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https://github.com/kaushalmodi/eless
A Better 'less' - A bash script that loads emacs with minimal view-mode config - Created with Org mode
https://github.com/kaushalmodi/eless
bash-script emacs emacs-lisp less literate-programming org-babel org-mode org-tangle
Last synced: 2 months ago
JSON representation
A Better 'less' - A bash script that loads emacs with minimal view-mode config - Created with Org mode
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/kaushalmodi/eless
- Owner: kaushalmodi
- License: mit
- Created: 2017-04-25T11:50:18.000Z (over 7 years ago)
- Default Branch: master
- Last Pushed: 2022-02-16T04:06:08.000Z (almost 3 years ago)
- Last Synced: 2024-09-29T18:02:36.704Z (2 months ago)
- Topics: bash-script, emacs, emacs-lisp, less, literate-programming, org-babel, org-mode, org-tangle
- Language: Shell
- Homepage: https://eless.scripter.co
- Size: 3.75 MB
- Stars: 132
- Watchers: 7
- Forks: 10
- Open Issues: 5
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.org
- Contributing: CONTRIBUTING.org
- License: LICENSE.md
Awesome Lists containing this project
- my-awesome-github-stars - kaushalmodi/eless - A Better 'less' - A bash script that loads emacs with minimal view-mode config - Created with Org mode (Shell)
README
#+title: Eless - A Better Less
#+author: Kaushal Modi
[[https://github.com/kaushalmodi/eless/actions][https://github.com/kaushalmodi/eless/actions/workflows/test.yml/badge.svg]]
[[https://eless.scripter.co][*Documentation*]]
-----
[[https://github.com/kaushalmodi/eless][*eless*]] is a combination of Bash script and a minimal emacs
=view-mode= config.
This script is designed to:
- Be portable -- Just one bash script to download to run
- Be independent of a user's emacs config
- /You can still [[https://eless.scripter.co/#user-config-override][customize]] the =eless= config if you like./
- Not require an emacs server to be already running
It was created out of a need to have something /like/ =less= (in the
sense of /launch quickly, do, and quit/), but /better/ in these ways:
- Syntax highlighting
- Org-mode file rendering
- A better navigable man page viewer
- A better Info viewer
- Dired, especially =wdired= (batch edit symbolic links, for
example?)
- Colored diffs, =git diff=, =git log=, =ls=, etc. (auto ANSI
detection)
- Filter log files to only show (or not show) lines matching a regexp
- Auto-revert log files when I want (like =tail -f=)
- Quickly change frame and font sizes
- .. and more; basically everything that emacs has to offer!
I call it =eless= and here's a little taste of what it looks like:
[[https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kaushalmodi/eless/master/docs/images/eless-examples.png][https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kaushalmodi/eless/master/docs/images/eless-examples.png]]
/Shown above, starting from top left image and proceeding clock-wise../
- =eless eless.org=
- =rg --color=ansi 'man pages' | eless= (rg[[https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep][?]])
- =man grep= (I have set my =PAGER= env var to =eless=.)
- =info eless= (I have aliased =info= to ='\info \!* | eless'= in my
tcsh shell.)
- =eless .= (Shows the current directory contents in =dired=.)
- =diff= of =eless.org= with an older saved version and piping the
result to =eless=
*Meta Features*
- [X] This script passes [[https://www.shellcheck.net][ShellCheck]], and
- [X] Unofficial Bash /strict mode/[fn:1] is enabled.
- [X] Always-in-sync documentation as the =eless= script and
documentation are generated using Org Babel from [[https://github.com/kaushalmodi/eless/blob/master/eless.org][one file]] (even this
README).
- [X] The [[https://eless.scripter.co][documentation site]] is generated on-the-fly on Netlify using
that same /one file/.
- [X] This bash script has tests too!
[fn:1] ~http://redsymbol.net/articles/unofficial-bash-strict-mode/~
* Requirements
|-----------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Software | Details |
|-----------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| =emacs= | If only *running* the =eless= script, the mininum required emacs version is 22.1 (manually tested). If *developing* (running =make all html test=), the minimum required version is *25.3*. |
| =bash= | This is a =bash= script. So even if you don't use =bash= shell, you need to have the =bash= binary discoverable through your environment variable =PATH=. /Tested to work in =tcsh= shell on RHEL 6.6./ |
| =perl= | Perl is used to replace =grep -Po= and case-insensitive =sed= based replacements (using =/I=) as those features are available only in GNU versions of =grep= and =sed= (which are not present by default on /macOS/ systems). /Tested with Perl v5.16.3 on RHEL 6.6./ |
| =texinfo= | Required to generate the eless Info manual (when doing =make install=) |
|-----------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
- NOTE 1 :: If the environment variable =EMACS= is set, =eless= uses
that as the emacs binary, else it defaults to using =emacs= as emacs
binary.
