Show HN: Oh-heck, a terminal command for when you forget other terminal commands(oh-heck.dev)
oh-heck.dev
Show HN: Oh-heck, a terminal command for when you forget other terminal commands
https://oh-heck.dev
131 comments
I’ll save some clicking: $4/month. But, yeah, not idea what TOS or privacy policy is.
oh-heck "Bring up the network interface. Goddamit Linux where did ifconfig go? Why do you have to NIH everything?"I aliased ifconfig to this:
echo "Local IPs: "
ifconfig | grep "inet " | grep -Fv 127.0.0.1 | awk '{print $2}'
systemd-resolve --status | grep -A 2 Servers | sed 's/\ //g'
ip route show
curl --silent ipinfo.io | grep -E '\"ip|hostname|city' | sed 's/\"//g'
Tbf, 'ip addr' is even easier to remember as far as I'm concerned
'ip a' works too
I was so happy when I discovered this. As a UNIX and Linux user for my entire career I was so surprised that something built into every Cisco, Juniper, Arista etc etc network device wasn't built into many cli tools on Linux.
I know I can create aliases and whatnot, but I'm a consultant, when I was still hands on with the tools I'd log into 30+ different customer's environments every year. Many were isolated from the Internet and whilst I did carry my dotfiles around on a USB (Along with some binaries of useful tools that are so often lacking on enterprise systems) I couldn't always use them.
I know I can create aliases and whatnot, but I'm a consultant, when I was still hands on with the tools I'd log into 30+ different customer's environments every year. Many were isolated from the Internet and whilst I did carry my dotfiles around on a USB (Along with some binaries of useful tools that are so often lacking on enterprise systems) I couldn't always use them.
How would one add this if it's missing?
busybox still has a simplified ifconfig.
It's not even that the "Terms of Service & Privacy" link doesn't work, it's that it's not even a link. It's a div that sorta behaves like a link. Shady af.
And here's a command that tries to fix up a mistake after you type it. Like this one, it's also named like what you might say afterwards.
https://github.com/nvbn/thefuck
https://github.com/nvbn/thefuck
I was just about to share this. I use this daily and this magnificent tool is really helpful.
[deleted]
This is great. Is there an easy "open source terminal emulator" where I can run this after I typed enter but before it is executed? More like. is there a way the terminal can understand I typed a bad command and then give suggestions for changing it.
GNU Emacs has a module called eshell-smart that borrows from Plan 9's 9term.
When you run a command it moves the cursor (point in Emacs) to the beginning of the line and shows output below it. If you start typing it jumps to a new prompt allowing you to enter a separate command. If instead you move right from the beginning of the line it sees you are correcting/tweaking the command and doesn't jump to a new line when you type something. If you press space it acts like a pager.
It's pretty neat because it allows you to review the output without getting in the way.
When you run a command it moves the cursor (point in Emacs) to the beginning of the line and shows output below it. If you start typing it jumps to a new prompt allowing you to enter a separate command. If instead you move right from the beginning of the line it sees you are correcting/tweaking the command and doesn't jump to a new line when you type something. If you press space it acts like a pager.
It's pretty neat because it allows you to review the output without getting in the way.
I would guess the shell is a more accessible place to accomplish something like this. For example: https://superuser.com/questions/175799/does-bash-have-a-hook...
Interesting. Thanks very much. I will try it out.
[deleted]
efb
aliased as 'duck' to be work-friendly
Where do you work that anyone would care you use a command called « fuck »?
Damn, imagine working at a place where at the end of each day, the management goes through your shell history and includes it in a "performance review".
Or you're giving a live demo in a terminal to the bosses and you mistype a command, then your fingers slip by habit...
I afraid that I may say it out loud if I type `fuck` too many times.. ;0
Mormon boss, eh
Slightly related is https://cheat.sh/ [0], which returns real-world examples of how to use a given command.
The results are nicely formatted and color-coded. Give it a try in your terminal:
[0] https://github.com/chubin/cheat.sh
The results are nicely formatted and color-coded. Give it a try in your terminal:
curl https://cheat.sh/rsync
[0] https://github.com/chubin/cheat.sh
tldr.sh is a similar project.
https://github.com/tldr-pages/tldr
https://github.com/tldr-pages/tldr
man ?
> But, Mike! What happens if I can't remember the oh-heck commands?
> Well, first, calm yourself, you fool. Once you've regained your composure, just type `oh-heck` into Terminal and follow the steps you numbskull.
