xxcmd 0.6.0

A helper for remembering useful shell commands.

xxcmd

xx is a Linux shell command. xx remembers other shell commands, so you don't have to.

Installation

Requires Python 3. Installation is simple using pip.

On Ubuntu:

sudo pip3 install xxcmd

On Arch:

sudo pip install xxcmd

Or remove sudo if you want to install just for the current user and you have pip's local bin on your PATH.

Basic Usage Examples

Using xx is pretty simple. You build up a database of useful commands, and search and execute them whenever you like.

Adding Commands

Commands are added to the database with:

xx -a [label] <command>

Add a very simple command top. Not very useful as the command is already short and easy to remember.

xx -a top

Add the du command to display size of all files and directories in the current directory.

xx -a du --max-depth=1 -h .

Add the same command but with a friendly (searchable) label:

xx -a [File Size] du --max-depth=1 -h .

Adding our favourite ssh command:

xx -a [SSH Best Host] ssh -i ~/.ssh/mykey.pem [e-mail]

Browse and Search Commands Interactively

Run xx with no options to enter the interactive UI.

xx

Fast search and execute

xx can search for matching commands and if only one match is found it will be immediately executed. To run the command we just added we could search for "du":

xx du

Or to run it by searching for a partial match of the label we added:

xx size

We could immediately ssh connect with:

xx best

Interactive UI

Invoking xx without options will open the interactive UI. Presenting a list of all commands with an interactive search.

Keys:

• UP/DOWN arrow keys - navigate the list of commands.
• DELETE - remove the currently selected command
• RETURN - execute the currently selected command
• ESCAPE - exit
• F1 or CTRL+E - Edit the label of the currently selected item
• Any other key press is added to the interactive search to filter the command list.

Further Usage

usage: xx [-h] [-a ...] [-i URL] [-l] [-t] [-v] [cmd]

positional arguments:
  cmd                   Search for a matching command and run it
  						immediately.

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            Show this help message and exit.
  -a ..., --add ...     Add the given command to the database.
                        Command may begin with a label enclosed in
                        square brackets [label] <cmd>.
  -b, --no-border       Don't display a window border.
  -c, --create-config   Create a config file in the users home
                        directory if one doesn't already exist.
  -i URL, --import-url URL
                        Import a command database from the given URL.
                        Merge into existing database.
  -l, --list            Print all commands in the database.
  -n, --no-echo         Don't echo the command to the terminal prior
  						to execution.
  -p PADDING, --label-padding PADDING
                        Add extra padding between labels and commands.
  -t, --no-labels       Don't display command labels.
  -v, --version         Display program version.

Configuration

In addition to the command line switches a configuration file can be used. The file named .xxcmdrc in the current users home directory is loaded if present.

Some options are only configurable through the config file.

An example file demonstrating all possible options.

[xxcmd]
echo-commands = no
show-labels = yes
align-commands = yes
draw-window-border = yes
label-padding = 2
bracket-labels = no
bold-labels = yes
whole-line-selection = yes

Command line switches take precedence over configuration file options.