https://github.com/Kethku/okeydokey

Okeydokey is a tool for building directory script profiles in .ok files. The idea is to store commonly used scripts in a lightweight format for personal use. Inspired by SecretGeek.

What

Okeydokey is a script profile manager which will walk up the directory tree searching for a .ok file. When found, it will either return the command associated with the passed in prefix, or return the command names in a space separated list.

This tool is intended to be used in combination with a helper function in the shell script of the user's choice. Mine is built in PowerShell:

  function ok
{
  if ($args.Count -eq 0) {
    okeydokey | Write-Host -ForegroundColor 'Blue'
  } else {
    if ($args.Count -gt 1) {
      $script = okeydokey $args[0] -p "pushd {};" -s "; popd" -a ($args | select -skip 1)
    } else {
      $script = okeydokey $args[0] -p "pushd {};" -s "; popd"
    }

    if ($script -ne $null) {
      iex $script
    }
  }
}

The -p argument stands for prefix and the -s argument stands for sufix They will added to the output command and the {} holes will be filled with the path to the directory containing the .ok file. If no .ok file is found, no output will be written.

The -a argument stands for the arguments that get filled in for the main command. Each argument is either inserted in the associated {n} hole where n is the 0 based index of the argument, or appended to the end of the main command if no holes are found.

.ok files contain named scripts on each line with a colon separating the script name from the script itself. For example, this is the script I use for my static website:

  build: cd Site; zola build; ok clean; cp ./public/* ../02Credits.github.io -for -rec
dev: cd Site; zola serve
clean: cd 02Credits.github.io; dir | rm -rec -for

Since scripts are run by the wrapper function, nothing stops scripts from calling other scripts as I do in the above build command. Clean must happen during the build, so I reuse the already defined clean script for simplicity.

Why

Frequently I find build systems and other script managers too heavy weight to use for all of the little things I need to keep track of. By ignoring the cross platform support of utility functions, and assuming that the functions will only be used by the author we are able to build a profile system with very simple rules that is easy to use and understand

This tool is heavily based upon the ideas put forth in SecretGeek's article however Okeydokey makes a couple of improvements. By writing it in Rust and doing the heavy lifting there we get cross platform support for free. Okeydokey walks up the directory tree searching for the .ok file freeing the user up from making sure they are in the correct place. Okeydokey also names arguments and outputs them instead of the numbered file. I argue this helps the user remember which command to run without clogging their console up with unnecessary details.

How

The tool must be built before it can be used as I have not produced prebuilt binaries yet. Building should be simple however. With a modern install of Rust and Cargo on the path a copy can be built by running cargo build --release and copying the resulting binary from \target\release to a known location on the path.

Then a wrapper function must be added to your shell's startup profile. A functional one for powershell can be seen above, and a similar strategy can be taken for bash or similar. If you need help creating one, make an issue and I'll get to it as soon as I can or if you're feeling generous, a PR would be welcome.

Dev Log

Okeydokey is a part of my push to make tangible and documented progress on a project every day.

Day2 - Okeydokey
Day3 - Okeydokey Cont.
Day19 - Automating Blogging