Command help

Each command and command group should have help documentation specified inside a file under src/sfctl/helps. The help documentation can be viewed by calling a command or command group with the -h parameter.

Authoring help

Help documentation is specified in the src/sfctl/helps folder. Help files are imported at the beginning of the command file. For example:

import sfctl.helps.app # pylint: disable=unused-import

These imports appear unused, but each help file modifies the global dictionary helps. This dictionary is used by the CLI.

Each key in the helps dictionary corresponds to a complete command. For example, take a look at the sfctl compose create command help string:

helps['compose create'] = """
    type: command
    short-summary: Creates a Service Fabric application from a Compose file
    parameters:
        - name: --repo-pass
          type: string
          short-summary: Encrypted contain repository password
"""

Here the help is a YAML string with summaries. For more information on each property, see the following sections:

Summaries

Commands, command groups, and parameters can all have short-summary properties. Parameter short summaries are displayed alongside parameters when requesting command help. Command short summaries are displayed when request command group help.

Furthermore, commands can have a long-summary property that is shown when help is requested for the specific command. A long summary is a more detailed description.

Parameters

Parameters should include a type to specify the type of the parameter. They are referenced by their full parameter name. A command can have multiple parameters, specified by a YAML list.

Knack documentation

For more information, take a look at the Knack CLI module documentation used by the Service Fabric CLI.