Functions

just provides a few built-in functions that might be useful when writing recipes.

System Information

  • arch() — Instruction set architecture. Possible values are: "aarch64", "arm", "asmjs", "hexagon", "mips", "msp430", "powerpc", "powerpc64", "s390x", "sparc", "wasm32", "x86", "x86_64", and "xcore".

  • os() — Operating system. Possible values are: "android", "bitrig", "dragonfly", "emscripten", "freebsd", "haiku", "ios", "linux", "macos", "netbsd", "openbsd", "solaris", and "windows".

  • os_family() — Operating system family; possible values are: "unix" and "windows".

For example:

system-info:
  @echo "This is an {{arch()}} machine".

$ just system-info
This is an x86_64 machine

The os_family() function can be used to create cross-platform justfiles that work on various operating systems. For an example, see cross-platform.just file.

Environment Variables

  • env_var(key) — Retrieves the environment variable with name key, aborting if it is not present.
home_dir := env_var('HOME')

test:
  echo "{{home_dir}}"

$ just
/home/user1
  • env_var_or_default(key, default) — Retrieves the environment variable with name key, returning default if it is not present.

Invocation Directory

  • invocation_directory() - Retrieves the absolute path to the current directory when just was invoked, before just changed it (chdir’d) prior to executing commands.

For example, to call rustfmt on files just under the “current directory” (from the user/invoker’s perspective), use the following rule:

rustfmt:
  find {{invocation_directory()}} -name \*.rs -exec rustfmt {} \;

Alternatively, if your command needs to be run from the current directory, you could use (e.g.):

build:
  cd {{invocation_directory()}}; ./some_script_that_needs_to_be_run_from_here

Justfile and Justfile Directory

  • justfile() - Retrieves the path of the current justfile.

  • justfile_directory() - Retrieves the path of the parent directory of the current justfile.

For example, to run a command relative to the location of the current justfile:

script:
  ./{{justfile_directory()}}/scripts/some_script

Just Executable

  • just_executable() - Absolute path to the just executable.

For example:

executable:
  @echo The executable is at: {{just_executable()}}

$ just
The executable is at: /bin/just

String Manipulation

  • lowercase(s) - Convert s to lowercase.

  • quote(s) - Replace all single quotes with '\'' and prepend and append single quotes to s. This is sufficient to escape special characters for many shells, including most Bourne shell descendants.

  • replace(s, from, to) - Replace all occurrences of from in s to to.

  • trim(s) - Remove leading and trailing whitespace from s.

  • trim_end(s) - Remove trailing whitespace from s.

  • trim_end_match(s, pat) - Remove suffix of s matching pat.

  • trim_end_matches(s, pat) - Repeatedly remove suffixes of s matching pat.

  • trim_start(s) - Remove leading whitespace from s.

  • trim_start_match(s, pat) - Remove prefix of s matching pat.

  • trim_start_matches(s, pat) - Repeatedly remove prefixes of s matching pat.

  • uppercase(s) - Convert s to uppercase.

Path Manipulation

Fallible

  • absolute_path(path) - Absolute path to relative path in the working directory. absolute_path("./bar.txt") in directory /foo is /foo/bar.txt.

  • extension(path) - Extension of path. extension("/foo/bar.txt") is txt.

  • file_name(path) - File name of path with any leading directory components removed. file_name("/foo/bar.txt") is bar.txt.

  • file_stem(path) - File name of path without extension. file_stem("/foo/bar.txt") is bar.

  • parent_directory(path) - Parent directory of path. parent_directory("/foo/bar.txt") is /foo.

  • without_extension(path) - path without extension. without_extension("/foo/bar.txt") is /foo/bar.

These functions can fail, for example if a path does not have an extension, which will halt execution.

Infallible

  • join(a, b…) - This function uses / on Unix and \ on Windows, which can be lead to unwanted behavior. The / operator, e.g., a / b, which always uses /, should be considered as a replacement unless \s are specifically desired on Windows. Join path a with path b. join("foo/bar", "baz") is foo/bar/baz. Accepts two or more arguments.

  • clean(path) - Simplify path by removing extra path separators, intermediate . components, and .. where possible. clean("foo//bar") is foo/bar, clean("foo/..") is ., clean("foo/./bar") is foo/bar.

Filesystem Access

  • path_exists(path) - Returns true if the path points at an existing entity and false otherwise. Traverses symbolic links, and returns false if the path is inaccessible or points to a broken symlink.
Error Reporting
  • error(message) - Abort execution and report error message to user.

UUID and Hash Generation

  • sha256(string) - Return the SHA-256 hash of string as a hexadecimal string.
  • sha256_file(path) - Return the SHA-256 hash of the file at path as a hexadecimal string.
  • uuid() - Return a randomly generated UUID.