practicalli/clojure-deps-edn adds community libraries and tools to use with all Clojure CLI projects or as stand-alone tools. Aliases use qualified descriptive names to avoid clashes with project specific aliases, ensuring that the user wide aliases remain available in all projects.

Common default arguments are included in an alias via :exec-args to minimise the cognitive load required to use aliases.

The Practicalli Clojure book uses this configuration extensively to help you develop Clojure projects and learn the Clojure language. Initial inspiration taken from seancorfield/dot-clojure.

• Installing practicalli/clojure-deps-edn
• Updating practicalli/clojure-deps-edn
• Common development tasks
• Aliases
  • Running a REPL
    • REPL Terminal UI I REPL with Editor I Hotload dependencies I Remote REPL Connection I Alternative REPL I Middleware
  • Clojure Projects
    • Dependencies I Analysis I Packaging I Deployment
  • Format I Lint
  • Java sources
  • Unit Testing
    • Test runners I Clojure Spec I Performance I Security
  • Databases
  • Data Inspectors
    • Visualise vars and deps
  • Debug
  • Services
• Library repositories
• Experimental

Clojure CLI version 1.10.3.1040 or later is recommended. Check the version of Clojure CLI currently installed via:

clojure -Sdescribe

Practicalli guide to installing Clojure has detailed instructions to install Clojure CLI for a specific operating system, or follow the Clojure.org Getting Started page.

When Clojure CLI runs for the first time a configuration directory is created in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/clojure or $HOME/.clojure if XDG_CONFIG_HOME not set

Practicalli recommends setting $XDG_CONFIG_HOME to $HOME/.config

Backup or delete the Clojure CLI configuration directory if it exists

Clone practicalli/clojure-deps-edn repository (or create a fork and clone that instead)

git clone [email protected]:practicalli/clojure-deps-edn.git $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/clojure

If $XDG_CONFIG_HOME not set, then use git clone [email protected]:practicalli/clojure-deps-edn.git $HOME/.clojure

The deps.edn file in the Clojure CLI configuration directory contains all the Practicalli aliases, which are available from any Clojure CLI project for the current user account.

The collection of aliases is regularly reviewed and additional alias suggestions and PRs are most welcome.

The versions of libraries are updated at least once per month using the :project/outdated alias, updating the deps.edn file. The antq tool is used to report new library versions, sent to an org file which is then used to update the changelog.

cd $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/clojure
clojure -T:project/outdated > outdated.org

antq can also be installed as a separate tool (this is not part of practicalli/clojure-deps-edn yet)

Any directory containing a deps.edn file is considered a Clojure project. A deps.edn file can contain an empty hash-map, {} or hash-map with configuration, usually :paths and :dependencies and perhaps some :aliases.

The project deps.edn file is merged with the user wide configuration, e.g $HOME/.clojure/deps.edn, with the project deps.edn keys taking precedence if there is duplication, otherwise they are merged.

Configuration passed via the command line when running clojure or the clj wrapper will take precedence over the project and user level configuration if there is duplication, otherwise they are merged.

See the rest of this readme for examples of how to use each alias this configuration contains.

How to run common tasks for Clojure development.

• Built-in tasks require no additional configuration.
• User aliases should be added to ~/.clojure/deps.edn.
• Project aliases should be added to the individual project deps.edn file (or may be part of a template).
• User/Project alias can be defined in both user and project deps.edn files (add to project deps.edn for Continuous Integration)

Add alias :project/run to the deps.edn file in the root of a project:

:project/run {:ns-default domain.namespace :exec-fn -main} - see this video for an example <https://youtu.be/u5VoFpsntXc?t=2166

Aliases provide additional configuration when running a REPL, an application or to use a community tool.

