Dynamic integration of command line utilities

A method comprising:

• discovering a plurality of commands accepted by a command line interface (CLI) of a first program, wherein a first command of the plurality of commands additionally accepts a first subcommand and a first argument;
• determining a first input data type associated with the first command;
• generating a first test case that invokes the first command with first test data of the first input data type;
• determining, based on the first input data type, a second input data type that is incompatible with the first command;
• generating a second test case that invokes the first command with second test data of the second input data type;
• executing the first test case and the second test case, wherein discovering the plurality of commands accepted by the CLI is performed without access to a source code of the first program by parsing a manual of the first program to discover each one of the plurality of commands accepted by the CLI, and respective subcommands and arguments for each discovered command, such that each valid combination of commands, subcommands, and arguments accepted by the CLI are discovered by parsing the manual of the first program;
• subscribing to notifications from an operating system (OS) about updates to the first program;
• and
• in response to receipt of a notification from the OS indicating that the first program is updated, rediscovering the plurality of commands accepted by the CLI of the first program.

A system comprising:

• a host with a processor and a memory, wherein the memory stores a first program with a command line interface (CLI);
• and
• a CLI integration module executing on the processor to:
• receive a request to integrate the CLI into a second program;
• discover a plurality of commands accepted by the CLI, wherein a first command of the plurality of commands additionally accepts a first subcommand and a first argument;
• construct a function with a respective function call corresponding to each command of the plurality of commands including each subcommand and each argument of each command, wherein the function is added to the second program;
• receive a first invocation of a first function call corresponding to the first command, wherein the first function call includes a first input;
• responsive to receiving the first invocation, invoke the first command with the first input;
• return a result from the first program to the second program;
• receive a later second invocation of the first function call;
• responsive to receiving the second invocation, invoke an updated version of the first command, wherein the first program is updated between a first time of the first invocation and a second time of the second invocation, and wherein discovering the plurality of commands accepted by the CLI is performed without access to a source code of the first program by parsing a manual of the first program to discover each one of the plurality of commands accepted by the CLI, and respective subcommands and arguments for each discovered command, such that each valid combination of commands, subcommands, and arguments accepted by the CLI are discovered by parsing the manual of the first program;
• subscribe to notifications from an operating system (OS) about updates to the first program;
• and
• in response to receipt of a notification from the OS indicating that the first program is updated, rediscover the plurality of commands accepted by the CLI of the first program, wherein rediscovering the plurality of commands includes discovering the updated version of the first command.