Set, alter or unset envionment variable in execute

[Kabouik]

• I have read through the manual page (man fzf)
• I have the latest version of fzf
• I have searched through the existing issues

Info

• OS
  • Linux
  • Mac OS X
  • Windows
  • Etc.
• Shell
  • bash
  • zsh
  • fish

Problem / Steps to reproduce

This may not be an issue but I haven't been able to find any hit in my searches in the existing issues or in the manual.

My fzf selection goes into a variable named $selection, which I later re-use in another command. However, I would be interested in having a choice between that command and an alteration of it with an extra argument, and ideally I would like that to be bound to a secondary fzf keybinding instead of forcing the user to add an extra argument beforehand when executing the script. Is it possible to use something like the following?

• --bind="ctrl-s:execute(extraarg='toto')+accept"
• --bind="ctrl-s:execute(extraarg='')+accept"
• --bind="ctrl-s:execute(unset extraarg)+accept"

And then run mycommand $extraarg $selection?

I have tried creating the variable in the execute function, altering a pre-existing variable, using in execute a Bash function defined in the script that sets the variable, or unset extraarg, but so far all my attempts have failed.

My use case here would be a script for password-store, with Return to copy the password to clipboard, and ctrl-s to show it (i.e., pass show --clip $selection vs. pass show $selection). It could also be useful for environment variables that may only be useful for some uses, like LD_LIBRARY_PATH or GDK_SCALE.

[junegunn]

execute starts the command as a child process. Any environment variable set in a child process is lost once it terminates. You'll have to store the state externally. e.g. --bind="ctrl-s:execute-silent(echo toto > /tmp/extraarg)+accept"

[Kabouik]

Thanks @junegunn, that works. For reference, below is the passfzf script I came up with:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
# This script unlocks the pass tomb, if any, and then relies on fzf to either
# copy the password to the clipboard or show the content of the .gpg file.
# Author: Kabouik
# Dependencies: fzf, fd, pass

store="$HOME/.password-store/"
swapfile="/swap/swapfile" # Set path to any swapfile not listed in /etc/fstab

# Open pass tomb, if any
if [[ -e "$HOME/.password.tomb" ]]; then
    sudo swapoff -a && sudo swapoff "${swapfile}" 2> /dev/null
    pass open 2> /dev/null
fi

# Select pass entry
main() {
    while :; do
        clear
        selection=$(fd .gpg ~/.password-store/ -d 8 \
                      | fzf --query "${tmp}" \
                            --prompt="# " \
                            --ansi \
                            --extended \
                            --no-border \
                            --with-nth 5.. \
                            --delimiter "/" \
                            --layout=reverse-list \
                            --no-multi \
                            --cycle \
                            --header='
Ret: copy, C-s: show, C-e: edit, C-a: add, C-d: delete,
C-r: create and copy new random password,
M-g: git push, C-g: git pull,
C-c/Esc: clear query or exit' \
                            --margin='1,2,1,2' \
                            --color='16,gutter:-1' \
                            --bind="tab:down" \
                            --bind="btab:up" \
                            --bind="ctrl-s:execute(echo 'show' > /tmp/passfzfarg)+accept" \
                            --bind="ctrl-e:execute(echo 'edit' > /tmp/passfzfarg)+accept" \
                            --bind="ctrl-a:execute(echo 'add' > /tmp/passfzfarg)+print-query" \
                            --bind="ctrl-d:execute(echo 'rm' > /tmp/passfzfarg)+accept" \
                            --bind="ctrl-r:execute(echo 'generate --clip' > /tmp/passfzfarg)+print-query" \
                            --bind="alt-g:abort+execute(echo 'git push -u --all' > /tmp/passfzfarg)" \
                            --bind="ctrl-g:abort+execute(echo 'git pull' > /tmp/passfzfarg)" \
                            --bind="ctrl-c:execute(echo 'quit' > /tmp/passfzfarg)+cancel" \
                            --bind="esc:execute(echo 'quit' > /tmp/passfzfarg)+cancel")

        if [[ -f "/tmp/passfzfarg" ]]; then
            arg=$(cat /tmp/passfzfarg)
            rm /tmp/passfzfarg
        else
            arg="show --clip"
        fi

        if ! [[ -v "$selection" ]]; then
            clear
            case "$arg" in
                add)
                    printf "\033[0;32mNew password Directory/Name:\033[0m ${selection}"
                    if [[ -n "$selection" ]]; then
                        printf "\033[0;32m\nPress Return to confirm or type new Directory/Name:\033[0m "
                    fi
                    read -r
                    tmp="${REPLY:=$selection}"
                    pass ${arg} "${tmp}"
                    continue
                    ;;
                "generate --clip")
                    printf "\033[0;32mNew password Directory/Name:\033[0m ${selection}"
                    if [[ -n "$selection" ]]; then
                        printf "\033[0;32m\nPress Return to confirm or type new Directory/Name:\033[0m "
                    fi
                    read -r
                    tmp="${REPLY:=$selection}"
                    printf "\033[0;32mNumber of characters:\033[0m "
                    read -r
                    pass ${arg} --in-place "${tmp}" "${REPLY}" \
                        2> /dev/null || pass ${arg} "${tmp}" "${REPLY}"
                    printf "\nPress any key to continue. "
                    read -rsn1
                    continue
                    ;;
                quit)
                    pkill -P $$
                    return
                    ;;
                *)
                    if [[ -n "$selection" ]]; then
                        tmp=${selection::-4} && tmp=${tmp#"$store"}
                        pass ${arg} "${tmp}"
                    else
                        pass ${arg}
                    fi
                    printf "\nPress any key to continue. "
                    read -rsn1
                    continue
                    ;;
            esac
        fi
    done
}

main

# Close pass tomb, if any
if [[ -e "$HOME/.password.tomb" ]]; then
    printf "\n"
    pass close
    sudo swapon -a && sudo swapon "${swapfile}" 2> /dev/null
fi

printf "\nPress any key to quit. " && read -rsn1

There are already some pass extensions that do similar things, but they are not available for all distributions and I prefer using a simple shell script I can customize instead of depending on an extension. It seems to work well so far.