listargs

Little helper command line tool that list arguments received in a easy to inspect way.

Screenshots

Install

Download:

curl -O 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/fabianoengler/listargs/master/bin/listargs'

Set executable permission:

chmod +x listargs

Verify it's working:

./listargs "arg1" "arg with spaces" "

Optionally copy to your path:

sudo cp -v listargs /usr/local/bin

Usage

Try these:

listargs "arg1" "arg with spaces" "two  spaces"

You should a nice colored output showing the exact arguments received and how the arguments were split.

Listargs is also useful to see invisible characters like tabs and spaces in the start and end of arguments:

listargs "arg with spaces" "two  spaces" and$'\t'tab "  startendspace  "

If you pipe it to a command, it should show escape characters instead of colors:

listargs "arg with spaces" "two  spaces" and$'\t'tab "  startendspace  " | cat

Enable compact mode:

LA_COMPACT=1 listargs "two  spaces" with$'\t'tab "  start-end-space  "

Set compact mode for all subsequent commands:

export LA_COMPACT=1
listargs "arg1" "arg with spaces" "two  spaces"
listargs "three   spaces" with$'\t'tab "  start-end-space  "
listargs non-escaped      spaces    are ignored   by    shell