instant coding answers via the command line

Overview

howdoi

instant coding answers via the command line

https://img.shields.io/github/workflow/status/gleitz/howdoi/Python%20CI?style=plastic&color=78dce8 https://img.shields.io/badge/dynamic/json?style=plastic&color=ab9df2&maxAge=86400&label=downloads&query=%24.total_downloads&url=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.pepy.tech%2Fapi%2Fprojects%2Fhowdoi https://img.shields.io/pypi/pyversions/howdoi.svg?style=plastic&color=ff6188

Sherlock, your neighborhood command-line sloth sleuth

Sherlock, your neighborhood command-line sloth sleuth.


Are you a hack programmer? Do you find yourself constantly Googling for how to do basic programming tasks?

Suppose you want to know how to format a date in bash. Why open your browser and read through blogs (risking major distraction) when you can simply stay in the console and ask howdoi:

$ howdoi format date bash
> DATE=`date +%Y-%m-%d`

howdoi will answer all sorts of queries:

$ howdoi print stack trace python
> import traceback
>
> try:
>     1/0
> except:
>     print '>>> traceback <<<'
>     traceback.print_exc()
>     print '>>> end of traceback <<<'
> traceback.print_exc()

$ howdoi convert mp4 to animated gif
> video=/path/to/video.avi
> outdir=/path/to/output.gif
> mplayer "$video" \
>         -ao null \
>         -ss "00:01:00" \  # starting point
>         -endpos 10 \ # duration in second
>         -vo gif89a:fps=13:output=$outdir \
>         -vf scale=240:180

$ howdoi create tar archive
> tar -cf backup.tar --exclude "www/subf3" www
http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/tar.png

Installation

pip install howdoi

or

pip install git+https://github.com/gleitz/howdoi.git#egg=howdoi

or

python setup.py install

New to howdoi?

howdoi howdoi

Usage

usage: howdoi.py [-h] [-p POS] [-n NUM] [-a] [-l] [-c] [-C] [-j] [-v] [-e [ENGINE]] [--save] [--view] [--remove] [--empty] [QUERY ...]

instant coding answers via the command line

positional arguments:
  QUERY                 the question to answer

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -p POS, --pos POS     select answer in specified position (default: 1)
  -n NUM, --num NUM     number of answers to return (default: 1)
  -a, --all             display the full text of the answer
  -l, --link            display only the answer link
  -c, --color           enable colorized output
  -C, --clear-cache     clear the cache
  -j, --json            return answers in raw json format
  -v, --version         displays the current version of howdoi
  -e [ENGINE], --engine [ENGINE]
                        search engine for this query (google, bing, duckduckgo)
  --save, --stash       stash a howdoi answer
  --view                view your stash
  --remove              remove an entry in your stash
  --empty               empty your stash

environment variable examples:
  HOWDOI_COLORIZE=1
  HOWDOI_DISABLE_CACHE=1
  HOWDOI_DISABLE_SSL=1
  HOWDOI_SEARCH_ENGINE=google
  HOWDOI_URL=serverfault.com

Using the howdoi stashing feature (for more advanced features view the keep documentation).

stashing: howdoi --save QUERY
viewing:  howdoi --view
removing: howdoi --remove (will be prompted which answer to delete)
emptying: howdoi --empty (empties entire stash, will be prompted to confirm)

As a shortcut, if you commonly use the same parameters each time and don't want to type them, add something similar to your .bash_profile (or otherwise). This example gives you 5 colored results each time.

alias h='function hdi(){ howdoi $* -c -n 5; }; hdi'

And then to run it from the command line simply type:

$ h format date bash

Other useful aliases:

alias hless='function hdi(){ howdoi $* -c | less --raw-control-chars --quit-if-one-screen --no-init; }; hdi'

