The Scripting module is a no-dependency portable elixir module that eases starting and writing scripts in elixir.

The generator can be used to create a script starting point template. It can generate templates or embed the Scripting module either as a BEAM or source for the most portability.

The generator is written using the Scripting module.

Check out the presentation directory for a progression of examples for scripts.

Please read the next section about making Scripting available for thse examples.

The scripting project does not have any dependencies and does not require mix. This project can be added as a dependency to another mix project and then used for writing scripts run with mix run.

The more interesting use case is writing stand-alone script that only depends on access to elixir, the base install.

Compile the module:

elixirc lib/scripting.ex

This will create Elixir.Scripting.beam. A script under development can be run directly as long as this beam file is in your current directory since . is in the default code loading path.

The following strategies can be used to portably deploy a script:

Put a copy of the Elixir.Scripting.beam file into the same directory as your script and add the following line as the second line of your script:

Code.append_path( Path.dirname( __ENV__.file() ) )

__ENV__.file() will resolve to the full path of the script being run and is conceptually the same as argv0.

Put a copy of the beam file into a common directory. For example, a ~/ebin, add this as your line 2:

Code.append_path( Path.join( System.user_home(), "ebin" ) )

The generator can embed the source of the module or the beam file itself into your script. Look at embed-with-source or embed-with-beam. These will wrap your script and output to a new file. The script is still source and can be edited.

Note that embedding the beam file is more portable than you might expect. A beam file compiled on x86 can be used on an ARM, and vice-versa. The only real requirement is that the emulator version has to be equal or greater than the one it's compiled with. The generator will also embed a check of the beam version.

Install as a dependency with:

def deps do
  [
    {:scripting, "~> 1.0.0"}
  ]
end

To develop independent script, clone this repo:

git clone https://github.com/danj3/scripting

Documentation is at https://hexdocs.pm/scripting/.