• add or remove dependencies
• add or remove directories on the class path
• define a function or main namespace to run, along with arguments

• deps = :deps, :extra-deps, replace-deps
• path = :path, :extra-paths, replace-paths

Run an interactive REPL on the command line with the simple REPL UI or Rebel readline for a feature rich REPL experience.

nREPL server is started by default, so that editors and other command line sessions can connect to the same REPL.

See Middleware aliases to run a headless REPL process without a REPL UI

Use the :env/dev alias with the :repl aliases to include dev/ in classpath and configure REPL startup actions using dev/user.clj

:repl/help in the Rebel UI for help and available commands. :repl/quit to close the REPL.

Data Inspectors section defines :inspect/reveal alias for a Reveal REPL with visualization, along with other data visualization tools.

Run an interactive REPL on the command line with the simple terminal UI, including an nREPL server and Cider libraries to support connections from Clojure editors, e.g. Conjure, CIDER and Calva.

Use the :lib/hotload alias in front of any of the above aliases to enable hotloading of libraries into a running REPL process.

clojure -M:lib/hotload:repl/rebel enables hotloading in the REPL terminal UI.

clojure -M:lib/hotload:env/dev:repl/rebel enables hotloading, included the dev directory (to auto-load user.clj) with a REPL terminal UI.

Connect to the nREPL server of a remote REPL using nREPL connect, using a simple terminal UI

clojure -M:repl/remote --host hostname --port 12345

As above but using the enhanced Rebel Readline UI

clojure -M:repl/rebel-remote --host hostname --port 12345

Clojure 1.10.x onward can run a Socket Server for serving a socket-based REPL (Clojure and ClojureScript).

tubular is a Socket Server client for Clojure and Clojurescript REPL processes.

PREPL is a REPL with structured output. See Cloure socket prepl cookbook for examples.

• Create projects from deps, leiningen and boot templates with clj-new
• Check and update project dependencies
• Package projects as jar and uberjars
• Deploy projects locally and to Clojars

• :project/new - create a new project from a template

Create a new project (via clojure.main - classic approach - recommended for Windows to ensure template arguments are parsed correctly)

clojure -M:project/new luminus practicalli/full-stack-app  http-kit  h2  reagent  auth

Create a new project (Edn command line arguments - recommended approach - except for Windows)

Run project with or without an alias:

clojure -M:alias -m domain.app-name
clojure -M -m domain.app-name

The -M flag is required even if an alias is not included in the running of the application. A warning will be displayed if the -M option is missing.

In the project deps.edn file it could be useful to define an alias to run the project, specifying the main namespace, the function to run and optionally any default arguments that are passed to that function.

:project/run
{:ns-default domain.main-namespace
 :exec-fn -main
 :exec-args {:port 8888}}

Then the project can be run using clojure -X:project/run and arguments can optionally be included in this command line, to complement or replace any default arguments in exec-args.

• :project/check - detailed report of compilation errors for a project
• :project/graph-deps - graph of project dependencies (png image)
• :project/find-deps - fuzzy search for libraries to add as dependencies
• :project/outdated - report newer versions for maven and git dependencies
• :project/outdated-mvn - check for newer dependencies (maven only)

Carve - static analysis of code (clj-kondo) and remove or report unused vars

• :project/carve - remove / report unused vars
• :project/unused - alternative alias name for :project/carve
• :project/unused-vars - alternative alias name for :project/carve

Generate report in a file:

clojure -M:project/unused --opts '{:paths ["src" "test"] :report {:format :ignore}}' > .carve/ignore

Build a project archive file for deployment

• :project/jar - build jar for deps.edn project
• :project/uberjar - build uberjars for deps.edn project
• :project/uberdeps - uberjar builder

Additionally specify :jar name and if ahead of time compilation should be used (default true) c

clojure -X:project/jar :jar '"practicalli.app.jar"' :aot false :main-class domain.app-name

Deploy a project archive file locally or to Clojars.org

• -X:deps mvn-install built-in Clojure CLI alias to deploy a Jar locally in the ~/.m2/repository directory
• :deploy/clojars - deploy jar to clojars.org
• :deploy/clojars-signed - sign and deploy jar to clojars.org

Set Clojars username/token in CLOJARS_USERNAME and CLOJARS_PASSWORD environment variables.

