Path Command Enhancement Project

[kubouch]

Description

The aim of this PR is to add a couple of options enhancing the capabilities of the path subcommands. More specifically, it makes it easier to mass-rename files and their locations without an excessive use of build-string chains. I found both nu and traditional Unix tools (such as dirname or basename) too verbose when I was encoding and moving tens of thousands images in tens of different folders all over the place.

Changes

path basename

• Add --replace <string> option to replace the basename instead of returning it
  • (e.g., echo foo/bar/baz.txt | path basename -r spam.md would return foo/bar/spam.md)
• Examples

path dirname

• Add -n <int> option to specify how many levels up to return
  • (e.g., echo foo/bar/baz.txt | path dirname -n 2 would return foo)
• Add --replace <string> option to replace the dir instead of returning it (respecting the -n option)
  • (e.g., echo foo/bar/baz.txt | path dirname -n 2 -r eggs would return eggs)
• Examples
• Handle num_levels < 0 properly -- current message is good enough

path extension

• Add --replace <string> option to replace the extension instead of returning it
  • (e.g., echo test.txt | path extension -r md would return test.md)
• Examples

path filestem

• Add --replace <string> option to replace the filestem instead of returning it
  • (e.g., echo foo/bar/baz.txt | path basename -r spam would return foo/bar/spam.txt)
• Add an option to spell out the suffix literally to cover cases like .tar.gz
• Add an option to spell out the prefix literally to cover cases like out_<whatever>
• Examples
• Review for possible cleanup

misc

• Add integration tests to cover edge cases
• Go through descriptions and examples and make sure they're consistent
• Replace ...args: optionally operate by path with ...args: optionally operate by column path in subcommands desctiprions
• Fix failing tests on Windows
  • solution: generate different set of examples on Windows
• Fix broken expand on Windows -- the command is a bit problematic but I'll leave that for further discussion/PR
• Return path from subcommands when appropriate (e.g., expand, --replace options)

[fdncred]

These sounds cool! Thanks!

[sophiajt]

Seconded! I like these

[kubouch]

Alright, path handling turned out to be a little rabbit hole. The commands mostly respect the std::path's way of resolving paths which is not very intuitive at times (for example, . is automatically resolved while .. is not). Also, there are some limitations in the path expand command: most notably, the ~ resolves as home only with / separator but not \ which can lead to strange bugs.

I think the path handling would deserve some consistency revamp so it behaves the same way on all platforms but I'll leave it for a further discussion / PR.

[sophiajt]

This is great, thanks for putting it together!

[sophiajt]

and agreed, we'll want to circle back and improve the path handling a bit more. We can do that in a future PR and land this one, as I think these improvements stand on their own.