btcli

An online command-line translation tool for Chinese and other languages with TUI interface.

(^-^)

Description

btcli is a command-line translation tool that provides a TUI (Text User Interface) for easy access to Baidu Translate API. It supports multiple languages and provides a convenient way to translate text directly from the command line.

Features

• Command-line interface with TUI
• Support for multiple languages
• Configuration management
• Error handling and logging
• Cross-platform compatibility

Installation

To build and install btcli, you'll need Rust and Cargo installed on your system.

Clone the repository and build:

git clone https://github.com/RevengingSA/btcli.git
cd btcli
cargo build --release

The binary will be available in target/release/btcli.

Usage

First, configure your Baidu Translate API credentials:

# Edit config.toml with your API credentials
# Or run the program once to generate an example config
./btcli

The application supports both TUI (Text User Interface) mode and pure command-line mode:

# Interactive TUI mode
./btcli

# Command line mode - basic translation
./btcli "text to translate"

# Command line mode - with options
./btcli -t zh "Hello world"              # Translate to Chinese
./btcli -s en -t zh "Hello world"      # Specify source and target languages
./btcli --help                         # Show help information
./btcli --version                      # Show version information

Command Line Options

The command-line interface supports the following options:

• -s, --source LANG: Specify the source language (e.g., en, zh)
• -t, --target LANG: Specify the target language (e.g., en, zh)
• -h, --help: Display help information
• -v, --version: Display version information

Examples:

# Basic translation (uses configured default languages)
btcli "Hello world"

# Translate to specific language
btcli -t zh "Hello world"

# Specify both source and target languages
btcli -s en -t fr "Hello world"

# Get help
btcli --help

Dependencies

• Rust 1.70+
• Cargo
• UPX (optional, for binary compression)
• tar (for packaging)
• zip (for packaging)

Build Script Usage

The unified build script supports various options:

# Build with default formats (zst,zip) for all common platforms
./scripts/build.sh

# Clean build artifacts
./scripts/build.sh clean

# Build with specific compression formats
./scripts/build.sh build --format zst
./scripts/build.sh build --format zip,gz

# Check dependencies
./scripts/build.sh check

# Build for specific target platforms
./scripts/build.sh --target x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
./scripts/build.sh --target x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu,aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu
./scripts/build.sh --target x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu --format zst

# Build with all files in a single directory (no debug/release separation)
./scripts/build.sh --allin

UPX Compression

For release builds, you can compress the binary with UPX to reduce file size:

# Build the release binary
cargo build --release

# Compress the binary with UPX
cargo run --release --bin post_build

This will reduce the binary size significantly (typically by 60-70%).

MSYS2 Environment Notes

When using the build script in MSYS2 environment:

• The script detects MSYS2 automatically
• Dependencies are checked but not automatically installed
• Install missing packages manually using pacman -S package-name
• Typical packages needed: mingw-w64-x86_64-rust, mingw-w64-x86_64-upx, zip, tar

Multi-Platform Support

The build script supports cross-compilation for multiple platforms:

• Linux x86_64: x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
• Linux ARM64: aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu
• Linux RISC-V64: riscv64gc-unknown-linux-gnu
• Windows ARM64: aarch64-pc-windows-msvc
• Android ARM64: aarch64-linux-android
• Android ARMv7: armv7-linux-androideabi
• Android x86_64: x86_64-linux-android
• Android x86: i686-linux-android

Install targets with: rustup target add <target>

Termux Support

The build script also works in Termux environment on Android:

• The script automatically detects Termux environment
• Install dependencies with: pkg install rust cargo tar zip upx rustup zstd
• Cross-compile for various platforms as described above
• By default builds for Android targets: aarch64-linux-android, armv7-linux-androideabi, x86_64-linux-android, i686-linux-android

Output Files

The build script generates files with the naming convention: btcli-{version}-{os}-{arch}.(tar.zst|zip|tar.gz|tar.xz)

Each archive contains:

• debug/ directory with debug binaries and all debug artifacts (.d, .rlib, deps/) (normal mode)
• release/ directory with release binaries and all release artifacts (normal mode)
• Or all files in a single directory (when using --allin flag)

License

This Source Code Form is subject to the terms of the Mozilla Public License, v. 2.0. If a copy of the MPL was not distributed with this file, You can obtain one at http://mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/.

Copyright (C) 2026 S.A. (@snoware)

Author

S.A. (@snoware)