bpipe
Browser <==> Unix Pipes
v0.0.1
bpipe
is a command line tool which allows you to create readable and writable streams between standard Unix Pipes and the browser to run commands like this:
bpipe -s "#myInput" -e "keyup" | less
echo "hello there" | bpipe -s "#myDiv"
Update
Since this project has been receiving a good amount attention I have cleaned up the codebase and started development of version v0.2.0
at https://github.com/marak/bpipe/tree/v0.2.0
Installation
npm install bpipe -g
Usage
Usage: bpipe [server] [options]
server: the location of the `bpipe-server` to connect to
Defaults to localhost:8001
Options:
-h, --help output usage information
-V, --version output the version number
-s, --selector [string] the CSS selector to attach to
-e, --event [string] the DOM event to attach to
-u, --url [string] the url to connect to
Examples
A hosted bpipe-server
service is available at http://bpipe.io. This allows the use of bpipe
without needing to setup a server.
You can also run a local server using the following command:
bpipe-server
open index.html
STDIN
<input>
to less
Pipe data from a text bpipe -s "#myInput" -e "keyup" | less
Whenever the select box is changed in the browser, the new value will be piped to less
<select>
box to less
Pipe data from a bpipe -s "#mySelect" -e "change" | less
Whenever the select box is changed in the browser, the new value will be piped to less
STDOUT
echo
to a div's innerHTML
Pipe data from echo "hello there" | bpipe -s "#myDiv"
When this command is run the browser will update with "hello there"
Caveats
bpipe
will only work if the custom .js
file is loaded on the page you wish to interact with. You will also need to run a websocket server to facilitate communication between the browser and bpipe
. A server and browser bundle are both included in this project. A free bpipe
service is also available at http://bpipe.io
In the not so distant future perhaps browsers will natively support this type of interaction. Until then, we polyfill.
tail
?
Can I actually use Of course! You can use any standard Unix tool. If you want to use tail
it should work by creating a temporary file or named piped.
less
also works pretty well.
bpipe -s "#mySelect" -e "change" > /tmp/select.log
tail -f /tmp/select.log
Open Ownership / Open Contribution
If anyone is interested in contributing to the project I would be glad to add additional contributors / owners.
Status
The current build is functional, but should be considered experimental. With a little more polish, bpipe
could be a useful tool. If anyone wants to help further develop this tool feel free to reach out or start opening up pull requests.
TODO
- Better querySelectorAll support
- binding complex query statements
- using selectors that contain more than one match
- Add ability to open new pages with one line
echo "*Hello" | marked | bpipe index.html
- Unit tests
- The library needs unit tests.
- Better configuration options for
bpipe
andbpipe-server
- Allow
bpipe
andbpipe-server
to specify host and port - Create
.bpipe
configuration file
- Implement WebRTC communication to bypass having to pass data through server
Dependencies / Acknowledgements
- websocket-stream by @maxodgen
- domnode-dom by @chrisdickinson
- ws by @einaros
- Dominic Tarr
License
MIT
a