Set fully qualified artifact-name and version in project pom.xml file

Path to project.jar can also be set in alias to simplify the Clojure command.

clojure -X:deps mvn-install project.jar for local deployment of jars is part of the 1.10.1.697 release of the Clojure CLI in September 2020.

• :lib/pprint-sorted - pretty printing with sorted keys and set values
• :format/zprint filename - format clojure code and Edn data structures in the given file using zprint
• :format/cljfmt [check|fix] filename - format clojure code and Edn data structures in the given file(s) using cljfmt

Include Java source on the classpath to look up Java Class and method definitions, eg. cider-find-var in Emacs

Requires: Java sources installed locally (e.g. "/usr/lib/jvm/openjdk-17/lib/src.zip")

• :src/java8
• :src/java11
• :src/java17
• :src/clojure

Use the aliases with either -A, -M or -X execution options on the Clojure command line.

Clone clojure/clojure repository. Clojure core Java source code in src/jvm/clojure/lang/

Databases and drivers, typically for development time inclusion such as embedded databases

• :database/h2 - H2 embedded database library and next.jdbc

clojure -M:database/h2 - run a REPL with an embedded H2 database and next.jdbc libraries

Use the aliases with either -M or -X flags on the Clojure command line.

REPL driven data inspectors and tap> sources for visualising data.

Navigate data in the form of edn, json and transit Practicalli Clojure -data browsers section - portal

• inspect/portal-cli - Clojure CLI (simplest approach)
• inspect/portal-web - Web ClojureScript REPL
• inspect/portal-node - node ClojureScript REPL

Using Portal once running (require '[portal.api :as portal]) once the REPL starts. For inspect/portal-web use (require '[portal.web :as portal]) instead

(portal/open) to open the web based inspector window in a browser.

(portal/tap) to add portal as a tap target (add-tap)

(tap> {:accounts [{:name "jen" :email "[email protected]"} {:name "sara" :email "[email protected]"}]}) to send data to the portal inspector window (or any other data you wish to send)

(portal/clear) to clear all values from the portal inspector window.

(portal/close) to close the inspector window.

Reveal - run a Terminal REPL with data visualisation or connect with nREPL, socket or prepl connection and use from any [Clojure aware editor](Clojure aware editors).

Reveal can also used as a tap> source for more powerful manual debugging.

• :inspect/reveal - simple terminal UI Clojure REPL with Reveal data visualisation UI.
• :inspect/reveal-light - as above with light theme and 32 point Ubuntu Mono font
• :inspect/reveal-nrepl - as :inspect/reveal with nREPL server for Clojure aware editors
• :inspec/reveal-light-nrepl - as above with light theme and 32 point Ubuntu Mono font
• :inspect/reveal-nrepl-cider - as :inspect-nrepl with Clojure nREPL support for Emacs Cider
• :inspec/reveal-light-cider - as above with light theme and 32 point Ubuntu Mono font

See the Reveal section of Practicalli Clojure for full details, including how to set up a .dir-locals.el configuration.

:inspect/reveal-cider alias contains Reveal REPL with nrepl server and Emacs CIDER specific middleware

C-u cider-jack-in-clj in CIDER to start a reveal REPL (SPC u , ' in Spacemacs)

Edit the jack-in command by deleting the all the configuration after the clojure command and add the alias

clojure -M:inspect/reveal-cider

:inspect/reveal-cider is a light version of the above.

Using Clojure exec -X flag, the default repl function can be over-ridden on the command line, supplying the io-prepl or remote-prepl functions.

