CommandBox's true power comes from it's command-based architecture, but we also support just running plain-jane .cfm files as well.

Running plain CFML files

Take the following file for example:

test.cfm

<cfoutput>#now()#</cfoutput>

We can execute this file directly from our native OS prompt by simply passing the filename straight into the box binary.

C:\> box test.cfm
{ts '2015-02-19 20:14:13'}

Or, I can run it from within the CommandBox interactive shell using the execute command:

CommandBox> execute test.cfm
{ts '2015-02-19 20:12:41'}

#! Goodness

Now, you people on Unix-based operating systems like Mac and Linux get a special treat. You can actually create natively executable shell scripts that contain CFML! Check out this file that has the special hash bang at top:

test

#!/usr/bin/env box
​
<cfoutput>#now()#</cfoutput>

All we need to do is make it executable

chmod +x test

And then just run it like any other shell script!

$> ./test
​
{ts '2015-02-19 20:31:32'}

CFML Engine

The underlying engine used to execute your files will be the version of Lucee Server that the CLI is currently running on. Note, this can change between releases, and you can see the current version by running the info command. If you want to try to use the <cfadmin> tag to do things like create datasources, the default password for the Lucee server context is commandbox.

Hopefully this gives you a lot of ideas of how to start using CFML on your next automation task. And if you want even more control like print objects, object oriented code, and fancy parameters, look into making custom CommandBox commands.