shy - minimal shell "plugins"

Shy is a small tool for managing shell (bash/zsh) confiuration that is split into several files. A "plugin" is merely a file with plain old shell aliases, functions, variables, or anything else - they work the same whether or not Shy is installed.

Using Shy allows you to do the following:

• Organize your shell config into groups of related functionality (plugins) in a lightweight way
• Quickly find where things (functions, aliases, variables) are defined
• Open your editor with the appropriate file, to make a quick change
• And (not much) more!

Installation
Usage
Why Use This?
Command Reference
Advanced Configuration
Credits

## Installation

1. Download the shy script and place it somewhere on your PATH (make sure it is executable)
2. Add eval "$(shy init)" in .bashrc (or .zshrc if using zsh), somewhere after configuring your PATH
3. Add some plugins! See usage for more info.

## Usage

Once you're installed then you can used shy load to load plugin files. You will usually do this in your .bashrc/.zshrc file. Make sure Shy is initialized before loading plugins.

shy load ~/path/to/plugin.sh

Or maybe something like

for plugin in ~/.shell_plugins/* do
  shy load $plugin
done

Shy will source the files as normal, but also record all of the aliases, functions, and variables first defined in the file.

Now you can view a list of your plugins. The name of a plugin is the base file name with any extension removed.

You can examine the details of a plugin.

Use which if you want to know where something is defined.

 $ shy which glb
 glb is a function in the plugin git
 $ shy which gd
 gs is an alias in the plugin git

You can open a plugin (or anything else) in your EDITOR.

 $ shy edit git
 # (opens the git plugin source file in your editor)

 $ shy edit gs
 # (opens the git plugin source file, where the alias gs is defined)

## Why Use This?

You should try Shy if you like to maintain your own shell config, want to split things into separate files, want to be able to keep track of it all and make tweaks with ease, and don't want something heavy to do it.

If you want lots of crazy/awesome power-user features you might like something like composure instead. If you use zsh and just want to dump a ton of functionality that someone else wrote into your shell and be done with it then you could use oh-my-zsh.

I prefer to keep a set of often-used tools that I've put together myself (with little bits I've stolen) and manage them with simple tools.

## Command Reference

shy load <plugin_path>

Load a plugin file. This simply sources the file and Shy records the aliases, functions, and variables first defined in the file.

This should normally be used in your shell configuration files (like .bashrc or .zshrc) and not interactively.

---

shy list

List the plugins that that have previously been loaded with load. Names of plugins are the plugin file names with any extension removed.

For example:

~/.shell_plugins/git.sh is a plugin named git

~/.shell_plugins/rails is a plugin named rails

---

shy show <plugin_name>

Show the details for the plugin. This prints the path of the plugin file, and lists the aliases, functions, and variables defined in the plugin.

---

shy edit <plugin_or_other_item_name>

Open a plugin file in your editor. When given a plugin name, the plugin file is opened. When given the name of an alias, function, or variable the plugin file where that item is defined is opened in the editor.

To find an editor to use, Shy first checks the variable SHY_EDITOR, then EDITOR, then falls back on ``vim```.

---

shy which <item_name>

Print what plugin an alias, function, or variable is defined in.

---

shy help [<command_name>]

Prints help for a specific command, or general help with no command name given.

## Advanced Configuration

If you want everything to work even if Shy is not installed (like if you sync your dotfiles but don't sync Shy along with it) then you can add a fallback function that simply sources your plugin files. This way your shell works the same even if shy isn't on your PATH.

if which shy &> /dev/null; then
  eval "$(shy init)"
else
  shy() { [ "$1" = 'load' ] && source "$2"; }
fi

Environment Variables

SHY_EDITOR - sets the editor to use with Shy

SHY_DEBUG - prints debug info to standard out when loading plugins

SHY_CACHE_DIR - Shy caches plugins in ~/.shy_plugin_cachefor faster startup; this overrides the default location

SHY_NO_COLOR - Set this to anything not empty to prevent Shy from coloring any output

## Credits

Shy uses Bats for automated testing. You should check it out if you're doing anything non-trivial with Bash.

License

Shy is MIT licensed