64 lines
3.0 KiB
Markdown
64 lines
3.0 KiB
Markdown
|
# bb - A bitty browser for command line file management
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
`bb` is a TUI console file browser that is:
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
- Extremely lightweight (currently around 1.2K lines of code)
|
||
|
|
- Highly interoperable with unix pipelines
|
||
|
|
- Highly customizable and hackable
|
||
|
|
- Without any build dependencies other than the C standard library (no ncurses)
|
||
|
|
- A good proof-of-concept for making a TUI without using any libraries
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
The core idea behind `bb` is that almost all actions are performed by piping
|
||
|
|
selected files to external scripts, rather than hard-coding actions. Unix
|
||
|
|
tools are very good at doing file management, the thing that `bb` adds is
|
||
|
|
immediate visual feedback and rapid navigation.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
For example, normally on the command line, if you wanted to manually delete a
|
||
|
|
handful of files, you would first get a listing of the files with `ls`, then
|
||
|
|
type `rm` followed by typing out the names of the files (with some tab
|
||
|
|
autocompletion). With `bb`, you can just launch `bb`, see all the files
|
||
|
|
immediately, select the ones you want with a few keystrokes, and press `D` to
|
||
|
|
delete them (or `d` for deleting with confirmation). The `D` key's behavior
|
||
|
|
is defined in a single line of code in `config.h` to pipe the selected files
|
||
|
|
to `xargs -0 rm -rf`. That's it! If you want to add a mapping to upload files to
|
||
|
|
your server, you can just add a binding for `xargs scp user@example.com` or,
|
||
|
|
if you have some complicated one-time task, you can just hit `|` and type in
|
||
|
|
any arbitrary command and have the selected files piped to it.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
## Zero Dependencies
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
There's a lot of TUI libraries out there like ncurses and termbox, but
|
||
|
|
essentially all they do is write ANSI escape sequences to the terminal. `bb`
|
||
|
|
does all of that by itself, just using basic calls to `write()`, with no
|
||
|
|
external libraries beyond the C standard library. Since `bb` only has to
|
||
|
|
support the terminal functionality that it uses itself, `bb`'s entire source
|
||
|
|
code is less than half the size of the source code for an extremely compact
|
||
|
|
library like termbox, and less than *half a percent* of the size of the source
|
||
|
|
code for ncurses. I hope anyone checking out this project can see it as a great
|
||
|
|
example of how you can build a full TUI without ncurses or any external
|
||
|
|
libraries as long as you're willing to hand-write a few escape sequences.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
## Building
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
`make`
|
||
|
|
`sudo make install`
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
## Usage
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
Just run `bb` to launch the file browser. Press `?` for a full list of
|
||
|
|
available key bindings. In short: `h`/`j`/`k`/`l` or arrow keys for navigation,
|
||
|
|
`q` to quit, <space> to toggle selection, `d` to delete, `c` to copy, `m` to
|
||
|
|
move, `r` to rename, `n` to create a new file, `N` to create a new directory,
|
||
|
|
and `|` to pipe files to a command.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
## Hacking
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
If you want to customize `bb`, you can add or change the key bindings by
|
||
|
|
editing `config.h` and recompiling. In [suckless](https://suckless.org/) style,
|
||
|
|
customizing means editing source code, and compilation is extremely fast.
|
||
|
|
Key character constants are in `keys.h` and the rest of the code is in `bb.c`.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
## License
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
`bb` is released under the MIT license. See the `LICENSE` file for full details.
|