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evanhahn-com-6hstph.txt (20931B)

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 Scripts I wrote that I use all the time
 
 
 by [1]Evan Hahn
 , posted Oct 22, 2025
 
 In my [2]decade-plus of maintaining my dotfiles, I’ve written a lot of little
 shell scripts. Here’s a big list of my personal favorites.
 
 Clipboard
 
 [3]copy and [4]pasta are simple wrappers around system clipboard managers, like
 pbcopy on macOS and xclip on Linux. I use these all the time.
 
 # High level examples
 run_some_command | copy
 pasta > file_from_my_clipboard.txt
 
 # Copy a file's contents
 copy < file.txt
 
 # Open a file path from your clipboard
 vim "$(pasta)"
 
 # Decode some base64 from the clipboard
 pasta | base64 --decode
 
 [5]pastas prints the current state of your clipboard to stdout, and then
 whenever the clipboard changes, it prints the new version. I use this once a
 week or so.
 
 # High level example
 pastas > everything_i_copied.txt
 
 # Download every link I copy to my clipboard
 pastas | wget -i -
 
 [6]cpwd copies the current directory to the clipboard. Basically pwd | copy. I
 often use this when I’m in a directory and I want use that directory in another
 terminal tab; I copy it in one tab and cd to it in another. I use this once a
 day or so.
 
 File management
 
 [7]mkcd foo makes a directory and cds inside. It’s basically mkdir foo && cd
 foo. I use this all the time—almost every time I make a directory, I want to go
 in there.
 
 [8]tempe changes to a temporary directory. It’s basically cd "$(mktemp -d)". I
 use this all the time to hop into a sandbox directory. It saves me from having
 to manually clean up my work. A couple of common examples:
 
 # Download a file and extract it
 tempe
 wget 'https://example.com/big_file.tar.xz'
 tar -xf big_file.tar.xz
 # ...do something with the file...
 
 # Write a quick throwaway script to try something out
 tempe
 vim foo.py
 python3 foo.py
 
 [9]trash a.txt b.png moves a.txt and b.png to the trash. Supports macOS and
 Linux. I use this every day. I definitely run it more than rm, and it saves me
 from accidentally deleting files.
 
 [10]mksh makes it quick to create shell scripts. mksh foo.sh creates foo.sh,
 makes it executable with chmod u+x, adds some nice Bash prefixes, and opens it
 with my editor (Vim in my case). I use this every few days. Many of the scripts
 in this post were made with this helper!
 
 Internet
 
 [11]serveit starts a static file server on localhost:8000 in the current
 directory. It’s basically python3 -m http.server 8000 but handles cases where
 Python isn’t installed, falling back to other programs. I use this a few times
 a week. Probably less useful if you’re not a web developer.
 
 [12]getsong uses yt-dlp to download songs, often from YouTube or SoundCloud, in
 the highest available quality. For example, getsong https://www.youtube.com/
 watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ downloads that video as a song. I use this a few times a
 week&mldr;typically to grab video game soundtracks&mldr;
 
 [13]getpod similarly uses yt-dlp to download something for a podcast player.
 There are a lot of videos that I’d rather listen to like a podcast. I use this
 a few times a month.
 
 [14]getsubs downloads the English subtitles for a video. (There’s some
 fanciness to look for “official” subtitles, falling back to auto-generated
 subtitles.) Sometimes I read the subtitles manually, sometimes I run getsubs
 https://video.example/foo | ollama run llama3.2 "Summarize this", sometimes I
 just want it as a backup of a video I don’t want to save on my computer. I use
 this every few days.
 
 [15]wifi off, wifi on, and wifi toggle are useful for controlling my system’s
 wifi. wifi toggle is the one I use most often, when I’m having network trouble.
 I use this about once a month.
 
