Hi,

it would be cool if you could turn this into a kind of "Microsoft Office Assistant".
So that it could show you only what the args of "gcc -Wall -ansi -pedantic -g -o" mean, excluding the whole manpage, but not when the manpage is very short.

A step further: "explain !!"

As I posted on Hacker News:

I agree it's beautiful, and a really great idea. I'll also add my vote with others that this would make an even better commandline tool.

It had difficulty with:
find . -name ".cpp" | xargs -i grep -His "oops" "{}"

http://explainshell.com/explain?cmd=find+.+-name+%22*.cpp%22...

It seems to think the -His belongs to xargs rather than grep.

The app don't explain nested shells (sub-shells) command or $(command)

like this command:

ls | while read file; do echo "$(echo "$file" | sed -e "s/foo/bar/")"; done

It's not right now :)

missing manpage for usermod

The explanation boxes should be shrinkable / collapsible / able to hide to a size where only the title or short explanation can be read.
This way the user could hide the things too big or already known to him.
example search:

cat foo.txt | grep "function"

the description of the pipeline takes up so much space I have to scroll down for every other information on my screen.

e.g.

dpkg -L packagename

For example:

ssh example.com df /

"ssh machine command arguments"

isn't parsed properly, it seems to think "machine command arguments" is all just the machine

The example command links are too faint with baby blue color. Can we darken the link?

:-D

the xkcd Creative Commons license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/

e.g. in find -print0|xargs -r0n1 basename, basename should be recognized and documented

In the example git log(1) --graph --abbrev-commit --pretty=oneline origin..mybranch, why git log(1) is the 3rd box?

The command " _=100" runs well on bash 4.1.2, but it seems that the http://explainshell.com fails to explain.

I.e. http://www.explainshell.com/explain/echo?args=-n+%22Hello%5CnWorld%5Cn%22+%7C+wc+-c

e.g. in find -print0|xargs -r0n1 basename, 1 is grouped with basename, not with n.

It failes to parse correctly the quoted argument values for single-dashed options when they are joined together with the option e.g.

cut -f1-2 -d' '

Instead it lists the first quote ' as the argument value and the remaining part is flagged as unknown. More over when this is followed by pipe, the quotation mark is shown as the pipe and the pipe itself is concatenated together with the following command name.

For example this command is perfectly valid, but not recognized correctly:

echo "a b c d" | cut -f1-2 -d' ' | grep -e'a b'

http://www.lehman.cuny.edu/cgi-bin/man-cgi?swap+1

youtube-dl --write-auto-sub --sub-lang en youtubeurl

These options described in youtube-dl -h

I imagine this kind of syntax should be reconizable

for myvar in $mylist; do echo $myvar; done 

BTW, VERY COOL. The UI with the arrows is awesome!

Command

psql dbname username

http://explainshell.com/explain/psql?args=dbname+username
should be explained as

psql -d dbname -U username

http://explainshell.com/explain/psql?args=-d+dbname+-U+username

It would be really cool if I could prefix a string with explain and it outputs the formatted explain text in less. Does this already exist?

When the command with sudo is entered, all the arguments are parsed as the arguments for sudo, not for that command. Here's a simple example.

if i view my design in google chrome and edit all my design according to it
thn if i view it in mozila its alignmnt is affected
cn any1 help

It would be useful, if service would strip common paths for binaries (/usr/bin, /usr/sbin, /usr/local/bin, etc) when searching for binaries in man database.

For example, rsync -h most likely is the same as /usr/bin/rsync -h,

I suggest allowing urls to support a single groupings of args, like http://explainshell.com/explain/?args=mysql+-u+root+-p+-h+192.168.1.2

This way, I can use Chrome custom search engines to use explainshell

keyboard shortcuts to navigate the explanations would be really cool.
great site!

After we search for a command when we click on the search bar again it expands and comes over the github logo. The github logo should expand as well. I will try to check and correct it but I am not that good with css so it might take some time.

hi
can some1 help where are privelages in phpmyadmin of wamp server ??

http://www.manpages.info/sunos/prstat.1.html

Currently all paths/highlighting is updated when the mouse enters or leave an argument box. If you move the cursor up and down between arguments you get the following behaviour:

• Path to explanation highlighted
• All paths highlighted
• Path to new explanation highlighted

I think it would be easier to follow/less distracting if there was a delay between transitions so that it behaved something similar to:

• Path to explanation highlighted
• Path to new explanation highlighted

Some conceptual inspiration can be found at http://bjk5.com/post/44698559168/breaking-down-amazons-mega-dropdown

For some reason I've grown up typing this to start the mysql shell:

mysql -u -p

I'm not putting the password on the command line (that would be inadvisable, especially if I'm pasting that into explainshell). I'm saying "ask me for my password, and this is the database " which is exactly how the command is designed to work.

