Nknm

Select from a list of items using easy-to-type nicknames.

Installation

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

# update with the version of your choice
gem 'nknm'

And then execute:

$ bundle install

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install nknm

Usage

Require the gem in your code:

require "nknm"

You can use a static list of names:

# source your names from a known list, or from a file, or anything...
options = Nknm::Lists::Names.new(%w[First Second Third Fourth Fifth])

nickname = Nknm::Nickname.new("fh")
options.matches_for(nickname).map(&:to_s)
# => ["Fourth", "Fifth"]

nickname = Nknm::Nickname.new("s")
options.matches_for(nickname).map(&:to_s)
# => ["Second"]

If you want to choose items from a directory, you can do that too:

# try named params like `include_subdirs` or `include_files` (both default to true)
options = Nknm::Lists::Directory.new("/Users/kevin/Development")

Selectors

Using a terminal, and getting back multiple selections? Use a Selector:

options = Nknm::Lists::Names.new(%w[First Second Third Fourth Fifth])
nickname = Nknm::Nickname.new("f")
matches = options.matches_for(nickname)

selection = Nknm::List::Selectors::Terminal.build(matches).selection
puts "You selected: #{selection}" if selection

You'll be prompted with:

1) First
2) Fourth
3) Fifth
?

Enter the number of your selection at the ? prompt, and you'll have your match!

Why?

As a terminal user and microservice engineer, I jump back-and-forth between a lot of different projects. I have a single directory that holds about 60 different git repos, and I like to be able to jump to any one of them from anywhere, without having to set up a ton of aliases, or type out full names.

So, in my ~/.bashrc, I might set up something like this:

export GIT_REPO_BASEDIR=/Users/kevin/Development

function nd
{
  local dir=$(nknm-dir -F $GIT_REPO_BASEDIR $1)
  if [ -n "$dir" ]
  then
    cd $dir
  else
    echo "No matching directory found" >&2
    return 1
  fi
}
export -f nd

Then, from my terminal prompt, I can be whisked away to the directory of my choosing:

-(git:main)-(16:57:28)-(~/Development/nknm/bin)-
$ nd dar
1) /Users/kevin/Development/darryl
2) /Users/kevin/Development/docker-library
? 1
-(git:features/overlaps2)-(16:57:44)-(~/Development/darryl)-
$

And when there's a single match for the nickname, no additional prompting is required.

Problems?

Please submit an issue. We'll figure out how to get you up and running with Nknm as smoothly as possible.