Print selected path to stdout

[wookayin]

In order to use broot as a CLI tool (the Unix philosophy!), we would need an option to make broot print the selected path into stdout, rather than simply opening it as a Desktop application. (I think it should be a default behavior)

Please see fzf for an example.

[Canop]

There are already discussions around this problem which isn't as easy as it seems, hence the shell function (which could be extended to other use cases than just cd).

See for example https://gitlab.redox-os.org/redox-os/termion/issues/163 for more insight on the problem

Note that there's a command, :print_path, which outputs the selected path.

[wookayin]

Thanks for your follow-up. So that's why broot has --out option but not stdout.

[Canop]

It's no more a termion problem but a crossterm one (I dropped termion and now use crossterm in order to allow windows compatibility).
There will be several things to fix in crossterm. First issue: crossterm-rs/crossterm#150

[sgraf812]

It's still unclear to me how to support file selection via --out or stdout. To clarify what I think this issue is about:

1. Launch broot ... $outfile ... (this could be done from within e.g. vim, which creates a temporary $outfile for communication)
2. Find the desired file you want to open, e.g. a/b/foo.txt, by typing afoo.tx
3. Press <enter> (this is important for ergonomics in that particular use case, :pp is out of the question)
4. broot exits and has written the file name to $outfile

I don't care whether $outfile is written as a stdout redirect or via --out or some such. All I want is the behavior of ranger --choose-files=$outfile, which lacks easy fuzzy find support without elaborate plugins. I'm currently evaluating if it's easier to augment ranger than it is to bend broot.

Note also that ideally I wouldn't have to pollute my config file (the location of which I apparently can't overwrite), because then I wouldn't be able to use <enter> to focus a sub-dir in regular shell mode br.

[Canop]

If I follow you, what you want is solved with the following scenario:

1. create a file ~/.config/select.toml with this content:

[[verbs]]
invocation = "ok"
key = "enter"
leave_broot = true
execution = ":print_path"
apply_to = "file"

2. create a shortcut of some type, for example using ~/.bash_aliases

alias bo="br --conf ~/.config/broot/select.toml"

3. you can then use broot as a selector in other commands:

echo $(bo)

or

echo $(bo some/path)

In this scenario the configuration file was used to ensure you can select a file with the enter key. In similar scenarios I specify colors to remember me I'm not in a standard broot. See Use broot and meld to diff before commit.

Please tell me how I answered your question. If it's positive, I may add this as a "trick" in the documentation.

[sgraf812]

Yes, your use case should be equivalent.

Ahh, yes, --conf was basically one solution I was hoping for, but I couldn't find it in man broot.

I just tried it out in my workflow and it works perfectly. Thank you! :)