mkcn/fastHistory

A python tool connected to your terminal to store important commands, search them in a fast way and automatically paste them into your terminal

fastHistory 2 - speed up your terminal!

• Intro
• Supported systems
• Install
• Update
• Commands and syntax
• Copyright and dependencies
• License

Store, search and automatically paste all your favourite commands directly in your terminal with a new and faster way!

With the new TDLR-pages integration, you can quickly discover and select more than 10000 ready-to-use command examples, directly in your terminal.

Intro

Why you need it?

How often do you need to reuse a command but you cannot remember it (with all the needed options/flags)?

# example of a common but not so 'easy-to-remember' bash command from my bash history
$ tar -xvzf file.tar.gz

How many times do you search the same commands on Google, over and over?

42 times.. yes.. based on my experience the answer is 42

And how many times have you told yourself to store this super useful command but you didn't?

I saved them all ..totally, with a good and detailed explanation for each command

if you know what I am talking about, fastHistory is the tool you are looking for!

Usage sample

fastHistory can save your commands directly from your terminal, all you need is a #

$ tar -xvzf file.tar.gz #
                       /\
                        \-- fastHistory will store 'tar -xvzf file.tar.gz' in its local database

You can specify one or more tags

$ tar -xvzf file.tar.gz #untar #extract #archive 

or a description

$ tar -xvzf file.tar.gz #@extract compressed files from archive

or both

$ tar -xvf archive.tar.gz #untar @extract compressed files from archive

To search the saved commands, all you need is f and the selected command wiil be automatically pasted into your terminal!

$ f

For each stored command you can get a quick summary from the man page

note: this feature does not cover the syntax of all commands

And easily edit the tag and description fields

Furthermore, you can easily export/import all data to make backups or to share your commands with a different machine

$ f --export
$ f --import fastHistory_2020-03-02.db

Discover new commands

In the Discovery mode, you can easily find examples of commands from the TDLR-pages, a collection of community-maintained help pages. The search works both by command name and description. Furthermore, the + icon shows you which command is already installed on your system.

Offline feature

FastHistory does not need any internet connection, so you can use it also offline!

Supported OSs

fastHistory can work in any OS with python3 and a bash terminal

zsh is also supported!

List of tested OSs:

OS	OS Version	Shell	Python versions	fastHistory version	Test mode	Comment
Ubuntu	16.04, 18.04, 20.04*	bash	3.6, 3.7, 3.8	latest	unittest	* xclip may need to be installed to enable the copy-to-clipboard feature
macOS	10.15	bash	3.6, 3.7, 3.8	latest	unittest	python3 needs to be installed
Fedora	29	bash	3.5	2.0.0	manual	pip3 requires the --user flag
Debian	9	bash	3.5	2.3.6	manual
Debian	10	zsh*	3.7	2.0.0	manual	*syntax limitation
Windows*	10 (1809)	bash	3.6	2.4.1	manual	*using the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) you can execute and store Windows commands

How to install

Requirements

• python3
• python3-pip (only for pip3 installation)

Install with pip3

1. pip3 install fasthistory
2. $HOME/.local/bin/f
3. close and reopen your terminal

Note: be sure to not use pip (python2) nor sudo (install it only for the current user)

Install with installer.sh (offline mode)

1. download the latest release with this easy-to-type link or manually download it
   • wget mkcn.me/f
2. move it to the target system
3. extract it and run the installer with the target user
   • tar -xvzf f
   • cd fastHistory-X.X
   • ./installer.sh
4. close and reopen your terminal
5. (optional) delete installation files
   • rm -r f fastHistory-X.X

All in one-line

cd $(mktemp -d /tmp/f.XXXXX) && wget https://mkcn.me/f && tar -xvzf f && ./fastHistory-*/installer.sh && cd -

How to update

Update with f (available from 2.1.1)

1. f --update
2. close and reopen your terminal

Update with pip3

1. pip3 install -U --no-cache-dir fasthistory
2. f
3. close and reopen your terminal

Update with installer.sh

• same steps as installation

Note: to update from the 1.x.x version your need to follow these steps

How to uninstall

1. download the installer script and make it executable
   • wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mkcn/fastHistory/master/installer.sh
   • chmod +x installer.sh
2. run it with the uninstall flag
   • ./installer.sh -u

Note: pip3 install fasthistory is not sufficient to uninstall fastHistory

Commands and systax

Find out more about commands and syntax in the Wiki section

Copyright and dependencies

• https://github.com/tldr-pages/tldr
  • goal: collaborative cheatsheets for console commands
  • changes: The page folder has been copied to support offline mode and the syntax modified to improve the search speed
  • code section: fastHistory/tldr/tldr/
• https://github.com/wong2/pick
  • goal: python module modified to build the command-selection menu
  • code section: fastHistory/pick
• https://github.com/rcaloras/bash-preexec
  • goal: bash script used to hook the commands from the terminal
  • code section: fastHistory/bash/bash-preexec.sh
• https://pypi.org/project/pyperclip/
  • goal: copy-to-clipboard feature
  • code section: (optional) pip module
• https://pypi.org/project/bashlex/
  • goal: parse commands to fill the 'Man page info' section
  • code section: (optional) pip module

License

The license for this is the same as that used by GNU bash, GNU GPL v3+.