FC4

Command Line Interface (CLI) Reference

Basic usage: fc4 OPTIONS PATH [PATH...]

• At least one option and at least one path must be specified
• Paths can be either YAML files or directories (which the tool recursively searches for YAML files)
• Each YAML file is processed according to the feature options specified
  • Any combination of -f | --format, -s | --snap, and -r | --render may be specified (at least one is required)
• When processing, the tool overwrites files in place:
  • If the formatting or snapping features are specified, the YAML file will be overwritten in place
  • If the rendering feature is specified, the image files, if they already exist, will be overwritten in place

When invoked with the -w | --watch option, instead of immediately processing the diagrams and exiting, the tool will start up in a persistent mode, watching the YAML files and processing them when they’re changed. To exit, press ctrl-c on your keyboard.

Options

Feature Options

• The tool has three feature options, one for each of its major features
• At least one of these options must be specified with every invocation of the program
  • Any of the feature options may be specified together
• These options may be specified in either long or short form
  • e.g. fc4 -r my-diagram.yaml or fc4 --render my-diagram.yaml would render the specified diagram
• When specified in short form, the options may be “bundled” together
  • e.g. fc4 -fsr *.yaml would format, snap, and render the specified diagrams

-f | --format

Reformats each specified Structurizr Express YAML file as described above.

-r | --render

Renders each specified Structurizr Express YAML file as described above.

• The resulting image files are created in the same directory as their corresponding YAML files, with the same base filename and, by default, the png extension
  • e.g. docs/spline_reticulator_01_context.yaml yields docs/spline_reticulator_01_context.png
  • Output formats may be specified via -o | --output-formats
• If an image file already exists it will be overwritten

-s | --snap

If specified, elements in diagrams will be snapped to a virtual grid.

Output Formats

-o FORMATS | --output-formats FORMATS

Specifies the output format(s) for rendering diagrams.

• Allowed only when -r | --render is specified
• Value must be a character-delimited list of output formats
  • The formats allowed are png and svg
  • The delimiters allowed are + (plus sign) and , (comma)
• If not specified, the default is png

Here are some examples of valid ways to use this option:

• -o png
• -o svg
• -o png+svg
• -o svg,png
• --output-formats=svg+png
• --output-formats png,svg

Watching

-w | --watch

If specified, the tool will start up in a persistent mode and watch the YAML files in/under the specified paths for changes. When a file is changed, the tool will process it according to the feature options, at least one of which is required. In this mode, the tool does not process any files when first invoked.

E.g. fc4 -fsrw . would watch the current directory and all sub-directories, recursively, for changes to diagram files; when a change is observed the diagrams, would be formatted, snapped, and rendered.

Other Options

-h | --help

Prints out usage information and exits.

-d | --debug

Enables a debug mode of dubious utility.

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