Directory Tags for Lazy Programmers

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Features

dtags is a lightweight command line tool which lets you:

• Tag directories and jump between them quickly by tag names
• Run commands inside tagged directories in parallel
• Easily manage git repositories, vagrant machines etc.

Installation

Check requirements:

• Python 2.7, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6 or 3.7
• Supported operating systems: Linux, OS X, Ubuntu on Windows
• Recent version of pip <https://pip.pypa.io>__
• Recent version of Bash, Zsh or Fish with tab-completion enabled

Install the package:

.. code:: bash

# You may need to sudo depending on your environment setup
~$ pip install dtags

Add the following line at the end of your shell runtime configuration and reload the shell:

.. code:: bash

# For zsh, place in ~/.zshrc:
command -v dtags-activate > /dev/null 2>&1 && eval "`dtags-activate zsh`"

# For bash, place in ~/.bashrc (or ~/.bash_profile for OS X):
command -v dtags-activate > /dev/null 2>&1 && eval "`dtags-activate bash`"

# For fish, place in ~/.config/fish/config.fish:
command -v dtags-activate > /dev/null 2>&1; and dtags-activate fish | source

Once installed, you will have the following at your disposal:

• Utility commands t, u, d, e, p
• Main command dtags

All commands come with tab-completion.

Usage

Tag directories with t:

.. code:: bash

~$ t ~/app dev work     # tag ~/app with 'dev' and 'work'
~$ t ~/app              # tag ~/app with its basename, 'app'

Un-tag directories with u:

.. code:: bash

~$ u ~/app dev          # remove tag 'dev' from ~/app
~$ u ~/app              # remove all tags from ~/app

Change directories with d (designed to fully replace cd!):

.. code:: bash

~$ d                    # go to the user's home directory
~$ d -                  # go to the last directory
~$ d app                # go to the directory tagged 'app'
~$ d ~/app              # go to directory ~/app

Execute commands in one or more directories with e:

.. code:: bash

~$ e app git status     # execute 'git status' in all directories tagged 'app'
~$ e ~/vm vagrant halt  # regular directory paths are accepted as well
~$ e app,~/vm,~/foo ls  # multiple tags and/or paths can be specified using commas
~$ e -i app myalias     # use -i (interactive shell) to use functions, aliases etc.

Execute commands in parallel with p (same interface as e):

.. code:: bash

~$ p app git pull       # execute 'git pull' in all directories tagged 'app' in parallel
~$ p -i app myalias     # again, use -i for interactive shell (read below for caveats)

Display, search and manage tags with dtags:

.. code:: bash

~$ dtags                # display the directories-to-tags mapping
~$ dtags list ~ ~/vm    # list the tags and directories associated with ~ and ~/vm
~$ dtags list foo bar   # list the tags and directories associated with 'foo' or 'bar'
~$ dtags reverse        # list the tags-to-directories (reverse) mapping
~$ dtags edit           # edit tags and directories via editor
~$ dtags clean          # remove invalid or stale tags and directories
~$ dtags commands       # display all available dtags commands (e.g. t, u, d, e, p)

If a tag points to a single directory, shell variables are automatically created:

.. code:: bash

~$ t ~/some/dir foo     # shell variable '$foo' is automatically created
~$ ls $foo/sub/dir      # $foo can now be used to denote the tagged directory ~/some/dir
~$ rm $foo/file.sh      # $foo can now be used to denote the tagged directory ~/some/dir

You can always use the --help option to find out more about each command!

More Examples

Streamline your Git workflows:

.. code:: bash

# Tag your git directories
~$ t ~/project/mobile app
~$ t ~/project/backend app
~$ t ~/project/frontend app
~$ t ~/project/config app

# Save yourself some time!
~$ e app git status
~$ p app git pull
~$ e app git checkout v1.7.2

Control multiple vagrant machines at the same time:

.. code:: bash

# Tag all the things
~$ t ~/machines/web vm
~$ t ~/machines/redis vm
~$ t ~/machines/mysql vm
~$ t ~/machines/compute vm

# Profit!
~$ p vm vagrant status
~$ p vm vagrant up

Technical Notes

• dtags is currently not supported on Windows (only Ubuntu on Windows)

• The directory-to-tags mapping is stored in ~/.dtags/mapping

• Tags are also stored on their own in ~/.dtags/tags for tab-completion

• p cannot execute interactive commands that wait on input

• p spawns child processes and redirects all output to temp files and then to stdout

• p does not retain font colors due to shell limitations

• p sends sigterm to its child processes when killed

• e (or p) uses environment variable $SHELL to guess which shell is in use

• e (or p) redirects stderr to stdout and always returns an exit status of 0

• Using -i (interactive shell) has caveats:

  • The shell runtime configuration must be "sourced" for every command execution
  • The performance is affected by the shell startup time (beware oh-my-zsh users)
  • Any errors thrown during the "sourcing" will be displayed in the output

• dtags edit uses environment variable $EDITOR

• d prefers tags over subdirectories when there are name conflicts

  • To go to the subdirectory, put / after the directory name

• d expects ~/.dtags/mapping to be correctly formatted:

  • Refrain from editing ~/.dtags/mapping directly.
  • Instead, use dtags edit which does the validation and formatting for you

• Tab-completion expects ~/.dtags/tags to be correctly formatted:

  • Refrain from touching this file
  • This file is auto-generated whenever a dtags command is run.

• A shell variable is created only if its name does not conflict with environment variables

• When shell variables are created, any disallowed characters in the name are replaced with underscores