goes away. I am not sure why it is not possible to require 'bones' in version 3.2.1. Something to investigate tomorrow. Maybe.

Day #27