ztools

Several gadgets for Linux. No warranties are for the listed tools.

target-pool

Trick for target scheduling.

Test Environment:

• GNU bash 4.4.19(1)-release
• Python 3.6.7
• Vi IMproved 8.0, with patch 1-1766

Usage

• target init - initiate a target pool (~/.target_pool)
• target edit - edit the target pool
• target plan - edit the every-week plan (~/.target_update_plan)
• target ddl - edit the one-shot DDL-s (~/.target_ddl)
• target update - update the weights in the target pool in accordance with ~/.target_update_plan and ~/.target_ddl; this command will update the weights subject to a reciprocal function of the difference to the ddl
• target select - randomly select a target in accordance with the weights in the target pool
• target list-ddls - list the closest DDL-s in ~/.target_update_plan and ~/.target_ddl

Configuration for Autocompletion

In order to configure bash to autocomplete the command names, add following statements to ~/.bashrc.

function _target() {
	COMPREPLY=($(compgen -W "update edit init select plan ddl list-ddls" ${COMP_WORDS[$COMP_CWORD]}))
	return 0
}
complete -F _target target

About the Structure of the Target Pool File

The target pool file is in the following form:

# target	weight
Read papers	3
Lab	4
Literary read	2

The lines starting with "#" will be considered as comments. The last field separated by white space characters is considered as the weight while the other fields are considered as the target name integrally.

About the Structure of the Every-week Plan File

The plan file is in the following form:

# target	DDL (weekday)
Application for summer practice		4
Prepare for experiment 1

The lines starting with "#" will be considered as comments as well. The last field separated by white space characters is considered as the weekday of the periodic deadline of the particular target while the other fields are considered as the target name integrally as well.

About the Structure of the One-shot DDL File

The ddl file is in the similar form with the pool file and the plan file:

# target	DDL (yyyy-mm-dd)
Big project of Intelligent Optimisation Algorithms	2019-6-13
Report of oral history requested for Mao Thought	2019-5-31

The difference is that the last field indicates the one-shot ddl of the corresponding target but not the weight or the periodic ddl.

remote-fcitx-vim

An external extension like fcitx.vim plugin which helps to activate or deactivate fcitx5 automatically on entering or leaving the insertion mode when you're using vim on a remote machine through ssh. This tool isn't plugged into vim, however, rather than fcitx.vim works as a plugin for vim. A daemon should be started on the remote machine. The client on the local machine connects to the remote daemon and receives the status of the remote vim from the daemon and switch the status of fcitx5 accordingly.

Test Environment

Local machine:

• Manjaro 20.1 Mikah
• x86_64 Linux 5.7.15-1-MANJARO
• KDE 5.73.0 / Plasma 5.19.4
• fcitx5 4.99.0
• Python 3.8.5
• openssh 8.3p1

Remote machine:

• Ubuntu 18.04 bionic
• x86_64 Linux 4.15.0-109-generic
• Vi IMproved 8.0, with patches 1-1453
• Python 3.6.9
• openssh-server 1:7.6p1

Usage

After ssh-ing to the remote host, start the daemon. The daemon will be bound to 0.0.0.0:30002 by default. The default address and port could be modified by

python3 remote_fcitx_vim_daemon.py --address ADDRESS --port PORT &>>/dev/null &

Then launch the local client and connect to the remote daemon.

python3 remote_fcitx_vim_local_machine.py [--port REMOTE_PORT] REMOTE_ADDRESS &>>/dev/null &

Add the content in the for_vimrc_on_server to ~/.vimrc and replace the value of s:remote_fcitx_vim_path with the path to remote_fcitx_vim_sender.py.

And you could use this extension now. Enjoy it!

Resolution for the Remote Host behind an NAT

When the remote host is behind an NAT, maybe you cannot connect to the port used by the underlying daemon directly. In this case, you may need to configure a new port mapping on the remote gateway or traverse the NAT by some way.

If you have no idea to traverse the NAT or you don't want to install any additional software, here is an alternative solution. SSH2 protocol provides a simple forwarding and proxy function. Simply login to the remote machine with -L option:

ssh -L <local_port>:<daemon_address>:<daemon_port> -p <remote_port> remote_user@remote_host

The connection to the <local_port> will be forwarded to <daemon_address>:<daemon_port> automatically through the ssh connection. As for this extension, since the daemon is directly run on the ssh server, <daemon_address> could be simply set to 127.0.0.1. <daemon_address> is the port the daemon listens to (30002 by default).

For more details w.r.t. the usage of ssh -L and ssh -R, please refer to the man page of ssh.

Implementation Scheme

Note that in the current version, unix domain socket is adopted for "Socket B" on the figure. It could be replaced by an internet socket so as to support the fcitx status management of multiple hosts with singular daemon.

Shell Timestamper

Timestamp your standard output!

