histui/documentation/specification.md

CRITICAL NOTES

• flex might be total overkill as scanf might entirely suffice

Used technologies

• C style C++ with pottential future "back" porting
• flex history parsers
• SQLite
• ncurses
• readline

Rationale

C/C++

• fuck pust

NCurses

• i know nothing better that is:

• portable
• reliable
• C compatible
• anyway better than ncurses

SQLite

• sharing history between shell types could be desirable, this is the simplest approach
• having our own storage means that we could support meta informations globally which are not standard for every application

Flex

• its actually reusable

Readline

• we are not trying to replace it in anyways; it only makes sense

CLI

histui <verb>

• <import> <file-1>:<file-2> [format]
• <export> <file> [format]
• <tui> <file> [options]
• <init> <shell>

Import

Read history entries from <file-1> into histuidb <file-2>.

Unless all lines are pure entry values, a format will have to be specified.

If no files are specified, precomposed formats shall be printed. E.g. format for "Bash with timestamps".

Export

Dump the contents of histuidb <file> to stdout using [format].

Init

Used for printing reasonable default configuration for using histui with the selected shell.

The default configuration, if possible should have the following features:

• override history search with invoking histui
• sync further commands a histuidb

If no shell is specified, the available options shall be printed.

TUI

$ histui tui [options] --command : start in search mode --normal : start in normal mode

+---+---------------+ | p | | | o | listing | | s | | +---+---------------+ | ruler | +-------------------+ | input | +-------------------+

Modes

• the reason why we have modes is to make both inspecting and selection entries, and searching/filtering entries piss easy

Normal mode

The user may move up and down freely on the list with any prefered binding (Vimlike by default), or repeat a motion by specifying a repeat count before any motion.

[repeat]<motion>

move around

:

Jump to Nth entry.

Result stack

Everytime the user issues a search, or inspects an item the result stack is pushed.

The top search frame can/will be overwritten.

The user may pop or clear by hand.

The result stack is NOT persistent between sessions.

Command mode

Every character entered narrows the list of results. The user may use altered {ctrl+n} or special {arrow} keys to navigate the results, but may be unable to issue repeats or jumps.

Global input

Do note that these actions may have different bindings in different modes.

Select an entry to load the context for. Without filtering this is effectless, however if the output was filtered, the search results are overwritten by the commands that were executed in the same shell as this one.

Clear any filtering or inspection.

Pop result frame.

Echo entry value and exit with success. Format %[flags][width]<specifier> flags : left-justify within [width] # : relative (has effect on time specifiers) width number of characters to align to specifiers s : history entry n : entry number p : shell id a : short weekday name A : full weekday name u : ISO 8601 decimal week day weekday (1-7) b : short month name B : full month name C : year (integer) devided by 100 d : day of the month; 0 padded {"09"} D : short date ("MM/DD/YY") H : hour in 24h format {18} I : hour in 12h format {06}; 0 padded r : 12h time {12:38:21 PM} R : 24h time ("HH:MM") S : seconds; 0 padded {04} M : minutes; 0 padded {03} T : ISO 8601 time format ("HH:MM:SS") Environment HISTUIHIST : histuidb to be used