 [16]url "$my_url" parses a URL into its parts. I use this about once a month to
 pull data out of a URL, often because I don’t want to click a nasty tracking
 link.
 
 url 'https://evil.example/track-user-link?url=https%3A%2F%2Furl-i-want-to-visit.example&track=06f8582a-91e6-4c9c-bf8e-516884584aba#cookie=123'
 # original: https://evil.example/track-user-link?url=https%3A%2F%2Furl-i-want-to-visit.example&track=06f8582a-91e6-4c9c-bf8e-516884584aba#cookie=123
 # protocol: https
 # hostname: evil.example
 # path: /track-user-link
 # query: url=https%3A%2F%2Furl-i-want-to-visit.example&track=06f8582a-91e6-4c9c-bf8e-516884584aba
 # - url https://url-i-want-to-visit.example
 # - track 06f8582a-91e6-4c9c-bf8e-516884584aba
 # hash: cookie=123
 
 Text processing
 
 [17]line 10 prints line 10 from stdin. For example, cat some_big_file | line 10
 prints line 10 of a file. This feels like one of those things that should be
 built in, like head and tail. I use this about once a month.
 
 [18]scratch opens a temporary Vim buffer. It’s basically an alias for $EDITOR $
 (mktemp). I use this about once a day for quick text manipulation tasks, or to
 take a little throwaway note.
 
 [19]straightquote converts “smart quotes” to “straight quotes” (sometimes
 called “dumb quotes”). I don’t care much about these in general, but they
 sometimes weasel their way into code I’m working on. It can also make the file
 size smaller, which is occasionally useful. I use this at least once a week.
 
 [20]markdownquote adds > before every line. I use it in Vim a lot; I select a
 region and then run :'<,'>!markdownquote to quote the selection. I use this
 about once a week.
 
 [21]length foo returns 3. (I should probably just use wc -c.)
 
 [22]jsonformat takes JSON at stdin and pretty-prints it to stdout. I use this a
 few times a year.
 
 [23]uppered and [24]lowered convert strings to upper and lowercase. For
 example, echo foo | uppered returns FOO. I use these about once a week.
 
 [25]nato bar returns Bravo Alfa Romeo. I use this most often when talking to
 customer service and need to read out a long alphanumeric string, which has
 only happened a couple of times in my whole life. But it’s sometimes useful!
 
 [26]u+ 2025 returns ñ, LATIN SMALL LETTER N WITH TILDE. A quick way to do a
 lookup of a Unicode string. I don’t use this one that often&mldr;probably about
 once a month.
 
 [27]snippets foo cats ~/.config/evanhahn-snippets/foo. I use snippet arrow for
 →, snippet recruiter for a quick “not interested” response to job recruiters,
 snippet lorem to print a “Lorem ipsum” block, and a few others. I probably use
 one or two of these a week.
 
 REPL launchers
 
 Inspired by Ruby’s built-in irb REPL, I’ve made:
 
   • [28]iclj to start a Clojure REPL
   • [29]ijs to start a Deno REPL (or a Node REPL when Deno is missing)
   • [30]iphp to start a PHP REPL
   • [31]ipy to start a Python REPL
   • [32]isql to start a SQLite shell (an alias for sqlite3 :memory:)
 
 Dates and times
 
 [33]hoy prints the current date in ISO format, like 2020-04-20. I use this all
 the time because I like to prefix files with the current date.
 
 [34]timer 10m starts a timer for 10 minutes, then (1) plays an audible ring
 sound (2) sends an OS notification (see notify below). I often use bb timer 5m
 to start a 5 minute timer in the background (see bb below). I use this almost
 every day as a useful way to keep on track of time.
 
 [35]rn prints the current time and date using date and cal. I probably use it
 once a week. It prints something like this:
 
  4:20PM on Wednesday, October 22, 2025
 
    September 2025
 Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
     1  2  3  4  5  6
  7  8  9 10 11 12 13
 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
 21 22 23 24 25 26 27
 28 29 30
 
 Audio and video and pictures
 
 [36]ocr my_image.png extracts text from an image and prints it to stdout. It
 only works on macOS, unfortunately, but I want to fix that. (I wrote [37]a post
 about this script.)
 
 [38]boop (an alias, not a shell script) makes a happy sound if the previous
 command succeeded and a sad sound otherwise. I do things like run_the_tests ;
 boop which will tell me, audibly, whether the tests succeed. It’s also helpful
 for long-running commands, because you get a little alert when they’re done. I
 use this all the time.
 
