Imagine a shell where everything is data, it could be most useful and easy playing with data in command line. Nushell (or nu) is a modern, cross-platform shell that was first released in 2019. It aims to provide a more intuitive and user-friendly command-line interface, while also allowing users to automate complex tasks and manipulate data easily.
Nushell is mainly a CLI for interacting with data. It is designed to work seamlessly with other command-line utilities and scripting languages, making it an ideal choice for data processing and automation tasks. In this article, we'll take a closer look at some of the key features of Nushell and explore why it's becoming increasingly popular among developers, bug hunters and data analysts.
Nu Basics
Unlike other shells such as Bash or Zsh, Nushell focuses heavily on manipulating data in a structured and consistent manner. This means that users can easily work with data in CSV, JSON, and other formats, without having to resort to complicated parsing or regex.
Syntax of NuShell is designed to be easy to read and understand. To filter the output of a command, you would use the | symbol, which is known as a "pipe |". For example, to list all the files in a directory that end with ".txt", you would type the following command:
ls | where type == "file" and name =~ "*.txt"
Powerful Data Processing Capabilities
Nu includes a range of built-in commands for filtering, sorting, aggregating, and transforming data. For example, to sort a list of numbers in ascending order, you would simply type echo [3 1 4 2] | sort.
To group data by a particular column in a CSV file, you would use the group-by command. And to calculate the average of a set of numbers, you would use the mean command. You can find a full list of Nu commands in the book.
Easy Customization
Nushell is highly customizable, allowing users to define their own commands and aliases. This means that you can create your own commands to automate repetitive tasks, or to manipulate data in a way that suits your specific needs.
- Nu Config -
~/.config/nushell/config.nu
- Nu Environment -
~/.config/nushell/env.nu
Conclusion
With its ability to work with data from a variety of sources and its easy customization options, it's no wonder that Nushell is becoming increasingly popular among those who work with data on a regular basis.