I think that they're trying to be clever, but I prefer to not be insulted by my tools.
> Well, first, calm yourself, you fool. Once you've regained your composure, just type `oh-heck` into Terminal and follow the steps you numbskull.
I think that they're trying to be clever, but I prefer to not be insulted by my tools.
Personally I like getting insulted by my tools. I always put `Defaults insults` in my /etc/sudoers file so every time I enter the wrong password, I get insulted. I wish more tools supported this. I think computing in general is fun, and wish more tools had fun things like this.
$ sudo whoami
[sudo] password for user:
Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!
[sudo] password for user:
Your mind just hasn't been the same since the electro-shock, has it?
[sudo] password for user:
sudo: 3 incorrect password attemptsTIL.
Reminds me of the days installing sl on FreeBSD servers. Someone typos the most common and basic of commands and they watch a steam locomotive journey across their screen. It even has different versions based on common ls switches.
And I just found it's still available. https://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/displays-animations-when-acci...
Reminds me of the days installing sl on FreeBSD servers. Someone typos the most common and basic of commands and they watch a steam locomotive journey across their screen. It even has different versions based on common ls switches.
And I just found it's still available. https://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/displays-animations-when-acci...
I didn't know about that! yeah, that's going to be a new personal standard practice.
I like it when it's done well (maybe in an underhanded manner) but that was facile.
Hey guys, I've created a really small tool that converts natural language into terminal commands using GPT3. To my chagrin, I seem to have a pathological inability to remember commands so I'm hoping this may help others suffering from such a terrible affliction.
I would actually be interested in trying this out, but the things pointed out here have got me holding off for now: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30721983
Might be worth giving the website/messaging a once-over
Might be worth giving the website/messaging a once-over
When I first read this comment I assumed it was someone sarcastically pretending to be the creator and not the actual creator, and I thought, what a dick... LOL
Looks neat! I've already been using github copilot which I've found brings some more joy into coding (even when it's a little off).
Looks neat! I've already been using github copilot which I've found brings some more joy into coding (even when it's a little off).
This is fascinating.
Is the input to oh-heck the complete GPT-3 prompt. Or is there something else added to it before sending to GPT-3?
Is there any specific training used for this task? Or just off the shelf GPT-3?
Is the input to oh-heck the complete GPT-3 prompt. Or is there something else added to it before sending to GPT-3?
Is there any specific training used for this task? Or just off the shelf GPT-3?
Yea, it's not the full prompt, I've been gradually training it over the last couple of weeks. It still needs work though as it's quite rudimentary at the moment. Something I intend to focus on going forward.
[deleted]
Am I crazy to think that a tool like this is an accident waiting to happen?
I'm assuming that this tool is for people who aren't familiar with the system enough to get what they need from the man pages and would rather not invest the time to become deeper on it.
If you don't remember the command you need to use, how can you be sure it is the correct command and options before you run it?
edit: typo
I'm assuming that this tool is for people who aren't familiar with the system enough to get what they need from the man pages and would rather not invest the time to become deeper on it.
If you don't remember the command you need to use, how can you be sure it is the correct command and options before you run it?
edit: typo
It shows you the command and allows you to copy it on the clipboard. It's never going to execute it. For me it is useful more like a refreshing your memory than doing the actual work, therefore you need to know what you're doing from previous knowledge.
On the other hand if you are doing something dangerous or risky or you don't understand the suggested command, maybe you shouldn't use this tool without searching more info first.
On the other hand if you are doing something dangerous or risky or you don't understand the suggested command, maybe you shouldn't use this tool without searching more info first.
>It shows you the command and allows you to copy it on the clipboard. It's never going to execute it. For me it is useful more like a refreshing your memory than doing the actual work, therefore you need to know what you're doing from previous knowledge.
That sounds suspciously like smitty[0].
Which was a useful tool when I was learning AIX. I'd expect a similar tool could be useful for learning other systems too.
[0] https://developer.ibm.com/articles/au-smit/
That sounds suspciously like smitty[0].
Which was a useful tool when I was learning AIX. I'd expect a similar tool could be useful for learning other systems too.
[0] https://developer.ibm.com/articles/au-smit/
It's the same as having a word on the tip of your tongue, you'll remember it once you see it.
Only a fool would rely solely a tool like this to run things you don't understand.
That doesn't make it a dangerous tool to use though.