 [39]sfx foo basically just plays ~/.config/evanhahn-sfx/foo.ogg. Used in boop
 and timer above.
 
 [40]tunes uses mpv to play audio from a file. I use this all the time, running
 tunes --shuffle ~/music.
 
 [41]pix uses mpv to show a picture. I use this a few times a week to look at
 photos.
 
 [42]radio is a little wrapper around some of my favorite internet radio
 stations. radio lofi and radio salsa are two of my favorites. I use this a few
 times a month.
 
 [43]speak reads from stdin, removes all Markdown formatting, and pipes it to a
 text-to-speech system (say on macOS and espeak-ng on Linux). [44]I like using
 text-to-speech when I can’t proofread out loud. I use this a few times a month.
 
 [45]shrinkvid is an ffmpeg wrapper that compresses a video a bit. I use this
 about once a month.
 
 [46]removeexif removes EXIF data from JPEGs. I don’t use this much, in part
 because it doesn’t remove EXIF data from other file formats like PNGs&mldr;but
 I keep it around because I hope to expand this one day.
 
 [47]tuivid is one I almost never use, but you can use it to watch videos in the
 terminal. It’s cursed and I love it, even if I never use it.
 
 Process management
 
 [48]each is my answer to xargs and find ... -exec, which I find hard to use.
 For example, ls | each 'du -h {}' runs du -h on every file in a directory. I
 use this infrequently but I always mess up xargs so this is a nice alternative.
 
 [49]running foo is like ps aux | grep foo but much easier (for me) to read—just
 the PID (highlighted in purple) and the command.
 
 [50]murder foo or murder 1234 is a wrapper around kill that sends kill -15
 $PID, waits a little, then sends kill -2, waits and sends kill -1, waits before
 finally sending kill -9. If I want a program to stop, I want to ask it nicely
 before getting more aggressive. I use this a few times a month.
 
 [51]waitfor $PID waits for a PID to exit before continuing. It also keeps the
 system from going to sleep. I use this about once a month to do things like:
 
 # I want to start something only after another process finishes
 waitfor 1234 ; something_else
 
 # I started a long-running process and want to know when it's done
 waitfor 1234 ; notify 'process 1234 is done'
 
 [52]bb my_command is like my_command & but it really really runs it in the
 background. You’ll never hear from that program again. It’s useful when you
 want to start a daemon or long-running process you truly don’t care about. I
 use bb ollama serve and bb timer 5m most often. I use this about once a day.
 
 [53]prettypath prints $PATH but with newlines separating entries, which makes
 it much easier to read. I use this pretty rarely—mostly just when I’m debugging
 a $PATH issue, which is unusual—but I’m glad I have it when I do.
 
 [54]tryna my_command runs my_command until it succeeds. [55]trynafail
 my_command runs my_command until it fails. I don’t use this much, but it’s
 useful for various things. tryna wget ... will keep trying to download
 something. trynafail npm test will stop once my tests start failing.
 
 Quick references
 
 [56]emoji is my emoji lookup helper. For example, emoji cool prints the
 following:
 
 😛
 😒
 😎
 🪭
 🆒
 
 [57]httpstatus prints all HTTP statuses. httpstatus 204 prints 204 No Content.
 As a web developer, I use this a few times a month, instead of looking it up
 online.
 
 [58]alphabet just prints the English alphabet in upper and lowercase. I use
 this surprisingly often (probably about once a month). It literally just prints
 this:
 
 abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
 ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
 
 System management
 
 [59]theme 0 changes my whole system to dark mode. theme 1 changes it to light
 mode. It doesn’t just change the OS theme—it also changes my Vim, Tmux, and
 terminal themes. I use this at least once a day.
 
 [60]sleepybear puts my system to sleep, and works on macOS and Linux. I use
 this a few times a week.
 
 [61]ds-destroy recursively deletes all .DS_Store files in a directory. I hate
 that macOS clutters directories with these files! I don’t use this often, but
 I’m glad I have it when I need it.
 
