Atusy's blogHave you ever found it tedious to type git repeatedly when performing multiple git operations?
Here’s a by command that pre-fills specified strings for you.
When you run by git, subsequent shell prompts will have git pre-filled, and running by without arguments cancels the pre-fill.
Since it’s just pre-filled input, you have the flexibility to delete the git string and run ls instead, as shown in the demo below.
It’s provided as a plugin for fish/zsh, so please install it using your preferred method.
# fish
$ fisher install atusy/by-binds-yourself
# zsh
$ sheldon add by --git https://github.com/atusy/by-binds-yourselfYou can specify arbitrary strings besides commands, making it useful for temporarily fixing environment variables.
For example, when using aws-cli with export AWS_CONFIG_FILE=..., the console output can scroll away making it hard to remember which config file you’re using. Using by AWS_CONFIG_FILE=..., you can operate while keeping the config file visible.
$ by AWS_CONFIG_FILE=./local-aws-config
$ AWS_CONFIG_FILE=./local-aws-config aws s3 ls
$ AWS_CONFIG_FILE=./local-aws-config aws ...Why I created by-binds-yourself
There’s a similar tool called mchav/with that dynamically adds prefixes after command input.
$ with git
git> add .
git> commit -a -m "Commited"
git> pushwith gcc -o output input.c allows you to repeatedly execute compile commands with just Enter, which is quite interesting.
However, it has several drawbacks:
- No completion support
- Cases like
git add --with tab completion are treated asadd --
- Cases like
- Cannot temporarily exit
- Inconvenient when you want to
lswhile inwith git
- Inconvenient when you want to
- Cannot change options
- To change
outputtooutput2inwith gcc -o output input.c, you need to exitwith
- To change
All these drawbacks stem from with’s implementation of concatenating pre-specified strings with subsequently entered buffers before execution.
Also, the code is 350 lines for relatively simple functionality.
While with is written in bash script making direct comparison difficult, the pre-fill approach of by can be implemented in just 9 lines.
set -g ___by_commandline_prefix
function by
set ___by_commandline_prefix $argv ""
end
function ___by --on-event fish_prompt
commandline --replace "$___by_commandline_prefix"
endDue to its simplicity, it might be implementable in shells other than fish/zsh. For example, the same functionality was implemented in the Vim plugin ddt-ui-shell.
https://github.com/Shougo/ddt-ui-shell/commit/bb509378f0246a95c4538acafa6272eed7415325
Origin of the name
Initially, I named it preprompt.
However, I realized this was incorrect since the prompt is the $ part of $ git, not the git part which is the buffer.
Next, I considered prefix, but felt it lacked searchability and catchiness.
When I consulted the vim-jp Slack for a short, memorable name, I received suggestions like by and using.
I liked that it could be expressed verbally as:
by git, add some file.txt
And I came up with the recursive acronym:
So I decided on by.
This also makes it easy to search for.
ENJOY
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