Only a fool would rely solely a tool like this to run things you don't understand.
That doesn't make it a dangerous tool to use though.
> If you don't remember the command you need to use, how can you be sure it is the correct command and options before you run it?
It asks you for confirmation before running it.
It asks you for confirmation before running it.
[deleted]
Guess-and-verify seems like a good strategy here. Maybe I'm not even sure which command I should be using for some task, but once I've been given a command and some options I can go read the man page to verify they do what I want
Maybe you memorize all your tools very well but I find myself going to Google typing in queries just like the demo all the time.
Not until it starts recommended troll answers like
sudo rm -rf /I just make bash functions in my dotfiles for use cases like these, particularly good CLI arg combinations from Stack Overflow answers, etc.
Example:
Example:
# 2022-02-07
# because `poetry show --outdated` includes *all* packages (!), not just top-level dependencies
function poetry-show-outdated {
poetry show --outdated | grep --file=<(poetry show --tree | grep '^\w' | cut -d' ' -f1)
}
function disk-usage-summary () {
# output high-level disk usage stats
set -x
du --human-readable --summarize
du --human-readable --max-depth=1
df --human-readable --total
set +x
}That actually runs the commands right? How do you deal with commands that perform some action that maybe couldn't be reverted easily?
Correct.
If I don't necessarily want to run all of the commands, I make a "do-nothing script" [1][2] that just echoes them out instead.
I don't have a generalized example of undo / redo in bash commands, since I don't believe it's possible, but for example, if I'm running a destructive command, I prefer to run the dry run version first, then have a confirmation prompt [3] before running the destructive action.
[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20495739
[2]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29083367
[3]: https://stackoverflow.com/q/1885525/149428
If I don't necessarily want to run all of the commands, I make a "do-nothing script" [1][2] that just echoes them out instead.
I don't have a generalized example of undo / redo in bash commands, since I don't believe it's possible, but for example, if I'm running a destructive command, I prefer to run the dry run version first, then have a confirmation prompt [3] before running the destructive action.
[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20495739
[2]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29083367
[3]: https://stackoverflow.com/q/1885525/149428
McFly uses either a neural net or fzf along with sqlite and clever script hooks to do basically everything you may need: https://github.com/cantino/mcfly
Wow, thanks for the tip! This looks really useful, I've been using fzf for a long time and it works well but this seems like a clear improvement to that
The quick demo looks pretty dope, but I am never gonna pay a subscription for a closed source token-identified cli tool. I would have paid a one time fee for a similar tool that doesn't phone home to check my api key every time I use it.
My guess is that it's relying on openai calls to do the hard work, and thus someone has to pay for them. I believe that GPT-3, which this relies on, is not open source and probably not easy to run on your device.
Yep, if it uses GPT-3, that has to be the case:
Microsoft announced on September 22, 2020, that it had licensed "exclusive" use of GPT-3; others can still use the public API to receive output, but only Microsoft has access to GPT-3's underlying model. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPT-3
Microsoft announced on September 22, 2020, that it had licensed "exclusive" use of GPT-3; others can still use the public API to receive output, but only Microsoft has access to GPT-3's underlying model. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPT-3
This couldn't really run otherwise, sadly, as it uses GPT-3. I guess it could use a FOSS model, but you wouldn't want to run that locally.
This is awesome, can’t wait to try it out.
Does it handle questions that would result in piping commands together like “how do I get the third element in a JSON response from a curl command?”
This will be a great command alongside “fuck”
https://github.com/nvbn/thefuck
Does it handle questions that would result in piping commands together like “how do I get the third element in a JSON response from a curl command?”
This will be a great command alongside “fuck”
https://github.com/nvbn/thefuck
Looks nice; how does it work under the hood? It looks like it needs an API key, so does that mean it sends all my inputs to some server? Does it taylor the answer based on your OS, like using Hombrew on Mac and apt on Ubuntu? Can it work offline?
So it's using the GPT-3 API, so yes, don't send anything sensitive! It doesn't taylor it based on your OS but that's actually a really neat idea, something I'll look to add. For now though, you can just write "how do I x on mac?" and it should work.
I think I'd rather have Github Copilot for the shell.
You need to make an account and then you find out you have to put in a credit card just to try it out?
Oh, heck, go fuck yourself with a sharp cactus!
Oh, heck, go fuck yourself with a sharp cactus!
Dude appears to be doxed fwiw.