Test Environment

• x86_64 Linux 5.14.7-2-MANJARO
• GNU bash，版本 5.1.8(1)-release (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)
• Python 3.9.7

Usage

There are two ways to use the shell timestamper. One way is to wrap the target command with the tstamp instruction, just like the usage of time instruction in bash.

tstamp [--format FORMAT] [--buffer-mode BUFFER_MODE] -- command ...

Besides, tstamp could be appended behind the target command through a pipe, just like the usage of tee.

command ... |tstamp [--format FORMAT] [--buffer-mode BUFFER_MODE]

--format option could be abbreviated as -f and --buffer-mode - -m. --format controls the format of the timestamp. The format string complys the protocol in Python 3 datetime module and defaults to %Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S.%f. --buffer-mode controls the buffer mode, for which two choices are availabe: c and L. c instructs the stamper to flush the buffer per character, or just say, use no buffer. L instructs the stamper to flush the buffer per line, which is the default behaviour for most command line programs. However, the default mode of stamper is set to c for the best support to the programs requiring standard inputs. If your program requires no user's input and the standard I/O performance is crucial, it is recommended to use the L mode.

Version Tool

A simple tool helping manual version control.

Test Environment

• x86_64 Linux 5.15.25-1-MANJARO
• GNU bash，版本 5.1.16(1)-release (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)
• Python 3.10.2

Usage

version --help

usage: version [-h] {init,list,check,commit,checkout,log,export} ...

positional arguments:
  {init,list,check,commit,checkout,log,export}
    init                Initiate a version repository.
    list                List tracked files.
    check               Check the versions of a specific file.
    commit              Commit a file version.
    checkout            Checkout a file version
    log                 Print the daily log.
    export              Export the version table.

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit

Check the help output for the subcommands like version checkout --help for detailed usage.

Configuration for Autocompletion

function _complete_version() {
	local subcommands="init list check commit checkout log export"
	if [[ $COMP_CWORD -le 2 ]]; then
		COMPREPLY=($(compgen -W "$subcommands" ${COMP_WORDS[$COMP_CWORD]}))
	fi
}
complete -F _complete_version version

Toy Preprocessor

Test Environment

• x86_64 Linux 5.15.28-1-MANJARO
• GNU bash，版本 5.1.16(1)-release (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)
• Python 3.10.2

Usage

Command Line Options

zpp --help

usage: zpp [-h] [--prefix PREFIX] [--suffix SUFFIX] [--nosuffix] [--mode {H,T,C,J}] [--def MACRO] [--output OUTPUT] file

positional arguments:
  file                  Input file.

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --prefix PREFIX       Prefix for preprocessing commands.
  --suffix SUFFIX       Suffix for preprocessing commands.
  --nosuffix            No suffices is in need.
  --mode {H,T,C,J}, -m {H,T,C,J}
                        H: HTML Comment Mode, e.g., <!-- include a.js -->
                        T: TeX Comment Mode, e.g., % define TeX \LaTeX
                        C: C Preprocessing Instruction Mode, e.g., #define A_TOY_PREPROCESSOR
                        J: Java Comment Mode, e.g., // include class.java
  --def MACRO           Manually define a macro like "ABC" or "ABC=LSP", "=" in macro name and definitions could be escaped by "\"
  --output OUTPUT, -o OUTPUT
                        Output file

Lines for the preprocessing commands are recognized by the user-specific prefix and suffix. For convenience, the tool offers four predefined modes with specific prefix and suffix. The default mode is H - the HTML Comment Mode with prefix <!-- and suffix -->.

Preprocessing Commands

1. include

include [-PREFIX] [+SUFFIX] [<LINEPREFIX<] [>LINESUFFIX>] [/REGEX/SUBSTITUTION/] FILENAME

Inserts the contents from FILENAME at the current position. The preprocessing commands in the included file will be handled as well.

A different command prefix or suffix could be specified for the included file. For example, the main file is preprocessed under H mode, i.e., with prefix <!-- and suffix -->. Now I want to include a file foo.ctxt with C-style preprocessing command prefix, I can use include command as:

<!-- include -# + foo.ctxt -->

The command also supports to specify a prefix and a suffix for all the included lines, i.e., the included lines will be prepended or appended with the specified line prefix/suffix when inserting into the referencing file. For instance, I'm writing a README in markdown. I want to include the contents from another file b.md and make the included contents into quotations, I can use include command as:

<!-- include <> < b.md -->

Then, all the inserted contents will be prefixed a > so that they will be rendered as quotations.

Also text substituion is allowed when processing file including. The regex syntax follows re module of Python 3.

Normally, a relative path is expected. However, you can also specify an absolute path by prefixing FILENAME with a #. For instance,

% include /None/?/ #/home/foo/some/project/some/file

2. define and undef

define MACRO_NAME [MACRO_VALUE]

Defines a macro which will be replaced in the following contents. If it is omitted, MACRO_VALUE will default to an empty string.

undef MACRO_NAME

revokes the definition of an existing macro.

