tntouch - Template Name Touch

Tntouch is a simple command line tool for creating files using predefined names (templates).

Tntouch is an Open Source project covered fully by MIT License. This project was originally conceived as a learning project.

Installation

Prerequisites

Ensure that the following tools are installed on your system before proceeding:

• GCC: The GNU Compiler Collection for building the project.
• GNU Make: A build automation tool for running the provided Makefile.
• Autotools: Required to generate the build system files. This includes:
  • autoconf: Generates the configure script from configure.ac.
  • automake: Generates Makefile.in from Makefile.am.

You can check if these are installed using the following commands:

gcc --version
make --version

If they are not installed, you can install them using your system's package manager:

Debian/Ubuntu:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install gcc make autoconf automake

Fedora:

sudo dnf install gcc make autoconf automake

Arch Linux:

sudo pacman -S gcc make autoconf automake

macOS (via Homebrew):

brew install gcc make autoconf automake

Installation Steps

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/pavroto/tntouch.git
cd tntouch

Prepare the Build System with Autotools Run the following command to initialize the build system:

autoreconf --install

This will:

• Generate the configure script.
• Create other required files such as Makefile.in and config.h.in.
• Ensure all necessary files are present for the build process.

Configure:

./configure

Build the project:

make

Install the binary:

sudo make install

Verify the installation:

tntouch --version

Usage

1. Set a default template

To set a default template, use the -d flag:

tntouch -d ~/Template/dated

This stores the path to ~/Template/dated as the default template in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/tntouch/default or ~/.config/tntouch/default (depending on your system's configuration).

2. Create a File Using the Default Template

After setting the default template, simply run:

tntouch

This creates a file in the current working directory with a name generated from the default template. For example, if the template is:

$( date +"%Y-%m-%d" )-$( whoami )-\i(Foo).txt

The resulting file might be:

2024-11-28-user-Foo.txt

3. Specify a Value for \i

To replace the \i placeholder in the template with a custom value, provide it as an argument:

tntouch Bar

This would create a file named:

2024-11-28-user-Bar.txt

4. Use a Non-Default Template

To use a template other than the default, specify it with the -t flag:

tntouch -t /path/to/template

This uses the specified template to create a file.

Template Syntax

Templates are plain text files containing the desired filename format. They support the following syntax:

1. Shell Commands:

   • Enclose shell commands in $(...).
   • The output of the command will be included in the filename.
   • Example:

   $( date +"%Y-%m-%d" )
   

   • Result: 2024-11-28

2. Placeholder (\i):

   • \i(DefaultValue) will be replaced with a provided value or the default if no value is specified.
   • Example:

   \i(Foo)
   

   • With no input: Foo
   • With input Bar: Bar

NOTE: To use '(' and ')' characters inside DefaultValue, please use '\(' and '\)' respectively.

3. Literal text:
   • All other text is used as-is in the resulting filename.

Why?

Well... first, it's an assignment for my university course.

Second, I am the one who likes to create files with names like 2024-11-28-SystemProgramming-Networking.txt for notes, so later it is easier for me to find it with find tool or telescope.nvim in my huge university materials archive. But writing dates over and over again is just exhausting, so I decided to both pass the assignment and create a tool that would solve my own problem. And technically, that is why the tool is designed to work the way it works.

Also, tntouch doesn't touch ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I mean, original touch from GNU Coreutils was designed to "update the access and modification times of each FILE to the current time", but I did not want my tool to do that, so I just made it to return an error if the file with the same name already exists.