 Grab bag
 
 [62]catbin foo is basically cat "$(which foo)". Useful for seeing the source
 code of a file in your path (used it for writing up this post, for example!). I
 use this a few times a month.
 
 [63]notify sends an OS notification. It’s used in several of my other scripts
 (see above). I also do something like this about once a month:
 
 run_some_long_running_process ; notify 'all done'
 
 [64]uuid prints a v4 UUID. I use this about once a month.
 
 What about your scripts?
 
 These are just scripts I use a lot. I hope some of them are useful to you!
 
 If you liked this post, you might like [65]“Why ‘alias’ is my last resort for
 aliases” and [66]“A decade of dotfiles”.
 
 Oh, and [67]contact me if you have any scripts you think I’d like.
 
 [68][logo_white]
 
   • [69]About me
   • [70]Contact
   • [71]Projects
   • [72]Guides
   • [73]Blog
 
   • [74]RSS
   • [75]Newsletter
   • [76]Mastodon
 
 Unless noted otherwise, content is licensed under the [77]Creative Commons
 Attribution-NonCommercial License and code under the [78]Unlicense. Logo by 
 [79]Lulu Tang. Profile photo by [80]Ali Boschert-Downs.
 
 
 References:
 
 [1] https://evanhahn.com/
 [2] https://evanhahn.com/a-decade-of-dotfiles/
 [3] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/copy
 [4] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/pasta
 [5] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/pastas
 [6] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/cpwd
 [7] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/zsh/.config/zsh/aliases.zsh#L38-L41
 [8] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/zsh/.config/zsh/aliases.zsh#L43-L51
 [9] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/trash
 [10] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/mksh
 [11] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/serveit
 [12] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/getsong
 [13] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/getpod
 [14] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/getsubs
 [15] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/wifi
 [16] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/url
 [17] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/line
 [18] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/scratch
 [19] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/straightquote
 [20] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/markdownquote
 [21] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/length
 [22] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/jsonformat
 [23] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/uppered
 [24] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/lowered
 [25] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/nato
 [26] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/u+
 [27] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/snippets
 [28] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/iclj
 [29] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/ijs
 [30] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/iphp
 [31] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/ipy
 [32] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/isql
 [33] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/hoy
 [34] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/timer
 [35] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/rn
 [36] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/ocr
 [37] https://evanhahn.com/mac-ocr-script/
 [38] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/zsh/.config/zsh/aliases.zsh#L53-L61
 [39] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/sfx
 [40] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/tunes
 [41] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/pix
 [42] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/radio
 [43] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/speak
 [44] https://evanhahn.com/use-text-to-speech-if-you-cant-proofread-aloud/
 [45] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/shrinkvid
 [46] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/removeexif
 [47] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/tuivid
 [48] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/each
 [49] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/running
 [50] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/murder
 [51] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/waitfor
 [52] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/bb
 [53] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/prettypath
 [54] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/tryna
 [55] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/trynafail
 [56] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/emoji
 [57] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/httpstatus
 [58] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/alphabet
 [59] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/theme
 [60] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/sleepybear
 [61] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/ds-destroy
 [62] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/catbin
 [63] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/notify
 [64] https://codeberg.org/EvanHahn/dotfiles/src/commit/843b9ee13d949d346a4a73ccee2a99351aed285b/home/bin/bin/uuid
 [65] https://evanhahn.com/why-alias-is-my-last-resort-for-aliases/
 [66] https://evanhahn.com/a-decade-of-dotfiles/
 [67] https://evanhahn.com/contact/
 [68] https://evanhahn.com/
 [69] https://evanhahn.com/
 [70] https://evanhahn.com/contact/
 [71] https://evanhahn.com/projects/
 [72] https://evanhahn.com/guides/
 [73] https://evanhahn.com/blog/
 [74] https://evanhahn.com/blog/index.xml
 [75] https://buttondown.com/evanhahn
 [76] https://bigshoulders.city/@EvanHahn
 [77] https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
 [78] https://unlicense.org/
 [79] http://luluspice.com/
 [80] https://www.instagram.com/boschertdowns/