Package: shellctx
shellctxShell context helper for saving, recalling, and executing information from
a persistent dictionary.MotivationSetting environment variables and aliases (.bashrc,.cshrc, etc.)
is useful when you have an established workflow with known common actions.
This program is for discovering what that workflow should be, when the needed
working directories and commands are not fully known just yet. All shell
instances have access to the work-in-progress context dictionary.UsageThectxcommand is the entry into the program. It behaves like a dictionary
that can get/set/delete keys and values.$ ctx set x 123
$ ctx get x
123

$ ctx del xIt can be used for storing a long directory for later use:$ cd /very/long/directory/to/type/manually
$ ctx set project `pwd`

$ cd "`ctx get project`"It can store long commands for later use:$ ctx set server '/usr/bin/python3 -m http.server'
$ ctx shell server
Serving HTTP on 0.0.0.0 port 8000 (http://0.0.0.0:8000/) ...It can also save and load environment variables:$ ctx set mypath $PATH
$ export PATH="`ctx get mypath`"By default,ctxshows the current context dictionary and the
sorted timestamped (newest on top) entries:$ ctx
Using context main
There are 2 entries.

2020-01-01T23:24:40.893719    server = python3 -m http.server
2020-01-01T23:07:57.792251    home = /home/serwyAvailable Commandscopy- copies a key, updates timestamp$ ctx copy home home2rename- renames a key, preserves timestamp$ ctx rename home2 home3items- provides a sort-by-timestamp display of key-values$ ctx items
home=/home/serwy
server=python3 -m http.serverkeys- provides a list of keys$ ctx keys
home
serverlog- print out a log of changes to the context dictionary$ ctx log
['2020-01-01T22:51:50.180685', 'set', 'home', '/home/serwy']
['2020-01-01T22:52:01.008981', 'copy', 'home', 'home2']
['2020-01-01T22:52:08.194826', 'rename', 'home2', 'home3']switch- switch the context dictionary, or print a list.
New contexts may be created this way.$ ctx switch dev
switching to "dev" from "main"

$ ctx switch
* dev
  mainshell- uses the key as a command, and values are treated as
additional keys. The command string is passed to a shell.$ ctx set port 9999
$ ctx shell server port
Serving HTTP on 0.0.0.0 port 9999 (http://0.0.0.0:9999/) ...dryshell- prints the command passed to the shell without executing$ ctx dryshell server port
dryrun shell command: python3 -m http.server 9999exec- uses the key to get the executable, and the additional arguments
are passed directly to the executable. This is like an alias.$ ctx exec server 9999
Serving HTTP on 0.0.0.0 port 9999 (http://0.0.0.0:9999/) ...dryexec- prints the arguments passed to the executable without executing.$ ctx dryexec server 9999
dryrun exec command: ['python3', '-m', 'http.server', '9999']set- set a key to a value$ ctx set keyname valueget- print the value for the given key$ ctx get server
python3 -m http.serverdel- delete a key$ ctx del keynamesetpath- add the present working directory to the value when setting
the given key$ ctx setpath keyname .bashrc
keyname=/home/serwy/.bashrcargs- print out the arguments as seen by the program, quoted. This
is useful when debugging argument quoting errors.$ ctx args some arguments "kept together"
sys.argv[:]
    0 = '/home/serwy/.local/bin/ctx'
    1 = 'args'
    2 = 'some'
    3 = 'arguments'
    4 = 'kept together'entry- auto-increment the maximum suffix for a key before setting.
This is useful for storing quick notes.$ ctx entry _note This is an observation
_note_001=This is an observation

$ ctx entry _note system A depends on system B
_note_002=system A depends on system Bnow- prints out the iso8601 time, filesystem safe.
This is useful for quickly appending a suffix to a file$ ctx now
2020-01-01T193048.465660

$ cp myfile.txt ~/backup/myfile.txt_`ctx now`update- opens a given file for loadingkey=valuedata. Use a
hyphen to read from stdin.$ ctx switch env
$ env | ctx update -
$ ctx
Using context env
There are 6 entries.

2020-01-01T17:06:10.234052    _ = /usr/bin/env
2020-01-01T17:06:10.234040    PATH = /home/serwy/.local/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin
2020-01-01T17:06:10.234038    LC_ALL = en_US.UTF-8
2020-01-01T17:06:10.234028    DISPLAY = :0
2020-01-01T17:06:10.234012    HOME = /home/serwy
2020-01-01T17:06:10.233881    SHELL = /bin/bashEnvironment VariablesCTX_NAMEThe active context may be forced by setting theCTX_NAMEenvironment variable.This is useful when needing to dedicate a terminal to a particular context.CTX_VERBOSEA flag to increase verbosity. It is an integer value of0,1, or more.
If undefined, it defaults to0.CTX_HOMESet the directory containing the dictionaries and logs. If unset,
it defaults to~/.ctx/.Implementation detailsThe context dictionaries are stored in~/.ctx/The.jsonfiles are the context dictionaries.
The.logfiles are the change logs.The_name.txtfile contains the name of the active context.
If missing, defaults tomain.InstallEnsure that thectxscript can be found on your systemPATH,
e.g.~/.local/bin.pip3 install shellctxorpython3 setup.py installIf you just want the script directly, you can download and copyshellctx/ctx.pyasctxsomewhere on your$PATHand applychmod +x.
The direct link is:https://raw.githubusercontent.com/serwy/shellctx/latest/shellctx/ctx.pycurl  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/serwy/shellctx/latest/shellctx/ctx.py > ctx
chmod +x ctxLicenseLicensed under the GNU General Public License, Version 3.0See alsohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601https://xkcd.com/1179/