Led to finding this funny snippet in the 1992 ev_keymap.h file:
#define NX_NUMKEYCODES 256 /* Highest key code is 0xff. ADB used to use 0x80 for keydown state, but who the heck uses adb anymore. */
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Desktop_Bus
Led to finding this funny snippet in the 1992 ev_keymap.h file:
#define NX_NUMKEYCODES 256 /* Highest key code is 0xff. ADB used to use 0x80 for keydown state, but who the heck uses adb anymore. */
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Desktop_Bus
This looks like a fun idea. I'm curious, is GPT3 used to generate the commands, or only to parse the input? I'd personally be very wary to use any GPT3 generated command since there's no guarantee that it wouldn't be destructive.
Looks like it just generates the command and copies it to the clipboard, so you can verify it's really what you want before executing it.
I remember writing a Advent-like text adventure game (Advent inspired Zork). The natural language interface looked easy to write.
Boy was I wrong.
Using a specialized language for interacting with a computer is because NLP is so very hard.
Boy was I wrong.
Using a specialized language for interacting with a computer is because NLP is so very hard.
[deleted]
I think these ML systems make for pretty good search engines. They're still bad at creating original coherent texts though.
Wait. Sending what you want to do to a webservice (GPT-3) doesn't sound clever?
Some commands you might want to keep private
oh-heck "is there a bash script I can use to hack the NSA?"howdoi works great: https://github.com/gleitz/howdoi
Most frequently, it looks up the first stackoverflow answer and prints it.
Most frequently, it looks up the first stackoverflow answer and prints it.
Related tools:
TLDR community managed man pages https://tldr.sh/
Cheat Sheet access to community driven docs http://cht.sh/
Bro pages (like TLDR, but without the great name) http://bropages.org/
TLDR community managed man pages https://tldr.sh/
Cheat Sheet access to community driven docs http://cht.sh/
Bro pages (like TLDR, but without the great name) http://bropages.org/
i usually just put commands that I know I'm going to use again in a text file so I can reference them later.
this fails to embody the 3 great virtues of a programmer
Yeah, but it's also practical, so who's really winning here?
I don't know because I'm from the "if you need to write down multiple examples of how to use a command in order to move forward with it indefinitely, then it has an absolutely terrible UI and that is in fact the root problem you should be fixing" school of thought.
I'm the kind of person that prefers wrapping commands with terrible UI in functions with much better UI though https://github.com/pmarreck/pac . Like who the fuck thought that "pacman -Syyu" (where the number of y's semantically changes the meaning) would be a great idea? An idiot, a sadist or an autist, that's who. Certainly not someone who actually cares about normal humans.
In my opinion, instead of writing all these helper or cheatsheet functions as constant reminders of how bad the TUI (text user interface) is on these commands, someone should release a library of wrappers that wraps all of these turds (I'm sorry, "diamonds in the rough") in sensible and consistent TUI with consistent option formats, autocompletes, maybe some inline documentation while you type the command, etc. And then we wouldn't need all these band-aid tools.
I can say as an Arch fan but pacman command-tool despiser (did I mention that it doesn't at all try to stop you from easily breaking your dependency structure JUST in order to support some very corner use-cases?), prior to writing pac I was "man pacman"'ing for months, and after I finished it I haven't needed to do that EVER. (Yet.)
The "ip" command is an example of one I'd say has a good TUI.
I'm the kind of person that prefers wrapping commands with terrible UI in functions with much better UI though https://github.com/pmarreck/pac . Like who the fuck thought that "pacman -Syyu" (where the number of y's semantically changes the meaning) would be a great idea? An idiot, a sadist or an autist, that's who. Certainly not someone who actually cares about normal humans.
In my opinion, instead of writing all these helper or cheatsheet functions as constant reminders of how bad the TUI (text user interface) is on these commands, someone should release a library of wrappers that wraps all of these turds (I'm sorry, "diamonds in the rough") in sensible and consistent TUI with consistent option formats, autocompletes, maybe some inline documentation while you type the command, etc. And then we wouldn't need all these band-aid tools.
I can say as an Arch fan but pacman command-tool despiser (did I mention that it doesn't at all try to stop you from easily breaking your dependency structure JUST in order to support some very corner use-cases?), prior to writing pac I was "man pacman"'ing for months, and after I finished it I haven't needed to do that EVER. (Yet.)
The "ip" command is an example of one I'd say has a good TUI.
