tsc

tsc is a simple UNIX Timestamp utility for the shell. It can get the current UNIX timestamp, convert a timestamp into localized time and diff timestamps.

Examples

1. Get current UNIX timestamp: (I realize this is trivial with date(1), but how often have you googled this.)

    $ tsc
    1534947844
   

2. Convert timestamp to local time:

    $ tsc 1534950044
    1534950044 -> Wed Aug 22 11:00:44 EDT 2018
   

   tsc also accepts input from stdin in same format as its arguments (timestamp timestamp ...)

    $ echo 1534947844 | tsc
    1534947844 -> Wed Aug 22 10:24:04 EDT 2018
   

3. Diff timestamps (calculates the duration of the smallest and the greatest arguments):

    $ tsc 1534947844 1534947904
    1534947844 -> Wed Aug 22 10:24:04 EDT 2018
    1534947904 -> Wed Aug 22 10:25:04 EDT 2018
    Duration: 00:01:00
   

   tsc is also a first class utility, so it plays nicely with pipelines. Here we diff a timestamp and 'now', calculating the duration in elapsed time.

    $ tsc 1534947844 | tsc
    1534947844 -> Wed Aug 22 10:24:04 EDT 2018
    1534948588 -> Wed Aug 22 10:36:28 EDT 2018
    Duration: 00:12:24
   

4. Convert and diff multiple timestamps:

    $ tsc 1534947844 1534947904 1534948588
    1534947844 -> Wed Aug 22 10:24:04 EDT 2018
    1534947904 -> Wed Aug 22 10:25:04 EDT 2018
    1534948588 -> Wed Aug 22 10:36:28 EDT 2018
    Duration: 00:12:24
   

Installation

1. Clone this repo in your projects directory. For demonstration purposes, I will be using ~/Development/tsc in the example commands below.

    git clone https://github.com/kalenanson/tsc ~/Development/
   

2. If you want to add the tsc.sh command to your path could either alias the shell script, copt the script into your path, or create a symbolic link in your path. You have several options. Aliasing will need to make it into your dot files to be permanent, copying the file is the most secure and the symbolic link is the most flexiable as the command will stay updated when you update the repo. I'll demonstrate the obvious options and assume that /usr/local/bin is already in your shell's path.

    # Aliasing (simplest), add to your .bashrc as well
    alias tsc=~/Development/tsc/tsc.sh
    # OR
    # Copy into `/usr/local/bin`
    sudo cp tsc.sh /usr/local/bin/tsc
    # OR
    # Create a soft link in /usr/local/bin
    sudo ln -s ~/Development/tsc/tsc.sh /usr/local/bin/tsc
   

3. If the above worked then you should now be able to invoke tsc as follows:

    $ tsc
    1534947844
   

   If you get an error, check your shell's $PATH and verify that you see the tsc link / file in the place you put in #2 above. Also verify permissions on the link / file. It should have something like 755.

Usage

Simple Usage

Simple usage is as follows:

tsc -hv [timestamp ...]

Where -h and -v are for help and version respectively.

When no arguments are passed to tsc it prints the current UNIX timestamp and exits.

When arguments are passed to tsc it expects one or more timestamps that are space delineated. For example:

tsc 1534947844 1534947904 1534948588

When passed a single argument, tsc will attempt to convert the value to a date time using date(1). If successful you should see the timestamp followed by a date. For example:

$ tsc 1534950044
1534950044 -> Wed Aug 22 11:00:44 EDT 2018

When passed multiple arguments, tsc will preform conversions and tally the total duration or difference between the largest and smallest timestamp and also print out a duration. For example:

$ tsc 1534947844 1534947904
1534947844 -> Wed Aug 22 10:24:04 EDT 2018
1534947904 -> Wed Aug 22 10:25:04 EDT 2018
Duration: 00:01:00

Duration is printed in total hours, minutes, seconds in the format h:m:s.

Advanced Usage

tsc is pipeline friendly so here is its expected behavior in a pipeline:

something | tsc

When reading from stdin, tsc needs to be invoked without arguments. It will attempt to read a series of space delineated arguments from its stdin stream all on the same line (i.e. no newlines present). If arguments are present, tsc will ignore stdin and process the arguments instead.

tsc | something

When tsc is in front of a pipe, its behavior changes and it will echo its arguments along adding the current UNIX timestamp as the last value, delineated by spaces. A contrived example:

$ echo 1534947844 1534947904 1534948588 | tsc | cat
1534947844 1534947904 1534948588 1534950177

The advanced behavior of tsc was developed for fun and to facilitate some of the following simplified operations:

1. Diff from a timestamp to current time

    $ tsc 1534947844 | tsc
    1534947844 -> Wed Aug 22 10:24:04 EDT 2018
    1534950475 -> Wed Aug 22 11:07:55 EDT 2018
    Duration: 00:43:51
   

2. Pipeline of fury

    $ tsc 1534947844 | tsc | tsc | tsc | tsc | tsc | tsc | tsc
    1534947844 -> Wed Aug 22 10:24:04 EDT 2018
    1534950565 -> Wed Aug 22 11:09:25 EDT 2018
    1534950565 -> Wed Aug 22 11:09:25 EDT 2018
    1534950565 -> Wed Aug 22 11:09:25 EDT 2018
    1534950565 -> Wed Aug 22 11:09:25 EDT 2018
    1534950565 -> Wed Aug 22 11:09:25 EDT 2018
    1534950565 -> Wed Aug 22 11:09:25 EDT 2018
    1534950565 -> Wed Aug 22 11:09:25 EDT 2018
    Duration: 00:45:21
   

Hope you enjoy. Pull requests and feature requests are welcome.