2019-05-22 01:56:39 -07:00
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# bb - An itty bitty browser for command line file management
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2019-05-22 01:39:15 -07:00
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2019-05-22 01:56:39 -07:00
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`bb` (bitty browser) is a TUI console file browser that is:
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2019-05-22 01:39:15 -07:00
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- Extremely lightweight (currently around 1.2K lines of code)
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- Highly interoperable with unix pipelines
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- Highly customizable and hackable
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- Without any build dependencies other than the C standard library (no ncurses)
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- A good proof-of-concept for making a TUI without using any libraries
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The core idea behind `bb` is that almost all actions are performed by piping
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selected files to external scripts, rather than hard-coding actions. Unix
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tools are very good at doing file management, the thing that `bb` adds is
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immediate visual feedback and rapid navigation.
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For example, normally on the command line, if you wanted to manually delete a
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handful of files, you would first get a listing of the files with `ls`, then
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type `rm` followed by typing out the names of the files (with some tab
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autocompletion). With `bb`, you can just launch `bb`, see all the files
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immediately, select the ones you want with a few keystrokes, and press `D` to
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delete them (or `d` for deleting with confirmation). The `D` key's behavior
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is defined in a single line of code in `config.h` to pipe the selected files
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to `xargs -0 rm -rf`. That's it! If you want to add a mapping to upload files to
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your server, you can just add a binding for `xargs scp user@example.com` or,
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if you have some complicated one-time task, you can just hit `|` and type in
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any arbitrary command and have the selected files piped to it.
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## Zero Dependencies
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There's a lot of TUI libraries out there like ncurses and termbox, but
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essentially all they do is write ANSI escape sequences to the terminal. `bb`
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does all of that by itself, just using basic calls to `write()`, with no
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external libraries beyond the C standard library. Since `bb` only has to
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support the terminal functionality that it uses itself, `bb`'s entire source
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code is less than half the size of the source code for an extremely compact
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library like termbox, and less than *half a percent* of the size of the source
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code for ncurses. I hope anyone checking out this project can see it as a great
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example of how you can build a full TUI without ncurses or any external
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libraries as long as you're willing to hand-write a few escape sequences.
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## Building
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`make`
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`sudo make install`
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## Usage
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Just run `bb` to launch the file browser. Press `?` for a full list of
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available key bindings. In short: `h`/`j`/`k`/`l` or arrow keys for navigation,
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`q` to quit, <space> to toggle selection, `d` to delete, `c` to copy, `m` to
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move, `r` to rename, `n` to create a new file, `N` to create a new directory,
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and `|` to pipe files to a command.
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## Hacking
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If you want to customize `bb`, you can add or change the key bindings by
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editing `config.h` and recompiling. In [suckless](https://suckless.org/) style,
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customizing means editing source code, and compilation is extremely fast.
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Key character constants are in `keys.h` and the rest of the code is in `bb.c`.
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## License
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`bb` is released under the MIT license. See the `LICENSE` file for full details.
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