Groom your app’s CFML dev environment with cfenv.

Use cfenv to pick a Railo version for your application and ensure that your development environment matches production.

Truly empowering. Specify your app's Railo version once, in a single file. Keep all your teammates on the same page. No headaches running apps on different versions of Railo. Just Works™ from the command line. Override the Railo version anytime: just set an environment variable.

It just works. cfenv is concerned solely with managing and switching Railo versions. It's simple and predictable.

Table of Contents

• Installation
  • Basic GitHub Checkout
    • Upgrading
  • Homebrew on Mac OS X
  • Installing Railo Versions
  • Uninstalling Railo Versions
• How It Works
  • Understanding PATH
  • Understanding Shims
  • Choosing the Railo Version
  • Locating the Railo Installation
• Command Reference
  • cfenv local
  • cfenv global
  • cfenv start
  • cfenv shell
  • cfenv versions
  • cfenv version
  • cfenv rehash
  • cfenv which
  • cfenv whence
• Development
  • License

Installation

If you're on Mac OS X, consider installing with Homebrew.

Basic GitHub Checkout

This will get you going with the latest version of cfenv and make it easy to fork and contribute any changes back upstream.

1. Check out cfenv into ~/.cfenv.

   $ git clone https://github.com/joshuairl/cfenv.git ~/.cfenv
   

2. Add ~/.cfenv/bin to your $PATH for access to the cfenv command-line utility.

   $ echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.cfenv/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bash_profile
   

   Ubuntu Desktop note: Modify your ~/.bashrc instead of ~/.bash_profile.

   Zsh note: Modify your ~/.zshrc file instead of ~/.bash_profile.

3. Add cfenv init to your shell to enable shims and autocompletion.

   $ echo 'eval "$(cfenv init -)"' >> ~/.bash_profile
   

   Same as in previous step, use ~/.bashrc on Ubuntu, or ~/.zshrc for Zsh.

4. Restart your shell so that PATH changes take effect. (Opening a new terminal tab will usually do it.) Now check if cfenv was set up:

   $ type cfenv
   #=> "cfenv is a function"
   

5. Install a Railo version. Installing new Railo versions.

Upgrading

If you've installed cfenv manually using git, you can upgrade your installation to the cutting-edge version at any time.

$ cd ~/.cfenv
$ git pull

To use a specific release of cfenv, check out the corresponding tag:

$ cd ~/.cfenv
$ git fetch
$ git checkout v0.0.5

If you've installed via Homebrew, then upgrade via its brew command:

$ brew update
$ brew upgrade cfenv railo-build

Homebrew on Mac OS X

As an alternative to installation via GitHub checkout, you can install cfenv using the Homebrew package manager on Mac OS X:

$ brew tap joshuairl/homebrew-cfenv
$ brew update
$ brew install cfenv

Afterwards you'll still need to add eval "$(cfenv init -)" to your profile as stated in the caveats. You'll only ever have to do this once.

Mac OS X

$ nano ~/.bash_profile

Ubuntu-desktop / Linux Distros

Neckbeard Configuration

Skip this section unless you must know what every line in your shell profile is doing.

cfenv init is the only command that crosses the line of loading extra commands into your shell. Coming from RVM, some of you might be opposed to this idea. Here's what cfenv init actually does:

1. Sets up your shims path. This is the only requirement for cfenv to function properly. You can do this by hand by prepending ~/.cfenv/shims to your $PATH.

2. Installs autocompletion. This is entirely optional but pretty useful. Sourcing ~/.cfenv/completions/cfenv.bash will set that up. There is also a ~/.cfenv/completions/cfenv.zsh for Zsh users.

3. Rehashes shims. From time to time you'll need to rebuild your shim files. Doing this automatically makes sure everything is up to date. You can always run cfenv rehash manually.

4. Installs the sh dispatcher. The sh dispatcher doesn't do anything crazy like override cd or hack your shell prompt, but if for some reason you need cfenv to be a real script rather than a shell function, you can safely skip it.

Run cfenv init - for yourself to see exactly what happens under the hood.

Installing Railo Versions

The cfenv install command downloads, and installs Railo Express versions for you.

# list all available versions:
$ cfenv install -l

# install a Railo version:
$ cfenv install 4.1.1.009

Uninstalling Railo Versions

As time goes on, Railo versions you install will accumulate in your ~/.cfenv/versions directory.

# uninstall a railo version
$ cfenv uninstall 4.1.1.009

You can also remove old Railo versions by rm -rf the directory of the version you want to remove. You can find the directory of a particular Railo version with the cfenv prefix command, e.g. cfenv prefix 4.1.1.009.

Starting a Railo Context

Once you have an installed version of Railo and have set it globally or locally for a project. You can start the web server for your project with the cfenv start command.

# start a railo web server in the current directory
$ cfenv start

You can also specify a custom port if the default 8888 just won't due.

# define a custom port for the web server
$ cfenv start -p 3000

How It Works

At a high level, cfenv intercepts Railo commands using shim executables injected into your PATH, determines which Railo version has been specified by your application, and passes your commands along to the correct Railo installation.

