pistachio

A lightweight text-based application launcher

Pistachio is an application launcher for Unix-based systems that employ the X11 window manager. It lets the user run any program in /usr/bin or launch any file with their associated program, as specified by the configuration (see below). When the user types into the window that appears at launch, suggestions that match the typed text appear. These suggestions can be navigated using the Up/Down arrow keys, and be selected to run using the Return key.

Configuration

Upon launching pistachio, it looks for the configuration file ~/.config/pistachio/configuration. If not found, it will create a new config file at that location with the default program options.

Options

font-path <full path to font file>

Sets the font to be used.

The install script install.sh attempts to find the default monospace font using fc-match. If not found, it will set /usr/share/fonts/noto/NotoSansMono-Regular.ttf as the default font.

The font-path option lets the user change the font to one they prefer and have installed.

search-font <size> [color] [style...]

Applies the following settings to the font used for the search bar:

• <size>
  • Size in points. Integers and decimal fractions are allowed, eg. 15 or 13.5.
• [color]
  • Optional. Represented as a 32-bit (8 digit) hexadecimal number in the format ARGB. The top two digits refer to Alpha (transparency), the next two refer to Red, then Green, then Blue.
  • Note that the # symbol is the comment symbol, so placing this in front of a colour will prevent the colour from being used.
• [style]
  • Optional. Supported values are oblique (better known as italics) and bold.

results-font <size> [color] [style...]

Applies these settings to the font used for displaying search results.

error-font <size> [color] [style...]

Applies these settings to the font used for displaying error messages.

back-color <color>

Sets the background colour to an ARGB colour value. Semi-transparent colours are supported. See search-font for more details on the expected format.

caret-color <color>

Sets the colour of the caret (text cursor) to an ARGB colour value.

hl-color <color>

Sets the background colour for the currently highlighted search result to an ARGB colour value.

window-width <size>

Sets the width of the window as either a percentage of the screen or as a length in pixels, eg. 40% or 768px

window-height <size>

Sets the height of the window as either a percentage of the screen or as a length in pixels, eg. 30% or 324px

folder-command <command>

The command used for opening folders. A command can simply be the name of a program or it can be the start of a shell command, eg. xfce4-terminal --default-working-directory=\ where the path to the selected folder is appended to .

default-command <command>

The command used for a file which does not have an extension that is associated with a program or command option. The recommended value is the name of your text editor.

command <extension> <command>

The command used for files that match the given file extension. Note that all file extensions must have the . provided, eg. command .mp4 ffplay -fs.

program <name> <extensions...>

The program used for files that match one of the given file extensions. Note that a command with spaces can't be used here - only a program's name, eg. program sxiv .png .bmp .jpg .gif.

nodaemon <option> [params]

Marks a configuration option such that when that program or command is launched, it won't be as a daemon process, eg. nodaemon program firefox .html .htm.