• clojure -X:inspect/reveal io-prepl :title '"I am a prepl repl"
• clojure -X:inspect/reveal remote-prepl :title '"I am a remote prepl repl"'

Add a custom theme and font via the -J command line option or create an alias using :inspect/reveal-light as an example.

clojure -M:inspect/reveal -J-Dvlaaad.reveal.prefs='{:theme :light :font-family "Ubuntu Mono" :font-size 32}'

Evaluate (add-tap ((requiring-resolve 'vlaaad.reveal/ui))) when using Rebel Readline to add Reveal as a tap source, showing (tap> ,,,) expressions in the reveal window, eg. (tap> (map inc [1 2 3 4 5])).

Practicalli Clojure - data browsers section has more details on using reveal.

Visualise the results of each evaluation in the REPL in the REBL UI. Navigate through complex data structures.

Cognitect REBL aliases requires several separate install steps before they are operational Tested on Oracle JDK 8 and OpenJDK 11 (current long term support). Other Java 11 JDK distributions may work, but not tested. Newer (short term release) may work, but will need the org.openjdk library version in the :inspect/rebl alias changed to match the version of Java used.

• inspect/rebl - REBL, a visual data explorer (Java 11)
• inspect/rebl-java8 - REBL, a visual data explorer (Oracle Java 8)

Aliases for libraries that combine community tools and REPL protocols (nREPL, SocketREPL).

Run a REPL on the command line for access by cider-connect- commands, providing the require cider middleware libraries that are auto-injected in cider-jack-in- commands.

• :middleware/nrepl - Clojure REPL with an nREPL server
• :middleware/cider-clj - Clojure REPL with nREPL server and CIDER dependencies for cider-connect-clj
• :middleware/cider-clj-refactor - as :middleware/cider-clj with clj-refactor added
• :middleware/cider-cljs - ClojureScript REPL with nREPL server and CIDER dependencies for cider-connect-cljs

Open a terminal and run the REPL process with the command:

clojure -M:middleware/cider-cljs:fig

An nREPL server process is started along with the figwheel-main process.

In Emacs, run the command cider-connect-cljs, select figwheel-main build tool and the dev build

Run the REBL REPL with nREPL server so CIDER can connect.

• :middleware/nrebl - REBL data browser on nREPL connection
• :lib/cider-nrepl - include nrepl, cider-nrepl and refactor-nrepl library dependencies (support :inspect/nrebl alias)

In a terminal, run REBL listening to nREPL using the command

clojure -M:lib/cider-nrepl:inspect/rebl:middleware/nrebl

cider-connect-clj in Spacemacs / Emacs and CIDER successfully connects to the nREPL port and evaluated code is sent to REBL.

To start a REBL REPL from cider-jack-in-clj add a .dir-locals.el file to the root of a Clojure project. The .dir-locals.el configuration adds the nREBL aliases set via cider-clojure-cli-global-options and all other automatically injected configuration is disabled (to prevent those dependencies over-riding the nREBL aliases).

((clojure-mode . ((cider-preferred-build-tool . clojure-cli)
                  (cider-clojure-cli-global-options . "-M:lib/cider-nrepl:inspect/rebl:middleware/nrebl")
                  (cider-jack-in-dependencies . nil)
                  (cider-jack-in-lein-plugins . nil)
                  (cider-clojure-cli-parameters . ""))))

• REBL data visualization: run REBL with nREPL based editors

Emacs CIDER has a built in debug tool that requires no dependencies (other than Cider itself).

Sayid is a comprehensive debug and profile tool (which requires your code to compile) and generated a full and detailed history of an evaluation.

• lib/sayid - an omniscient debugger and profiler for Clojure

The :lib/sayid alias can be used with :repl/cider when using cider-connect-clj or added to the cider-jack-in-clj command manually, or via a .dir-locals.el configuration using cider-clojure-cli-aliases. See the Practicalli Spacemacs project configuration guide for examples.

