Support for custom aliases and functions

[orschiro]

Hi there,

I was almost able to replace dmenu with rofi except for one missing functionality.

In dmenu I can source and run custom aliases and functions. Basically, I created a file ~/.zsh_aliases which contains all my custom aliases and functions. I am using it together with a small script that sources these aliases and functions and allows me to call them from dmenu. The advantage here is that I can also source the exactly same file in my shell rc file.

What do you think about including support for custom aliases and functions into rofi and what would be the best approach to do that?

Thanks for your advice!

Robert

[DaveDavenport]

Having support for aliases would be nice..
Executing the aliasses in run mode is a matter of tweaking the command that executes.
For bash this works:

    rofi -rnow -run-command "bash -i -c '{cmd}'"

Question is how (in a portable way) does rofi know about available aliasses.

[orschiro]

Question is how (in a portable way) does rofi know about available aliasses.

What do you mean by portable way? Does rofi provide a config file where the path to the custom aliases file could be defined?

[DaveDavenport]

I do not know how different shells handle aliases?
Also they might not be in a single file, I f.e. set aliases from multiple files, depending on purpose.

Under bash I can get a list of aliases using: 'alias' command, maybe that is the way to go?
I am not sure if every shell uses the same format.

[orschiro]

As far as I know, Bash and Zsh use the same format for aliases. And these two shells are the most frequently used ones. Thus, maybe starting to support these ones first with extending it to more shells, such as Fish, in the future?

[DaveDavenport]

I have added a command 'run-list-command'. This can call a list that can return a list of 'extra' commands to include in the run-dialog.

[orschiro]

@DaveDavenport

Thanks! How can I call it? Tried:

rofi run-list-command

Returns no error, neither any window.

[DaveDavenport]

rofi -run-list-command "path to magic script returning aliases" -rnow

You might also want adjust the -run-command to execute the result using zsh.

[orschiro]

I begin to understand. So, given that my aliases are stored in ~/.zsh_aliases, something like the following should almost do the trick:

 rofi -run-list-command "cat ~/.zsh_aliases" -rnow 

~/.zsh_aliases:

~ ❯ cat .zsh_aliases
#
# .zsh_aliases
#

[ -e "${HOME}/.zshenv" ] && source "${HOME}/.zshenv"

# Package management aliases
alias pkg-install='pacaur -Sy --noedit'
alias pkg-install-ruby='pacgem'
pkg-remove() {
    sudo pacman -Rsn "$@"
}

However, it fails finding the alias file:

~ rofi -run-list-command "cat ~/.zsh_aliases" -rnow
cat: ~/.zsh_aliases: No such file or directory

[DaveDavenport]

No.

I have a script alias.sh that lists all possible commands:

alias | awk -F'[ =]' '{print $2}'

This only lists aliases, but you can add a list of 'functions' too.

Then I execute rofi like this:

rofi -run-list-command ". ~/Scripts/alias.sh" -run-command "/bin/bash -i -c '{cmd}'" -rnow

You need to do the run-command, otherwise rofi will try to execute the command, but in case of an alias this is not possible, the 'shell' should execute it. By using the run command it will call bash, and use bash to execute it.

How the exact line is for zsh I do not know.

[DaveDavenport]

Note to self: With history possible duplicate entries are possible.

[orschiro]

I have a script alias.sh that lists all possible commands:

Strangely this command does not find all my aliases...

Example of such an alias:

~ ❯ cat .zsh_aliases | grep crashplan
alias crashplan-stop='gksudo systemctl stop crashplan'
alias crashplan-restart='gksudo systemctl restart crashplan'
alias crashplan='CrashPlanDesktop'
    gksudo "systemctl stop crashplan.service insync@orschiro.service dropbox@orschiro.service"
    gksudo "systemctl restart crashplan.service insync@orschiro.service dropbox@orschiro.service"

Output of the awk command returns nothing:

~ ❯ alias | awk -F'[ =]' '{print $2}' | grep crashplan
~ ❯ 

The shell, however, is able to find the alias:

[DaveDavenport]

I have no idea about zsh. You do not have to use the awk line I provided. that was just an example.

[orschiro]

Many thanks for your dedicated help! Finally found a zsh-compatible solution.

zsh_aliases_functions.sh:

# fetch all zsh aliases 
alias | awk -F'[ =]' '{print $1}'

# fetch all zsh functions
# http://superuser.com/questions/681575/any-way-to-get-list-of-functions-defined-in-zsh-like-alias-command-for-aliases
print -l ${(ok)functions}

Function to call the menu in Openbox' rc.xml:

    <keybind key="A-F2">
      <action name="execute">
        <execute>rofi -run-list-command ". ~/Bin/zsh_aliases_functions.sh" -run-command "/bin/zsh -i -c '{cmd}'" -rnow</execute>
      </action>
    </keybind>

With this extra feature, rofi is close to perfect. 👍

[DaveDavenport]

happy you got it working!