https://github.com/elementbound/mdview

View markdown files from your terminal!
https://github.com/elementbound/mdview

cli cli-app express express-js expressjs markdown markdown-viewer node node-js nodejs nodejs-server terminal

Last synced: 14 days ago
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View markdown files from your terminal!

• Host: GitHub
• URL: https://github.com/elementbound/mdview
• Owner: elementbound
• Created: 2019-10-05T20:57:19.000Z (about 5 years ago)
• Default Branch: master
• Last Pushed: 2024-03-28T22:14:40.000Z (8 months ago)
• Last Synced: 2024-09-16T19:39:13.936Z (2 months ago)
• Topics: cli, cli-app, express, express-js, expressjs, markdown, markdown-viewer, node, node-js, nodejs, nodejs-server, terminal
• Language: JavaScript
• Size: 968 KB
• Stars: 2
• Watchers: 3
• Forks: 0
• Open Issues: 3
• Metadata Files:
  • Readme: README.md

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README

        
# mdview #

View Markdown files in your terminal!

![mdview](assets/mdview.gif)

## Features ##

* Open Markdown files in your terminal

* Follow links between the files

* Unknown files are presented as-is

* Render images as ASCII grayscales

* Configure via environment variables

## Requirements ##

* [node.js](https://nodejs.org/en/download/)

* A text-mode browser, such as:

  * [lynx](https://lynx.browser.org/)

  * [w3m](http://w3m.sourceforge.net/)

  * [links2](http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/disco/en/man1/links2.1.html)

  * [elinks](http://elinks.or.cz/)

* [imagemagick](https://imagemagick.org/)

  * Only needed for image rendering, can be turned off. See [configuration](.env.defaults)

## Install ##

Install `lynx` and `imagemagick` with your package manager of choice. For example: 

```sh

sudo apt install lynx imagemagick

```

Install `mdview` using `npm`:

```sh

npm install -g @elementbound/mdview

```

## Usage ##

Open any markdown file with `mdview`:

```sh

mdview README.md

```

## Documentation ##

This package provides two components - `mdview` and `mdserve`.

`mdserve` is a HTTP server that renders markdown documents as HTML. It includes image conversion logic as well, so images show up in some way. 

`mdview` launches `mdserve` when needed, and opens the given document in the configured browser ( default is `lynx` ).

### Command line flags ###

| Flag | Description                     |

| ---- | ------------------------------- |

| `-q` | Don't output anything to STDOUT |

### Endpoints ###

| URL              | Description                          |

| ---------------- | ------------------------------------ |

| `/render/{path}` | Render the file under `path` as HTML |

| `/ping`          | Returns `pong` if the server is up   |

| `/pid`           | Returns the server's process ID      |

> NOTE: The server only accepts requests from the local machine.

### Tips and tricks ###

#### Periodically refreshing file ###

You can combine `mdview`'s *quiet* flag, your browser's *dump* flag, and the `watch` command:

```sh

watch -n 0.5 'MDVIEW_BROWSER="lynx -dump" mdview -q /path/to/file'

```

If you have a version of `watch` that supports it, you can use `elinks` for colored output:

```sh

watch -n 0.5 --color 'MDVIEW_BROWSER="elinks -dump -dump-color-mode 1" mdview -q /path/to/file'

```

Here it is in action:

![Periodical refreshing](assets/mdview-refresh.gif)

## Configuration ##

The server can be configured via environment variables. Which also means that you can plop your variables in your `.bashrc` or similar.

For reference, see [`.env.defaults`](.env.defaults)

## Issues ##

If you have any issues or feedback, please feel free to let me know by opening an [issue on Github](https://github.com/elementbound/mdview/issues).