Clojure spec, generators and test.check

• :lib/spec-test - generative testing with Clojure test.check
• :lib/spec2 - experiment with the next version of Clojure spec - alpha: design may change

Unit test libraries and configuration. The Clojure standard library includes the clojure.test namespace, so no alias is required.

• :env/test - add test directory to classpath
• :lib/expectations - clojure.test with expectations
• :lib/expectations-classic - expectations framework

Include expectations as a development dependency in a project clojure -M:env/test:lib/expectations, or on the command line with the cognitect test runner clojure -M:lib/expectations:test/cognitect

Run unit tests in a project which are defined under the test path. See Practicalli Clojure: Unit testing

:lib/kaocha alias adds kaocha as a library to the class path, enabling scripts such as kaocha-runner.el to run Kaocha test runner from Emacs Cider

A test.edn configuration file can be used with the :test/run alias instead of using various aliases defined above Kaocha aliases can be run with -T execution option if both the src and test paths are included, either in the combined deps.edn config or in the tests.edn config.

kaocha recommends adding a bin/kaocha shell script to run the tool, which can be written using the Practicalli aliases, for example:

#!/usr/bin/env sh
clojure -X:test/run "$@"

Static analysis tools to help maintain code quality and suggest Clojure idioms.

• :lint/kondo - comprehensive and fast static analysis lint tool
• :lint/eastwood - classic lint tool for Clojure
• :lint/idiom-check - checking for idiomatic Clojure code with Kibit

Create Graphviz graphs of project and library dependencies

Install Graphviz to generate PNG and SVG images. Or use the Edotor website to convert .dot files to PNG or SVG images and select different graph layout engines.

Generate dependency graphs for Vars in Clojure & ClojureScript namespaces

• :graph/vars - generate graph of vars in a project as a .dot file
• :graph/vars-png - generate graph of vars in a project as a .png file using src and test paths
• :graph/vars-svg - generate graph of vars in a project as a .svg file using src and test paths

Use -f command line argument to over-ride file type created, i.e -f png

Vizns creates graphs of relationships between namespaces and their dependencies

• clojure -M:graph/ns-deps - generate a single deps-graph SVG image
• clojure -M:graph/ns-deps-png as above with PNG image

Other options described in the visns project readme:

Visualise the relationships between dependencies in the project (or given deps.edn configuration). Shows the fully qualified name of a dependency, its version and size.

Generate a PNG image from the project deps.edn configuration and save to project-dependencies-graph.png file

clojure -T:graph/deps

Options available

• :deps - Path to deps file (default = "deps.edn")
• :trace - images showing individual trace images of dependency relations (default = false)
• :trace-file - Path to trace.edn file to read
• :output - file name string to save the generated image, :output '"deps.png"'
• :trace-omit - Collection of lib symbols to omit in trace output
• :size - Boolean flag to include sizes in images (default = false)

Performance testing tools for the REPL

• :performance/benchmark

Use the aliases with either -M or -X flags on the Clojure command line.

TODO: check these alias combinations are correct

clojure -M:performance/benchmark:repl/rebel

(require '[criterium.core :refer [bench quick-bench]])
(bench (adhoc-expression))

TODO: check these alias combinations are correct

Performance test a project in the REPL

clojure -M:performance/benchmark:repl/rebel

(require '[practicalli/namespace-name]) ; require project code
(in-ns 'practicalli/namespace-name)
(quick-bench (project-function args))

• :performance/memory-meter - memory usage

Use the aliases with either -M or -X flags on the Clojure command line.

In the REPL:

  (require '[clj-memory-meter.core :as memory-meter])
   (memory-meter/measure (your-expression))

Web servers and other standalone services run with Clojure CLI

• :service/http - serve files from current directory or specified directory and port. More options at kachayev/nasus project.

Use Ctrl-c to stop the server when running in the foreground

DEPRECATED: :security/nvd Using clojure-nvd via an alias checks for security issues in clojure-nvd and its dependencies as they merged into the classpath.

