A CLI tool to get help with CLI tools
🐙
halp aims to help find the correct arguments for command-line tools by checking the predefined list of commonly used options/flags. Additionally, it provides a prompt for quick access to the manual page or cheat sheet of the given command.
If you deal with command-line tools often, it might take some time to figure out how to get help or check the version of a particular command (especially when shell completions are not available). In that case, you might try the most-known flags such as -h and -v but unfortunately not all the command-line tools follow these conventions (either due to conflicts with other flags or they just use another form). Instead of brute-forcing manually into getting help, you can run halp <command> and it will check the following arguments for you:
- for help:
-h,--help,help,-H - for version info:
-v,-V,--version,version
If one of these arguments succeeds (with exit code 0), it prints the output and exits. This way, you can get informed about the version and help in one single command. You can also customize this list with a configuration file or provide a list of arguments via command-line arguments.
On the other hand, if you really need help, you can use the plz subcommand which will prompt a selection for:
Table of Contents
Example
Have you ever experienced this:
$ cli_tool -v
unknown flag -v
$ cli_tool -V
unknown flag -V
$ cli_tool -h
unknown flag -h
$ asdjw1jwhdajh1idojad # frustration
bash: asdjw1jwhdajh1idojad: command not found
$ cli_tool --help # f*cking finally!
Some CLI Tool Version 1.42.69
Usage:
cli_tool <flags> <args> [--parameter1 value1 --parameter2 value2 ...]
Whereas with halp:
$ halp cli_tool
(°ロ°) checking 'cli_tool -v'
(×﹏×) fail '-v' argument not found.
(°ロ°) checking 'cli_tool -V'
(×﹏×) fail '-V' argument not found.
(°ロ°) checking 'cli_tool -h'
(×﹏×) fail '-h' argument not found.
(°ロ°) checking 'cli_tool --help'
\(^ヮ^)/ success '--help' argument found!
Some CLI Tool Version 1.42.69
Usage:
cli_tool <flags> <args> [--parameter1 value1 --parameter2 value2 ...]
Installation
Packaging status
Cargo
halp can be installed from crates.io:
cargo install halp
The minimum supported Rust version is 1.64.0.
Arch Linux
halp can be installed from the community repository using pacman:
pacman -S halp
Or you can install the available AUR packages using an AUR helper. For example,
paru -S halp-git
Alternatively, you can clone the AUR package and then build it with makepkg. For example,
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/halp-git.git && cd halp-git && makepkg -si
Docker
Images
Docker builds are automated and images are available in the following registries:
Usage
The following commands can be used to get help for a binary inside the container:
docker run --rm -it "orhunp/halp:${TAG:-latest}" whoami
docker run --rm -it "orhunp/halp:${TAG:-latest}" plz whoami
Or you can provide a custom binary as follows (please note that you might get shared library errors):
docker run -v "bin:/app/bin:rw" --rm -it "orhunp/halp:${TAG:-latest}" -v ./bin
Building
Custom Docker images can be built from the Dockerfile:
docker build -t halp .
Binary releases
See the available binaries for different targets from the releases page. They are automated via Continuous Deployment workflow
Release tarballs are signed with the following PGP key: 0xFB41AE0358378256
Build from source
- Clone the repository.
git clone https://github.com/orhun/halp && cd halp/
- Build.
CARGO_TARGET_DIR=target cargo build --release
Binary will be located at target/release/halp.
Usage
halp [OPTIONS] <CMD>
Options:
--check <ARG> Sets the argument to check
--no-version Disable checking the version information
--no-help Disable checking the help information
-c, --config <PATH> Sets the configuration file [env: HALP_CONFIG=]
-v, --verbose Enables verbose logging
-h, --help Print help
-V, --version Print version
plz
halp [OPTIONS] plz <CMD>
Options:
-m, --man-cmd <MAN_CMD> Sets the manual page command to run [default: man]
-p, --pager <PAGER> Sets the pager to use [default: "less -R"]
--no-pager Disables the pager
Examples
Check help and version (default)
halp whoami
Check a custom argument
halp --check "\--silent" zps
(You can escape - with using \-.)
You can also provide multiple arguments as follows:
halp --check "help" --check "test" menyoki
Disable defaults
halp --no-version sha512sum
halp --no-help sha512sum
Verbose logging
halp --verbose git-cliff
This will result in stderr/stdout being printed if there was an error. For example:
(°ロ°) checking 'git-cliff -v'
(×﹏×) fail '-v' argument not found.
(o_O) debug
stdout:
WARN git_cliff > "cliff.toml" is not found, using the default configuration.
ERROR git_cliff > Git error: `could not find repository from '.'; class=Repository (6); code=NotFound (-3)`
Get additional help (via plz)
halp plz vim
Custom pager
halp plz --pager bat vim
To disable the pager:
halp plz --no-pager bat vim
Configuration
halp can be configured with a configuration file that uses the TOML format. It can be specified via --config or HALP_CONFIG environment variable. It can also be placed in one of the following global locations:
<config_dir>/halp.toml<config_dir>/halp/halp.toml<config_dir>/halp/config
<config_dir> depends on the platform as shown in the following table:
| Platform | Value | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Linux | $XDG_CONFIG_HOME or $HOME/.config |
/home/orhun/.config |
| macOS | $HOME/Library/Application Support |
/Users/Orhun/Library/Application Support |
| Windows | {FOLDERID_RoamingAppData} |
C:\Users\Orhun\AppData\Roaming |
See halp.toml for the default configuration values.
Funding
If you find halp and/or other projects on my GitHub profile useful, consider supporting me on GitHub Sponsors or becoming a patron!
Contributing
See our Contribution Guide and please follow the Code of Conduct in all your interactions with the project.
License
Licensed under either of Apache License Version 2.0 or The MIT License at your option.
Copyright
Copyright © 2023, Orhun Parmaksız
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