Using the CLI Tools
The Ballerina Tool is your one-stop-shop for all the things you do in Ballerina.
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Using the Ballerina Tool
The Ballerina Tool is a command-line tool for managing Ballerina source code. It helps you to manage Ballerina packages and modules, test, build, and run programs, etc.
It also enables you to easily install, update, and switch among Ballerina distributions.
In the CLI, execute the bal help
command to view all the actions you can perform with the Ballerina Tool as shown below:
→ bal help
NAME
The Ballerina tool
SYNOPSIS
bal <-v | --version>
bal [command] <-h | --help>
bal <command> [<args>]
DESCRIPTION
Ballerina is a statically typed, concurrent programming language, focusing on network interaction and structured
data. It is intended to be the core of a language-centric middleware platform. It has all the general-purpose
functionality expected of a modern programming language, but it also has several unusual aspects that make it
particularly suitable for its intended purpose.
Find more information at: https://ballerina.io/
OPTIONS
-v, --version
Print the Ballerina version information.
-h, --help
Print usage details of a command.
BALLERINA COMMANDS
Here is a list of available subcommands:
Core Commands:
build Compile Ballerina program into an executable
run Build and run Ballerina program
test Run package tests
doc Generate API documentation
clean Clean artifacts generated during the build
format Format Ballerina sources
Package Commands:
new Create a new Ballerina package
init Create a new Ballerina package in the current directory
add Create a new Ballerina module in the package
pull Pull a package from Ballerina Central
push Upload a package to Ballerina Central
search Search Ballerina Central for packages
Other Commands:
encrypt Encrypt sensitive data
grpc Generate Ballerina sources for the given protobuf definition
openapi Generate Ballerina sources for the given OpenAPI definition and vice versa.
version Print Ballerina version
bindgen Generate Ballerina bindings for Java APIs
shell Run ballerina interactive REPL [EXPERIMENTAL]
Update Commands:
dist Manage Ballerina distributions
update Update the Ballerina tool
Use 'bal help <command>' for more information on a specific command.
You can use it in the below format.
bal <THE-COMMAND> <ITS-ARGUEMENTS>
Tip: You can view details of the commands below by executing the
bal help <COMMAND>
. For example, the below is the output of thebal help pull
command.
→ bal help pull
NAME
ballerina-pull - Fetch packages from Ballerina Central
SYNOPSIS
bal pull <org-name>/<package-name>[:<version>]
DESCRIPTION
The pull command downloads the specified package from Ballerina Central
along with its dependencies. It then caches this package in the
'.ballerina' directory in the user home.
Ballerina Central is a package repository hosted at
https://central.ballerina.io/. A package repository organizes packages
into a three-level hierarchy: organization, package name, and version.
Organizations are unique within a repository and can be mapped to an
individual user or organization registered with the repository.
EXAMPLES
Pull the latest version of 'gmail' connector in 'wso2' organization
from Ballerina Central.
$ bal pull wso2/gmail
Pull the '1.1.0' version of 'gmail' connector in 'wso2' organization
from Ballerina Central.
$ bal pull wso2/gmail:1.1.0
Core Commands
These everyday commands are your best friends! They address the very basics of programming in Ballerina such as compiling, running, testing programs, and generating their documentation.
build | Compile a standalone `.bal` file, or an entire package into an executable JAR file. For more information, see Running Ballerina Code. | |
run | Build and run a standalone `.bal` file, an entire package, or a previously-built program. For more information, see Running Ballerina Code. | |
test | Run tests of a Ballerina package. For more information, see Testing Ballerina Code. | |
doc | Format Ballerina source files as per the Coding Conventions. | Generate API documents for all public symbols of a Ballerina package. For more information, see Documenting Ballerina Code. |
clean | Clean all artifacts generated by the build command for a package. | |
format | Format Ballerina source files as per the Coding Conventions. |
Package Commands
Ballerina packages are the way to organize real-world Ballerina development tasks. The last 3 commands given below allow you to work with the Ballerina Central and also to share Ballerina packages with others in a safe, secure, and dependable way.
new | Create a Ballerina package. For more information, see Structuring Ballerina Code. |
init | Create a new Ballerina package in the current directory. |
add | Create a new Ballerina module in a package. |
pull | Pull a package from Ballerina Central. |
push | Upload a package to Ballerina Central. For more information, see Publishing Packages to Ballerina Central. |
search | Search Ballerina Central for packages. |
Other Commands
These powerful supporting tools extend Ballerina to various ecosystem technologies that are inherently cloud-native. This functionality will grow over time and will even be developer extensible in the future.
encrypt | Use this tool to encrypt sensitive data and pass them to a Ballerina program via the configuration system. |
grpc | This is the gRPC stub/skeleton generation tool. For more information, see Generating Ballerina Code for Protocol Buffer Definitions. |
openapi | This is the OpenAPI (Swagger) stub/skeleton generation tool. For more information, see Using the OpenAPI Tools. |
version | Tells you the version of the distribution you are currently using, the language specification version on which it is based, and the update tool version, which is currently in use. |
bindgen | Use this tool for auto-generating Ballerina bridge code for Java APIs. For more information, see Calling Java Code from Ballerina. |
help | Prints the usage details of any Ballerina command (e.g., `bal help pull`). |
Update Commands
dist | Manage Ballerina distributions. For more information, see Keeping Ballerina Up to Date. |
update | Update the Ballerina Tool. For more information, see Keeping Ballerina Up to Date. |