feat(cli): replace the classic coreutils tools with modern equivalents
Adds Rust/Go replacements for the day-to-day utilities and shadows four of them with aliases. Only read-only commands are shadowed (cat, du, df, ps), so a wrong flag costs a retype rather than data; rm, grep, find and sed keep their originals and the replacements are reached by their own names. The aliases land in .zshrc, so they apply to interactive zsh only -- scripts, `sudo <cmd>` and anything exec'd by another program still get the real binary. New on every host: dust, dysk, procs, trash-cli, doggo, xh, ouch, jnv, hexyl, fq and tealdeer. dysk is used rather than duf, which is unmaintained upstream. git gains difftastic behind a `git dft` alias. diff.external is deliberately left unset so delta remains the renderer for git diff/show and for anything parsing them. The work box gains kubecolor, aliased over kubectl; it wraps the real kubectl and drops colour when stdout is not a terminal, so pipes are unchanged. home/README.md documents the alias map, the flag incompatibilities (including the two that fail silently: dust -s is --apparent-size, and procs reads a bare `aux` as a search keyword) and the rationale for what was left alone.
This commit is contained in:
Emma Thorpe
@@ -180,6 +180,9 @@ automatically.
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- Interactive shell features (zsh, tmux, git, ssh, CLI tools, auto-tmux):
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[`home/README.md`](./home/README.md).
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- Which classic utilities are shadowed by modern replacements, and the flag
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differences that will bite:
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[`home/README.md` → "Replacing the classics"](./home/README.md#replacing-the-classics).
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- All Sway / tmux / foot / zsh keyboard shortcuts:
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[`home/KEYBINDINGS.md`](./home/KEYBINDINGS.md).
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+146
-25
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ Keyboard shortcuts have their own reference: [`KEYBINDINGS.md`](./KEYBINDINGS.md
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Shared by every host via [`default.nix`](./default.nix); the work box also layers
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[`work.nix`](../users/emmathorpe/work.nix) on top (its own ssh config, extra
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packages, and the C#/Helm language servers). The committer identity (name, email,
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packages, kubecolor, and the C#/Helm language servers). The committer identity (name, email,
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signing key) comes from the user registry
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([`../users/registry.nix`](../users/registry.nix)), not this module.
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@@ -35,26 +35,34 @@ signing key) comes from the user registry
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| History substring search | type a fragment, then ↑/↓ cycles matching past commands — works in foot, iTerm2 and the Linux TTY (both CSI and SS3 arrow encodings bound) |
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| Prompt | hostname is prefixed when over SSH |
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**Aliases:** `ls`/`ll`/`la`/`lt` → `eza` (icons + git), `cls` → `clear`. git aliases live in git.nix (below).
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**Aliases:** `ls`/`ll`/`la`/`lt` → `eza` (icons + git), `cls` → `clear`,
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`cat`/`du`/`df`/`ps` → their modern equivalents (see "Replacing the classics").
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git aliases live in git.nix (below).
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## CLI tools
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| Tool | What it gives you |
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| ----------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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| `fzf` | `Ctrl-R` fuzzy history, `Ctrl-T` file picker, `Alt-C` fuzzy cd (Catppuccin-themed) |
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| `zoxide` | `z <fragment>` jumps to frecent directories |
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| `direnv` + `nix-direnv` | per-project environments auto-loaded on `cd` (cached Nix dev shells) |
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| `eza` | modern `ls` (drives the ls aliases) |
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| `bat` | syntax-highlighting pager (Catppuccin Mocha theme); behaves like `cat` when piped; also the `MANPAGER` |
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| `ripgrep` / `fd` | fast search (`rg`) and find (`fd`); also back `fzf` |
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| `jq` | JSON processor |
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| `gh` / `tea` | GitHub and Gitea (`code.emmathe.dev`) CLIs; `gh` uses SSH |
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| `nix-index` | `command-not-found`: an unknown command tells you which Nix package provides it (prebuilt DB, no manual indexing) |
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| `comma` (`,`) | run an uninstalled program once: `, cowsay hi` |
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| `nh` | nicer `nixos-rebuild`/`home-manager` with diffs; `$NH_FLAKE` set to the repo. No scheduled GC (it could reap paths a running generation still references) — collect garbage manually with `nh clean all` / `nix-collect-garbage -d` |
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| `btop` | resource monitor, themed Catppuccin Mocha (vendored theme) |
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| `lazygit` | git TUI for staging/rebasing, themed to match (`git.nix`) |
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| `hyperfine` / `sd` | command-line benchmarking; saner find-and-replace than sed |
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| Tool | What it gives you |
