[Haskell] ANNOUNCE: HsUnix 1.0.1 - Haskell for Unix Shell Scripting

[Volker Wysk]

I'm pleased to announce the first release of the HsUnix library. It
enables you to do things easily in Haskell which are typically done by the
shell. Thus Haskell can be used to write shell scripts.


Features
--------

Command Line Arguments Parser
    HsUnix has facilities for managing command line arguments, which are
    (hopefully) easier to use than the GHC library GetOpt. Command line
    arguments are described in lists of properties. HsUnix builds on top
    of GetOpt, but hides it completely. Command line arguments handling
    has been added because GetOpt was found to be too cumbersome.
Shell Like Commands
    HsUnix has a growing list of front end functions for shell like
    programming, such as chmod or mkdir. They wrap calls to external
    programs, system calls or standard Haskell functions.
Analyzing Paths
    Dealing with paths is not as trivial as it sounds. Take, for example
    ../for///./../bar/. HsUnix has taken care of it thoroughly and
    provides functions such as splitting a path into (real) path
    components, or syntactically normalising paths.
Dealing with Processes and Calling External Programs
    There are corresponding functions in the GHC Posix library, but
    the ones here are simpler.
Redirecting Input and Output
    HsUnix defines operators like ->- and ->>- which work just like
    redirection operators in shells.
Building Pipes
    Reading the output of an external program, or piping the output of one
    program into the input of another, is almost as easy as in shells.
    HsUnix provides corresponding operators.
Error Handling
    Error handling is one thing which is done much more thoroughly in
    HsUnix than in shells. Failed programs won't be silently ignored.
    Dynamic exceptions are used for error handling. Non zero exit codes
    are thrown as exceptions.
Quoting of Strings and Building Commands for Shells
    Taking care of shell metacharacters usually isn't done right. HsUnix
    provides functions for doing it safely.


Homepage
--------

http://www.volker-wysk.de/hsunix


--
Volker Wysk <post at volker-wysk.de>
http://www.volker-wysk.de