sloth-bash

Use bash like a sloth. Veeeery lazy.

One-liner install

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/psygreg/sloth-bash/main/install.sh | bash

Features

• Intuitive response: just the file name will run it if executable; run a *.py file with the local venv/.venv interpreter when present (without activating it into your shell); or trigger xdg-open for other cases.
• Flatpak redirection: simplifies running flatpak applications from terminal by making flatpak run obsolete through smart command handling. No more io.github.kolunmi.Bazaar, just bazaar will do the trick!
• Easily open apps from terminal automatically detaching them with detach appname. Perfect for usage with something like Quake Terminal for Gnome or yakuake. Also works with flatpak redirection, local executables, and distrobox passthrough.
• cp and mv helpers: large same-device file copies can show rsync progress; directories without -r are refused (like GNU cp); same-filesystem mv stays a real mv.
• Simple file management in your shell: automatic ls after cd so you never get lost in your files, and enabled autocd shell option so you can navigate your subdirectories more intuitively.
• Most used zsh shortcuts: md, rd (rmdir), mkcd, take, ~ and .. work like zsh, while you can use cd ..., cd .... and cd ..... for the other upwards navigation commands.
• all: selects all non-hidden files and subdirectories at its location as targets for rd, rm, cp and mv. rm all is interactive; rd all only removes empty directories.
• Better autocompletion with Tab key cycling through all options (Shift+Tab goes backwards when supported).
• FZF shell bindings: if fzf is installed, sloth-bash enables the standard Bash integration, including fuzzy history search on Ctrl+R.
• Basic command colors: enables colored output for ls, dir, vdir and grep, plus familiar aliases like ll, la and l.
• Case-insensitive command parsing: ls, Ls, lS or LS, your command will always work (exact name match, not regex).
• Distrobox passthrough: enter your distrobox shell with distroboxname and pass commands to your distroboxes running distroboxname command (and any additional arguments if needed after). As distroboxes follow the user's ~/.bashrc file, sloth-bash also works from within them!

Optional integrations

• Starship is installed by the installer when missing (recommended).
• fzf is installed by the installer when missing.
• Zellij auto-start is opt-in: set SLOTH_BASH_ZELLIJ=1 in your environment before sourcing sloth-bash.

Recommended usage

• Install Starship for the complete experience.
• Install fzf if you want the full fuzzy shell bindings.
• Copy sloth-bash to ~/.sloth-bash
• Copy alias-list to ~/.alias-list (customize Flatpak aliases here; updates do not overwrite it)
• Copy starship.toml to ~/.config/starship.toml only if you do not already have one
• Add source ~/.sloth-bash to the end of your ~/.bashrc file

Tests

bash tests/run.sh