Terminal Tools (tt)

Power-dev terminal utils with Text User Interfaces (TUI) built with Rust and ratatui.

✨ Features

• 🔍 Smart File Finding - Fuzzy search with live preview
• ⚡ Lightning Fast Search - Ripgrep integration with TUI interface
• 🖼️ Native Image Preview - ASCII art generation in terminal
• 📊 Process Management - Interactive process killer
• 🌳 Git Integration - Browse history, diffs, and branches
• 📁 File Explorer - Navigate directories with preview
• 📚 Command History - Browse and execute past commands
• 🌍 Environment Browser - Search and view environment variables
• 📖 Man Page Browser - Interactive manual page viewer
• 📂 Recent Files - Quick access to recently used files

All tools have:

• ⌨️ Vim-style navigation (Ctrl-F/Ctrl-B for paging)
• 🎨 Good-looking interfaces with syntax highlighting
• 🚀 High performance with optimised rendering
• 🛡️ Robust error handling with graceful degradation

🚀 Installation

From crates.io (Recommended)

cargo install terminal_tools

From source

git clone https://github.com/pbower/terminal-tools.git
cd terminal-tools
cargo install --path .

System Requirements

• Rust 1.70+ (for installation)
• Git (for git tools)
• ripgrep (optional, for enhanced search)

📖 Usage

All tools are accessed through the tt command:

tt <command> [options]

🔍 File Finding

Find files with fuzzy search and live preview:

# Find all files
tt find

# Find files with specific extensions
tt find --extensions "rs,toml,md"

# Find files with initial search term
tt find --search "config"

Features:

• Fuzzy filename matching
• Live file content preview
• Image preview with ASCII art
• Fast directory traversal (skips .git, node_modules, target)

⚡ Content Search

Search within files using ripgrep with TUI interface:

# Interactive search (enter pattern in TUI)
tt search

# Direct search with pattern
tt search "fn main"

# Search specific file types
tt search "TODO" --file-type rust

# Case insensitive search
tt search "error" --ignore-case

Features:

• Live search as you type (2+ characters)
• Syntax highlighting in results
• Context lines around matches
• Jump to files at specific line numbers

📊 Process Management

Interactive process viewer and killer:

# Show all processes
tt kill

# Filter processes
tt kill --filter "node"

Features:

• Real-time process list
• Memory and CPU usage display
• Safe process termination
• Search and filter capabilities

🌳 Git Integration

Browse git repositories:

# Browse commit history
tt git log

# View git diff (browsable)
tt git diff

# Switch branches
tt git branch

Features:

• Commit history with diffs
• Limited diff preview (first 100 lines) to prevent freezing
• Branch switching interface
• Syntax highlighted diffs
• Command timeouts prevent hanging

📁 File Explorer

Navigate directories with preview:

# Explore current directory
tt explore

# Start from specific directory
tt explore /path/to/directory

Features:

• Two-panel interface (files + preview)
• Image preview support
• File content preview (first 50 lines)
• Directory statistics
• Quick navigation (arrows, Enter, Esc)

📚 Command History

Browse and execute command history:

# Browse shell history
tt history

# Limit number of entries
tt history --limit 50

Features:

• Search through command history
• Execute commands directly
• Command help integration
• Timestamp support

🌍 Environment Variables

Browse environment variables:

# Show all environment variables
tt env

# Filter variables
tt env --filter "PATH"

Features:

• Search and filter variables
• Value preview for long variables
• Alphabetical sorting

📂 Recent Files

Quick access to recently modified files:

# Show recent files
tt recent

# Show more files
tt recent --limit 25

Features:

• Finds files modified in last 7 days
• Sorted by modification time
• File preview support
• Quick file opening

📖 Man Pages

Interactive manual page browser:

# Browse available man pages
tt man

# Search for specific topic
tt man --search "git"

Features:

• Searchable man page list
• Live preview of man content
• Quick access to common commands

⌨️ Keyboard Shortcuts

All tools support consistent navigation:

Key	Action
↑/↓ or j/k	Navigate up/down
Ctrl-F	Page down
Ctrl-B	Page up
Enter	Select/Open
Esc or q	Quit
Ctrl-C	Force quit

Tool-specific shortcuts:

• Search tools: Type to filter
• File tools: Backspace to delete search
• Git tools: g/G for top/bottom

🛠️ Configuration

Shell Integration

For the best experience, you may want to create aliases:

# Add to ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc
alias f='tt find'
alias s='tt search'
alias k='tt kill'
alias g='tt git'
alias e='tt explore'

Performance Tips

1. Large repositories: Git tools automatically limit output to prevent freezing
2. File search: Use --extensions to narrow search scope
3. Content search: Use specific patterns to reduce results

🖼️ Image Support

Terminal Tools includes native image preview support:

• Supported formats: JPG, PNG, GIF, BMP
• ASCII art generation: Images converted to text art
• Zero dependencies: No external image viewers required
• Safe processing: Large images handled gracefully

🚀 Performance

• File finding: Efficiently skips common build directories
• Content search: Powered by ripgrep for maximum speed
• Git operations: Timeouts prevent hanging on large repos
• Memory efficient: Streams large files instead of loading entirely

🐛 Troubleshooting

Issue Resolution

These are uncommon but just in case.

Git commands hang:

• Fixed with timeouts and limited output
• Very large repos may still be slow

TUI doesn't work:

• Ensure terminal supports ANSI colors
• Some terminals may have compatibility issues
• Tools gracefully fallback to simple output

Image preview fails:

• Only common formats supported
• Large images (>50K pixels) are rejected
• Corrupted images handled gracefully

Search is slow:

• Install ripgrep for best performance
• Use --file-type to limit scope
• Exclude large directories with patterns

Getting Help

# General help
tt --help

# Command-specific help
tt find --help
tt search --help
# ... etc

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! This project is built with:

• Language: Rust 2021 edition
• TUI Framework: ratatui + crossterm
• Search: ripgrep integration
• Image Processing: image + viuer crates

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.