CommandBox : CLI, Package Manager, REPL & More
5.7.0
5.7.0
  • Introduction
  • About This Book
  • Authors
  • Overview
  • Release History
    • 5.x Versions
      • What's New in 5.4.2
      • What's New in 5.4.1
      • What's New in 5.4.0
      • What's New in 5.3.1
      • What's New in 5.3.0
      • What's New in 5.2.1
      • What's New in 5.2.0
      • What's New in 5.1.1
      • What's New in 5.1.0
      • What's New in 5.0.0
    • 4.x Versions
      • What's new in 4.8.0
      • What's New in 4.7.0
      • What's New in 4.6.0
      • What's New in 4.5.0
      • What's New in 4.4.0
      • What's New in 4.3.0
      • What's New in 4.2.0
      • What's New in 4.1.0
      • What's New in 4.0.0
    • 3.x Versions
      • What's New in 3.9.0
      • What's New in 3.8.0
      • What's New in 3.7.0
      • What's New in 3.6.0
      • What's New in 3.5.0
      • What's New in 3.4.0
      • What's New in 3.3.0
      • What's New in 3.2.0
      • What's New in 3.1.1
      • What's New in 3.0.1
      • What's New in 3.0.0
    • 2.x Versions
      • What's New in 2.2.0
      • What's New in 2.1.1
      • What's New in 2.1.0
      • What's New in 2.0.0
    • 1.x Versions
      • What's in 1.0.0
  • Getting Started Guide
  • Setup
    • Requirements
    • Download
    • Installation
    • Light and Thin Binaries
    • Non-Oracle JREs
    • Upgrading
    • Common Errors
  • Usage
    • Execution
      • Recipes
      • CFML Files
        • Using a DB in CFML scripts
      • OS Binaries
      • CFML Functions
      • Exit Codes
    • Commands
    • Parameters
      • Escaping Special Characters
      • File Paths
      • Globbing Patterns
      • Piping into Commands
      • Expressions
    • Command Help
    • Environment Variables
    • System Settings
    • System Setting Expansion Namespaces
    • Ad-hoc Command Aliases
    • Default Command Parameters
    • REPL
    • Tab Completion
    • Interactive Shell Features
    • forEach Command
    • watch Command
    • jq Command
    • printTable Command
    • sql Command
    • Auto Update Checks
    • Bullet Train Prompt
    • 256 Color Support
    • A Little Fun
  • IDE Integrations
    • Sublime Text
    • Visual Studio Code
  • Config Settings
    • Module Settings
    • Proxy Settings
    • Endpoint Settings
    • Server Settings
    • JSON Settings
    • Misc Settings
    • Task Runner Settings
    • Env Var Overrides
  • Embedded Server
    • Multi-Engine Support
    • ModCFML Support
    • Server Versions
    • Start HTML Server
    • Offline Server Starts
    • Debugging Server Starts
    • Server Processes
    • Manage Servers
    • FusionReactor
    • Server Logs
    • Server Scripts
    • Configuring Your Server
      • Security
        • Basic Authentication
        • Client Cert Authentication
      • Server Profiles
      • Server Rules
        • Baked in Rules
        • Allowed Static Files
        • Rule Language
        • Custom Predicates/Handlers
        • Rule Examples
        • Debugging Server Rules
      • Server Port and Host
      • Proxy IP
      • SSL Server Certs
        • SSL Client Certs
      • HTTPS Redirect/HSTS
      • URL Rewrites
      • Aliases
      • Custom Error Pages
      • Welcome Files
      • Custom Java Version
      • Adding Custom Libs
      • GZip Compression
      • REST Servlet
      • Performance Tuning
      • Undertow Options
      • Custom Tray Menus
      • JVM Args
      • Ad-hoc Env Vars
      • Ad-Hoc Java System Properties
      • server.json Env Var overrides
      • Server Home
      • web.xml Overrides
      • Experimental Features
    • External Web Server
    • Starting as a Service
    • Single Server Mode
    • Server.json
      • Working with server.json
      • Packaging Your Server
      • Using Multiple server.json Files
  • Package Management
    • Installing Packages
      • Installation Path
      • Installation Options
      • Advanced Installation
    • Private Packages
    • System Modules
    • Code Endpoints
      • ForgeBox
      • HTTP(S)
      • File
      • Folder
      • Git
      • Java
      • S3
      • CFLib
      • Jar (via HTTP)
      • Lex (via HTTP or File)
      • Gist
    • Package Scripts
    • Dependencies
    • Semantic Versioning
    • Updating Packages
    • Creating Packages
      • Editing Package Properties
      • Publishing Lucee Extensions to ForgeBox
    • Artifacts
    • Box.json
      • Basic Package Data
      • Extended Package Data
      • Package URLs
      • Installation
      • Embedded Server
      • Dependencies
      • TestBox
    • Managing Version
  • Task Runners
    • Task Anatomy
    • BaseTask Super Class
    • Task Target Dependencies
    • Passing Parameters
    • Using Parameters
    • Task Output
      • Printing tables
    • Lifecycle Events
    • Threading/Async
    • Task Interactivity
    • Shell Integration
    • Downloading Files
    • Running Other Commands
    • Error Handling
    • Hitting Your Database
    • Sending E-mail
    • Interactive Jobs
    • Watchers
    • Property Files
    • Running other Tasks
    • Loading Ad hoc Jars
    • Loading Ad-hoc Modules
    • Cancel Long Tasks
    • Progress Bar
    • Caching Task Runners
  • Helpful Commands
    • Token Replacements
    • Checksums
    • Code Quality Tools
    • ask and confirm
  • Deploying CommandBox
    • Github Actions
    • Docker
    • Heroku
    • Amazon Lightsail
  • TestBox Integration
    • Test Runner
    • Test Watcher
  • Developing For CommandBox
    • Modules
      • Installation and Locations
      • Configuration
        • Public Properties
        • Configure() Method
        • Lifecycle Methods
      • Conventions
      • User Settings
      • Linking Modules
    • Commands
      • Aliases
      • Using Parameters
        • Using File Globs
        • Dynamic Parameters
      • Command Output
      • Tab Completion & Help
      • Interactivity
      • Watchers
      • Shell integration
      • Running Other Commands
      • Error handling
      • Watchers
      • Loading Ad hoc Jars
    • Interceptors
      • Core Interception Points
        • CLI Lifecycle
        • Command Execution Lifecycle
        • Module Lifecycle
        • Server Lifecycle
        • Error Handling
        • Package Lifecycle
      • Custom Interception Points
    • Injection DSL
    • Example Project
    • FusionReactor for the CLI
  • ForgeBox Enterprise
    • Introduction
    • Storage
    • Commands
      • List
      • Register
      • Login
      • Set Default
      • Remove
    • Usage
Powered by GitBook
On this page
  • Using system settings from the CLI
  • Default values
  • Lookup Order
  • Using system settings in JSON files
  • In the REPL
  • Manual system setting replacements
  • In a complex data structure
  • In a string
  • Programmatic access

