# up - the Ultimate Plumber **up** is the **Ultimate Plumber**, a tool for writing Linux pipes in a terminal-based UI interactively, with instant live preview of command results. The main **goal** of the Ultimate Plumber is to help **interactively and incrementally explore textual data** in Linux, by making it easier to quickly build complex pipelines, thanks to a **fast feedback loop**. This is achieved by boosting any typical **Linux text-processing utils** such as `grep`, `sort`, `cut`, `paste`, `awk`, `wc`, `perl`, etc., etc., by providing a quick, **interactive, scrollable preview** of their results. [](https://asciinema.org/a/208538) ## Usage **[Download *up* for Linux](https://github.com/akavel/up/releases/latest/download/up)**   |   [ArchLinux](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arch_User_Repository): [`aur/up`](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/up/)   |   FreeBSD: [`pkg install up`](https://www.freshports.org/textproc/up)   |   macOS: [`brew install up`](https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/up)   |   [Other OSes](https://github.com/akavel/up/releases) To start using **up**, redirect any text-emitting command (or pipeline) into it — for example: $ lshw |& ./up then: - use ***PgUp/PgDn*** and ***Ctrl-[←]/Ctrl-[→]*** for basic browsing through the command output; - in the input box at the top of the screen, start **writing any bash pipeline**; then **press Enter to execute the command you typed**, and the Ultimate Plumber will immediately show you the output of the pipeline in the **scrollable window** below (replacing any earlier contents) - For example, you can try writing: `grep network -A2 | grep : | cut -d: -f2- | paste - -` — on my computer, after pressing *Enter*, the screen then shows the pipeline and a scrollable preview of its output like below: | grep network -A2 | grep : | cut -d: -f2- | paste - - Wireless interface Centrino Advanced-N 6235 Ethernet interface RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller - **WARNING: Please be careful when using it! It could be dangerous.** In particular, writing "rm" or "dd" into it could be like running around with a chainsaw. But you'd be careful writing "rm" anywhere in Linux anyway, no? - when you are satisfied with the result, you can **press *Ctrl-X* to exit** the Ultimate Plumber, and the command you built will be **written into `up1.sh` file** in the current working directory (or, if it already existed, `up2.sh`, etc., until 1000, based on [Shlemiel the Painter's algorithm](https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2001/12/11/back-to-basics/)). Alternatively, you can press ***Ctrl-C*** to quit without saving. - If the command you piped into *up* is long-running (in such case you will see a tilde `~` indicator character in the top-left corner of the screen, meaning that *up* is still waiting for more input), you may need to press ***Ctrl-S*** to temporarily freeze *up*'s input buffer (a freeze will be indicated by a `#` character in top-left corner), which will inject a fake EOF into the pipeline; otherwise, some commands in the pipeline may not print anything, waiting for full input (especially commands like `wc` or `sort`, but `grep`, `perl`, etc. may also show incomplete results). To unfreeze back, press ***Ctrl-Q***. ## Additional Notes - The pipeline is passed verbatim to a `bash -c` command, so any bash-isms should work. - The input buffer of the Ultimate Plumber is currently fixed at **40 MB**. If you reach this limit, a `+` character should get displayed in the top-left corner of the screen. (This is intended to be changed to a dynamically/manually growable buffer in a future version of *up*.) - **MacOSX support:** I don't have a Mac, thus I have no idea if it works on one. You are welcome to try, and also to send PRs. If you're interested in me providing some kind of official-like support for MacOSX, please consider trying to find a way to send me some usable-enough Mac computer. Please note I'm not trying to "take advantage" of you by this, as I'm actually not at all interested in achieving a Mac otherwise. (Also, trying to commit to this kind of support will be an extra burden and obligation on me. Knowing someone out there cares enough to do a fancy physical gesture would really help alleviate this.) If you're serious enough to consider this option, please contact me by email (mailto:czapkofan@gmail.com) or keybase (https://keybase.io/akavel), so that we could try to research possible ways to achieve this. Thanks for understanding! - **Prior art:** I was surprised no one seemed to write a similar tool before, that I could find. It should have been possible to write this since the dawn of Unix already, or earlier! And indeed, after I announced *up*, I got enough publicity that my attention was directed to one such earlier project already: **[Pipecut](http://pipecut.org/index.html)**. Looks interesting! You may like to check it too! (Thanks [@TronDD](https://lobste.rs/s/acpz00/up_tool_for_writing_linux_pipes_with#c_qxrgoa).) - **Other influences:** I don't remember the fact too well already, but I'm rather sure that this must have been inspired in big part by The Bret Victor's Talk(s). ## Future Ideas - I have quite a lot of ideas for further experimentation of development of *up*, including but not limited to: - [RIIR](https://rust-lang.org) (once I learn enough of Rust... at some point in future... maybe...) — esp. to hopefully make *up* be a smaller binary (and also to maybe finally learn some Rust); though I'm somewhat afraid if it might ossify the codebase and make harder to develop further..? ...but maybe actually converse?... - Maybe it could be made into an UI-less, RPC/REST/socket/text-driven service, like gocode or [Language Servers](https://langserver.org/), for integration with editors/IDEs (emacs? vim? VSCode?...) I'd be especially interested in eventually merging it into [Luna Studio](https://luna-lang.org/); RIIR may help in this. (Before this, as a simpler approach, multi-line editing may be needed, or at least left&right scrolling of the command editor input box. Also, some kind of jumping between words in the command line; readline's *Alt-b* & *Alt-f*?) - Make it possible to [capture output of already running processes](https://stackoverflow.com/a/19584979/98528)! (But maybe that could be better made as a separate, composable tool! In Rust?) - Adding tests... (ahem; see also [#1](https://github.com/akavel/up/issues/1)) ...also write `--help`... - Making it work on Windows, somehow[?](https://github.com/mattn/go-shellwords) Also, obviously, would be nice to have some CI infrastructure enabling porting it to MacOSX, BSDs, etc., etc... - Integration with [fzf](https://github.com/junegunn/fzf) and other TUI tools? I only have some vague thoughts and ideas about it as of now, not even sure how this could look like. - Adding more previews, for each `|` in the pipeline; also forking of pipelines, merging, feedback loops, and other mixing and matching (though I'd strongly prefer if [Luna](https://luna-lang.org) was to do it eventually). - If you are interested in financing my R&D work, contact me by email at: czapkofan@gmail.com, or [on keybase.io as akavel](https://keybase.io/akavel). I suppose I will probably be developing the Ultimate Plumber further anyway, but at this time it's purely a hobby project, with all the fun and risks this entails. — *Mateusz Czapliński* *October 2018* *PS. The UP logo was conceived and generously sponsored by [Thoai Nguyen](https://github.com/thoaionline) and [GPU Exchange](https://gpu.exchange/), with a helping hand from [Many Pixels](https://www.manypixels.co/).*