CLI Machines Files Undo

ed machines files undo

Undoes the last move or rename made in an open Files pane for that machine.

ed machines files undo <machine> [--json]

Name	Type / values	Default	What it does
machine	machine name, SSH alias, id or unambiguous prefix	required	Whose Files pane to ask.
--json	flag	off	Emit JSON on stdout.

{
  "machine": "Asus TUF 7",
  "undone": true,
  "what": "Undo Rename"
}

ed machines files undo tuf
ed machines files undo tuf --json

This is the only verb in the group that does not touch SSH. The machine name is resolved against Edith's own machine list, and everything after that happens over the app's notification bus: ed posts a request carrying the machine's id, then waits up to 20 seconds for the answer, printing waiting for Edith to answer... on stderr once a second has passed.

What is undoable. Exactly two operations, and only when a Files pane performed them and they succeeded: a rename committed in the pane, and a move within the machine, which is a drag onto a folder or a cut and paste. The step is labelled Rename or Move accordingly.

What is not. Copies, duplicates, new folders, trashes, deletes, uploads, downloads and transfers between machines are never recorded. Neither is anything ed itself did: ed machines files mv and ed machines files rename do not join the history, so reverse those with another mv or rename, which is the same command the pane would have run.

How far back. Each pane keeps its last 20 steps and drops the oldest beyond that. One invocation pops one step, the most recent, so walk backwards by running the command again.

For how long. As long as the pane is there. The stack lives in memory and is never written to disk, so closing the pane, pointing it at another screen, closing the workspace tab or quitting Edith all discard it. Nothing expires on a timer, and nothing survives a relaunch.

Which window. Only a Files pane inside Edith's main window registers itself as undoable. A standalone Finder window, the kind the Files button on a machine opens, keeps a private stack that its own Command-Z drives and that ed cannot reach. When several panes are open for one machine, ed gets whichever of them has something on its stack, not necessarily the frontmost.

The reversal replays the step's moves backwards using the same guarded rename ed machines files rename uses, so an undo whose original name has been taken in the meantime stops rather than overwriting, and it stops at the first move that fails.

Three things make this exit 4. Edith's main window not being open at all, which is checked as soon as the name has resolved, so a name that matches nothing still exits 3 ahead of it:

$ ed machines files undo tuf
error: the undo history lives in an open Finder window, and Edith is not running
hint: open Edith and its Files window for Asus TUF 7, then retry

A running app with nothing to give back:

$ ed machines files undo tuf
error: no Finder window for Asus TUF 7 has anything to undo
hint: open one with the Files tab, or reverse it with `ed machines files mv`

And an app that never answers within the 20 seconds, which is reported as Edith did not answer for undoing a file change in time, or as Edith is not running, so it cannot answer for undoing a file change when the menu bar helper has gone away in the meantime.

On success the human line is undid <label> on <machine>. The label is the pane's own menu title, which already starts with the word Undo, so the line reads a little oddly and the JSON does too:

$ ed machines files undo tuf
undid Undo Rename on Asus TUF 7

The only values what takes are Undo Rename, Undo Move and, if the pane has no title to give, the last change.

Where to go next

• ed machines files, the rest of this group
• All ed commands