Is it possible to create a multi-level directory structure?

[jkleve]

In java, the directory structure matches the package. If there's a package com.google.gson then the directory structure for this package may be src/main/java/com/google/gson. Is it possible to create this directory structure with something like src/main/java/{{package}}?

[pawamoy]

Are there always three items in your package path? If yes, you can create directories like this:

src/
    main/
        java/
            {{package.split(".")[0]}}/
                {{package.split(".")[1]}}/
                    {{package.split(".")[2]}}/

[jkleve]

Unfortunately not.

[pawamoy]

Then I see no other way than using a task. You generate the contents of the last directory into a temporary one, and add a task that creates the directory hierarchy and moves the generated contents from the temp dir to the final dir of your package sources.

src/
    main/
        java/
tmpsrc/
    ...  # files and folders

Rough task example:

# task.sh.jinja
src=src/main/java/{{package.replace(".", "/")}}
mkdir -p $src
mv tmpsrc/* $src
rm -rf tmpsrc

[jkleve]

Thanks @pawamoy for directing me here. The working task I went with (create_package_directories.sh.jinja)

#!/bin/env bash
set -e

# This copier task creates the java package directory structure
# and moves all source/test files into their respective directories.

templates_dir=templates
src_dir=src/main/{{ package.replace(".", "/") }}
test_dir=src/test/{{ package.replace(".", "/") }}

mkdir -p "$src_dir"
mkdir -p "$test_dir"

echo "Moving $templates_dir/main to $src_dir"
mv "$templates_dir"/main/* "$src_dir"/

echo "Moving $templates_dir/main to $test_dir"
mv "$templates_dir"/test/* "$test_dir"/

rm -rf "$templates_dir"

[yajo]

I'm not sure if this will work, but try this directory name:

{{package.replace('.', '\u2044')}}

[pawamoy]

Trying to trick the file system? 😄 It would be amazing if it did haha

[yajo]

I just tested it and it doesn't work. 😁

Well... it actually creates a file with those / inside the file name, which I guess will be a problem everywhere. But strangely it works.

However this could be one valid feature request. We could include a constant like OS_SEP (coming from os.sep) in all templates. Then we could support explicitly the case of one of those separators being found in a dir/file name.

[pawamoy]

I like the idea.

{{package.replace('.', copier_sep)}}

...with copier_sep being '\u2044' (or any other rarely used character), and Copier would know to treat them as actual OS separators and run mkdir with the -p option (the Python equivalent of course).

Wouldn't it be a bit complex to support this in file names as well though?

{{package.replace('.', copier_sep)}}.jinja

...would be rendered as, for example, com/google/gson.jinja, and Copier would then have to understand it has to split the basename from the rest in order to first create the directories, then the file inside. Well, there's probably an elegant way to handle all the cases.

[yajo]

Yes. @jkleve feel free to create a feature request if you feel like it's necessary.

[jkleve]

@yajo It's probably pretty low priority but I created an issue. I only plan to support linux for my uses.

[mszalbach]

I have used copier for Java project templating and solved it like this, maybe this helps.

I created a helper question in the copier.yml

package_name:
  type: str
  help: What is your package name?
  default: "{{group_id}}.{{artifact_id | replace('-','.')}}"

package_folder:
  type: str
  default: "{{package_name | replace('.','/')}}"

Create the folder structure src/main/java and and add a folder called {[package_folder}}.
Works for Linux and Windows.

[yajo]

Weird... last time I tried that didn't work. #683 (reply in thread)