DOCSEARCH

Goal

First of all, I have a terrible memory and I always forget to backup notes, browsers bookmarks...

So, I tried to build a tool that can search for versionned data (using git) of different kind

This project aims to defined searchable data in YAML file (arbitrarily structured) and save knowledge accross different resources directories (for example to separate personnal and your company knowledge).

Using YAML structured data enables to:

• define a generic structure
• validate data definition (using linter)
• easily use data for humans and programs

Setup

From git

$ cd HOME/perso/git/
$ git clone <repository>

Configuration

$ cat ~/.bash_aliases
# ---------------------------
# DOCSEARCH
# ---------------------------
export DOCSEARCH_PATH="$HOME/perso/git/resources:$HOME/work/git/resources"
export DOCSEARCH_ROOT="$HOME/perso/git/docsearch"

export DOCSEARCH_COLORED=1

if [ -d "$DOCSEARCH_ROOT" ]; then
    alias docsearch="$DOCSEARCH_ROOT/docsearch.rb"

    # autocompletion
    if [ -f "$DOCSEARCH_ROOT/docsearch-completion.bash" ]; then
        . "$DOCSEARCH_ROOT/docsearch-completion.bash"
    fi
fi

Usage

Command line help

Usage: docsearch.rb [ FILTERS ] -s PATTERN
    -C, --cheats                     Restrict search on cheatsheets terms
    -G, --glossary                   Restrict search on glossary terms
    -L, --links                      Restrict search on links terms
    -e, --env                        Show useful DOCSEARCH_* environment variables
    -c, --colored                    Enable colored output
    -i, --inventory                  List all availabled topics
    -j, --json                       JSON output
    -p, --pwd                        Show matched file found
    -m, --match-colored              Enable colored match
    -s, --search terms               Keyword or term to search
    -t, --topic topic                Search on a specific topic

Examples

$ export DOCSEARCH_PATH="/tmp/docsearch-example/perso:/tmp/docsearch-example/work"

View DOCSEARCH environment

$ docsearch -e 

[*] DOCSEARCH_COLORED
color mode enabled

[*] DOCSEARCH_PATH
/tmp/docsearch-example/perso
/tmp/docsearch-example/work

View topics inventory

$ docsearch -i
[*] /tmp/docsearch-example/perso
git

[*] /tmp/docsearch-example/work
kubernetes

Simple search

$ docsearch -s check
[git] check submodules status
- git submodule status

[kubernetes] check kubectl version
- kubectl version --client

Search based on a specific topic

$ docsearch -s check -t kubernetes
[kubernetes] check kubectl version
- kubectl version --client

View full topic (aka cat topic.yaml)

$ docsearch -t kubernetes
[kubernetes] documentation
- https://kubernetes.io/docs/home/

[kubernetes] nodes
- set of worker machines

[kubernetes] check kubectl version
- kubectl version --client

Filter results based on data type

# Just links
$ docsearch -t kubernetes -L
[kubernetes] documentation
- https://kubernetes.io/docs/home/

# Just cheats
$ docsearch -t kubernetes -C
[kubernetes] check kubectl version
- kubectl version --client

# Just glossary
$ docsearch -t kubernetes -G
[kubernetes] nodes
- set of worker machines

JSON output

$ docsearch -t kubernetes -j | jq
{
  "cheats": [
    {
      "description": "check kubectl version",
      "data": [
        "kubectl version --client"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "glossary": [
    {
      "description": "nodes",
      "data": [
        "set of worker machines"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "links": [
    {
      "description": "documentation",
      "data": [
        "https://kubernetes.io/docs/home/"
      ]
    }
  ]
}

and more...

Technical information

Resources

Resources are paths where you want to stored your YAML files.

This design enables to store data in different location on your workstation and use a versionning system (like git).

You will need to define them as an environment variable named DOCSEARCH_PATH

Example

export DOCSEARCH_PATH="$HOME/perso/git/resources:$HOME/work/git/resources"

Data

For the moment, data can be links, cheats or glossary and stored in YAML files named <topic>.yaml such as:

$ cd $HOME/git/resources
$ cat kubernetes.yaml
links:
    -
        description: "documentation"
        data:
            - "https://kubernetes.io/docs/home/"
    -
        ...

glossary:
    -
        description: "nodes"
        data:
            - "set of worker machines"
    -
        ...

cheats:
    -
        description: "check kubectl version"
        data:
            - "kubectl version --client"
    -
        ...

Search mechanism

Searches are performed over the description fields. It is a simple regex matching.

Notes

This script has been developed using ruby 2.5.

License

docsearch is available under the Beerware license. If we meet some day, and you think this stuff is worth it, you can buy me a beer in return.