[req.png]
...plumber? I seem to remember thinking that it was sort of awk inspired (Aharon Robbins in comp.lang.awk)
req is a text snippet router similar to plan9's plumber[¹], but you get gawk scripting for rules, and both, record and context matching.
It is a desktop accelerator: a frontend for searching, launching, and automating.
You are comfortable writing short one-line shell scripts and know a little about regular expressions. You might well get along, give it a try!
If you furthermore enjoy writing awk scripts, and know a bit about unix' intricacies then req is for you!
req is a text snippet router: given a string, say from your X11 cut buffer, it will classify and extract information contents, and merge that with context information. You write rule files ("ports") in awk to match against this data and to generate a menu of available shell commands.
Each of the stages - gathering context, classifying, and constructing a menu - is written in gawk and fully under your control. The basic framework presents the data as layered namespaces, and offers libraries and wrappers to construct shell commands in concise rules.
This project disputes the raison d'etre of xdg-open, dbus, .desktop files, file associations, and many other 'important' desktop features. Yes, something should sit there right at the center, and our aim is to regain full control over all our inter-application workflows, and put the power back into the hands of the user: You!
- gawk >= 4.1: http://www.gnu.org/software/gawk/gawk.html
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Clone this repository to a directory named '.req' in your home directory.
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Copy req.conf.sample to req.conf, and edit to your delight.
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Create a directory named ~/.req/port/ for your stuff.
-
The default port is port/open.awk. Create that file and write your first rule:
get("file_mimetype") == "text/plain" {
auto(1); menu("less " Q(get("file_name")))
}
- test it:
$ ls / > test.txt
$ req -p open -t test.txt
$ req -p open -t -i test.txt
- Put the frontend somewhere into your path and start hacking!
Suggestion: This rule can show you the available properties given any input string:
{
label("DUMP"); call("dump")
}
Or use the '-D' info mode instead.
Suggestion: Invent your own ad-hoc protocols and microformats!
Suggestion: If you have a comfy working ruleset do git commit to
back it up! Just add your files to req's checkout, and find yourself
ready to share your code! Pull requests welcome!
Suggestion: Build and configure the exec.so gawk plugin to get rid of excess intermediate processes!
https://github.com/robert-figura/req/blob/master/src/README.md
Suggestion: Make sure your TEMP environment variable points into a tmpfs/ramdisk mount. Req temporarily creates short-lived files for data, context, and possibly other stuff, and you may want to avoid writing to disk too frequently.
Suggestion: Grep the source for menu labels, command names, or namespace elements!
Suggestion: Read the examples! Maybe start here:
https://github.com/robert-figura/req/blob/master/extra/port/open.awk
There's so much more!
https://github.com/robert-figura/req/blob/master/extra/README.md
A commandline frontend to bind it all together, and bind it in a user-friendly api.
req-0.4.4, (c) 2012-2019 Robert Figura, see LICENSE for details
req [-OPTIONS...] [--] DATA
req [-OPTIONS...] -file DATA_FILE
req [-OPTIONS...] -stdin
ARGUMENTS
-p <name> 'port' what to do (default: open)
-f <name> 'from' triggering application (default: shell)
-a <key> <value> assign argument
-A <file> import argument file
-R <file> import and remove argument file
INPUT
-- ... suppress option parsing for remaining arguments
-e ... rest of commandline is a single data record
-|-stdin read from stdin and exit
-d|-file <file> read data from file
FILTERS
-1|-single exit after processing the first record
-%|-percent substitute e.g. %xwin in data
-u|-uniq filter duplicate input lines
-#|-comment remove comments
-_|-empty filter empty lines
MENU
-i|-menu always display interactive menu
-s|-select <num> select from menu, -select <number>
-q|-quiet inhibit menu prompt (for unpatched dmenu)
INFO
-t print command instead of running it
-X dump context and exit
-C dump classification
-D dump internal state
-x|-ctx <prop> print context property and exit
-c|-class <prop> print property for each record
-l|-list <prop> print property per available choices
-T|-test <prop> print property after choice
-V|-version print version info
-h|-help print version and usage info
The rules for the following examples can be found in the files under extra/port/
# note: -t shows the command instead of executing it,
# It's a mimetype based file launcher:
$ mv lorem-ipsum.pdf z.doc
$ req -t z.doc
mupdf -cont -z width '/home/rfigura/z.doc'
# Note that it isn't fooled by the "wrong" file name extension.
# It's an url launcher, too:
$ req -t http://localhost/
surf -n 'http://localhost/'
# For some urls scripting is turned off:
$ req -t http://w3c.org/
surf -p -s 'http://w3c.org/'
# Some urls get downloaded:
$ req -t http://localhost/t.pdf
curl -O -L 'http://localhost/t.pdf'
# Note that the actual command includes starting an xterm and
# is a bit longer. But the above line is part of it, check it out!
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Homepage https://github.com/robert-figura/req
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[¹] "Plumbing and Other Utilities", Rob Pike http://doc.cat-v.org/plan_9/4th_edition/papers/plumb
Most of these dependencies can easily be changed in the source code, or fail reasonably.
- file (file type recognition) http://www.darwinsys.com/file/
- dmenu (fast x11 menu) http://suckless.org/dmenu
- xclip (x11 clipboard support) http://xclip.sourceforge.net/
- xprop (x11 window context detection) http://xorg.freedesktop.org/wiki
- xbindkeys (for hotkey daemon) http://hocwp.free.fr/xbindkeys/xbindkeys.html
- xterm (auto-set xterm background examples) http://invisible-island.net/xterm
- gawkapi.h headers, gnu make, and some c compiler (for exec.so support) http://www.gnu.org/software/gawk/gawk.html
- less (the default pager) http://www.greenwoodsoftware.com/less
- surf (minimalist browser) http://surf.suckless.org/
- dwm (fast tiling windowmanager) http://suckless.org/dwm
- git (to back up your rules and share our code) http://git-scm.com/
- wpa_supplicant's wpa_cli (for wifi context detection) http://w1.di/wpa_supplicant/
- plan9port's plumber: an implementation very close to Rob Pike's plumber http://swtch.com/plan9port
- xdg-utils: freedesktop.org's reference implementation https://wiki.freedesktop.org/www/Software/xdg-utils/
- mimeinfo: mimeinfo based replacement for the file utility, written in perl https://metacpan.org/release/File-MimeInfo
- mimeo: unifies xdg-open and xdg-mime, written in python http://xyne.archlinux.ca/projects/mimeo
- linopen: "Intelligent and suckless replacement for xdg-open" http://cloudef.eu
- mimi-git: "mimi is an improved verision of xdg-open.", written in bash http://github.com/taylorchu/mimi
- sx-open: "a saner alternative to xdg-open", written in bash https://git.fleshless.org/sx-open
- busking-git: "A simple, regex-based xdg-open replacement", written in perl https://github.com/supplantr/busking
- whippet: "A launcher and xdg-open replacement for control freaks, utilizing dmenu.", written in bash http://appstogo.mcfadzean.org.uk/linux.html#whippet