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Show HN: Redo – Command line utility for quickly creating shell functions

124 points by silentprog 5y ago

opan 5y ago
This looks very cool. I use shell aliases heavily on all my devices and try to avoid typing out the same one-liners more than once or twice when possible.
- silentprog 5y ago
  Thank you! Currently the software is very much alpha, so some bugs are expected. I also use shell aliases a lot, though redo is currently not creating aliases but shell functions. In the future I want to add support for creating actual aliases as well instead of shell functions. A simple solution would be to not create a function but an actual alias and chain the commands with &&, this would work but then you lose the power to edit the function and for example have arguments to some commands and not to others.
  - gjvc 5y ago
    stick with functions
    - silentprog 5y ago
      Care to elaborate?
      - gjvc 4y ago
        no
Crespyl 5y ago
Not to be confused with the redo build system[0] [0] https://redo.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ https://redo.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
junkblocker 5y ago
I use this https://github.com/erichs/composure https://github.com/erichs/composure which seems to do more.
qorrect 5y ago
Very cool
buu700 5y ago
Currently, I'll append a comment to a frequently used command for easy searching from my history. For a simple example, I can access `git diff -w ; git diff -w --cached # gitdiff` by pressing Ctrl+R and typing `# gitd`. For commands I use frequently or that are clunky to maintain as one-liners, I'll convert them into functions in my bashrc. This seems like the best of both worlds in many ways, or at least is a great third option to have.
- silentprog 5y ago
  Interesting way of aliasing right from where you use it! I actually replaced my default shell history search with fuzzy search using (https://github.com/junegunn/fzf https://github.com/junegunn/fzf), I can highly recommend it!
  - buu700 5y ago
    Huh, apparently I've already starred that. It must have been posted on HN at some point.
- cyberge99 5y ago
  Interesting, I think there’s a shopt that I’m missing. When I append a comment, it’s not recorded in bash history, as I’d expect.
  - buu700 5y ago
    https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/17587/14123 https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/17587/14123
- westurner 5y ago
  From https://westurner.github.io/hnlog/#comment-20671184 https://westurner.github.io/hnlog/#comment-20671184 :: > I log shell commands with a script called usrlog.sh that creates [per-]$USER and per-virtualenv tab-delimited [$_USRLOG] logfiles with unique per-terminal-session identifiers [$_TERM_ID] and ISO8601 timestamps; so it's really easy to just grep for the apt/yum/dnf commands that I ran ad-hoc when I should've just taken a second to create an Ansible role with `ansible-galaxy init ansible-role-name ` and referenced that in a consolidated system playbook with a `when` clause. https://westurner.github.io/dotfiles/usrlog.html#usrlog https://westurner.github.io/dotfiles/usrlog.html#usrlog stid \#tutorial; echo "$_TERM_ID" tail -n11 $_USRLOG ut -n11 grep "$_TERM_ID" "$_USRLOG" usrlog_grep "$_TERM_ID" ug "$_TERM_ID" usrlog_grep_parse "$_TERM_ID" ugp "$_TERM_ID" # `type ugp` usrlog.sh: https://github.com/westurner/dotfiles/blob/master/scripts/usrlog.sh https://github.com/westurner/dotfiles/blob/master/scripts/us...
chubot 5y ago
FWIW the title says "functions", but it apparently uses aliases. Shell functions have all the same functionality as aliases and they'll catch more syntax errors upon "source myscript". Example: ls() { command ls --color=auto "$@" } is equivalent to alias ls='ls --color=auto' but IMO less error prone. You also get syntax highlighting. The only tricky thing is to remember the 'command' prefix if the "alias" has the same name as the command. Otherwise you'll get an infinite loop of the function trying to call itself!
- emmelaich 5y ago
  Note there is one possibly important difference; aliases are resolved before globbing.
  - chubot 5y ago
    Hm what's an example of where you might want to take advantage of that? In practice alias 'lspy=ls *.py' seems to be interchangeable with lspy() { ls *.py "$@" }
    - emmelaich 5y ago
      I have a semi-made desk calculator with prefix notation. You can make it an alias of * , / etc, so ... $ * 4 6 24 $ It would keep it's own stack, but let a persistent process do the actual maths. The persistent process could almost any repl of python, ruby etc. Or use a 'real' calculator like Pike's ivy; https://aplwiki.com/wiki/Ivy https://aplwiki.com/wiki/Ivy
      - emmelaich 5y ago
        Unfortunately, ( is not a valid alias name, so lispy things are difficult. [ is a valid function name tho so fun could be had there.
      - emmelaich 5y ago
        Also = is a valid function name. So you could use = to start the calc, and use infix or postfix notation.
stevenhuang 5y ago
I do this whenever working on terminal. The mnemonic is erc=edit rc, src=source rc. alias erc="vim ~/.bash_aliases" alias src="source ~/.bash_aliases" Whenever I need to add or modify some shell function or alias (or even make a quick note) I type erc to open the alias file. Then I type src to load it. Very handy.
- bmn__ 5y ago
  You should combine this into one command. http://www.modernperlbooks.com/mt/2009/10/remove-the-little-pessimizations.html http://www.modernperlbooks.com/mt/2009/10/remove-the-little-...
unixhero 5y ago
This reminds me of what I had in 1995 with the 4DOS.COM command interpreter (command.com replacement).
replwoacause 5y ago
Love it! I am going to start using it immediately.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
felixhummel 4y ago
My workflow looks like this: hack hack, then run nuscript-bash something Hit C-x C-h, select some lines, edit, then run something To do maintenance: edcom something I wrote a little more about it here: https://blag.felixhummel.de/basics/bash/wrapper-scripts.html https://blag.felixhummel.de/basics/bash/wrapper-scripts.html