Contributors

Notes

  • Works with Python2 and Python3
  • There is a GUI that wraps howdoi.
  • There is a Flask webapp that wraps howdoi.
  • An Alfred Workflow for howdoi can be found at http://blog.gleitzman.com/post/48539944559/howdoi-alfred-even-more-instant-answers.
  • Slack integration available through slack-howdoi.
  • Telegram integration available through howdoi-telegram.
  • Howdoi uses a cache for faster access to previous questions. Caching functionality can be disabled by setting the HOWDOI_DISABLE_CACHE environment variable. The cache is stored in ~/.cache/howdoi.
  • You can set the HOWDOI_URL environment variable to change the source url for answers (default: stackoverflow.com, also supported: serverfault.com, pt.stackoverflow.com, full list).
  • You can set the HOWDOI_SEARCH_ENGINE environment variable to change the underlying search engine for StackOverflow links (default: google, also supported: bing, duckduckgo). The -e flag will switch the underlying engine for a single query.
  • Setting the HOWDOI_COLORIZE environment variable will colorize the output by default.
  • Special thanks to Rich Jones (@miserlou) for the idea.
  • More thanks to Ben Bronstein for the logo.

Development

  • Checkout the repo
  • Run python -m howdoi.howdoi QUERY (if you try running python howdoi/howdoi.py you might get ValueError: Attempted relative import in non-package).

If you would like to use howdoi from within a python script, just pass your query to howdoi.howdoi():

from howdoi import howdoi

query = "for loop python"
output = howdoi.howdoi(query)

Or parse it yourself (either work):

from howdoi import howdoi

query = "for loop python"
parser = howdoi.get_parser()
args = vars(parser.parse_args(query.split(' ')))

output = howdoi.howdoi(args)

Or get the results as JSON:

from howdoi import howdoi
import json

query = "for loop python"

output_json = json.loads(howdoi.howdoi(f'{query} -j'))

Extension Development

To simplify the process of integrating howdoi as a code editor extension, edit the files within the extension/code-editor-integration folder.

To improve upon the Visual Studio Code howdoi extension, edit the files within the extension/vscode-ext folder and republish the extension.

Code Editor Integration

Head over to the README.md for an in depth explanation on beginning development for the howdoi code editor integration plug-in.

Visual Studio Code Extension

To begin development for the Visual Studio Code extension, install all necessary packages:

npm install

Then, precompile the extension:

npm run precompile

To run and test the extension, utilize Visual Studio Code's debugging tools.

Visual Studio Code Extension Installation

howdoi can now be installed as an extension on Visual Studio Code! There are two ways to install it:

  1. On the Visual Studio Code MarketPlace:
  • Head over to the MarketPlace to install the extension.
  1. Directly from the packaged extension:
  • Head over here to locally install the howdoi Visual Studio Code package.

Contributing

I'm happy to accept pull requests that make howdoi better. If you're thinking of contributing and want a little feedback before you jump into the codebase, post an issue on Github.

Before PRs are accepted they must pass all tests and not have any flake8 or pylint warnings or errors. This projects uses vanilla configuration files for both linters (.flake8rc and .pylintrc in the root directory), but with a max line length of 119.

Owner
Benjamin Gleitzman
Technologist, artist, and founder. CTO at Replicant AI. Creator of The Algorithm Auction. Originator of Pup's Pool Party and producer at Sublimate NYC.
Benjamin Gleitzman
frogtrade9000 - a command-line Rich client for the freqtrade REST API

frogtrade9000 - a command-line Rich client for the freqtrade REST API I found FreqUI too cumbersome and slow on my Raspberry Pi 400 when running multi

Robert Davey 79 Dec 02, 2022
CLI utility to search and download torrents from major torrent sites

CLI Torrent Downloader About CLI Torrent Downloader provides convenient and quick way to search torrent magnet links (and to run associated torrent cl

x0r0x 86 Dec 19, 2022
xonsh is a Python-powered, cross-platform, Unix-gazing shell language and command prompt.

xonsh xonsh is a Python-powered, cross-platform, Unix-gazing shell language and command prompt. The language is a superset of Python 3.6+ with additio

xonsh 6.7k Jan 08, 2023
A simple script to make the operation of AltServer-Linux more easier with cli

A simple script to make the operation of AltServer-Linux more easier with cli

powen 23 Dec 13, 2022
A Neat Application To Manage Your To-Do Lists.