- NOTE 2 :: ~eless~ is known to not work with /info (texinfo) 6.1/ (see
=eless= issue #[[https://github.com/kaushalmodi/eless/issues/35][35]]). If you want to use ~eless~ to view Info manuals,
ensure that it is at least version *6.5*.
* Installation
** Manual installation
*** Clone this rep
For the following instructions, let's assume that you clone this repo
to =~/downloads/eless=.
#+begin_src shell
git clone https://github.com/kaushalmodi/eless ~/downloads/eless
#+end_src
*** Run ~make~
#+begin_src shell
cd ~/downloads/eless
make install PREFIX=~/.local
#+end_src
*** Installation Directory Structure
The above ~make install~ will install the ~eless~ script and
documentation in a directory structure like this:
#+begin_example
├── bin/
│ └── eless
└── share/
└── eless/
├── eless.org
└── info/
├── eless.info
└── dir
#+end_example
- NOTE :: Make sure that you add ~/bin/~ directory to your
~PATH~ environment variable and ~/share/eless/info/~ to
~INFOPATH~.
*** Uninstallation
Assuming that you used ~PREFIX=~/.local~ in the [[#installation-make][Run =make=]] step above,
uninstall it using the same ~PREFIX~:
#+begin_src shell
cd ~/downloads/eless
make uninstall PREFIX=~/.local
#+end_src
** Homebrew users
[[https://brew.sh/][Homebrew]] users can install ~eless~ using:
#+begin_example
brew install eless
#+end_example
* Try it out
Here are some usage examples:
#+begin_src shell
eless foo.txt # Open foo.txt in eless in terminal (-nw) mode by default.
eless foo.txt --gui # Open foo.txt in eless in GUI mode.
echo 'foo' | eless #
echo 'foo' | eless - # Same as above. The hyphen after eless does not matter; is anyways discarded.
grep 'bar' foo.txt | eless #
diff foo bar | eless # Colored diff!
diff -u foo bar | eless # Colored diff for unified diff format
eless . # Open dired in the current directory (enhanced 'ls')
ls --color=always | eless # Auto-detect ANSI color codes and convert those to colors
PAGER=eless git diff # Show git diff with ANSI coded colors
eless -h | eless # See eless help ;-)
info emacs | eless # Read emacs Info manual in eless
eless foo.tar.xz # Read the contents of archives; emacs does the unarchiving automatically
PAGER=eless python3; help('def') # Read (I)Python keyword help pages (example: help for 'def' keyword)
PAGER=eless python3; help('shlex') # Read (I)Python module help pages (example: help for 'shlex' module)
PAGER=eless python3; help('TYPES') # Read (I)Python topic help pages (example: help for 'TYPES' topic)
PAGER=eless man grep # Launches man pages in eless (terminal mode), if the env var PAGER is set to eless (does not work on macOS).
PAGER=less man -P eless grep # Launches man pages in eless (terminal mode), if the env var PAGER is *not* set to eless (works on macOS).
PAGER="eless --gui" man grep # Launches man pages in eless (GUI mode), if the env var PAGER is set to "eless --gui" (does not work on macOS).
PAGER=less man -P "eless --gui" grep # Launches man pages in eless (GUI mode), if the env var PAGER is *not* set to eless (works on macOS).
#+end_src
- NOTE :: Above examples are tested to work in a *=bash=
shell*. Specifically, examples like ~PAGER=eless man grep~ might
need to be adapted for the shell you are using, [[#example-eless-config-in-bash][and also the OS]].
* Contributors
- Thanks to [[https://github.com/sshaw][Skye Shaw]] for helping improving =eless=
so that it can run on /macOS/ and emacs 22.1, and suggesting Bash
=trap=.
- Thanks to [[https://github.com/iqbalansari][Iqbal Ansari]] for adding support to
read piped data in =emacs -Q -nw=.
- Thanks to [[https://github.com/alphapapa][Adam Porter]] for adding a =bash=
/collapsing function/ for debug statements, and testing out and
providing suggestions on improving the =eless= build flow.