Explainshell parses that command incorrectly. It groups -p together as though it was -p even though you can't have a space after -p if you want what follows to be the password.

P.S. Thanks for explainshell. It's great.

process substitution <(command) is supported by all major modern shells (ksh/bash/zsh). a practical example might be diff <(ls /archives/$(pwd)) <(ls).

Other variations: $(), ``, >().

Hi, pacman which is the packet manager of ArchLinux was missing.

Thanks in advance,

honky

Here is an example :

http://www.explainshell.com/explain/scp?args=-P2762+~%2Fmy.cpt+mdk%40exp.com%3A~%2F

the -P2762 is understood, but underlined with the ~/my.cpt it should not, -P2762 is --port 2762 and ~/my.cpt is the first "[[user@]host1:]file1", seems that you parse "-P2762" as a long option and ~/my.cpt as a value of the long option.

To submit a missing man page please reply here with a link to it in raw format (nroff). Even better: I created a repo with all the source man pages I used here, clone it and send me a pull request.

Loops need explanation. (:

When running the command 'hey="hey"', the application complains that "no man page for hey="hey" " or something to that effect.

rsync -avplHtxS --compress --rsh=''ssh -o "Compression no"'' --progress --stats

This is actually a valid (and used) way to pass parameters to the rsync underlying ssh transport to turn off compression.

I tried it out with a random line from my .bashrc:

lremvd=`svn diff $@ | grep "^-" | grep -v "^---" | wc -l`

And everything until the first pipeline was picked up as a single command. I tried simplifying it a bit by removing the assignment:

echo `svn diff $@ | grep "^-" | grep -v "^---" | wc -l`

However, it that made it think I was echoing the text "`svn diff $@" through the pipeline. I tried getting rid of the echo:

`svn diff $@ | grep "^-" | grep -v "^---" | wc -l`

And it couldn't find a man page for "`svn".

The conclusion is that there is no code to detect code inside backticks. This is a great tool otherwise, though.

Breaks with commands such as 'dd if=/dev/null', whereas a simple 'dd if' works (despite being an invalid use of dd, of course)

http://explainshell.com/explain?cmd=git%20log%20--graph%20--abbrev-commit%20--pretty=oneline%20origin..mybranch

The branches at the end of the command should not be part of the --pretty. Would be great to get an explanation of the meaning of origin..mybranch.

What license is the core of explainshell licensed under?

Those would also be good to have, along with a choice of your OS.

(I didn't find any separate project for the website; apologies if I am posting this to the wrong place.)

An autodiscoverable OpenSearch plugin would be a nice addition to the site. Sample plugin code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<OpenSearchDescription xmlns="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/" xmlns:moz="http://www.mozilla.org/2006/browser/search/">
    <ShortName>explainshell</ShortName>
    <Description>match command-line arguments to their help text</Description>
    <InputEncoding>UTF-8</InputEncoding>
    <Image width="16" height="16" type="image/x-icon">data:image/x-icon;base64,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</Image>
    <Url type="text/html" method="GET" template="http://explainshell.com/explain">
        <Param name="cmd" value="{searchTerms}"/>
    </Url>
    <Url type="application/opensearchdescription+xml" rel="self" template="http://http://explainshell.com/opensearch.xml" />
    <moz:SearchForm>http://explainshell.com/</moz:SearchForm>
</OpenSearchDescription>

Sample code for making the plugin autodiscoverable:

<link rel="search" type="application/opensearchdescription+xml" title="explainshell" href="http://explainshell.com/opensearch.xml" />

I would appreciate command line version, so I could write explain tar xzvf archive.tar.gz or even explain !!.

Some of the pgp commands are not getting the explanation.

Probably the shell command should stick to the top so that easier to refer the description when scrolling down

After installing with gem I get the following error on my Ubuntu machine:

$ explain tar
Couldn't get a file descriptor referring to the console

The reason for this is that Ubuntu's /bin/open is a symlink to openvt which is not exactly what we want here. Replacing open by xdg-open solves the issue. Maybe that's possible for other platforms as well?

It should be fairly easy to make the parser aware of history expansions so the matcher could give more accurate help for things like !!.

Original bug report by VolMi:

It appears as if the BASH man page is not included…?!?
At least the commandlinefu.com #1 command

sudo !!

is not explained correctly.
But on my debian, the "!!" syntax is explained in man bash, like here:

!!

Refer to the previous command. This is a synonym for '!-1'.