Added null-separation option for xargs to properly handle funky

filenames

Makefile

@@ -1,16 +1,20 @@
 PREFIX=
 CC=cc
-CFLAGS=-O0 -std=gnu99 -g
+CFLAGS=-O0 -std=gnu99
 LIBS=
 NAME=bb
+G=
 
 all: $(NAME)
 
 clean:
 	rm $(NAME)
 
+config.h:
+	cp config.def.h config.h
+
 $(NAME): $(NAME).c keys.h config.h
-	$(CC) $(NAME).c $(LIBS) $(CFLAGS) -o $(NAME)
+	$(CC) $(NAME).c $(LIBS) $(CFLAGS) $(G) -o $(NAME)
 
 test: $(NAME)
 	./$(NAME) test.xml

README.md

@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+# 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.

bb.c

@@ -342,7 +342,7 @@ static int compare_date(void *r, const void *v1, const void *v2)
         return -(info1.st_mtimespec.tv_sec - info2.st_mtimespec.tv_sec)*sign;
 }
 
-static void write_selection(int fd, entry_t *firstselected)
+static void write_selection(int fd, entry_t *firstselected, char sep)
 {
     while (firstselected) {
         const char *p = firstselected->d_fullname;
@@ -350,11 +350,11 @@ static void write_selection(int fd, entry_t *firstselected)
             const char *p2 = strchr(p, '\n');
             if (!p2) p2 = p + strlen(p);
             write(fd, p, p2 - p);
-            if (*p2 == '\n')
+            if (*p2 == '\n' && sep == '\n')
                 write(fd, "\\", 1);
             p = p2;
         }
-        write(fd, "\n", 1);
+        write(fd, &sep, 1);
         firstselected = firstselected->next;
     }
 }
@@ -373,7 +373,7 @@ static void clear_selection(bb_state_t *state)
     state->nselected = 0;
 }
 
-static void explore(char *path, int print_dir, int print_selection)
+static void explore(char *path, int print_dir, int print_selection, char sep)
 {
     char *tmp = path;
     char *original_path = calloc(strlen(tmp) + 1, 1);
@@ -902,8 +902,9 @@ static void explore(char *path, int print_dir, int print_selection)
                         sig_t old_handler = signal(SIGINT, do_nothing);
                         child = run_cmd(NULL, &scriptinfd, bindings[i].command);
                         if (!(bindings[i].flags & NO_FILES)) {
+                            char sep = (bindings[i].flags & NULL_SEP) ? '\0' : '\n';
                             if (state.nselected > 0) {
-                                write_selection(scriptinfd, state.firstselected);
+                                write_selection(scriptinfd, state.firstselected, sep);
                             } else if (strcmp(state.files[state.cursor]->d_name, "..") != 0) {
                                 write(scriptinfd, state.files[state.cursor]->d_name, state.files[state.cursor]->d_namlen);
                             }
@@ -940,7 +941,7 @@ done:
     if (print_dir)
         printf("%s\n", state.path);
     if (print_selection)
-        write_selection(STDOUT_FILENO, state.firstselected);
+        write_selection(STDOUT_FILENO, state.firstselected, sep);
     return;
 }
 
@@ -948,10 +949,13 @@ int main(int argc, char *argv[])
 {
     char _realpath[MAX_PATH+1];
     char *path = ".";
+    char sep = '\n';
     int print_dir = 0, print_selection = 0;
     for (int i = 1; i < argc; i++) {
         if (strcmp(argv[i], "-d") == 0) {
             print_dir = 1;
+        } else if (strcmp(argv[i], "-0") == 0) {
+            sep = '\0';
         } else if (strcmp(argv[i], "-s") == 0) {
             print_selection = 1;
         } else if (path[0]) {
@@ -962,7 +966,7 @@ int main(int argc, char *argv[])
     init_term();
     if (!realpath(path, _realpath))
         err("realpath failed");
-    explore(_realpath, print_dir, print_selection);
+    explore(_realpath, print_dir, print_selection, sep);
 done:
     return 0;
 }

config.h

@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
 #define SCROLLOFF 5
 
 #define NO_FILES        (1<<0)
-#define CD_TO_RESULT    (1<<1)
+#define NULL_SEP        (1<<1)
 #define REFRESH         (1<<2)
 #define CLEAR_SELECTION (1<<3)
 #define ONSCREEN        (1<<4)
@@ -19,16 +19,17 @@ struct {
 } bindings[] = {
     // User-defined custom scripts go here:
     {'L', "less"},
-    {'D', "xargs rm -rf", CLEAR_SELECTION | REFRESH | ONSCREEN},
+    {'D', "xargs -0 rm -rf", CLEAR_SELECTION | REFRESH | ONSCREEN | NULL_SEP},
-    {'d', "xargs -I @ sh -c 'rm -rfi @ </dev/tty'", CLEAR_SELECTION | REFRESH | ONSCREEN},
+    {'d', "xargs -0 -I @ sh -c 'rm -rfi @ </dev/tty'", CLEAR_SELECTION | REFRESH | ONSCREEN | NULL_SEP},
-    {'c', "xargs -n1 -I @ cp @ @.copy", REFRESH | ONSCREEN},
+    {'m', "xargs -0 -I @ mv -i @ . </dev/tty", CLEAR_SELECTION | REFRESH | ONSCREEN | NULL_SEP},
-    {'m', "xargs -I @ mv -i @ . </dev/tty", CLEAR_SELECTION | REFRESH | ONSCREEN},
+    {'c', "xargs -0 -I @ cp -i @ . </dev/tty", CLEAR_SELECTION | REFRESH | ONSCREEN | NULL_SEP},
-    {'p', "xargs -I @ cp -i @ . </dev/tty", CLEAR_SELECTION | REFRESH | ONSCREEN},
+    {'C', "xargs -0 -n1 -I @ cp @ @.copy", REFRESH | ONSCREEN | NULL_SEP},
     {'n', "touch \"`printf '\\033[33;1mNew file:\\033[0m ' >/dev/tty && head -n1 /dev/tty`\"", ONSCREEN | REFRESH | NO_FILES},
+    {'N', "mkdir \"`printf '\\033[33;1mNew dir:\\033[0m ' >/dev/tty && head -n1 /dev/tty`\"", ONSCREEN | REFRESH | NO_FILES},
     {'|', "sh -c \"`printf '> ' >/dev/tty && head -n1 /dev/tty`\"", REFRESH},
     {'>', "sh -c \"`printf '> ' >/dev/tty && head -n1 /dev/tty`\"", NO_FILES | REFRESH},
-    {'r', "xargs -I @ -n1 sh -c 'mv \"@\" \"`printf \"\e[1mRename \e[1;33m%%s\e[0m: \" \"@\" >&2 && head -n1 </dev/tty`\"'",
+    {'r', "xargs -0 -I @ -n1 sh -c 'mv \"@\" \"`printf \"\e[1mRename \e[1;33m%%s\e[0m: \" \"@\" >&2 && head -n1 </dev/tty`\"'",
-        REFRESH | CLEAR_SELECTION | ONSCREEN},
+        REFRESH | CLEAR_SELECTION | ONSCREEN | NULL_SEP},
 
     // Hard-coded behaviors (these are just placeholders for the help):
     {-1, "?\t\e[0;34mOpen help menu\e[0m"},