4.0 KiB
cheat
cheat allows you to create and view interactive cheatsheets on the
command-line. It was designed to help remind *nix system administrators of
options for commands that they use frequently, but not frequently enough to
remember.
Example
The next time you're forced to disarm a nuclear weapon without consulting Google, you may run:
cheat tar
You will be presented with a cheatsheet resembling:
# To extract an uncompressed archive:
tar -xvf '/path/to/foo.tar'
# To extract a .gz archive:
tar -xzvf '/path/to/foo.tgz'
# To create a .gz archive:
tar -czvf '/path/to/foo.tgz' '/path/to/foo/'
# To extract a .bz2 archive:
tar -xjvf '/path/to/foo.tgz'
# To create a .bz2 archive:
tar -cjvf '/path/to/foo.tgz' '/path/to/foo/'
To see what cheatsheets are available, run cheat -l.
Note that, while cheat was designed primarily for *nix system administrators,
it is agnostic as to what content it stores. If you would like to use cheat
to store notes on your favorite cookie recipes, feel free.
Installing
It is recommended to install cheat with pip:
[sudo] pip install cheat
Other installation methods are available.
Modifying Cheatsheets
The value of cheat is that it allows you to create your own cheatsheets - the
defaults are meant to serve only as a starting point, and can and should be
modified.
Cheatsheets are stored in the ~/.cheat/ directory, and are named on a
per-keyphrase basis. In other words, the content for the tar cheatsheet lives
in the ~/.cheat/tar file.
Provided that you have a CHEAT_EDITOR, VISUAL, or EDITOR environment
variable set, you may edit cheatsheets with:
cheat -e foo
If the foo cheatsheet already exists, it will be opened for editing.
Otherwise, it will be created automatically.
After you've customized your cheatsheets, I urge you to track ~/.cheat/ along
with your dotfiles.
Configuring
Setting a DEFAULT_CHEAT_DIR
Personal cheatsheets are saved in the ~/.cheat directory by default, but you
can specify a different default by exporting a DEFAULT_CHEAT_DIR environment
variable:
export DEFAULT_CHEAT_DIR='/path/to/my/cheats'
Setting a CHEATPATH
You can additionally instruct cheat to look for cheatsheets in other
directories by exporting a CHEATPATH environment variable:
export CHEATPATH='/path/to/my/cheats'
You may, of course, append multiple directories to your CHEATPATH:
export CHEATPATH="$CHEATPATH:/path/to/more/cheats"
You may view which directories are on your CHEATPATH with cheat -d.
Enabling Syntax Highlighting
cheat can optionally apply syntax highlighting to your cheatsheets. To
enable syntax highlighting, export a CHEATCOLORS environment variable:
export CHEATCOLORS=true
Note that pygments must be installed on your system for this to work.
Specifying a Syntax Highlighter
You may manually specify which syntax highlighter to use for each cheatsheet by wrapping the sheet's contents in a Github-Flavored Markdown code-fence.
Example:
```sql -- to select a user by ID SELECT * FROM Users WHERE id = 100 ```
If no syntax highlighter is specified, the bash highlighter will be used by
default.