samalws/ch

a tool that lets you choose files/folders in the shell without using tab or ls (good for minimalist shells like dash :) )

ch (choose)

a tool that lets you choose files/folders in the shell without using tab or ls

prints the user interaction parts with stdErr instead of stdOut so you can use stdOut in commands to select stuff (see examples below)

examples:

run directly:

$ ch
1 . 2 .. 3 aFile 4 aFolder
$ 4
1 . 2 .. 3 anotherFile
$ 3
./aFolder/anotherFile

use in another command:

$ cat $(ch)
1 . 2 .. 3 aFile 4 aFolder
$ 4
1 . 2 .. 3 anotherFile
$ 3
this is the text that's in anotherFile

select a folder:

$ ls -l $(ch)
1 . 2 .. 3 aFile 4 aFolder
$ 4
1 . 2 .. 3 anotherFile
$ 1
total 4
-rw-r--r-- 1 uwe uwe 39 Jun 16 17:16 anotherFile

works with cd:

$ cd $(ch)
1 . 2 .. 3 aFile 4 aFolder
$ 4
1 . 2 .. 3 anotherFile
$ 1
ls -l
total 4
-rw-r--r-- 1 uwe uwe 39 Jun 16 17:16 anotherFile

choose a file by number if you know it already:

$ ls $(ch -n 4)
anotherFile

choose from a directory other than pwd:

$ ls $(ch /)
1 . 2 .. 3 bin 4 boot 5 dev 6 etc 7 home 8 iface 9 lib 10 lib32 11 lib64 12 media 13 mnt 14 opt 15 proc 16 root 17 run 18 sbin 19 sys 20 tmp 21 usr 22 var
$ 7
1 . 2 .. 3 uwe
$ 1
uwe

move up a directory:

$ ch /home
1 . 2 .. 3 uwe
$ 2
1 . 2 .. 3 bin 4 boot 5 dev 6 etc 7 home 8 iface 9 lib 10 lib32 11 lib64 12 media 13 mnt 14 opt 15 proc 16 root 17 run 18 sbin 19 sys 20 tmp 21 usr 22 var
$ 7
1 . 2 .. 3 uwe
$ 1
/home/../home

add quotes when choosing something with spaces in its name:

$ ls "$(ch ..)"
1 . 2 .. 3 a b c
$ 3
1 . 2 .. 3 aFile 4 aFolder
$ 1
aFile aFolder