I love
tldr
for this too https://github.com/tldr-pages/tldr
Some people seem to be unaware of apropos too (old text based cli tool).
$ apropos network
interfaces (5) - network interface configuration for ifup and ifdown
aseqnet (1) - ALSA sequencer connectors over network
byteorder (3) - convert values between host and network byte order
ctstat (8) - unified linux network statisticsI hate that it spews so much irrelevant things. Run "apropos directory" on macos and see if you can find "ls" between
create_automation_image_overlay(8), -(8) - ."====================== create_automation_image_overlay overlay automation image content onto another directory ." ."
and
CPANPLUS::Internals::Source::Memory(3pm) - In memory implementation n .SS "$cb->_|_memory_retrieve_source(name => $name, [path => $path, uptodate => BOOL, verbose => BOOL])" .SS "$cb->_|_memory_retrieve_source(name => $name, [path => $path, uptodate => BOOL, verbose => BOOL])" Subsection "$cb->__memory_retrieve_source(name => $name, [path => $path, uptodate => BOOL, verbose => BOOL])" This method retrieves a storabled tree identified by $name. It takes the following arguments: name" 4 Item "name" The internal name for the source file to retrieve. uptodate" 4 Item "uptodate" A flag indicating whether the file-cache is up-to-date or not. path" 4 Item "path" The absolute path to the directory holding the source files. verbose" 4 Item "verbose" A boolean flag indicating whether or not to be verbose. Will get information from the config file by default. Returns a tree on success, false on failure. n .SS "$cb->_|_memory_save_source([verbose => BOOL, path => $path])" .SS "$cb->_|_memory_save_source([verbose => BOOL, path => $path])" Subsection "$cb->__memory_save_source([verbose => BOOL, path => $path])" This method saves all the parsed trees in storabled format if Storable is available. It takes the following arguments: path" 4 Item "path" The absolute path to the directory holding the source files. verbose" 4 Item "verbose" A boolean flag indicating whether or not to be verbose. Will get information from the config file by default. Returns true on success, false on failure
create_automation_image_overlay(8), -(8) - ."====================== create_automation_image_overlay overlay automation image content onto another directory ." ."
and
CPANPLUS::Internals::Source::Memory(3pm) - In memory implementation n .SS "$cb->_|_memory_retrieve_source(name => $name, [path => $path, uptodate => BOOL, verbose => BOOL])" .SS "$cb->_|_memory_retrieve_source(name => $name, [path => $path, uptodate => BOOL, verbose => BOOL])" Subsection "$cb->__memory_retrieve_source(name => $name, [path => $path, uptodate => BOOL, verbose => BOOL])" This method retrieves a storabled tree identified by $name. It takes the following arguments: name" 4 Item "name" The internal name for the source file to retrieve. uptodate" 4 Item "uptodate" A flag indicating whether the file-cache is up-to-date or not. path" 4 Item "path" The absolute path to the directory holding the source files. verbose" 4 Item "verbose" A boolean flag indicating whether or not to be verbose. Will get information from the config file by default. Returns a tree on success, false on failure. n .SS "$cb->_|_memory_save_source([verbose => BOOL, path => $path])" .SS "$cb->_|_memory_save_source([verbose => BOOL, path => $path])" Subsection "$cb->__memory_save_source([verbose => BOOL, path => $path])" This method saves all the parsed trees in storabled format if Storable is available. It takes the following arguments: path" 4 Item "path" The absolute path to the directory holding the source files. verbose" 4 Item "verbose" A boolean flag indicating whether or not to be verbose. Will get information from the config file by default. Returns true on success, false on failure
Let's say I forgot how to call `ls`, then I'd run `apropos directory` with ` | grep -i list` appended afterwards. Full command would be:
apropos directory | grep -i list
I'm aware of apropos, but I usually forget how the command is named.
edit: I forget how apropos is named.
edit: I forget how apropos is named.
alias halp=aproposI used to have a hard time remembering apropos because I assumed 'apropos' was some sort of unixy mincing of another word or abbreviation or something, and I couldn't figure out what it meant. You know, like 'mkdir' means "MaKe DIRectory"
But it turns out apropos is just a regular word. Once I learned this, I haven't had any more trouble with it.
apropos : Of an appropriate or pertinent nature.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/apropos
But it turns out apropos is just a regular word. Once I learned this, I haven't had any more trouble with it.
apropos : Of an appropriate or pertinent nature.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/apropos
Ohh I always thought "apropos" was from the French expression "à propos (de)... " which means "about". I naïvely believed that the person who coded this command must be French.