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| ------------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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| `fzf` | `Ctrl-R` fuzzy history, `Ctrl-T` file picker, `Alt-C` fuzzy cd (Catppuccin-themed) |
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| `zoxide` | `z <fragment>` jumps to frecent directories |
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| `direnv` + `nix-direnv` | per-project environments auto-loaded on `cd` (cached Nix dev shells) |
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| `eza` | modern `ls` (drives the ls aliases) |
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| `bat` | syntax-highlighting pager (Catppuccin Mocha theme); behaves like `cat` when piped; also the `MANPAGER` |
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| `ripgrep` / `fd` | fast search (`rg`) and find (`fd`); also back `fzf` |
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| `jq` | JSON processor |
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| `gh` / `tea` | GitHub and Gitea (`code.emmathe.dev`) CLIs; `gh` uses SSH |
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| `nix-index` | `command-not-found`: an unknown command tells you which Nix package provides it (prebuilt DB, no manual indexing) |
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| `comma` (`,`) | run an uninstalled program once: `, cowsay hi` |
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| `nh` | nicer `nixos-rebuild`/`home-manager` with diffs; `$NH_FLAKE` set to the repo. No scheduled GC (it could reap paths a running generation still references) — collect garbage manually with `nh clean all` / `nix-collect-garbage -d` |
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| `btop` | resource monitor, themed Catppuccin Mocha (vendored theme) |
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| `lazygit` | git TUI for staging/rebasing, themed to match (`git.nix`) |
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| `hyperfine` / `sd` | command-line benchmarking; saner find-and-replace than sed |
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| `tldr` (tealdeer) | worked examples for a command, alongside `man`; the page cache is refreshed by a `tldr-update` user timer |
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| `jnv` / `fq` | interactive jq-filter builder for JSON; jq syntax over binary formats (ELF, PNG, gzip, mp4…) |
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| `hexyl` | hex viewer, coloured by byte class |
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| `ouch` | one command for every archive format (`ouch d`/`c`/`l`) |
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| `dust` `dysk` `procs` | `du` / `df` / `ps` replacements — aliased over the originals, see below |
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| `trash-cli` `doggo` `xh` | `rm` (to the XDG trash) / `dig` / `curl` replacements — **not** aliased, see below |
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**Theming:** `fzf`, `bat`, `btop`, `lazygit` and `git`'s `delta` pager are all
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Catppuccin Mocha, driven from the shared `../lib/catppuccin-mocha.nix` palette / the
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@@ -64,6 +72,110 @@ catppuccin upstream themes.
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(the editor owns `$EDITOR`/`$VISUAL`); `xdg.mimeApps` maps web→Firefox,
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directories→nemo (`desktop.nix`).
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## Replacing the classics
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Muscle memory is the expensive part of this, not the packages. Four commands are
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**shadowed** — the old name now runs a new tool. Everything else keeps a new
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name, so the original is never displaced.
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### Shadowed by an alias
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| You type | You now run | The original is still `command <name>` / `\<name>` |
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| -------- | -------------------- | -------------------------------------------------- |
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| `cat` | `bat --paging=never` | `command cat` |
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| `du` | `dust` | `command du` |
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| `df` | `dysk` | `command df` |
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| `ps` | `procs` | `command ps` |
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Only read-only commands are shadowed, so the worst case of a wrong flag is a
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retype rather than lost data. `rm`, `grep`, `curl` and `find` are deliberately
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left alone — see "Left alone on purpose" below.
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**Where the aliases apply.** They are written into `~/.config/zsh/.zshrc`, so
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they exist only in an **interactive zsh**:
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- shell scripts, `Makefile` recipes and anything another program `exec`s get the
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real coreutils binary — nothing that parses output can break;
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- `sudo du -sh /var` runs the real `du`: zsh does not expand an alias after
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`sudo`;
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- `KUBECONFIG=… kubectl …` **does** expand — zsh expands aliases after a
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variable-assignment prefix. That is what makes the kubecolor alias on the work
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box (below) useful rather than a special case you have to remember.
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### Flag gotchas
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These replacements are not drop-in. The two marked **silent** are the dangerous
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ones — they succeed and answer a different question than the one you asked.
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Everything else fails loudly.