124 points by silentprog 5y ago

opan 5y ago

This looks very cool. I use shell aliases heavily on all my devices and try to avoid typing out the same one-liners more than once or twice when possible.

silentprog 5y ago
Thank you! Currently the software is very much alpha, so some bugs are expected. I also use shell aliases a lot, though redo is currently not creating aliases but shell functions. In the future I want to add support for creating actual aliases as well instead of shell functions. A simple solution would be to not create a function but an actual alias and chain the commands with &&, this would work but then you lose the power to edit the function and for example have arguments to some commands and not to others.
- gjvc 5y ago
  stick with functions
  - silentprog 5y ago
    Care to elaborate?
    - gjvc 4y ago
      no

Crespyl 5y ago

Not to be confused with the redo build system[0] [0] https://redo.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ https://redo.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

junkblocker 5y ago

I use this https://github.com/erichs/composure https://github.com/erichs/composure which seems to do more.

qorrect 5y ago

Very cool

buu700 5y ago

Currently, I'll append a comment to a frequently used command for easy searching from my history. For a simple example, I can access `git diff -w ; git diff -w --cached # gitdiff` by pressing Ctrl+R and typing `# gitd`. For commands I use frequently or that are clunky to maintain as one-liners, I'll convert them into functions in my bashrc. This seems like the best of both worlds in many ways, or at least is a great third option to have.

silentprog 5y ago
Interesting way of aliasing right from where you use it! I actually replaced my default shell history search with fuzzy search using (https://github.com/junegunn/fzf https://github.com/junegunn/fzf), I can highly recommend it!
- buu700 5y ago
  Huh, apparently I've already starred that. It must have been posted on HN at some point.
cyberge99 5y ago
Interesting, I think there’s a shopt that I’m missing. When I append a comment, it’s not recorded in bash history, as I’d expect.
- buu700 5y ago
  https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/17587/14123 https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/17587/14123
westurner 5y ago
From https://westurner.github.io/hnlog/#comment-20671184 https://westurner.github.io/hnlog/#comment-20671184 :: > I log shell commands with a script called usrlog.sh that creates [per-]$USER and per-virtualenv tab-delimited [$_USRLOG] logfiles with unique per-terminal-session identifiers [$_TERM_ID] and ISO8601 timestamps; so it's really easy to just grep for the apt/yum/dnf commands that I ran ad-hoc when I should've just taken a second to create an Ansible role with `ansible-galaxy init ansible-role-name ` and referenced that in a consolidated system playbook with a `when` clause. https://westurner.github.io/dotfiles/usrlog.html#usrlog https://westurner.github.io/dotfiles/usrlog.html#usrlog stid \#tutorial; echo "$_TERM_ID" tail -n11 $_USRLOG ut -n11 grep "$_TERM_ID" "$_USRLOG" usrlog_grep "$_TERM_ID" ug "$_TERM_ID" usrlog_grep_parse "$_TERM_ID" ugp "$_TERM_ID" # `type ugp` usrlog.sh: https://github.com/westurner/dotfiles/blob/master/scripts/usrlog.sh https://github.com/westurner/dotfiles/blob/master/scripts/us...

chubot 5y ago

FWIW the title says "functions", but it apparently uses aliases. Shell functions have all the same functionality as aliases and they'll catch more syntax errors upon "source myscript". Example: ls() { command ls --color=auto "$@" } is equivalent to alias ls='ls --color=auto' but IMO less error prone. You also get syntax highlighting. The only tricky thing is to remember the 'command' prefix if the "alias" has the same name as the command. Otherwise you'll get an infinite loop of the function trying to call itself!

emmelaich 5y ago
Note there is one possibly important difference; aliases are resolved before globbing.
- chubot 5y ago
  Hm what's an example of where you might want to take advantage of that? In practice alias 'lspy=ls *.py' seems to be interchangeable with lspy() { ls *.py "$@" }
  - emmelaich 5y ago
    I have a semi-made desk calculator with prefix notation. You can make it an alias of * , / etc, so ... $ * 4 6 24 $ It would keep it's own stack, but let a persistent process do the actual maths. The persistent process could almost any repl of python, ruby etc. Or use a 'real' calculator like Pike's ivy; https://aplwiki.com/wiki/Ivy https://aplwiki.com/wiki/Ivy
    - emmelaich 5y ago
      Unfortunately, ( is not a valid alias name, so lispy things are difficult. [ is a valid function name tho so fun could be had there.
    - emmelaich 5y ago
      Also = is a valid function name. So you could use = to start the calc, and use infix or postfix notation.

stevenhuang 5y ago

I do this whenever working on terminal. The mnemonic is erc=edit rc, src=source rc. alias erc="vim ~/.bash_aliases" alias src="source ~/.bash_aliases" Whenever I need to add or modify some shell function or alias (or even make a quick note) I type erc to open the alias file. Then I type src to load it. Very handy.

bmn__ 5y ago
You should combine this into one command. http://www.modernperlbooks.com/mt/2009/10/remove-the-little-pessimizations.html http://www.modernperlbooks.com/mt/2009/10/remove-the-little-...

unixhero 5y ago

This reminds me of what I had in 1995 with the 4DOS.COM command interpreter (command.com replacement).

replwoacause 5y ago

Love it! I am going to start using it immediately.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

felixhummel 4y ago

My workflow looks like this: hack hack, then run nuscript-bash something Hit C-x C-h, select some lines, edit, then run something To do maintenance: edcom something I wrote a little more about it here: https://blag.felixhummel.de/basics/bash/wrapper-scripts.html https://blag.felixhummel.de/basics/bash/wrapper-scripts.html