Add run-shell-command for Commands

[hayashikun]

I added a command to run a shell command as discussed in #1541.
Just running, no piping, no inserting/appending

Output is displayed in the info area.

_d_helix.2022-02-20.14-34-08_Trim.mp4

[flukejones]

I was hoping something like this would come around.

Is it possible to scroll the output with keys?

[hayashikun]

Now the Info component shows the result, and there is no way to scroll because Info doesn't have handle_event.
Implementing handle_event into Info is not a good way.

Popup can scroll (ctrl-u, ctrl-d), so you can scroll by using Popup instead of the Info.
But Popup is rendered at the cursor, like hover (space k).

Or add a new component that can scroll.

[archseer]

Popup is the correct component to use, it has a set_position function that can be used to place it somewhere else than the cursor.

[hayashikun]

agree
I changed it to use Popup.

Because scroll doesn't work in ui::Text, ui::Markdown and format!("```sh\n{}\n```", output) is used.
It's somewhat adhoc, but it definitely works.

[IsotoxalDev]

It would also be nice if you can have an option where no output is there. To run the command in the background

[hayashikun]

To suppress the output, you can redirect to /dev/null.
Is this not enough?

Also, I noticed that running shell (:sh, pipe, pipe-to, ...) will stop the editor even if & is used.
When you press Alt-| and run sleep 10 &, the editor will be freeze for 10 seconds.

To run time-consuming tasks in the background, it would be better to fix the freezing problem.

[IsotoxalDev]

Why not run the shell commands in a seperate thread?
Ys the redirecting to /dev/null is enough

[hayashikun]

Asynchronous shell execution is not so tough with tokio::process::Command, but shell_impl is used in |, |Alt-|, !, Alt-!, $, and it should be executed synchronously except in Alt-|.
It would be better to create a separate issue/PR for asynchronous execution and discuss it there.

[pickfire]

So we don't show anything if there is no output? How does user know if it finished running?

[hayashikun]

Now the shell command is executed synchronously, the user will know it's finished when it releases from the freeze.
I think it's one way to display a message like "Command successes" in the status area if success.

[pickfire]

Suggested change

	text: body,
	text,

Using text here is clearer I think? But probably need to change the above.

[hayashikun]

I see.
But the information is now displayed in Popup, should I revert info.rs change?

[AaronDovTurkel]

Hey is this going into the main branch any time soon?

[hayashikun]

Sorry for the late response.
I merged master, reverted info.rs, and "Command successes" is displayed if success.

[IsotoxalDev]

cool

[IsotoxalDev]

Can't it be merged now?

[nixpulvis]

:sh yes seems to freeze the terminal. I was kinda hoping this would work. I'm also really not a fan of the popup output for the results.

I'm just trying Helix for the first time right now so there's a lot I don't know and terminology I'm probably wrong about, but... here are my general desires around this.

I would like a new pane/split within the current window to open, connected to the streaming IO for the process (or at least the output).

Basically, I want this to feel more like Vim's ! operator. In fact, ! compatibility (whatever that means exactly) would be pretty amazing. For example, I frequently find myself doing this: :w !sudo tee % which is a nice trick to save a file as root.

Here are a couple other use cases for asynchronous shell commands in the editor that come to mind, though the list could be nearly endless.

• Running a web server quickly: ./server.sh (this is particularly nice when the server hot reloads the code)
• tail -f ... staring at logs
• Just running the build itself make, cargo build, etc. I can't tell you how many times I've run !make in vim, but it's a lot

I think there's a lot of potential here. I especially love the dropdown/ups for auto-completion being prevalent, but I get the sense that a lot of these features need some UX work and polish.

I hope this is helpful.

[flukejones]

@nixpulvis I know it's not really what you might be looking for here, but maybe you could try using https://zellij.dev/ ? I find it very very good and easy to use.