wax - webify your CLI
wax [OPTIONS] program [OPTIONS] ...
e.g.:
$ wax vim -R https://registry.npmjs.org/left-pad/-/left-pad-1.2.0.tgz
runs:
$ vim -R /tmp/wax_abcd1234.tgz
wax is a command-line program which runs other command-line programs and converts their URL arguments to local file paths. By default, the files are removed after the command has exited.
wax
As well as adding transparent support for remote resources to commands that don't support them natively, wax can be used to:
add support for HTTPS (and any other protocols supported by LWP) to programs that only support HTTP
add a mirroring layer to network requests (remote resources are only fetched if they've been updated)
add a caching layer to network requests (remote resources are only fetched once)
The following wax options can be supplied before the command name. Subsequent options are passed to the command verbatim, apart from URLs, which are converted to paths to the corresponding files. URL arguments can be excluded from the conversion process by supplying a separator token (default --). Arguments after this are no longer processed by wax and are passed through verbatim e.g.:
--
$ wax --cache cmd http://example.com/foo -- --referrer http://example.com
Note that the --cache and --mirror options are mutually exclusive i.e. only one (or neither) should be supplied. Supplying both will cause wax to terminate with an error.
--cache
--mirror
Note that option bundling is not currently supported e.g. reach --cache --verbose ... can't be condensed to reach -cv ..., and would need to be written as reach -c -v ....
reach --cache --verbose ...
reach -cv ...
reach -c -v ...
Don't remove the downloaded file(s) after the command exits. Subsequent invocations will resolve the URL(s) to the cached files(s) (if still available) rather than hitting the network.
If a local file no longer exists, the resource is re-downloaded.
Note: by default, files are saved to the system's temp directory, which is typically cleared when the system restarts. To save files to another directory, use the -D or --directory option.
-D
--directory
Specify the directory to download files to. Default: the system's temp directory.
If the directory doesn't exist, it is created if its parent directory exists. Otherwise, an error is raised.
Download files to $XDG_CACHE_HOME/wax or $HOME/.cache/wax rather than the system's temp directory. Can be overriden by -d.
$XDG_CACHE_HOME/wax
$HOME/.cache/wax
-d
Display this documentation.
Like the --cache option, this keeps the downloaded file(s) after the command exits. In addition, a HEAD request is issued for each resource to see if it has been updated. If so, the latest version is downloaded; otherwise, the cached version is used (if still available).
Override the default separator-token (--) used to mark the end of waxable options e.g.:
$ wax --cache --separator :: cmd http://example.com/foo :: --referrer http://example.com
Note: the separator token is removed from the list of options passed to the command.
Disable separator-token handling i.e. leave the default separator (--) to be handled by the command.
Set the timeout for network requests in seconds. Default: 60.
Set the user-agent string for network requests.
Print diagnostic information to STDERR.
Print the version of wax.
$ alias espeak="wax espeak" $ espeak -f http://www.setec.org/mel.txt
$ wax grep -B1 demons http://www.mplayerhq.hu/DOCS/man/en/mplayer.1.txt
Browse files in Node module tarballs
#!/bin/sh # usage: jsview <module> e.g. jsview left-pad wax --cache view $(npm info --json "$@" | jq -r .dist.tarball)
Node.js man-page viewer
#!/bin/sh node_version=${NODE_VERSION:-`node --version`} docroot="https://cdn.rawgit.com/nodejs/node/$node_version/doc/api" wax --cache -D pandoc --standalone --from markdown --to man "$docroot/$1.md" | man -l -
As with any command-line programs that take URL parameters, care should be taken to ensure that special shell characters are suitably quoted. As a general rule, URLs that contain &, ~, <, >, $ &c. should be quoted in shells on Unix-like systems and quoted with embedded escapes in Windows cmd/command.exe-like shells.
&
~
<
>
$
cmd
command.exe
It's worth checking that a program actually needs waxing. Many command-line programs already support URLs e.g:
$ eog http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Eye_of_GNOME.png $ gedit http://projects.gnome.org/gedit/ $ gimp http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/Gimpscreen.png $ perldoc -F "http://www.pair.com/~comdog/brian's_guide.pod" $ vim http://www.vim.org/
&c.
2.1.0
rlwrap
sshfs
zsh completion script
chocolateboy <chocolate@cpan.org>
Copyright (C) 2010-2018 by chocolateboy
This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself, either Perl version 5.10.1 or, at your option, any later version of Perl 5 you may have available.
To install App::Wax, copy and paste the appropriate command in to your terminal.
cpanm
cpanm App::Wax
CPAN shell
perl -MCPAN -e shell install App::Wax
For more information on module installation, please visit the detailed CPAN module installation guide.