explain shell in command line

explain

#!/bin/bash
# explain.sh begins
explain () {
  if [ "$#" -eq 0 ]; then
    while read  -p "Command: " cmd; do
      curl -Gs "https://www.mankier.com/api/explain/?cols="$(tput cols) --data-urlencode "q=$cmd"
    done
    echo "Bye!"
  elif [ "$#" -eq 1 ]; then
    curl -Gs "https://www.mankier.com/api/explain/?cols="$(tput cols) --data-urlencode "q=$1"
  else
    echo "Usage"
    echo "explain                  interactive mode."
    echo "explain 'cmd -o | ...'   one quoted command to explain it."
  fi
}

explain "${*:1}"

How to install

curl -oL explain https://git.io/fpWDi && chmod 755 explain

mv explain /usr/local/bin/

How to use

// short command
explain du
explain du -h
explain 'du -h'
explain "du -h"

// composed command
explain 'ls -l | grep -i Desktop'

How to uninstall

rm -f /usr/local/bin/explain

refers:

• Understanding Shell Commands Easily Using "Explain Shell" Script in Linux
• API | ManKier
• git.io
• Git.io: GitHub URL Shortener | The GitHub Blog
• [Chapter 8] 8.19 "Special" Characters and Operators
• shell - Process all arguments except the first one (in a bash script) - Stack Overflow

This is very useful utility.

Pretty similar to having alias cheat='cht.sh' on .bashrc and then just e.g. cheat du.