didoarellano/desk

A lightweight workspace manager for the shell

◲ desk

Lightweight workspace manager for the shell.

Desk makes it easy to flip back and forth between different project contexts in your favorite shell.

Instead of relying on CTRL-R to execute and recall ("that command's gotta be here somewhere..."), desk helps shorten and document those actions with shell aliases and functions, which are then namespaced under a particular desk.

I have a hard time calling this a "workspace manager" with a straight face -- it's basically just a shell script that sources another shell script in a new shell. But I often find myself working in multiple different code trees simulataneously: the quick context switches and namespaced commands that desk facilitates have proven useful.

There are no dependencies other than some kind of Unix shell.

◲  desk 0.1.1

Usage:

    desk
        List the current desk and any associated aliases. If no desk 
        is being used, display available desks.
    desk init
        Initialize desk configuration.
    desk (list|ls)
        List all desks along with a description.
    desk (.|go) desk-name
        Activate a desk.
    desk help
        Show this text.
    desk version
        Show version information.

Since desk spawns a shell, to deactivate and "pop" out a desk, you
simply need to exit or otherwise end the current shell process.

For example, given this deskfile

# tf.sh
# 
# Description: desk for doing work on a terraform-based repository
#

cd ~/terraform-repo

# Set up AWS env variables: <key id> <secret>
set_aws_env() {
  export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID="$1"
  export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY="$2"
}

# Run `terraform plan` with proper AWS var config
plan() {
  terraform plan -module-depth=-1 \
    -var "access_key=${AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID}" \
    -var "secret_key=${AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY}"
}
 
# Run `terraform apply` with proper AWS var config
alias apply='terraform apply'

we'd get

$ desk . tf
$ desk

tf
desk for doing work on a terraform repo

  set_aws_env - Set up AWS env variables: <key id> <secret>
  plan - Run `terraform plan` with proper AWS var config
  apply - Run `terraform apply` with proper AWS var config

Basically, desk just associates a shell script (name.sh) with a name. When you call desk . name, desk drops you into a shell where name.sh has been executed, and then desk extracts out certain comments in name.sh for useful rendering.

Installing

0. git clone <this repo>
1. sudo make install or cp desk/desk ~/bin/desk
2. desk init

Deskfile rules

Deskfiles are just shell scripts, nothing more. Desk does pay attention to certain kinds of comments, though.

• description: you can describe a deskfile by including # Description: ... somewhere in the file.

• alias and function docs: if the line above an alias or function is a comment, it will be used as documentation.

Sharing deskfiles across computers

Of course, the desk config directory (by default ~/.desks) can be a symlink so that deskfiles can be stored in some centralized place, like Dropbox, and so shared across many computers.