Was this helpful?

Edit on GitHub
Export as PDF
  1. Usage

System Settings

Now that we're starting to use CommandBox in a lot of cloud scenarios like Docker, we're looking for more and more ways to have dynamic configuration. The most common way to do this is via Java system properties and environment variables. We've wrapped up those two into a new concept called System Settings. Now any time you use ${mySetting} in a command parameter, a box.json property, server.json property, or a Config Setting, that place holder will be replaced with a matching JVM property or env var (in that order) at runtime. This is great for setting things like ports, default directories, or passwords and other secrets as an env variable so it can be different per server and not part of your code.

Using system settings from the CLI

You can test it out easily by outputting your system path like so:

echo ${PATH}

Default values

If a system setting can't be found in a Java property or an environment variable, an empty string will be returned. You can provide a default value like so.

server start port=${SERVER_PORT:8080}
server set web.host=${SERVER_HOST:localsite.dev}

This does assume that your system setting name will never contain a colon! Also do not use inner single quotes for system setting name nor the default value.

Lookup Order

System settings are looked up in the following order. If the same variable exists in more than one place, the first one found will be used:

  1. Environment variables for the currently executing command

  2. Environment variables for the parent (calling) command (if applicable)

  3. Global shell environment variables

  4. JVM System Properties in the CLI process

  5. Environment Variables from your actual operating system

For example, if you run the following it will output the contents of your OS's PATH environment variable.

echo ${path}

However, if you set a shell environment variable from inside CommandBox called path and then output it, you will see the contents of your variable since it overrides.

set path=donuts
echo ${path}

Using system settings in JSON files

When box.json or server.json files are read, they automatically have all system setting setting placeholders swapped out. For instance, you can specify the port for your server in your server.json like so:

 server set web.http.port=\${WEB_PORT:8080}

Note, we escaped the system setting by putting a backslash (\) in front of it. That's because we wanted to insert the actual text into the file and not the value of it! The resultant server.json is this. Note the system setting needs to be encased in quotes so it's just a string for the JSON.

{
    "web":{
        "http":{
            "port":"${WEB_PORT:8080}"
        }
    }
}

Now, if your server has an environment variable called WEB_PORT, it will be used as the port for your server.

System settings can also be used in object key names as well in your JSON files. Here is an example of a .cfconfig.json file with a dynamic datasource name.

{
  "datasources":{
    "myDSN-${environment}":{
      "database":"test",
      "dbdriver":"MSSQL",
      "dsn":"jdbc:sqlserver://{host}:{port}",
      "host":"localhost",
      "password":"password",
      "username":"user"
    }
  }
}

Note if there are duplicate key names after the system settings are expanded, the last one expanded will win.

In the REPL

You can use system settings and environment variables in the REPL using the same syntax as the CLI

CommandBox> set foo=bar
CommandBox> REPL

CFSCRIPT-REPL: echo( '${foo}' )
bar

Manual system setting replacements

If you're writing a custom command or task runner that reads a JSON file of your own making, you can do easy system setting replacements on the file.

In a complex data structure

component {
    property name='systemSettings' inject='SystemSettings';

     function run() {
        var mySettings = deserializeJSON( fileRead( 'mySpecialConfigFile.json' ) );
        systemSettings.expandDeepSystemSettings( mySettings );
     }

}

In a string

The expandDeepSystemSettings() method will recursively crawl the struct and find any strings with system setting placeholders inside them. Be careful not to write back out the same struct after you've done replacements on it. Otherwise, you'll overwrite the placeholders with the current values!

You can also manually replace system setting placeholders in a single string like so:

var myValue = 'User home is in ${user.home}';
myValue = systemSettings.expandSystemSettings( myValue );

Programmatic access

The SystemSettings service also gives you programmatic access to individual system settings in your custom commands and task runners.

var mySetting = systemSettings.getSystemSetting( 'settingName' );
or
var mySetting = systemSettings.getSystemSetting( 'settingName', 'defaultValue' );
PreviousEnvironment VariablesNextSystem Setting Expansion Namespaces

Last updated 2 years ago

Was this helpful?