Holochain Command Line Tools

This crate implements a set of development tools for building and running Holochain DNA from the command line.

Install

Scripted installation

The install scripts provided by holochain core (see README) install all the dependencies required for holochain cli.

Manual installation

An option for the installation of hc command line tools is to download the binary for your platform from our releases page. Otherwise, you can proceed with the more complex instructions for building from source, below.

Building From Source

These dependencies need to be installed in order to compile, and use hc:

• Rust

  • needs to be the nightly-2019-01-24 build, so use the following commands, once you have first installed Rust

  • rustup toolchain install nightly-2019-01-24

  • rustup default nightly-2019-01-24

  • (the specific nightly build we use will change over time)

  • Also, if you are going to be developing Zomes in Rust, install the WASM build target for Rust, by running:

  • rustup target add wasm32-unknown-unknown --toolchain nightly-2019-01-24

• Node.js version 8 or higher

  • Tests for Holochain apps are now written in Javascript and executed in Nodejs

  • To read further, check out the holochain-nodejs module

To install the cutting edge version of the Holochain conductor, run the following command in a terminal

$ cargo install hc --force --git https://github.com/holochain/holochain-rust.git --branch develop

To install the latest released version of the Holochain conductor, run the following command in a terminal

$ cargo install hc --force --git https://github.com/holochain/holochain-rust.git --tag v0.0.12-alpha1

The command line tools are now available in your command line using the hc command.

Run hc --version to confirm.

Run hc help for help.

Networking

If you want to use hc run with real (as opposed to mock) networking, you will also need to install n3h.

Usage

(u) means the command is not yet implemented.

Command	Use
init	Initializes a new Holochain app at the given directory
generate	Generates a new Zome
package	Builds the current Holochain app into a .dna.json file
unpack	Unpacks a Holochain bundle into its original file system structure
test	Runs tests written in the test folder
run	Starts a websocket server for the current Holochain app
keygen	Creates a new passphrase encrypted agent key bundle

hc init & hc generate: How To Get Started Building An App

To read about hc init, used for starting a new Holochain project, see https://developer.holochain.org/guide/latest/new_project.html.

To read about hc generate, used for generating boilerplate code and files for a new Zome, see https://developer.holochain.org/guide/latest/zome/adding_a_zome.html.

hc package: Using Built-in Compilation

To read about hc package, used for bundling your source files into a single file runnable by Holochain, see https://developer.holochain.org/guide/latest/packaging.html.

hc test: Writing and Running Tests

To read about hc test, used for running tests over your source code, see https://developer.holochain.org/guide/latest/intro_to_testing.html.

hc run: Running your application

To read about hc run, used for spinning up a quick development version of your app with an HTTP or Websocket interface, that you can connect to from a UI, or any client, see https://developer.holochain.org/guide/latest/development_conductor.html.

hc keygen: Create agent key pair

Every agent is represented by a private/public key pair, which are used to author source chains. This command creates a new key pair by asking for a passphrase and writing a key bundle file that a Holochain Conductor can read when starting up an instance.

Contribute

Holochain is an open source project. We welcome all sorts of participation and are actively working on increasing surface area to accept it. Please see our contributing guidelines for our general practices and protocols on participating in the community.

License

Copyright (C) 2018, Holochain Foundation

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the license p rovided in the LICENSE file (GPLv3). This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, bu t WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Note: We are considering other 'looser' licensing options (like MIT license) but at this stage are using GPL while we're getting the matter sorted out. See this article for some of our thinking on licensing for distributed application frameworks.