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Start all of your commands with a comma (2009)

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Re: Start all of your commands with a comma (2009)

#61

Post by functionmouse »

alance wrote: post #52
mathfailure wrote: post #9

I didn't like the idea. I prefer the alternative approach: _I_ decide the order of dirs in the PATH env. If I introduce an executable with a name, that overrides a system one - I probably do that intentionally. If I introduce an alias (like `grep='grep --binary-files=without-match --ignore-case --color=auto`) that matches the name of a system binary - I probably do that intentionally. And if I EVER need to call grep…

Just on your first suggestion, this also means that if a person or process can drop a file (unknown to you) into your ~/bin/ then they can wreak havoc. Eg they can override `sudo` to capture your password, or override `rm` to send your files somewhere interesting, and so on. Btw on the second suggestion, I think there's a command named `command` that can help with that sort of thing, avoids recursive pitfalls.

That would require someone to already want to sabotage me in particular, learn my private workflows, and also have write access to my home folder. At that point, All is Lost.

Don't tell people to sacrifice agency for apocalypse insurance that doesn't work, lol

Re: Start all of your commands with a comma (2009)

#62

Post by CGamesPlay »

mathfailure wrote: post #9

I didn't like the idea. I prefer the alternative approach: _I_ decide the order of dirs in the PATH env. If I introduce an executable with a name, that overrides a system one - I probably do that intentionally. If I introduce an alias (like `grep='grep --binary-files=without-match --ignore-case --color=auto`) that matches the name of a system binary - I probably do that intentionally. And if I EVER need to call grep…

I do this, and routinely shadow commands with my own wrappers to do things like set environment variables.

And then there’s Claude. It deletes whatever it finds at ~/.local/bin/claude, so I have to use a shell function instead to invoke the full path to my wrapper.

Re: Start all of your commands with a comma (2009)

#63

Post by llimllib »

fragmede wrote: post #28
mathfailure wrote: post #9

I didn't like the idea. I prefer the alternative approach: _I_ decide the order of dirs in the PATH env. If I introduce an executable with a name, that overrides a system one - I probably do that intentionally. If I introduce an alias (like `grep='grep --binary-files=without-match --ignore-case --color=auto`) that matches the name of a system binary - I probably do that intentionally. And if I EVER need to call grep…

curious if you're customizing anyway, why not use eg ripgrep?

Not OP, but I use ripgrep and customize it with an alias as well, so it applies equally there

Re: Start all of your commands with a comma (2009)

#64

Post by e1g »

CGamesPlay wrote: post #62
mathfailure wrote: post #9

I didn't like the idea. I prefer the alternative approach: _I_ decide the order of dirs in the PATH env. If I introduce an executable with a name, that overrides a system one - I probably do that intentionally. If I introduce an alias (like `grep='grep --binary-files=without-match --ignore-case --color=auto`) that matches the name of a system binary - I probably do that intentionally. And if I EVER need to call grep…

I do this, and routinely shadow commands with my own wrappers to do things like set environment variables. And then there’s Claude. It deletes whatever it finds at ~/.local/bin/claude, so I have to use a shell function instead to invoke the full path to my wrapper.

You can use an alias, which takes priority over $PATH. e.g. I have this in .zhsrc to override the "claude" executable to run it in the OS sandbox:

    alias claude="sandbox-exec -f ~/agents-jail.sb ~/.local/bin/claude --dangerously-skip-permissions"

Re: Start all of your commands with a comma (2009)

#65

Post by mogoh »

temporallobe wrote: post #60

I don’t think this is a terrible idea, though stylistically it bothers me. I suppose you could simply have a prefix command router that would essentially do the same thing. I also started using “task” recently and it’s been a game changer for my CLI life.

What is task?

Re: Start all of your commands with a comma (2009)

#66

Post by latexr »

alance wrote: post #52
mathfailure wrote: post #9

I didn't like the idea. I prefer the alternative approach: _I_ decide the order of dirs in the PATH env. If I introduce an executable with a name, that overrides a system one - I probably do that intentionally. If I introduce an alias (like `grep='grep --binary-files=without-match --ignore-case --color=auto`) that matches the name of a system binary - I probably do that intentionally. And if I EVER need to call grep…

Just on your first suggestion, this also means that if a person or process can drop a file (unknown to you) into your ~/bin/ then they can wreak havoc. Eg they can override `sudo` to capture your password, or override `rm` to send your files somewhere interesting, and so on. Btw on the second suggestion, I think there's a command named `command` that can help with that sort of thing, avoids recursive pitfalls.

If someone can drop a file in your ~/bin, they can also edit your shell’s startup files to add their malicious command.

Re: Start all of your commands with a comma (2009)

#68

Post by alex-moon »

mogoh wrote: post #65
temporallobe wrote: post #60

I don’t think this is a terrible idea, though stylistically it bothers me. I suppose you could simply have a prefix command router that would essentially do the same thing. I also started using “task” recently and it’s been a game changer for my CLI life.

What is task?

It is like make but designed specifically for the way non-C(++) users - people like me for example adding scripts like "make run" and "make build" to my node/python/PHP/etc repos - use it. It is great! I still don't use it literally just because make is already installed on any *nix system I encounter day to day.

Re: Start all of your commands with a comma (2009)

#69

Post by nickelpro »

Properly manage PATH for the context you're in and this is a non-issue. This is the solution used by most programming environments these days, you don't carry around the entire npm or PyPI ecosystem all the time, only when you activate it.

Then again, I don't really believe in performing complex operations manually and directly from a shell, so I don't really understand the use-case for having many small utilities in PATH to begin with.

Re: Start all of your commands with a comma (2009)

#70

Post by hk__2 »

amszmidt wrote: post #49
chrisjj wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If I introduce an executable with a name, that overrides a system one ... and breaks existing scripts that reference the system one, right?

Not if it is an alias.

But yes if it’s another executable.
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