Simple Unix tools

Simple Unix commandline tools written in Haskell.

This is intended as a beginner's tutorial for learning Haskell from a "Let's just solve things already!" point of view. The examples should help give a flavor of the beauty and expressiveness of Haskell programming.

import Control.Monad.Instances
import Data.List
import Data.Char
import Data.Maybe
import Text.Printf
import System.Environment
import Text.Regex.Posix
 
-- First, three helpers
io f = interact (unlines . f . lines)
 
showln  = (++ "\n") . show
 
regexBool r l = l =~ r :: Bool -- simple boolean regex matching
 
-- remove duplicate lines from a file (like uniq)
uniq    = nub   -- Warning: Unix uniq discards *consecutive* dupes,
                -- but 'nub' discards all dupes.
 
-- repeat the input file infinitely
rpt     = cycle
 
-- Return the head -10 line of a file
take'   = take 10
 
-- Remove the first 10 lines of a file
drop'   = drop 10
 
-- Return the head -1 line of a file
head'   = head
 
-- Return the tail -1 line of a file
tail'   = last
 
-- return the last ten lines of a file
tail10  = drop =<< subtract 10 . length
 
-- Reverse lines in a file (tac)
tac     = reverse
 
-- Reverse characters on each line (rev)
rev     = map reverse
 
-- Reverse words on each line
rev_w   = map (unwords . reverse . words)
 
-- Count number of characters in a file (like wc -c)
wc_c    = showln . length
 
-- Count number of lines in a file, like wc -l
wc_l    = showln . length . lines
 
-- Count number of words in a file (like wc -w)
wc_w    = showln . length . words
 
-- double space a file
space   = intersperse ""
 
-- undo double space
unspace = filter (not.null)
 
-- remove the first occurrence of the line "str"
remove  = delete
 
-- make a string all upper case
upper   = map toUpper
 
-- remove leading space from each line
clean   = map (dropWhile isSpace)
 
-- remove trailing whitespace
clean'  = map (reverse . dropWhile isSpace . reverse)
 
-- delete leading and trailing whitespace
clean'' = map (f . f)
    where f = reverse . dropWhile isSpace
 
-- insert blank space at beginning of each line
blank   = map (s ++)
     where s = replicate 8 ' '
 
-- join lines of a file
join = return . concat
 
-- Translate the letter 'e' to '*', like tr 'e' '*' (or y// in sed)
tr a b = interact (map f)
    where f c = if c == a then b else c
 
-- Delete characters from a string.
tr_d a = tr a ' '

-- lines matching the regular expression "[bf]oo" from a file
grep = filter (regexBool "[bf]oo")
 
-- lines not matching the regular expression "[bf]oo" from a file
grep_v  = filter (not . regexBool "[bf]oo")
 
-- number each line of a file
num  = zipWith (printf "%3d %s") [(1::Int)..]
 
-- Compute a simple cksum of a file
cksum   =  foldl' k 5381
   where k h c = h * 33 + ord c
 
-- And our main wrapper
main = do
    who <- getProgName
    maybe (return ()) id $ lookup who $
        [("blank",       io blank                  )
        ,("cksum",       interact (showln . cksum) )
        ,("clean",       io clean''                )
        ,("echo" ,       interact id               )
        ,("drop",        interact drop'            )
        ,("grep",        io grep                   )
        ,("grep -v",     io grep_v                 )
        ,("head",        io (return . head')       )
        ,("join",        io join                   )
        ,("num",         io num                    )
        ,("remove",      io (remove "str")         )
        ,("revw",        io rev_w                  )
        ,("reverse",     io rev                    )
        ,("reverseword", io rev_w                  )
        ,("rpt",         io rpt                    )
        ,("sort",        interact sort             )
        ,("space",       io space                  )
        ,("tac",         interact tac              )
        ,("take",        io take'                  )
        ,("tail",        io (return . tail')       )
    --  ,( "tr"  ,    interact tr)
    --  ,( "tr -d",   interact (tr_d . unwords))
        ,("unspace",     io unspace                )
        ,("upper",       interact upper            )
        ,("uniq",        interact uniq             )
        ,("wc_c",        interact wc_c             )
        ,("wc_l",        interact wc_l             )
        ,("wc_w",        interact wc_w             )
        ]

How to run

These functions can be executed as one liners from a shell. For example, to use the Haskell version of 'wc':

   $ cat file.txt | ghc -e 'wc_l' UnixTools.hs

Or, one could define 'main' to be a chosen tool/function (add a line to the effect that "main = wc_l") and then compile the tool with

   $ ghc --make UnixTools.hs

The given Haskell codes presents yet a third way of doing things: much like the BusyBox suite of Unix tools, it is possible to compile a single monolithic binary and have it detect what name it is run by and then act appropriately. This is the approach the following code takes: you can compile it and then make symbolic links (like "ln -s UnixTools echo; ln -s UnixTools cat" ) and then run those commands ("./echo foo | ./cat" would produce output of "foo").

Where to now?

• Haskell.org
• The Haskell standard list library, with docs
• Alternative implementations of the wc program
• Learn how to test Haskell code
• More Haskell code
• Haskell for shell scripting
• Export list functions to the shell with h4sh
• Checking for correct invocation of a command line haskell program
• Poor man's here document