7 ms·

Self-imposed ban – a lightweight bash script to block commands

34 points by alex-moon 1y ago

samrus 1y ago
Why? I use the terminal but i have no idea how cli commands would get so distracting you have to parental lock yourself out of them like its entertainment or social media
- haiku2077 1y ago
  On window managers like i3 or sway, you launch programs (including GUI applications) via their shell command in an autocompleting micro-menu.
- hk1337 1y ago
  Ban yourself from vim so you don't get stuck in it for hours?
- kjkjadksj 1y ago
  Some people get distracted by work and not social media during their down time
  - ABU_ALLIL_123 1y ago
    Lvoe
- accoil 1y ago
  I have a small post command hook in fish that looks at arg0 and prints out any associated reminder for the program I just used. I use it to remind myself that I'm testing an alternative (e.g I used grep today, and it printed out a reminder that I have rg installed). I guess it could be used as a harsher version of that.
jmholla 1y ago
Why have a dependency on Zenity instead of displaying the message in the terminal? Seems weirdly limiting to have a GUI dependency for a terminal application thus making this unusable on headless systems. I think you could make it optional and use STDERR if Zenity's not around.
- yjftsjthsd-h 1y ago
  I assume it's meant to work for programs that aren't being launched from the terminal
- xunil2ycom 1y ago
  My question exactly, minus the optional part. If it's a command-line tool, it should not require any GUI elements at all.
ramses0 1y ago
So, I love that the README is nearly as long as the code itself. Shorthand: PATH=$HOME/.bans:$PATH # (prefix path with "banned" cmd-dir) printf "echo 'bad!'" > "$HOME/bans/some-cmd" # (make `some-cmd` run `echo 'bad!'`) ...and then some goodies around tracking, reasons, etc... some niftiness around "auto-expiring" the banned command (self-deletes the "bad" shell script that's shadowing the actual command usage). As to the sibling "why?" ... it's trivial to circumvent: `ban ls "I run it too much..."`, `/bin/ls` is still unaffected, `rm ~/.bans/ls`, etc... but I _do_ like the pause to allow a return to rationality, eg: "Hey, maybe I do run `ls` too much..." and then deciding how to proceed. It'd probably be nicer if it did something like `(Bad) Chrome.app/*` on OSX, but as an exercise in shell gymnastics, I'm kindof all here for it! :-)
- samrus 1y ago
  > "Hey, maybe I do run `ls` too much..." This cant be a though someone has ever had. Your telling me people are getting addicted to the ls command?
  - lupusreal 1y ago
    I'm addicted to sl. I love those trains.
  - z_open 1y ago
    I am. Every time I cd I ls even though I know what's in there.
    - deleted 1y ago
      [deleted]
  - zamadatix 1y ago
    I think it's more an example of a "why did I just cd ls cd ls cd ls that directory tree instead of leveraging tab completion" type thing than "man, I gotta get over my ls addiction or I won't be able to provide for my family". I've found myself doing similar hints to nudge more efficient-but-less-exercised things into my day to day usage. E.g. making /etc/crontab a comment to get more used to creating systemd timers instead. Otherwise I'd just do it without thinking.
skeptrune 1y ago
Haha, this is fun
nikolayasdf123 1y ago
kind of cool. like "App/Time Limits" in Apple
foxinsocks5 1y ago
What if I ban rm too?
- johnisgood 1y ago
  You will not be able to use the command. I am not sure if other scripts could, however. I have not checked the implementation.
msgodel 1y ago
I wrote a similar piece of software but it just limits time spent on certain web sites per day. It's amazing how much something so simple can change your life if you have a problem with that. I'd highly recommend everyone enable it. I think iOS has something like that built in too so you don't even need my stuff unless you're on eg Linux.
RS-232 1y ago
> ban ban
teddyh 1y ago
Frog put the cookies in a box. “There,” he said. “Now we will not any more cookies.” “But we can open the box,” said Toad. “That is true,” said Frog.
- zahlman 1y ago
  Yes. It's still helpful. The same arguments apply to, for example, leading-underscore names in Python code.
- haiku2077 1y ago
  "That is true," replied a commenter. "But it has successfully worked for breaking my bad habits in the past."
nektro 1y ago
wish the README showed an example of what trying to use a banned command looked like. rather than this being useful to stop "distracting" commands i see this being useful in stopping agents from calling `rm` for example
- nektro 1y ago
  oh i see, it installs a bash script in a PATH thats a higher priority than the real one.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- autoexec 1y ago
  > i see this being useful in stopping agents from calling `rm` for example I used to do that kind of thing a long time ago. MS-DOS wouldn't ask for confirmation when deleting files, so I'd use a hex editor to rename the del command, then create a batch file named del.bat that would ask if you really wanted to remove the file. Even had something like the recycle bin at one point to prevent accidental deletes. You could even set up some very weak security by renaming commands like ls/dir and it could keep some casual snoops out of your system or prank/annoy someone else by replacing their commands to make them do funny things.
priyashpatil 1y ago
What if I ban ban
SlightlyLeftPad 1y ago
Yeah I’ve used this strategy simply to avoid accidents. If not for me, but also for others. On an old source control server, backed up of course, avoiding an errant “rm” or something else stupid can still save me hours of restore work, the outage and the RCA.
alex-moon 1y ago
Woah thanks for all the comments everyone! To answer a recurring question: this is to prevent things from being called from bemenu (and its ilk) - definitely could have made that clearer in the README. Hopefully that clears up a lot of things.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]