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| Old habit | What happens now | Do this instead |
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| ------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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| `du -sh dir` | dust prints its usage and exits non-zero — `-h` is not a dust flag | `dust dir` (units are human by default; the total is the last row) |
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| `du -s dir` | **silent**: dust's `-s` is `--apparent-size`, not `--summarize` | `dust -d 0 dir` for a single total line |
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| `du --max-depth=2` | not recognised | `dust -d 2` |
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| `df -h` | dysk rejects `-h` | `dysk` (SI units by default; `-u binary` for 1024-based) |
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| `df -i` | not recognised | `dysk -c +inodes` |
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| `df -a` | works, same meaning (all mount points) | — |
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| `df /some/path` | works, same meaning (the device holding that path) | — |
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| `ps aux` | **silent**: `aux` is read as a search keyword, so you get only processes whose command line contains the string "aux" | `procs` lists everything; `procs <pattern>` filters |
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| `ps -ef` | `error: unexpected argument '-e'` | `procs` |
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| `ps -p 1234` | not recognised | `procs 1234` |
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| `procs -a` | **silent**: `-a` is `--and` (combine search keywords), not "all" | drop it — `procs` already shows everything |
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| `cat -v` / `cat -e` | `error: unexpected argument` | `cat -A` does work (bat implements show-all); else `command cat -v` |
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| `cat -n` | works, but bat's number column, not coreutils' layout | fine to read; `command cat -n` when the exact layout matters |
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| `cat <binary>` | prints `<BINARY>` to a terminal instead of dumping the bytes | `hexyl <file>`, or `command cat` to dump |
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Useful new capabilities in the same tools: `procs --tree`, `procs --watch`,
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`dust -r` (largest at the top), `dysk -s size`, `dysk -f 'type=ext4'`.
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**Piping is safe for `cat`.** bat drops all decoration and colour when stdout is
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not a terminal, so `cat f | sha256sum` is byte-for-byte what coreutils `cat`
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would have given. The others are TUI-shaped tables with no stable format — if
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something needs to parse them, use `dysk --json`/`--csv`, `procs --json`, or the
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original binary.
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### Renamed, not shadowed
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| Instead of | Use | Notes |
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| --------------------------- | ------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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| `rm` | `trash` | Moves to the XDG trash. `trash-list`, `trash-restore` (interactive picker), `trash-empty [days]`. It never deletes in place: if it cannot create a trash directory on that filesystem it errors out. |
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| `dig` / `nslookup` | `doggo` | `doggo example.com MX @1.1.1.1`; `--json` for scripting. Not aliased — `dig` (from the `bind` closure that other modules pull in) stays where scripts expect it. |
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| `curl` (interactive poking) | `xh` | HTTPie syntax: `xh POST api.example/x name=lyra`. `xhs` is `xh --https`. **curl stays installed and unaliased** — it is what scripts and CI use. |
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| `tar` / `unzip` / `7z` | `ouch` | `ouch d file.<anything>`, `ouch c out.tar.zst src/`, `ouch l archive`. Format is inferred from the extension. The oh-my-zsh `extract` function still works too. |
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| `jq` (exploring a payload) | `jnv` | Interactive filter builder over a JSON file; it prints the jq expression you built. `jq` remains the scripting tool. |
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| `hexdump -C` / `xxd` | `hexyl` | `hexyl -n 256 -s 0x40 file` for a window into a large file. |
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| `strings` on a known format | `fq` | jq syntax over binary formats: `fq -d elf '.sections[].name' ./bin`. |
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| skimming a man page | `tldr` | Worked examples. `man` is untouched (and still rendered through bat). |
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### Left alone on purpose
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- **`grep`** is not aliased to `rg`. ripgrep is recursive by default, skips
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gitignored and hidden files, and uses a different regex dialect (no
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backreferences, no POSIX classes in the same form). A `grep` habit silently
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producing fewer matches is a worse failure than typing three characters. Type
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`rg`.
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- **`rm`** is not aliased to `trash-put`. Retraining `rm` to mean "recoverable"
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is a habit that follows you onto every machine where it is not — remote hosts,
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root shells, containers, CI. Type `trash`.
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- **`find`** is not aliased to `fd`; the `-exec`/`-print0` vocabulary has no
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equivalent and scripts lean on it. Type `fd`.
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- **`sed`** is not aliased to `sd`; `sd` takes real regex and literal
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replacements, not sed's expression language. Type `sd`.
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- **coreutils itself** is not swapped for `uutils-coreutils`. It is packaged and
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tempting, but every Nix builder and shell script on these hosts is written
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against GNU behaviour, including its forty-year-old edge cases.
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### Work box only: kubectl → kubecolor
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On EDaaS (`work.nix`) `kubectl` is aliased to **kubecolor**, which runs the real
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kubectl underneath and colourises what comes back. Nothing to relearn: every
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flag, subcommand and plugin passes straight through, unrecognised output is
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printed verbatim, and colour is dropped automatically when stdout is not a
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terminal — so `kubectl get -o json … | jq` is unchanged. The alias also applies
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to `KUBECONFIG=prodconfig kubectl …`, per the alias-expansion note above.
