Lightweight workspace manager for the shell.
Desk makes it easy to flip back and forth between different project contexts in your favorite shell. Change directory, activate a virtualenv or rvm, load in domain-specific aliases, environment variables, functions, arbitrary shell files, all in a single command.
Instead of relying on CTRL-R
to execute and recall ("that command's gotta be here somewhere..."), desk helps shorten and document those actions with shell aliases and functions, which are then namespaced under a particular desk.
Because Deskfiles are just enriched shell scripts, the possibilities are endless. For example, when doing work on AWS I have desk securely load AWS API keys into environment variables via pass
-- no effort on my part, and no risk of accidentally persisting that sensitive information to a history file.
I have a hard time calling this a "workspace manager" with a straight face -- it's basically just a shell script that sources another shell script in a new shell. But I often find myself working in multiple different code trees simultaneously: the quick context switches and namespaced commands that desk facilitates have proven useful.
There are no dependencies other than bash
. Desk is explicitly tested with bash
, zsh
, and fish
.
◲ desk 0.6.0 Usage: desk List the current desk and any associated aliases. If no desk is being used, display available desks. desk init Initialize desk configuration. desk (list|ls) List all desks along with a description. desk (.|go) [<desk-name-or-path> [shell-args...]] Activate a desk. Extra arguments are passed onto shell. If called with no arguments, look for a Deskfile in the current directory. If not a recognized desk, try as a path to directory containing a Deskfile. desk run <desk-name> <cmd> Run a command within a desk's environment then exit. Think '$SHELL -c'. desk edit [desk-name] Edit (or create) a deskfile with the name specified, otherwise edit the active deskfile. desk help Show this text. desk version Show version information. Since desk spawns a shell, to deactivate and "pop" out a desk, you simply need to exit or otherwise end the current shell process.
For example, given this deskfile (~/.desk/desks/tf.sh
):
# tf.sh # # Description: desk for doing work on a terraform-based repository # cd ~/terraform-repo # Set up AWS env variables: <key id> <secret> set_aws_env() { export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID="$1" export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY="$2" } # Run `terraform plan` with proper AWS var config plan() { terraform plan -module-depth=-1 \ -var "access_key=${AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID}" \ -var "secret_key=${AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY}" } # Run `terraform apply` with proper AWS var config alias apply='terraform apply'
we'd get
$ desk . tf $ desk tf desk for doing work on a terraform repo set_aws_env Set up AWS env variables: <key id> <secret> plan Run `terraform plan` with proper AWS var config apply Run `terraform apply` with proper AWS var config
Basically, desk just associates a shell script (name.sh
) with a name. When you call desk . name
, desk drops you into a shell where name.sh
has been executed, and then desk extracts out certain comments in name.sh
for useful rendering.
brew install desk
Assuming ~/bin
exists and is on the PATH... otherwise, substitute /usr/local/bin
and add sudo
as needed.
curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jamesob/desk/master/desk > ~/bin/desk
chmod +x ~/bin/desk
git clone git@github.com:jamesob/desk.git && cd desk && sudo make install
After that, run desk init
and start adding deskfiles with either desk edit [deskfile name]
or by manually adding shell scripts into your deskfiles directory (by default ~/.desk/desks/
).
NB: Shell extensions are automatically enabled if Desk is installed via Homebrew.
source /path/to/desk/repo/shell_plugins/bash/desk
to your .bashrc
.mkdir -p ~/.config/fish/completions cp /path/to/desk/repo/shell_plugins/fish/desk.fish ~/.config/fish/completions
fpath=(/path/to/desk/repo/shell_plugins/zsh $fpath)
to your .zshrc
.Optionally, use one of the zsh plugin frameworks mentioned below.
make oh-my-zsh
from within this repo. This sets up a symlink.or
cd ~/.oh-my-zsh/custom/plugins
git clone git@github.com:jamesob/desk.git /tmp/desk && cp -r /tmp/desk/shell_plugins/zsh desk
antigen bundle jamesob/desk shell_plugins/zsh
to your .zshrc
zgen load jamesob/desk shell_plugins/zsh
to your .zshrc
with your other load commandsrm ~/.zgen/init.zsh
init.zsh
and automatically clone the desk repository for you and add it to your path.Deskfiles are just shell scripts, nothing more, that live in the desk config directory. Desk does pay attention to certain kinds of comments, though.
description: you can describe a deskfile by including # Description: ...
somewhere in the file.
alias and function docs: if the line above an alias or function is a comment, it will be used as documentation.
Deskfiles are just shell scripts at the root of a project directory that adhere to the conventions above. These can be put into version control to formalize and ease common development tasks like running tests or doing local builds.
For example, if we have some directory or repository called myproject
, if we create myproject/Deskfile
, we'll be able to do any of the following:
$ desk go /path/to/myproject/ $ desk go /path/to/myproject/Deskfile myproject/ $ desk go . myproject/ $ desk goSharing deskfiles across computers
Of course, the desk config directory (by default ~/.desks
) can be a symlink so that deskfiles can be stored in some centralized place, like Dropbox, and so shared across many computers.
By default, desk configuration lives in ~/.desk
($DESK_DIR
) and deskfiles live in ~/.desk/desks
($DESK_DESKS_DIR
). If you want to use some other location, specify as much in desk init
and then ensure you set $DESK_DIR
and/or $DESK_DESKS_DIR
to match in your shell's rc file.
Typing desk .
frequently can get old; personally, I like to alias this with
in my shell rc file.
Desk won't work when used strictly with ~/.bash_profile
on OS X's terminal, since the content of ~/.bash_profile
is only executed on login, not shell creation, as explained here.
My recommendation is to use ~/.bashrc
as your general-purpose config file, then simply have ~/.bash_profile
point to it:
# ~/.bash_profile if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then source ~/.bashrc fi
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