SHTOOL-PROP.TMP(1)

🌸 SHTOOL-PROP.TMP(1) — GNU Portable Shell Tool 🌸

okay bestie, gather round, because this one is genuinely adorable and also extremely useful. it's shtool-prop from the GNU shtool fam, and it's giving "spinning wheel but make it a shell script" energy. 🎡✨

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💖 NAME 💖

shtool-prop — GNU shtool propeller processing indication 🌀

like. it props. it spins. it tells you stuff is happening. iconic.

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🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

shtool prop [-p|--prefix str]

that's it. that's the whole vibe. 💅

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✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

so what this command does is display a processing indication through a running propeller. yes, a literal spinning propeller. in your terminal. in 2008. we love a retro moment. 🌀💖

it's designed to be the last thing in a pipe ("|") sequence, the one where all your logging / processing info is showing up on stdin. then, for every single line that lands on stdin, the propeller advances one step clock-wise. so the more stuff happens, the more it spins. lowkey hypnotic. highkey satisfying. 🫶

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👑 OPTIONS 👑

here's what you can hand it. there's literally one (1) option. minimalism queen. 🎀

• -p, --prefix str — set a particular prefix str that gets displayed in front of the propeller. by default there's no prefix string at all, so it's just the raw propeller spinning into the void. give it a label and suddenly it's ✨narrated✨. 💅

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🌈 EXAMPLE 🌈

a whole shell script moment, fr fr:

#   shell script
configure 2>&1 |\
    tee logfile |\
    shtool prop -p "Configuring sources"

see how it's sitting pretty at the end of the pipe? configure does its thing, tee splits the output off into logfile, and then shtool prop catches the rest and spins a lil propeller with "Configuring sources" chillin' in front of it. chef's kiss. 🧑🍳💋

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📜 HISTORY 📜

the GNU shtool prop command was originally written by Ralf S. Engelschall <rse@engelschall.com> in 1998 for mod_ssl. a true OG. 🫡 then it got taken over into GNU shtool later on, and now it lives here, spinning away for all of us. generational. 👑

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🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

• shtool(1) — the main character. go read it. iykyk. 💜

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⚠️ friendly reminder bestie: this thing reads from stdin and spins per line. if nothing is feeding it lines, it's just gonna sit there looking cute and doing nothing. feed the propeller. 🌀🍓

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and that's the tea, babe — this page is from shtool 2.0.8, dated 18-Jul-2008, and it ate. no cap. go spin something. 💅✨🎀