Purpose

It is frustrating when we want to find some sophisticated unix commands right in the terminal. Right now, the process probably likes this:

• need some commands
• google / duckduckgo / wiki to find the some probably broken command
• copy and paste the command line
• tweak the command until it work, otherwise go back to step 2
• forget the knowledge days later

This process sucks. How about we keep commands where it belongs to -- terminal:

• Query for commands solving the problem right in the terminal
• Add your smart solutions back right from terminal
• Leverage the community power such as commandlinefu.com

Install

• git clone the repo
• npm install

Usage

Query Command

You can ask it for commands from remote server:

bin/ask query random number

[1]: strings /dev/urandom | grep -o '[:alnum:]]' | head -n 30 | tr -d '\n'; echo
  Generate a random password 30 characters long
[2]: Random Number Between 1 And X
  echo $[RANDOM%X+1]

You can also ask it from local server:

bin/ask query random number --local

Add Command

Add new command to local storage

bin/ask add <command> --desc "it is an awesome command"

(work in progress) You could share more commands right from terminal with your $EDITOR:

bin/ask add

Execute Command

(work in progress) You could exec the commands right in the terminal:

bin/ask exec <command id>
echo $[RANDOM%X+1]

(word in progress) Also paste to clipboard

bin/ask copy <command id>

(work in progress) Import and Export Command

bin/ask export cmd.json

bin/ask import backup.json

More Information

bin/ask --help

For Developers

Data Structure and Model Interface

ask can query command from resources stored locally or remotely, and each resource models should share the same interface:

query(string) => [data, data, ...]
add(data) => data
get(id) => data
update(id, data) => data
remove(id) => data

The data above is the data structure is defined as:

{ 
  id: String,
  command: String,
  description: String,
  private: Boolean
}

The structure of local cache directory(First Edition)

Like git, ask cab be total local. By default, all the commands will be cached in ~/.ask direcotry.

The structure of ~/.ask directory will similar to a local .git repository.

|-- index
`-- objects
    |-- 0.json
    |-- 1.json
    |-- … … 
    |-- info
    `-- pack

RoadMap

On version 1.0

• develop a local storage engine
• implement local ask add, ask exec <id>, ask query 'grep'
• use your $EDITOR to add commands to your local storage engine
• build a server model backed by postgreSQL
• build a server API interface

How to Contribute

We follow the npm code styles.

Contributors

• yangchenyun [email protected]
• kuno [email protected]