StdinFile

Reads stdin data, creates a temporary file that can be used by programs that accept file arguments but not stdin. This program simply prints the resulting temporary file's path, so that it can be used as an argument.

Examples

Highlight stdinfile's source with pygments, and view in google-chrome.

pygments -l python -f html -O full stdinfile.py | google-chrome "$(stdinfile)"

Compare the difference between shfmt's output and the original script using meld.

shfmt myscript.sh | meld "$(stdinfile)" myscript.sh

Save command output to a temporary file, for use later.

myfile="$(ls | stdinfile)"
echo "$myfile"
# Output: /tmp/stdinfile.kawk3fe1.tmp
cat "$myfile"
# Output: <whatever ls printed>

Command Help

Usage:
    stdinfile [-h | -v]
    stdinfile [-d dir] [-e ext]

Options:
    -d dir,--dir dir        : Temporary directory to use.
                              Default: /tmp
    -e ext,--extension ext  : Extension for temporary file.
                              Default: .tmp
    -h,--help               : Show this help message.
    -v,--version            : Show version.

Dependencies

This script requires the docopt library. It is installable with pip:

pip install docopt

Installation

Clone this repo and symlink this script somewhere in $PATH:

git clone https://github.com/welbornprod/stdinfile.git
cd stdinfile
# Assuming ~/.local/bin is in your $PATH:
ln -s "$PWD/stdinfile.py" ~/.local/bin/stdinfile