README

Slate is a utility for creating directory and file structures from templates.

• Download executable PHAR
• Install via Composer package icecave/slate

Slate was originally conceived to simplify and expedite the process of creating new repositories on GitHub, but can be used in any situation where a filesystem structure must be created from a template, such as user home directories, placeholder websites, filesystem based test fixtures, etc.

Prior to version 0.4.0 Slate was named Chassis.

Template format

A template is simply a collection of files and directories structured in the desired way, similar to /etc/skel on Unix systems. File and directory names may contain variables that will be substituted for other values when the template is cloned.

Variables

Variables are expressed as a variable name enclosed in braces, eg: {foo}. Variable names are case-sensitive and may contain letters, digits and the hyphen (-) character. Variables names must begin with a letter.

Variables can be escaped by prefixing the variable name with a backslash, eg: {\foo}. This prevents Slate from substituing the variable value and results in the output {foo}.

Slate can also substitute variable values inside text files. Any file with a .slate extension is passed through the template engine and the .slate extension is removed.

Variable transforms

Variable values can be modified by using a transform. A transform is specified using a pipe character (|) and transform name after the variable name. For example, {foo|lowercase} will convert the value of the foo variable to lower case in the output.

The following transforms are available:

• base64-decode
• base64-encode
• camelcase
• hex-decode
• hex-encode
• html-decode
• html-encode
• json-decode
• json-encode
• lowercase
• lowercase-first
• md5
• newline-to-br
• pluralize
• rot13
• sha1
• singularize
• snakecase
• studlycaps
• trim
• trim-left
• trim-right
• uppercase
• uppercase-first
• url-decode
• url-encode
• yaml-decode
• yaml-encode

Example templates

The Icecave Studios PHP template is a real-world example of a Slate template that we use when creating new PHP projects.

Usage

To create a filesystem structure from a template, use the clone command.

The following command clones from a template located in /path/to/template and writes the output to /path/to/output with the variable {foo} substituted with bar.

slate clone --define foo=bar --path /path/to/template /path/to/output

Slate will prompt for undefined variable values it requires, unless the --no-interaction option is used, in which case missing variable values will result in an error.

Online templates

Slate provides a set of online templates at https://github.com/IcecaveStudios/slate-templates. To use one of these templates pass the --template option to the clone command (instead of --path).

The following command clones the Icecave Studios PHP template to the /path/to/output folder.

slate clone --template php-icecave /path/to/output

Contact us

• Follow @IcecaveStudios on Twitter
• Visit the Icecave Studios website
• Join #icecave on irc.freenode.net