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Completions are kubectl's own (`compdef kubecolor=kubectl`). Escape hatch as
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ever: `command kubectl`.
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## tmux
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|
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**Auto-start:** opening any interactive terminal — foot, iTerm2, the WSL shell, the
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@@ -141,13 +253,21 @@ Pager is **delta**. **commitizen** is installed on every host; `cz` defaults to
|
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Conventional Commits. **lazygit** (themed) is the TUI. The commit-graph is kept
|
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current (`gc`/`fetch.writeCommitGraph`) so `lg` stays fast.
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|
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| Aliases | |
|
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| ------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------ |
|
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| `st` `co` `sw` `br` `ci` | status / checkout / switch / branch / commit |
|
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| `last` `unstage` | last commit / unstage |
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| `amend` `fixup` `undo` | amend-no-edit / `commit --fixup` / soft-reset HEAD~1 (keep staged) |
|
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| `lg` | graph log, all branches |
|
||||
| `cz` `cc` | `git cz <sub>` (e.g. `git cz c`) and `git cc` → commitizen prompt |
|
||||
| Aliases | |
|
||||
| ------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
|
||||
| `st` `co` `sw` `br` `ci` | status / checkout / switch / branch / commit |
|
||||
| `last` `unstage` | last commit / unstage |
|
||||
| `amend` `fixup` `undo` | amend-no-edit / `commit --fixup` / soft-reset HEAD~1 (keep staged) |
|
||||
| `lg` | graph log, all branches |
|
||||
| `cz` `cc` | `git cz <sub>` (e.g. `git cz c`) and `git cc` → commitizen prompt |
|
||||
| `dft` | structural (syntax-aware) diff via difftastic; takes `git diff` arguments |
|
||||
|
||||
**`git dft` vs `git diff`.** delta stays the default renderer for everything;
|
||||
`diff.external` is deliberately **not** set, so `git diff`, `git show` and
|
||||
anything parsing their output are unchanged. Reach for `dft` when a refactor
|
||||
moved code around and a line-based diff is noise. One wrinkle: `dft` is a
|
||||
`!`-shell alias, and git runs those from the repository root — pass pathspecs
|
||||
relative to the root, not to your current directory.
|
||||
|
||||
| Behaviour | |
|
||||
| -------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
|
||||
@@ -217,6 +337,7 @@ Claude to route new memories there.
|
||||
| | Personal Linux (sway) | macOS | Work WSL (EDaaS) |
|
||||
| --------------------------- | --------------------- | ----------------- | --------------------------- |
|
||||
| Auto-tmux | yes (foot/TTY) | yes (iTerm2) | yes (WSL shell) |
|
||||
| `kubectl` → kubecolor | no (no kubectl) | no | yes (work module) |
|
||||
| git email | `iam@emmathe.dev` | `iam@emmathe.dev` | `…@citrix.com` (work) |
|
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| ssh config managed | yes | yes | no (keeps corporate config) |
|
||||
| ssh-agent | yes | launchd | yes (work module) |
|
||||
|
||||
@@ -74,6 +74,11 @@ in
|
||||
# `cz commit`, `git cz bump`, etc. `git cc` is a shortcut for the prompt.
|
||||
cz = "!cz";
|
||||
cc = "!cz commit";
|
||||
# Structural (syntax-aware) diff, on demand. Set per-invocation via the
|
||||
# environment rather than `diff.external`, which would also change what
|
||||
# `git show` and `git log -p --ext-diff` emit for every caller.
|
||||
# Takes the same arguments as `git diff`: `git dft HEAD~3 -- file`.
|
||||
dft = "!GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF=difft git diff";
|
||||
};
|
||||
|
||||
# SSH signing, key from the registry. mkDefault so a host lacking the key
|
||||
@@ -99,6 +104,14 @@ in
|
||||
enableGitIntegration = true;
|
||||
};
|
||||
|
||||
# difftastic backs the `dft` alias above. git.enable stays off on purpose:
|
||||
# the module's git integration sets `diff.external`, which would displace
|
||||
# delta as the diff renderer everywhere instead of only where asked.
|
||||
programs.difftastic = {
|
||||
enable = true;
|
||||
git.enable = false;
|
||||
};