3. if commands

ifdef MACRO_NAME
ifndef MACRO_NAME
ifeq MACRO_NAME MACRO_VALUE
ifneq MACRO_NAME MACRO_VALUE
elifdef MACRO_NAME
elifndef MACRO_NAME
elifeq MACRO_NAME MACRO_VALUE
elifneq MACRO_NAME MACRO_VALUE

def checks if a macro is already defined and eq checks if a macro is already defined and if the macro definition equals to the given value. n will reverse the check result. However, note that if a macro is not defined, neq will leads to false which is the same as eq.

if commands starts a if block and elif commands give another choice.

Also else command is supported.

endif is used to end an if block.

Embedding if blocks is supported.

firefox-on-kde-activities

Test Environment

• Manjaro 22.0.0 Sikaris
• KDE 5.98.0 / Plasma 5.25.5
• Python 3.10.7
• Mozilla Firefox 106.0.2
• wmctrl 1.07
• xprop 1.2.5

Introduction

This extension will move it to the firefox window in the current kde activity when a new tab is opened. Currently it only supports on X.

This extension contains a plug-in for firefox and a external Python script. The plug-in could be found in Mozilla extension store by kde-activities-z. The external Python should be installed in the user's $PATH and a manifest json for the external script is required to be place at ~/.mozilla/native-messaging-hosts and the path field in it should be set to the path to the installed script. In convenience, a makefile is provided and a simple make command should install the script to ~/.local/bin and complete the configurations.

Known Issue

Owing to the limit of the API of firefox, neither the external script can obtain the correct current activity where there havn't been any firefox windows, nor the plug-in js can open a new window in the current activity without any firefox windows in it. I'v got no ideas for this issue temporarily.

Implementation

The external script first revokes wmctrl -lx to obtain all the opened X windows and filters out the firefox instances. Then,

qdbus org.kde.ActivityManager /ActivityManager/Activities CurrentActivity

is revoked to get the current activity id. xprop -id $wid _KDE_NET_WM_ACTIVITIES could be used to check the activity which a specific window is on. By this way, the script can determine the correct firefox window to which the new tab should be moved.

Other Tiny Tools

• ~/.sogoubackup/backup - backup the configs of Sogou Input Method routinely
• convert_file_name - convert the extension name of the images from the mobile from 'jpeg' to the correct one
• easy-backup-tool - rsync configuration for directory backup
• easy-snapshots - rsync configuration for directory snapshots
• 添加元信息.ptsp - script for picard
• branch-tool - snapshot the workspace for multi-branch experiment directory

Corresponding completion configuration:

function _complete_backup() {
	if [[ $COMP_CWORD -le 2 ]]; then
		COMPREPLY=($(compgen -W "init backup" ${COMP_WORDS[$COMP_CWORD]}))
	fi
}
complete -F _complete_backup bckp
complete -F _complete_backup zsnap

Useless Toys

simple-encryptor

A simple encryption tool using XOR algorithm.

Test Environment:

• Python 3.6.7

Usage

encrypt --help

usage: encrypt [-h] [--password [PASSWORD]] [--decode] [--delete]
               [--recursive] [--suffix SUFFIX]
               input [input ...]

positional arguments:
  input                 The file to encrypt or decrypt

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --password [PASSWORD], -p [PASSWORD]
                        Indicates whether a password should be used
  --decode, -d          Decrypts the file if set
  --delete              Delete the inputed file if set
  --recursive, -r       Encrypt the files under the directory recursively if
                        set. With "--delete" option set implicitly
  --suffix SUFFIX, -a SUFFIX
                        Specify the suffix of the encrypted file. The suffix
                        will be appended to the inputed file name during
                        encryption and be truncated from the inputed file name
                        during decryption

base64decode

Base64 decoder constructed in Python 3.

Test Environment:

• Python 3.6.7

Usage

base64decode --help

usage: base64decode [-h] [--decode DECODE] [--file FILE] [--encoding ENCODING]

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --decode DECODE, -d DECODE
                        Base64 string to be decoded
  --file FILE, -f FILE  Text file where stored Base64 string to be decoded; "-" for stdin; If either
                        this option or "--decode" isn't set, the coded string will be read from stdin
  --encoding ENCODING   Encoding of decoded string; Default to utf-8

Custom Config Files

Now such config files as follows are collected in this repo:

• ~/.bashrc
• ~/.profile
• ~/.inputrc
• ~/.vimrc
• ~/.vim/ftdetect
• ~/.vim/syntax
• ~/.tmux.conf
• ~/.config/fcitx/data/punc-ng.mb.zh_CN
• ~/.local/share/fcitx5/data/QuickPhrase.mb(~/.config/fcitx/data/QuickPhrase.mb)
• ~/.config/htop/htoprc
• ~/.gotop/layout

Under directory w3m:

• ~/.w3m/keymap

Under directory terminator:

• ~/.config/terminator/config

Custom Service Files

• ~/.config/systemd/user/rem_schedule.service - for remind daemon
• ~/.config/systemd/user/remote-fcitx-daemon.service - for remote-fcitx-vim daemon