aly - Command Line Alias Manager and Packager

Aly offers the simplest way to manage, share, and obtain command line aliases!

Warning: This project is still in early development. Minimal testing has been done on Windows!

Table of Contents

I. Features

II. Installation

III. Usage

• Installing A Plugin
• Enabling/Disabling Plugins
• Updating Plugins
• Listing Plugins
• See Plugin Info
• Deleting Plugins

IV. Creating Plugins

V. Adding an Official Plugin

Features

• Aliases shared, loaded, and stored as JSON files for easy customization and readability
• Configure w/ the tool or manually
• Download remote Alias plugins to load a bunch all at once!
• Update plugins remotely or from local files!

Installation

First, install Go and then run:

go get -u github.com/M4cs/aly
go install github.com/M4cs/aly

Next, add this to your shell's profile:

aly -l
source ~/.alyases

See below for usage information!

Usage

Installing a Plugin

# From Remote URL
aly -a 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/M4cs/aly/master/example_unix_plugin.json'

# From Local File
aly -a '/path/to/plugin.json' -f

# Enable the plugin
aly -e 'Plugin Name'

Enabling/Disabling Plugins

# Enable
aly -e 'Plugin Name'

# Disable
aly -d 'Plugin Name'

Update Plugins

# Update A Single Plugin from their URL
aly -u 'Plugin Name'

# Update A Single Plugin from Local File
aly -u '/path/to/plugin.json' -f

# Update All Plugins
aly -t

See All Installed Plugins

aly -i

See Plugin Info

aly -p 'Plugin Name'

Delete A Plugin Completely

aly -r 'Plugin Name'

Creating a Plugin

All plugins are in the JSON format. You can create a plugin very easily using the below formatting.

{
    "plugin_name": "Your Plugin Name",
    "author": "github/M4cs",
    "description": "A small description about your plugin",
    "version": "1.0.0",
    "aliasmap": [
        {
            "alias": "ec",
            "description": "Example Alias",
            "command": "echo",
            "platform": "*",
            "subalias": {
                "t": "'testing'",
                "hw": "'hello, world!'",
                "a": "$1"
            } 
        }
    ]
}

Top-Level

• plugin_name - The name of your plugin. This is what it will be referred to for updating, enabling, disabling, etc. Keep it short and unique!
• author - Your name. I recommend using your github/USERNAME
• description - A small description about your plugin
• version - Version number for plugin. This should be semantic syntax.
• aliasmap - Your map of aliase groups for the plugin.
• platform - Refers to the platform that the alias will work on. Supports: windows, unix, *, or any GOOS platforms.

aliasmap

An alias group includes a base alias, base command, and subaliases. If there are subaliases, they will be concatenated with the base alias.

• alias - The base alias for your command. This will run whatever is in command.
• command - The base command for your alias. This will run whenever the alias is run.
• description - Description of your alias group.
• subaliases - subalias:args dictionary. This will add the subalias to the alias specified and add the args string to your base command string.

Using the JSON example above:

• ec will run echo
• ect will run echo 'testing'
• echw will run echo 'hello, world!'
• eca will run echo $1 using whatever argument you send to it (or Windows equivalent)

Adding Your Plugin To The Official Repository

You should add a folder with your username into ./official_plugins/. For example, I'd add ./official_plugins/M4cs/. Inside of this folder, you will add your different plugins using .json files. You should include a README.md with some information about what your plugin(s) offer!

1. Make a Pull Request using the Add a Plugin Template Here
2. Fill Out Pull Request Template w/ Your Fork
3. Submit Pull Request and Await Review!