|
||||
|
||||
# lazygit: TUI for staging/rebasing, themed to Catppuccin Mocha to match.
|
||||
programs.lazygit = {
|
||||
enable = true;
|
||||
|
||||
@@ -26,8 +26,32 @@ in
|
||||
pkgs.tea
|
||||
pkgs.hyperfine # command-line benchmarking
|
||||
pkgs.sd # saner find-and-replace than sed
|
||||
|
||||
# Replacements for the classic coreutils/BSD tools. Only the read-only ones
|
||||
# are aliased over the original name (see shellAliases below); the rest keep
|
||||
# their own name so nothing changes shape under a script's feet. The alias
|
||||
# map and the flag-compatibility differences are documented in
|
||||
# ./README.md, "Replacing the classics".
|
||||
pkgs.dust # du: tree-shaped, size-sorted disk usage
|
||||
pkgs.dysk # df: mounted filesystems (duf is unmaintained upstream)
|
||||
pkgs.procs # ps: process list with tree, ports and container columns
|
||||
pkgs.trash-cli # rm: XDG trash; `trash` / `trash-list` / `trash-restore`
|
||||
pkgs.doggo # dig: DNS lookups
|
||||
pkgs.xh # curl, for interactive HTTP poking (curl stays for scripts)
|
||||
pkgs.ouch # tar/unzip/7z/zstd: one command for every archive format
|
||||
pkgs.jnv # interactive jq filter builder (jq itself stays for scripts)
|
||||
pkgs.hexyl # hex viewer
|
||||
pkgs.fq # jq for binary formats
|
||||
];
|
||||
|
||||
# tldr pages: worked examples for a command, next to (not instead of) man.
|
||||
# enableAutoUpdates defaults on and installs a tldr-update user timer, which
|
||||
# keeps the page cache fresh -- without it `tldr` fails until first `--update`.
|
||||
programs.tealdeer = {
|
||||
enable = true;
|
||||
settings.display.compact = true;
|
||||
};
|
||||
|
||||
# Resource monitor, themed Catppuccin Mocha to match the rest of the desktop.
|
||||
# btop does not bundle the theme, so vendor it from catppuccin/btop (pinned).
|
||||
programs.btop = {
|
||||
@@ -137,6 +161,26 @@ in
|
||||
la = "eza --icons --git -la";
|
||||
lt = "eza --icons --git --tree";
|
||||
cls = "clear";
|
||||
|
||||
# Shadow the classics with their modern equivalents. Only read-only
|
||||
# commands are shadowed: a wrong flag costs a retype, never data. The
|
||||
# flag vocabularies are NOT compatible (`du -sh`, `df -h`, `ps aux` all
|
||||
# fail here) -- see ./README.md, "Replacing the classics".
|
||||
#
|
||||
# Blast radius is bounded by where these live: shellAliases lands in
|
||||
# .zshrc, so only interactive zsh sees them. Scripts, `sudo <cmd>` and
|
||||
# anything exec'd by another program still get the real binary. To reach
|
||||
# the original in an interactive shell: `command du` or `\du`.
|
||||
cat = "bat --paging=never"; # bat is already the PAGER/MANPAGER
|
||||
du = "dust";
|
||||
df = "dysk";
|
||||
ps = "procs";
|
||||
|
||||
# `rm` is deliberately NOT aliased to trash-put. Retraining `rm` to mean
|
||||
# "recoverable" is a habit that follows you onto machines where it does
|
||||
# not (every remote host, every root shell, every container), and trash
|
||||
# semantics break down anyway on a different filesystem or on
|
||||
# root-owned paths. Type `trash` when you want a trash can.
|
||||
};
|
||||
};
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@@ -50,6 +50,19 @@
|
||||
];
|
||||
services.ssh-agent.enable = true;
|
||||
|
||||
# Colourised kubectl. enableAlias points `kubectl` at kubecolor, which parses
|
||||
# the output of the real kubectl underneath and passes anything it does not
|
||||
# recognise straight through, so every flag and subcommand still works. It
|
||||
# drops colour automatically when stdout is not a terminal, leaving pipes into
|
||||
# grep/jq/yq byte-identical. zsh integration reuses kubectl's own completions.
|
||||
# Note the alias does apply to `KUBECONFIG=... kubectl ...`: zsh expands
|
||||
# aliases after a variable-assignment prefix.
|
||||
programs.kubecolor = {
|
||||
enable = true;
|
||||
enableAlias = true;
|
||||
enableZshIntegration = true;
|
||||
};
|
||||
|
||||
# gcx (above) keeps its OAuth tokens in the system keychain and has no
|
||||
# plaintext fallback, so this WSL box needs something owning
|
||||
# org.freedesktop.secrets. See home/secret-service.nix for why
|
||||
|
||||
Reference in New Issue
Block a user