CmpStr CLI

The cmpstr CLI provides a modular and scriptable command line interface to the CmpStr library, supporting string normalization, similarity scoring, phonetic indexing, matrix comparison, and more. Many commands accept plain strings or file paths as input.

For more details on normalization flags, similarity metrics or phonetic algorithms, refer to the CmpStr Wiki.

Installation

You can install the tool globally via NPM:

npm install -g cmpstr-cli

Or run it directly via npx (no installation required):

npx cmpstr-cli

Global Options

These options are available for all commands:

Commands

Utilities

list <key>

Description:
Lists the available similarity metrics or phonetic algorithms supported by the library.

Arguments:

• key — What should be listed? Use metric or phonetic.

Example:

cmpstr list metric
cmpstr list phonetic

normalize <input>

Description:
Normalizes the input string or file content using the specified normalization flags. This can include case folding, whitespace collapsing, and more. Available flags can be found here.

Arguments:

• input — Input text to normalize as a plain string or path to file

Options:

• -f, --flags <string> — Normalization flags (e.g., itw)

Example:

cmpstr normalize "Some Text" -f itw

analyze <input>

Description:
Performs a comprehensive text analysis, including statistics, histograms, word and sentence metrics, character frequencies, and readability scores. Results are formatted and colorized for terminal output.

Arguments:

• input — Input text to analyze as a plain string or path to file

Example:

cmpstr analyze myfile.txt

diff <original> <modified>

Description:
Finds and marks the differences between two texts, supporting various diff modes and options. Outputs either a colored CLI diff, ASCII diff for files, or a structured diff in verbose mode.

Arguments:

• original — Original text as plain string or path to file
• modified — Modified text as plain string or path to file

Options:

• -m, --mode <string> — Diff granularity: line or word (default: word)
• -i, --insensitive — Ignore case (default: false)
• -l, --lines <number> — Number of context lines to include (default: 1)
• -s, --single — Output single lines instead of grouping adjacent changes (default: false)
• -a, --all — Show all lines (default: false)

Example:

cmpstr diff old.txt new.txt -m word -l 3

Similarity

compare <source> <target>

Description:
Compares two input strings based on their similarity using a selected metric. Supports both synchronous and asynchronous processing and verbose output.

Arguments:

• source — The base input of the comparison
• target — String to compare the input with

Options:

• -m, --metric <name> — Similarity metric to use (e.g., levenshtein)
• -f, --flags <string> — Normalization flags (e.g., itw)

Example:

cmpstr compare "hello" "hallo" -m levenshtein

match <source> <target>

Description:
Compares the second input against the first string or list of strings based on their similarity. Supports sorting, thresholding, and both synchronous and asynchronous processing.

Arguments:

• source — The base input of the comparison (string or list)
• target — String to compare the input with

Options:

• -m, --metric <name> — Similarity metric to use
• -f, --flags <string> — Normalization flags (e.g., itw)
• -l, --list — Treat the first input as a list
• -d, --delimiter <string> — List delimiter (default: ,)
• -t, --threshold <number> — Minimum required similarity (default: 0)
• -s, --sort <string> — Sort by similarity (asc or desc, default: desc)
• -n <number> — Number of elements to return

Example:

cmpstr match names.txt "Max" -l -t 0.7 -s desc -n 5

pairs <source> <target>

Description:
Compares elements at the same index in two lists and returns similarity scores. Both inputs must be lists of the same length.

Arguments:

• source — The first list of strings
• target — The second list of strings

Options:

• -m, --metric <name> — Similarity metric to use
• -f, --flags <string> — Normalization flags (e.g., itw)
• -d, --delimiter <string> — List delimiter (default: ,)

Example:

cmpstr pairs list1.txt list2.txt -d ";"

Special

matrix <input>

Description:
Computes a similarity matrix for all combinations within the input list. Useful for clustering or visualizing relationships.

Arguments:

• input — List of strings to build the matrix for

Options:

• -m, --metric <name> — Similarity metric to use (default: levenshtein)
• -f, --flags <string> — Normalization flags (e.g., itw)
• -d, --delimiter <string> — List delimiter (default: ,)

Example:

cmpstr matrix items.txt -m jaro

index <input>

Description:
Computes the phonetic representation of the given input string using the selected algorithm and options. Supports both synchronous and asynchronous processing.

Arguments:

• input — Input text to index as plain string or path to file

Options:

• -a, --algo <name> — The phonetic algorithm to use
• -m, --map <name> — The phonetic map to use (e.g., en, de)

Example:

cmpstr index "Schmidt" -a soundex -m de

search <needle> <haystack>

Description:
Performs a filtered and normalized substring search across the haystack (a list of strings). Useful for fuzzy or normalized search tasks.

Arguments:

• needle — The string to search for
• haystack — The list of strings to search in

Options:

• -f, --flags <string> — Normalization flags (e.g., itw)
• -d, --delimiter <string> — List delimiter (default: ,)

Example:

cmpstr search "Müller" names.txt -f itw

Configuration File

You can provide a YAML or JSON configuration file to set default options for all commands. This is especially useful if you frequently use the same options or want to share settings across projects.

Usage

Use the -c <path> or --config <path> global option to specify your config file:

cmpstr compare "hello" "hallo" -c ./myconfig.yml

If no config file is specified, cmpstr-cli will use the built-in default.yml shipped with the package.

Example: myconfig.yml

async: true
verbose: true
metric: jaro
flags: "itw"
output: results.txt

phonetic:
  algo: soundex
  map: de

diff:
  mode: line
  insensitive: true
  lines: 2

How it works

• All options in the config file are merged with CLI options.
  CLI options always take precedence over config file values.
• Nested options (like phonetic or diff) are supported.
• Supported formats: YAML (.yml, .yaml) and JSON (.json).

Tips

• Use a config file to avoid repeating common options in every command.
• You can maintain multiple config files for different workflows or languages.

Usage Notes

Input Flexibility:
Many commands accept either plain strings or file paths as input. If a file path is provided, the file content will be used.

Output Redirection:
Use -o <file> to write results to a file. ANSI color codes are stripped from file output.

Verbose Mode:
Use -V to include detailed input, options, and result sections in the output.

Asynchronous Processing:
Use -A to enable asynchronous processing for supported commands, which can improve performance on large datasets.