From a1371930d5d3e44fc11078f697f82ac607476faa Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Gabriel Arakaki Giovanini Date: Thu, 23 Jun 2022 22:03:09 +0200 Subject: feat: Add new post about shortcutting on fish --- content/posts/2022-06-23-fish_command.md | 123 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 123 insertions(+) create mode 100644 content/posts/2022-06-23-fish_command.md diff --git a/content/posts/2022-06-23-fish_command.md b/content/posts/2022-06-23-fish_command.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c3c6b14 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/posts/2022-06-23-fish_command.md @@ -0,0 +1,123 @@ +--- +title: "Shortcutting with fish shell" +date: 2022-02-23 +tags: ['fish', 'linux', 'shell'] +--- + +For some time now I have been using fish shell[^1] as my default shell and it +has been a great experience. It has sane defaults and with almost no work I +have a perfectly function shell with a great auto completion engine. I have +also tried zsh before and although it is great shell it require some work to +come to same level of fish, even after you include oh-my-zsh[^2] (which I'd +highly recommend to use if you are starting to use zsh). One thing to keep in +mind is that fish is far from sh or bash compatible, so if you have something +built in sh or bash it won't work with fish. Anyhow, what I want to show here +is how much you can optimize your workflow with just a couple lines of shell. + +## The use case + +As an assiduous user of terminal I constantly need to jump from folder to +folder between projects I’m working on whether to run an editor or to use git. + +Normally I'd just type `cd ~/Git/gabrielgio` and from there to another folder, +but we can do better with fish (or any other shell actually) by assigning this +action to a keystroke. However before we can add the shortcut itself lets first +create a function to jump into the folder, to do so we will be using the `fzf` +where the man page states: + +> a command-line fuzzy finder + +That will provide a nice way to search and pick from arbitrary list. You can +get quick glance of how it work just type `find . | fzf` and it will open the +fuzzy finder buffer interactively search for input keyword. To expose this +functions of ours we are going to use a nice feature from fish which autoloads +function[^3] from all the `.fish` files from all folders listed in +`$fish_function_path`. So we will be using the `~/.config/fish/functions` +folder. Add a new file called `jumpin.fish` with the following content: + +```fish +# ~/.config/fish/functions/jumpin.fish +function jumpin +end +``` + +Now lets plug `fzf` into that function. + + +```fish +# ~/.config/fish/functions/jumpin.fish +function jumpin + set selected (ls ~/Git | fzf) + pushd ~/Git/$selected +end +``` + +We are going to pip `ls` result into `fzf` then `set`[^4] result of `fzf` into +a variable. The return value of `fzf` is the value you have selected. As you +can infer from the script I'm listing all my folder from `Git` folder where I +store all my projects which are the folder I, most of the time, want to jump +right in. It can be literally anything you may find useful, you may want to try +to search using a broader scope by: + +```sh +find ~/ -type d | fzf +``` + +Whatever fits you better, the end goal here is to get start customizing and +optimizing your workflow so you can more comfortably moving around. + +Now, it is almost done we just need the check if the `selected` has value. The +user can cancel the selection (e.g.: by pressing esc) and then the `selected` +variable would be empty. To check that we just need an if: + +```fish +# ~/.config/fish/functions/jumpin.fish +function jumpin + set selected (ls ~/Git | fzf) + if [ "$selected" ] + cd ~/Git/$selected + end +end +``` + +You will need to reopen your terminal emulator or if you source it so the +function become available. + +```fish +# how to source it +source ~/.config/fish/functions/jumpin.fish +``` + +Then type `jumpin` and let `fzf` do the work. + +Now we can jump to a folder even faster by assigning a shortcut to a function +and again fish comes to rescue to make our life easier. It provider a bind[^5] +function to bind (duh) sequence of characters to a function. Inside of you +`~/.config/fish/` there will be a `config.fish` with a function called +`fish_user_key_bindings` which fish will automatically execute. We will use +that function (as the name implies) to bind our command to a keystroke. To do +so use the bind function: + +```fish +# ~/.config/fish/config.fish +function fish_user_key_bindings + # ... + bind \ck 'jumpin' +end +``` + +Once again reopen the terminal or source the configuration file. Now once you +press `Ctrl+k` it will pop the `fzf` list picker and after you select something +you will jump right into the folder. Due to the fuzzy finder algorithm you +won't need to type more then a couple of char making the whole process really +fast. + +This is just a jump start to using script to make your life easier. Shell +scripting is a powerful tool for a programmer and it will definitely pay some +dividends if you spend time to master it. + +[^1]: https://fishshell.com/ +[^2]: https://ohmyz.sh +[^3]: https://fishshell.com/docs/current/language.html#autoloading-functions +[^4]: https://fishshell.com/docs/current/cmds/set.html +[^5]: https://fishshell.com/docs/current/cmds/bind.html -- cgit v1.2.3