Starter

Motivation

The problem that Starter solves is running multiple commands at the same time, to:

• Start all the processes with a single command.
• Show in the terminal the outputs of all the commands, each one in a different area.
• Allow stopping and restarting each command.

When can this approach be useful?

• Simulating distributed systems, each one represented by a running command.
• Setting up development environments, where multiple processes need to run at the same time.
• Running multiple commands in parallel, for example, when you need to run a command in multiple folders.

Why not use a simple shell script?

• It is not easy to show the output of each command in a different area.
• It is not easy to stop and restart each command.

Why not use multiple terminals, tmux, or screen?

• The goal is to have the output of each process showing up in the same terminal.
• Avoid the need to open multiple terminals and run each command manually.

Why not run the commands as system services?

• The goal is to run the commands in a development environment, where you need to see the output of each command.
• It is a user tool that doesn't require complex configuration or elevated privileges.

Limitations

This program is intended to run just a few commands at the same time (less than 6). It is assumed that these commands are not interactive, i.e., they don't require user input.

Installation

Requirements:

• Rust installed (1.70.0 or later).
• Cargo installed (1.70.0 or later).

cargo install starter

Or, if you prefer to clone the repository:

Clone the repository:

git clone git@github.com:datainquiry/starter.git

Go to the folder, build, and install the program:

cd starter
cargo build --release
cargo install --path .

Usage

To use this program, you need to create a configuration file that describes the processes you want to run. The configuration file is a YAML file that contains a list of processes to run. For each process, you need to specify:

• name: The name of the process. This is a custom name used to identify the process in the output.
• command: The command to run. This is the command that will be executed.
• args: The arguments to pass to the command. This is a list of strings that will be passed as arguments to the command.
• cwd: The current working directory for the command. This is the directory where the command will be executed. Paths can be absolute or relative.

Here is an example:

processes:
  - name: "Ping"
    command: "ping"
    args: ["-c", "10", "google.com"]
    cwd: "."

  - name: "List"
    command: "ls"
    args: ["-l", "."]
    cwd: "."

Once you have this file, assuming it is named runner.yaml, you can run the following command to start all the processes:

starter runner.yaml

Each process is assigned a number, starting at 1. Pressing the number key allows you to select the respective process. The space bar is used to stop and restart each process. Use up and down arrow keys to scroll throught the output of each process.

To quit, press q.

License

See the LICENSE file.