The maintainer of clojure-nvd suggested several ways to avoid classpath interference

• :service/nvd - check library dependencies of a project against the National Vulnerability Database using nvd-clojure

The first "" is required argument and can contain a filename to a json file of additional configuration. The second argument, "$(clojure -Spath)", passes the project classpath to be analysed as a string.

The Clojurians Zulip CLI provides a simple way to register community events.

• :community/zulip-event create an event on the Clojurians Zulip community

Set an environment variable called ZULIP_AUTH to your account email, followed by the account token (in settings), e.g.

[email protected]:493u984u3249834uo4u

Create an event using the following command

clojure -M:community/zulip-event create --zulip-auth "${ZULIP_AUTH}" --title 'Practicalli Live - Exercism.io challenges' --start '2020-11-14T09:00 00:00' --duration 1 --url https://youtu.be/Z5C7X1UN8yo --description 'Walking through solutions to the Exercism.io challenges'

Take care to get the timezone notation correct.

• :alpha/carve - EXPERIMENTAL, use with caution - carve out unwanted vars in code
• :alpha/hotload-libs - EXPERIMENTAL, use with caution - hot-load libraries into a running namespace.

Hot loading dependencies (unofficial)

This is an unofficial approach using to hot loading and the API may change in future

• :alpha/hotload-libs - Add jar dependencies into a running REPL.

Practically Clojure details how to hot-load libraries into a running REP using tools.deps.alpha.

The Clojure Webapp hotload libraries repository contains and example project that uses add-libs to hotload library dependencies.

Repositories that host libraries for Clojure.

central and clojars are the man repositories for Clojure development are consulted in order.

central and clojars repos can be removed from consideration by setting their configuration hash-map to nil in ~/.clojure/deps.edn. For example, {:mvn/repos {"central" nil}}.

The order of additional repositories consulted is not guaranteed, so may cause unpredictable side effects in the project build especially if RELEASE or LATEST tags are used rather than a numeric library version.

Maven supports explicit mirror definition in ~/.m2/settings.xml and Clojure CLI supports this configuration. Adding Maven Central or a mirror to ~/.m2/settings.xml negates the need for its entry in deps.edn configuration.

• central - Maven Central, the canonical repository for JVM libraries, including Clojure releases
• clojars - clojars.org, the canonical repositories for Clojure community libraries fronted by a contend delivery network service

• sonatype - snapshots of Clojure development releases, useful for testing against before new stable releases.
• business-area - example of adding a local Artifactory server for your team or business area.
• google-maven-central - Maven Central mirror hosted on Google Cloud Storage - Americas, Asia, Europe

Use only one entry for a specific repository to ensure a repeatable build. For example, avoid having Maven Central and a Maven Central mirror both included.

Example of local Artifactory repository configuration

 :mvn/repos
 {"business-area" {:url "https://artifacts.internal-server.com:443/artifactory/business-area-maven-local"}

 :mvn/repos
 {"google-maven-central" {:url "https://maven-central.storage-download.googleapis.com/maven2/"}}

 :mvn/repos
 {"google-maven-central" {:url "https://maven-central-eu.storage-download.googleapis.com/maven2/"}

 ;; CDN access to clojars
 "clojars" {:url "https://repo.clojars.org/"}}

 :mvn/repos
 {"google-maven-central" {:url "https://maven-central-asia.storage-download.googleapis.com/maven2/"}

 ;; Community mirror
 "clojars-china-mirror" {:url "https://mirrors.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/clojars/"}

 ;; CDN access to clojars
 "clojars" {:url "https://repo.clojars.org/"}}

Define a local Maven repository. Useful if you wish to specify an alternative to the default ~/.m2/ directory.

 :mvn/local-repo "/cache/.m2"

NOTE: using clojure -Sforce forces a classpath recompute, deleting the contents of .cpcache