The English usage is borrowed from French![0] However, it doesn't look like the original author was French[1]. I shouldn't be, but I am quite surprised to see that the apropos command as we know it is 43 years old!
[0] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/apropos [1] https://www.mankier.com/1/apropos.mandoc#History
[0] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/apropos [1] https://www.mankier.com/1/apropos.mandoc#History
It's an ordinary word in Danish, meaning 'about something'. It can be used at the start of a sentence. Example: "Apropos vegetables I hate tomatoes".
You are correct about the origin except it came from French into English long ago.
Which is exactly the use case for apropos, which searches "the manual page names and descriptions"[0] for whatever term you've entered.
[0] https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/apropos.1.html
[0] https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/apropos.1.html
man -k has been working just fine for me for 30+ years
Apropos has the compelling feature that I get to feel clever for knowing the word.
Just don't be one of those people who go around saying 'hehe apropros of nothing mirite' at seemingly everything!
(Also, `man --apropros` is the long option fwiw. I'm not really suggesting that as a better alternative though!)
(Also, `man --apropros` is the long option fwiw. I'm not really suggesting that as a better alternative though!)
I believe man -k just runs apropos.
Yep! man -k even has an ISO standard with which apropos is compliant
https://www.mankier.com/1/apropos.mandoc#Standards
Right. There's often a tension between features and ease of use.
TIL about the -k option. Whoa.
ding.
[deleted]
I have a simpler solution. The use case is not precisely the same, but for many scenarios, it's effectively the same.
Simply, like many, I have bash set up to record commands in .bash_history. I have it flush all the time, so .bash_history is always current.
It won't let me do something I don't know, but it make my memory much, much longer.
And, yea, I admit there have been instances where I've completely forgotten the command, and had to head back to the web. But when I've done that, I can hit my history and see how I used it.
If, sometimes, a "bad command", a command done wrong, too many of the same thing, just lingers, I can go edit it out. But most of the time I don't bother.
Simply, like many, I have bash set up to record commands in .bash_history. I have it flush all the time, so .bash_history is always current.
# keep persistent bash history across sessions
export PROMPT_COMMAND='history -a;history -n'
export HISTCONTROL=ignoredups
shopt -s histappend
file=/tmp/work.$$
cat ~/.bash_history ~/.unique_bash | grep -v findcmd | sort -u > $file
mv $file ~/.unique_bash
for var in "$@"
do
cmd="| grep \"$var\" $cmd"
done
cmd="cat ~/.unique_bash $cmd"
eval $cmd
$ findcmd curl json
It won't let me do something I don't know, but it make my memory much, much longer.
And, yea, I admit there have been instances where I've completely forgotten the command, and had to head back to the web. But when I've done that, I can hit my history and see how I used it.
If, sometimes, a "bad command", a command done wrong, too many of the same thing, just lingers, I can go edit it out. But most of the time I don't bother.
You might enjoy the fzf (fuzzy finder) tool configured for your shell's history search keybinding (most likely Ctrl+R). I can't elaborate at the moment, but essentially you type Ctrl+R, start typing roughly what you want and fzf searches your shell history based on what you typed. It works extremely well for me. Based on what you described, fzf Ctrl+R should be your workflow on steroids.
Link: https://github.com/junegunn/fzf
In particular, shell key bindings for fzf: https://github.com/junegunn/fzf#key-bindings-for-command-lin...
Link: https://github.com/junegunn/fzf
In particular, shell key bindings for fzf: https://github.com/junegunn/fzf#key-bindings-for-command-lin...
Nice work, I wanted to add how I deal with this.
first my .bashrc Is setup to append and history is set to 100,000 lines.
Most importantly I have an alias set up for the letter h , that greps, case insensitive .bash_history. ( grep -i $1 .bash_history ).
So typing in the cli: # h awk gives me all my awk commands.
And second , as a global history search across all my VMs/instances, (as I already make extensive use of splunk and splunks universal forwarder log forwarding app/tool) , all vms have their splunk universal forwarder service set to send any updates to .Bash_history to my central spunk server. thus I’m able to globally search the bash history from any VM globally, going back forever (I search that via the splunk web gui i mean). All works great!