Understanding PATH

When you run a command like railo_init, your operating system searches through a list of directories to find an executable file with that name. This list of directories lives in an environment variable called PATH, with each directory in the list separated by a colon:

/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin

Directories in PATH are searched from left to right, so a matching executable in a directory at the beginning of the list takes precedence over another one at the end. In this example, the /usr/local/bin directory will be searched first, then /usr/bin, then /bin.

Understanding Shims

cfenv works by inserting a directory of shims at the front of your PATH:

~/.cfenv/shims:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin

Through a process called rehashing, cfenv maintains shims in that directory to match every Railo command across every installed version of Railo—railo_init only at this point.

railo_init is responsible for creating and/or starting a Railo context within the current directory. We will be adding other separate command line tools for Railo and CFWheels framework at later date. Shims are lightweight executables that simply pass your command along to cfenv. So with cfenv installed, when you run, say, railo_init, your operating system will do the following:

• Search your PATH for an executable file named railo_init
• Find the cfenv shim named railo_init at the beginning of your PATH
• Run the shim named railo_init, which in turn passes the command along to cfenv

Choosing the Railo Version

When you execute a shim, cfenv determines which Railo version to use by reading it from the following sources, in this order:

1. The CFENV_VERSION environment variable, if specified. You can use the cfenv shell command to set this environment variable in your current shell session.

2. The first .railo-version file found by searching the directory of the script you are executing and each of its parent directories until reaching the root of your filesystem.

3. The first .railo-version file found by searching the current working directory and each of its parent directories until reaching the root of your filesystem. You can modify the .railo-version file in the current working directory with the cfenv local command.

4. The global ~/.cfenv/version file. You can modify this file using the cfenv global command. If the global version file is not present, cfenv assumes you want to use the "system" Railo—i.e. whatever version would be run if cfenv weren't in your path.

Locating the Railo Installation

Once cfenv has determined which version of Railo your application has specified, it passes the command along to the corresponding Railo installation.

Each Railo version is installed into its own directory under ~/.cfenv/versions. For example, you might have these versions installed:

• ~/.cfenv/versions/4.1.1.009/
• ~/.cfenv/versions/3.0.2.000/
• ~/.cfenv/versions/3.3.3.001/

Version names to cfenv are simply the names of the directories in ~/.cfenv/versions.

Command Reference

Like git, the cfenv command delegates to subcommands based on its first argument. The most common subcommands are:

cfenv local

Sets a local application-specific Railo version by writing the version name to a .railo-version file in the current directory. This version overrides the global version, and can be overridden itself by setting the CFENV_VERSION environment variable or with the cfenv shell command.

$ cfenv local 3.0.2.001

When run without a version number, cfenv local reports the currently configured local version. You can also unset the local version:

$ cfenv local --unset

cfenv global

Sets the global version of Railo to be used in all shells by writing the version name to the ~/.cfenv/version file. This version can be overridden by an application-specific .railo-version file, or by setting the CFENV_VERSION environment variable.

$ cfenv global 4.1.1.009

When run without a version number, cfenv global reports the currently configured global version.

cfenv start

Starts a railo web server context within the current directory.

$ cfenv start

Also, you can specify the port the server will run on if the default 8888 just won't do.

$ cfenv start --port 3000

cfenv shell

Sets a shell-specific Railo version by setting the CFENV_VERSION environment variable in your shell. This version overrides application-specific versions and the global version.

$ cfenv shell 4.1.1.009

When run without a version number, cfenv shell reports the current value of CFENV_VERSION. You can also unset the shell version:

$ cfenv shell --unset

Note that you'll need cfenv's shell integration enabled (step 3 of the installation instructions) in order to use this command. If you prefer not to use shell integration, you may simply set the CFENV_VERSION variable yourself:

$ export CFENV_VERSION=4.1.1.009

cfenv versions

Lists all Railo versions known to cfenv, and shows an asterisk next to the currently active version.

$ cfenv versions
  4.1.1.009
  3.3.3.001
* 3.0.2.001

cfenv version

Displays the currently active Railo version, along with information on how it was set.

$ cfenv version
4.1.1.009 (set by /Users/joshua/Projects/my_cfml_project/.railo-version)

cfenv rehash

Installs shims for all Railo executables known to cfenv (i.e., ~/.cfenv/versions/*/bin/*). Run this command after you install a new version of Railo, or install a gem that provides commands.

$ cfenv rehash

cfenv which

Displays the full path to the executable that cfenv will invoke when you run the given command.

$ cfenv which railo_init
/Users/joshua/.cfenv/versions/4.1.1.009/bin/railo_init

cfenv whence

Lists all Railo versions with the given command installed.

$ cfenv whence railo_init
4.1.1.009
3.3.3.001
3.0.2.000

Special Thanks

A big special thanks to Sam Stephenson (github.com/sstephenson) for building just a great Ruby tool called RBENV. Without it, CFENV would be nothing.

License

(The MIT license)

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.