WTD - What To Do? A Neat Application To Manage Your To-Do Lists. One folder can only have one to-do file. Running wth without any subcommands executes

Adam Vajda 1 Oct 24, 2021
A super simple wallet application for the NANO cryptocurrency that runs in the terminal

Nano Terminal Wallet A super simple wallet application for the NANO cryptocurrency that runs in the terminal Written in 2021 by NinjaSnail1080 (Discor

9 Jul 22, 2022
A terminal slots programme in PY

PYSlots PyPI and Test PyPI External Links PyPI Test PyPI Install Look directly at the bugs! Version pip install pyslots "Don't look directly at the bu

Luke Batema 4 Nov 30, 2022
Universal Command Line Interface for Amazon Web Services

This package provides a unified command line interface to Amazon Web Services.

Amazon Web Services 13.3k Jan 07, 2023
Standalone Tailwind CSS CLI, installable via pip

Standalone Tailwind CSS CLI, installable via pip Use Tailwind CSS without Node.j

Tim Kamanin 144 Dec 22, 2022
🪛 A simple pydantic to Form FastAPI model converter.

pyfa-converter Makes it pretty easy to create a model based on Field [pydantic] and use the model for www-form-data. How to install? pip install pyfa_

20 Dec 22, 2022
Unconventional ways to save an Image

Unexpected Image Saves Unconventional ways to save an image 😄 Have you ever been bored by the same old .png, .jpg, .jpeg, .gif and all other image ex

Eric Mendes 15 Nov 06, 2022
A python Ethereum utilities command-line tool.

peth-cli A python Ethereum utilities command-line tool. After wasting the all day trying to install seth and failed, I took another day to write this.

Moon 55 Nov 15, 2022
Helicopter animation in terminal

helicopter-helicopter Helicopter animation in terminal (scroll down for instructions) Why does this exist? It's because of a meme Click for details Se

Wasi Master 7 Mar 14, 2022
A cd command that learns - easily navigate directories from the command line

NAME autojump - a faster way to navigate your filesystem DESCRIPTION autojump is a faster way to navigate your filesystem. It works by maintaining a d

William Ting 14.5k Jan 03, 2023
Salesforce object access auditor

Salesforce object access auditor Released as open source by NCC Group Plc - https://www.nccgroup.com/ Developed by Jerome Smith @exploresecurity (with

NCC Group Plc 90 Sep 19, 2022
A minimalist Vim plugin manager.

A minimalist Vim plugin manager. Pros. Easy to set up: Single file. No boilerplate code required. Easy to use: Concise, intuitive syntax Super-fast pa

Junegunn Choi 30.2k Jan 08, 2023
Todo - You could use terminal to set your todo

Python Tutorial You can learn how to build a terminal application(CLI applicatio

29 Jun 29, 2022
Container images for portable development environments

Docker Dev Spin up a container to develop from anywhere! To run, just: docker run -ti aghost7/nodejs-dev:boron tmux new Alternatively, if on Linux: p

Jonathan Boudreau 163 Dec 22, 2022
Execute shell command lines in parallel on Slurm, S(on) of Grid Engine (SGE), PBS/Torque clusters

qbatch Execute shell command lines in parallel on Slurm, S(on) of Grid Engine (SGE), PBS/Torque clusters qbatch is a tool for executing commands in pa

Jon Pipitone 26 Dec 12, 2022
Notion-cli-list-manager - A simple command-line tool for managing Notion databases

A simple command-line tool for managing Notion List databases. ✨

Giacomo Salici 75 Dec 04, 2022