Most importantly I have an alias set up for the letter h , that greps, case insensitive .bash_history. ( grep -i $1 .bash_history ).
So typing in the cli: # h awk gives me all my awk commands.
And second , as a global history search across all my VMs/instances, (as I already make extensive use of splunk and splunks universal forwarder log forwarding app/tool) , all vms have their splunk universal forwarder service set to send any updates to .Bash_history to my central spunk server. thus I’m able to globally search the bash history from any VM globally, going back forever (I search that via the splunk web gui i mean). All works great!
Thank you! You just improved my workflow and that does not happen every day. A spin I think I might add is to output all commands that do not result in standard error to a separate history file. .bash_history_no_error or something like that.
(Unrelated to original post) That only helps if you know the keywords curl and json. My actual problem in the past has repeatedly been that I a) forget how the graphical file manager on my system is called because I use it a couple of times per year (dolphi, konqueror, thunar, whatever...) and b) I use i3 or xmonad and don't have a "start menu" to just browse.
I think I should just put a symlink called explorer.exe in my ~/bin/ and then I know where to look ;)
I think I should just put a symlink called explorer.exe in my ~/bin/ and then I know where to look ;)
You can use McFly instead: https://github.com/cantino/mcfly
Yep, history is my go to Rosetta Stone for remembering other commands.
Anytime I sign into a system I have not signed into for a long time. The first thing I do is save the history file before I start working. Many times it has saved the day when you get stuck: where did I store that config? what was the command to restart the server?
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This used to be called "man".
Oh the hubris in this comment.
Because a man page for how to remove a limit of 50 files in a certain directory created after a certain date is equal to an AI-powered script to make the entire almost unreadable command in 2 seconds.
Because a man page for how to remove a limit of 50 files in a certain directory created after a certain date is equal to an AI-powered script to make the entire almost unreadable command in 2 seconds.
Agreed, especially when preceded by "apropos".
also info
nobody knows enough from reading manuals for UN*X because it is too hard. everyone I talk to who says they have done it are still missing fundamental info, like for instance any one i talk to will probably not undersand that sudo is insecure for 99% of use cases and start crying when i explain to them that you can just use ptrace to capture the password or replace some bash envars to hijack the command. nobody knows how to declare a variable in a signal handler (see signal handling for fun and profit), because there is no comprehensive overview of C called "stuff you should know before actually programming in this".
the problem with trying to learn a UN*X system from within is that everything is scattered everywhere, and there is no comprehensive overview of any part of the system (they try to make some, but they are always missing something important, or dont mention how this would work in the context of a practical system where other subsystems change the behavior and requirements of this one), and the parts which take too long for anyone with a life to learn are always changing, like in linux ip tools, iptables/whatever alternative, and PAM, init (init is hard because you have to learn about how to manage environment and session properly which involves some tens of pages of man pages enumerating subtle details) systemd, pulseaudio. every tool has its own DSL for the trivial task of accepting parameters and parsing configs. to use apropos you first have to setup some database thing (yeah i dont remember).
learning C libs from the man pages is a perfect example. to do trivial stuff requires some hours of reading every day, and when you come back to use those functions again you will not remember most of them and have to look them up again, and they are:
then there's also the problem that you can't do anything in UN*X without learning at least 5 different programming languages. this also means you will not have rigid understandings of them all and make common easy to spot bugs. or you can spend hours a day reading about every expression you will invoke and get fired.
one time i had to setup a secure system with some C glue code involving a socket. it took 2 or 3 days to be somewhat sure i am not invoking some kind of UB in this 100 lines of code and that all my file semantics (permissions, timings) were right (also another source of huge complexity for something that should be trivial).
UN*X is a pyramid scheme. whenever you complain about it, someone will say "you're just not man enough to have learned it properly". no matter what you do there will always be this theoretical case of someone more manly than you who has succeeded in UN*X (whatever that means). go try again for another 2 years. of course this is all nonsense, as the averge joe dev or sysadmin in the industry does everything laughably wrong unless there is a meme circulating about how to avoid problem #3527.
did i explain this enough yet? UN*X is an absolute clusterfuck. its not coherently designed in any way what so ever. to set screen blanking parameters on linux, you write some text to the terminal. this is therefore considered """UN*Xy""", because it has something to do with 2 of their major fetishes. this is the level of insanity that is considered normal.
tl;dr you simply cannot learn a UN*X system sufficiently to be able to have a grounded understanding of it as well as being a productive person. perhaps you can dedicate your life to creating a JSON parser after you graduate UN*X and then die of old age.
