Fox - Text Expander

Overview

fox is a lightweight CLI text expander for linux meant to help reduce repetitive typing. It can be used for anything from templating to email greetings and signatures.

Usage

Fox - Text Expander 0.1.0
Expands text abbreviations

USAGE:
    fox [OPTIONS]

FLAGS:
    -h, --help       Prints help information
    -V, --version    Prints version information

OPTIONS:
    -c, --config <config>    json file containing list of macros
    -d, --device <device>    Path to device file. Normally in /dev/input

Since fox reads keyboard presses, it requires escalated privileges to run or opening up privileges on /dev/input.

Macros

A sample macro file (macros) can be found in this repo. It is a json formatted text file that contains a list of the abbreviations and what they should expand to once typed. The default macro file used will be $HOME/.config/macros. Otherwise you can specify the path to your macro file with the -c flag.

Devices

Only one device (keyboard) can be used at a time. To list all your devices, you can use the command ls -al /dev/input/by-id. Then providing that path to the -d flag will set fox to listen to the provided device for keystrokes.

Examples

Use default keyboard and /root/.macros file

sudo ./fox

Use default keyboard and /home/userA/.macros

sudo ./fox -c /home/userA/.macros

Use USB keyboard and /home/userA/.macros

sudo ./fox -c /home/userA/.macros -d /dev/input/event17

Use default keyboard and /home/userA/.macros.

sudo ./fox -c /home/userA/.macros -d /dev/input/event17