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

Pipe data from a text <input> to less

bpipe -s "#myInput" -e "keyup" | less

Whenever the select box is changed in the browser, the new value will be piped to less

Pipe data from a <select> box to less

bpipe -s "#mySelect" -e "change" | less

Whenever the select box is changed in the browser, the new value will be piped to less

STDOUT

Pipe data from echo to a div's innerHTML

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.

Can I actually use tail?

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 and bpipe-server

• Allow bpipe and bpipe-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

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