nobody knows enough from reading manuals for UN*X because it is too hard. everyone I talk to who says they have done it are still missing fundamental info, like for instance any one i talk to will probably not undersand that sudo is insecure for 99% of use cases and start crying when i explain to them that you can just use ptrace to capture the password or replace some bash envars to hijack the command. nobody knows how to declare a variable in a signal handler (see signal handling for fun and profit), because there is no comprehensive overview of C called "stuff you should know before actually programming in this".
the problem with trying to learn a UN*X system from within is that everything is scattered everywhere, and there is no comprehensive overview of any part of the system (they try to make some, but they are always missing something important, or dont mention how this would work in the context of a practical system where other subsystems change the behavior and requirements of this one), and the parts which take too long for anyone with a life to learn are always changing, like in linux ip tools, iptables/whatever alternative, and PAM, init (init is hard because you have to learn about how to manage environment and session properly which involves some tens of pages of man pages enumerating subtle details) systemd, pulseaudio. every tool has its own DSL for the trivial task of accepting parameters and parsing configs. to use apropos you first have to setup some database thing (yeah i dont remember).
learning C libs from the man pages is a perfect example. to do trivial stuff requires some hours of reading every day, and when you come back to use those functions again you will not remember most of them and have to look them up again, and they are:
- full of irrelevant info, the "BUGS" section, the "examples" section, conformance issues (which are not something you have in other languages' libraries),
- unneeded "this and that is UB" followed 5 minutes later by realizing 5 other things they did not write about is UB followed by philisophical pondering about why they list one UB when you still need to think for yourself to know what is actually UB, etc.
- 10 different ERRNOs. you need to read all of them in case there is some fundamental info listed there and not elsewhere in the man page you are reading
- some wacky crap like sockaddr_t with casting or an integer split across two parameters (btw socket programming in itself is its own clusterfuck to learn from man pages alone. yes i have done it on one foray into socket programming)
then there's also the problem that you can't do anything in UN*X without learning at least 5 different programming languages. this also means you will not have rigid understandings of them all and make common easy to spot bugs. or you can spend hours a day reading about every expression you will invoke and get fired.
one time i had to setup a secure system with some C glue code involving a socket. it took 2 or 3 days to be somewhat sure i am not invoking some kind of UB in this 100 lines of code and that all my file semantics (permissions, timings) were right (also another source of huge complexity for something that should be trivial).
UN*X is a pyramid scheme. whenever you complain about it, someone will say "you're just not man enough to have learned it properly". no matter what you do there will always be this theoretical case of someone more manly than you who has succeeded in UN*X (whatever that means). go try again for another 2 years. of course this is all nonsense, as the averge joe dev or sysadmin in the industry does everything laughably wrong unless there is a meme circulating about how to avoid problem #3527.
did i explain this enough yet? UN*X is an absolute clusterfuck. its not coherently designed in any way what so ever. to set screen blanking parameters on linux, you write some text to the terminal. this is therefore considered """UN*Xy""", because it has something to do with 2 of their major fetishes. this is the level of insanity that is considered normal.
tl;dr you simply cannot learn a UN*X system sufficiently to be able to have a grounded understanding of it as well as being a productive person. perhaps you can dedicate your life to creating a JSON parser after you graduate UN*X and then die of old age.
"you're not wrong, Walter..."
but this isn't your blog
I would agree that both C and Unix are highly disorganized/decentralized. There is no standard pattern to arguments passed to commands, for example; if this was standardized as much as possible, Unix would become much easier for noobs. And C? 40+ years later and we are still dealing with bad design decisions in it.
But yeah, this isn't your blog. and also, how in the hell did you get burned by unix this badly?
but this isn't your blog
I would agree that both C and Unix are highly disorganized/decentralized. There is no standard pattern to arguments passed to commands, for example; if this was standardized as much as possible, Unix would become much easier for noobs. And C? 40+ years later and we are still dealing with bad design decisions in it.
But yeah, this isn't your blog. and also, how in the hell did you get burned by unix this badly?
UN*X is a shithole and just talking about one of the problems with it causes one to pull in the other problems that are inextricably intertwined with each other.
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All problems in software development can be solved by another level of indirection. Slow and buggy neural networks are especially suited for such a task.
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I'm sure these are just oversights but it leaves a very bad taste in my mouth!