ref - a shell command log management tool

Introdution

1.ref can reduce the suffering of switching mouse and keyboard in a series of shell command operation

ref can keep the output logs of your commands and get tokens from it then execute a command refer to the tokens.

2.ref can save lengthy command and re-execute it easily

it is very helpful when you need to support various project with numerous build commands.

3.ref is very simple to use and help you organize cluttered logs

you can get the history of executed commands and relevant logs simply.

Compile and Install

$gcc -o ref ref.c
$cp -a ref /usr/bin

Usage

Executing a command and saving the output log (both stdout and stderr) -- ref <cmd>

$ref grep -r main src
# output
switch head to 'ref1'
grep -r main src
    1: src/test.c:int main (int argc, char **argv)

Showing Command history and current head -- ref -h

$ref -h
# output
* ref1  2016-02-08 17:34 Mon - grep -r main src
  ref0  2016-02-08 17:31 Mon - git push origin master

Showing logs of current head -- ref -l

$ref -l
# output
grep -r main src
    1: src/test.c:int main (int argc, char **argv)

Showing tokens of specific row -- ref -l -<row>

$ref -l -1
# output
1: src/test.c:int main (int argc, char **argv)
|- 1,1: src/test.c
|- 1,2: int
|- 1,3: main
|- 1,4: int
|- 1,5: argc
|- 1,6: char
|- 1,7: **argv

Change default delimiter -- export REF_DEL=<new delimiter>

$export REF_DEL=":"
$ref -l -1
# output
1: src/ref.c:int main (int argc, char **argv)
|- 1,1: src/ref.c
|- 1,2: int main (int argc, char **argv)

Execute a command with specific token -- ref -e <cmd> -<row>,<col>

# same as $vim `ref -l -1,1`
$ref -e vim -1,1
# output
vim src/test.c

Execute the command of head again and update it's log -- ref -u

$ref -u
# output
grep -r main src
    1: src/test.c:int main (void)

Switch the head of history -- ref -t <ref#>

$ref -t ref0
# output
switch head to 'ref0'

Delete the records of history -- ref -d <ref#> ... | <ref#>-<ref#>

# same as $ref -d ref0-ref2
$ref -d ref0 ref1 ref2
# output
ref0 has been removed.
ref1 has been removed.
ref2 has been removed.

Others -- ref

$ref
# ouptut
usage : ref [ref#] <cmd> [-<row>[,<col>] | -d<row>,<col>]
        ref -l [ref#] [-<row>[,<col>] | -d<row>,<col>]
        ref -e [ref#] <cmd> [-<row>[,<col>] | -d<row>,<col>]
        ref -h [-all | -n <num>]
        ref -u [ref#]
        ref -t <ref#>
        ref -d <ref#> ... | <ref#>-<ref#>

##Q & A

1. Where are the logs saved?

All output logs will be saved in .ref/log/ref#.

2. Can I save logs with color?

Yes, moreover, ref will remove the ANSI escape code when you are tring to refer to a colorful token to prevent malfunctin.

3. How can I save logs with color?

It depends on commnad. Most commands will not output colorful log when you pipe their output. However, they still provide some methods to enable that forely. ex. grep --color=always