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Clojure CLI Built-in commandsλ︎

clojure without any other arguments will run a REPL with a basic terminal prompt. clj is a wrapper for the clojure command that uses rlwrap to add command history to the basic REPL prompt.

clojure -T:deps to run one of several built-in commands to help work with Clojure CLI projects and libraries. clojure --help list the available commands.

-X execution option is used for the :deps aliases, running them via clojure.exec and limiting the class path to the current directory.

aliases Description
clojure -X:deps list List full transitive deps set and licenses
clojure -X:deps tree download dependencies & print dependency tree, indenting libraries that are dependencies of dependencies
clojure -X:deps find-versions Find available versions of a given library (domain/name)
clojure -X:deps prep Prepare all unprepped libs in the dep tree
clojure -X:deps mvn-install :jar '"/path/to.jar"' install a given jar file into the local maven repository, eg. ~/.m2/repository
clojure -X:deps git-resolve-tags update deps.edn git based dependencies that used tags with the equivalent SHA commit values

tools.deps.alpha API Reference

List full dependenciesλ︎

Report on the depenencies of a project and any included aliases, including the transitive dependencies (dependencies of dependencies).

Show the full dependencies for the project

clojure -X:deps list

Show the full dependencies for the project and the :dev/reloaded alias which could be useful if there are library conflicts when using an alias (unlikely but it could happen).

clojure -X:dev/reloaded:deps list

Dependency treeλ︎

Run the :deps tree command in the root of a Clojure project to see all the dependencies

clojure -X:deps tree

Libraries to satisfy the dependencies are downloaded if they are not in the local Maven cache, i.e. $HOME/.m2/repository, so the command may take a little time.

Use Clojure CLI -P flag to download libraries

clojure -P is the recommended way to download libraries, which can also be used with aliases, e.g. clojure -P -M:dev/reloaded:project/build

Show the full dependencies for the project and the :dev/reloaded alias which could be useful if there are library conflicts when using an alias (unlikely but it could happen).

clojure -X:dev/reloaded:deps tree

If run outside of a Clojure CLI project, then the user configuration and Clojure CLI install dependencies are shown (could be useful if there are development tool issues from the user configuration aliases used)

 clojure -X:deps tree
org.clojure/clojure 1.11.1
  . org.clojure/spec.alpha 0.3.218
  . org.clojure/core.specs.alpha 0.2.62

Local library installλ︎

Add a jar file for a library to the local Maven repository, e.g. ~/.m2/repository, making that library accessible to all other local projects.

clojure -X:deps mvn-install :jar '"/path/to.jar"'`

Find Library Versionsλ︎

Find the available versions of a given library in the form domain/library-name (domain is typically the company name or Git Service user or organisation name).

clojure -X:deps find-versions :lib clojure.java-time/clojure.java-time

Prepare Source dependenciesλ︎

Some dependencies will require a preparation step before they can be used on the classpath.

Projects that require preparation would have a configuration of the form:

{:paths ["src" "target/classes"]
 :deps/prep-lib {:alias :build
                 :fn compile
                 :ensure "target/classes"}}

Including the top-level key :deps/prep-lib tells the tools.deps classpath construction that something extra is needed to prepare this lib and that can be performed by invoking the compile function in the :build alias. Once the prepare step has been done, it should create the path "target/classes" and that can be checked for completion.

Add a library dependency as with any other library (git or local/root):

{:deps {practicalli/library-name {:local/root "../needs-prep"}
        practicalli/library-name {:git/sha "../needs-prep"}}}

:deps prep will built the library of any dependency that requires it

clojure -X:deps prep

Resolve Git tagsλ︎

-X:deps git-resolve-tags updates git based dependencies in the project deps.edn file which use :git/tags key to the equivalent SHA commit values in the :git/sha key

clojure -X:deps git-resolve-tags

Referencesλ︎

tools.deps and cli guide clojure.main guide clojure.main API Reference tools.deps.alpha API Reference


Last update: April 27, 2023