34 points by alex-moon 1y ago

Why? I use the terminal but i have no idea how cli commands would get so distracting you have to parental lock yourself out of them like its entertainment or social media

haiku2077 1y ago
On window managers like i3 or sway, you launch programs (including GUI applications) via their shell command in an autocompleting micro-menu.
hk1337 1y ago
Ban yourself from vim so you don't get stuck in it for hours?
kjkjadksj 1y ago
Some people get distracted by work and not social media during their down time
- ABU_ALLIL_123 1y ago
  Lvoe
accoil 1y ago
I have a small post command hook in fish that looks at arg0 and prints out any associated reminder for the program I just used. I use it to remind myself that I'm testing an alternative (e.g I used grep today, and it printed out a reminder that I have rg installed). I guess it could be used as a harsher version of that.

jmholla 1y ago

Why have a dependency on Zenity instead of displaying the message in the terminal? Seems weirdly limiting to have a GUI dependency for a terminal application thus making this unusable on headless systems. I think you could make it optional and use STDERR if Zenity's not around.

yjftsjthsd-h 1y ago
I assume it's meant to work for programs that aren't being launched from the terminal
xunil2ycom 1y ago
My question exactly, minus the optional part. If it's a command-line tool, it should not require any GUI elements at all.

ramses0 1y ago

So, I love that the README is nearly as long as the code itself. Shorthand: PATH=$HOME/.bans:$PATH # (prefix path with "banned" cmd-dir) printf "echo 'bad!'" > "$HOME/bans/some-cmd" # (make `some-cmd` run `echo 'bad!'`) ...and then some goodies around tracking, reasons, etc... some niftiness around "auto-expiring" the banned command (self-deletes the "bad" shell script that's shadowing the actual command usage). As to the sibling "why?" ... it's trivial to circumvent: `ban ls "I run it too much..."`, `/bin/ls` is still unaffected, `rm ~/.bans/ls`, etc... but I _do_ like the pause to allow a return to rationality, eg: "Hey, maybe I do run `ls` too much..." and then deciding how to proceed. It'd probably be nicer if it did something like `(Bad) Chrome.app/*` on OSX, but as an exercise in shell gymnastics, I'm kindof all here for it! :-)

samrus 1y ago
> "Hey, maybe I do run `ls` too much..." This cant be a though someone has ever had. Your telling me people are getting addicted to the ls command?
- lupusreal 1y ago
  I'm addicted to sl. I love those trains.
- z_open 1y ago
  I am. Every time I cd I ls even though I know what's in there.
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
- zamadatix 1y ago
  I think it's more an example of a "why did I just cd ls cd ls cd ls that directory tree instead of leveraging tab completion" type thing than "man, I gotta get over my ls addiction or I won't be able to provide for my family". I've found myself doing similar hints to nudge more efficient-but-less-exercised things into my day to day usage. E.g. making /etc/crontab a comment to get more used to creating systemd timers instead. Otherwise I'd just do it without thinking.

skeptrune 1y ago

Haha, this is fun

nikolayasdf123 1y ago

kind of cool. like "App/Time Limits" in Apple

foxinsocks5 1y ago

What if I ban rm too?

johnisgood 1y ago
You will not be able to use the command. I am not sure if other scripts could, however. I have not checked the implementation.

msgodel 1y ago

I wrote a similar piece of software but it just limits time spent on certain web sites per day. It's amazing how much something so simple can change your life if you have a problem with that. I'd highly recommend everyone enable it. I think iOS has something like that built in too so you don't even need my stuff unless you're on eg Linux.

RS-232 1y ago

> ban ban

teddyh 1y ago

Frog put the cookies in a box. “There,” he said. “Now we will not any more cookies.” “But we can open the box,” said Toad. “That is true,” said Frog.

zahlman 1y ago
Yes. It's still helpful. The same arguments apply to, for example, leading-underscore names in Python code.
haiku2077 1y ago
"That is true," replied a commenter. "But it has successfully worked for breaking my bad habits in the past."

nektro 1y ago

wish the README showed an example of what trying to use a banned command looked like. rather than this being useful to stop "distracting" commands i see this being useful in stopping agents from calling `rm` for example

nektro 1y ago
oh i see, it installs a bash script in a PATH thats a higher priority than the real one.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
autoexec 1y ago
> i see this being useful in stopping agents from calling `rm` for example I used to do that kind of thing a long time ago. MS-DOS wouldn't ask for confirmation when deleting files, so I'd use a hex editor to rename the del command, then create a batch file named del.bat that would ask if you really wanted to remove the file. Even had something like the recycle bin at one point to prevent accidental deletes. You could even set up some very weak security by renaming commands like ls/dir and it could keep some casual snoops out of your system or prank/annoy someone else by replacing their commands to make them do funny things.

priyashpatil 1y ago

What if I ban ban

SlightlyLeftPad 1y ago

Yeah I’ve used this strategy simply to avoid accidents. If not for me, but also for others. On an old source control server, backed up of course, avoiding an errant “rm” or something else stupid can still save me hours of restore work, the outage and the RCA.

alex-moon 1y ago

Woah thanks for all the comments everyone! To answer a recurring question: this is to prevent things from being called from bemenu (and its ilk) - definitely could have made that clearer in the README. Hopefully that clears up a lot of things.

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]