bash-dash (Beta)

(Slash) Dash commands are commands typed in the command line to run an action. bash-dash is a project created for n8n.io workflows, but you can use it with anything that can receive HTTP requests.

Installation

To use bash-dash, you need to have curl installed. Then, install bash-dash by running:

mkdir ~/.bash-dash && curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/n8n-io/bash-dash/main/bash-dash.sh -o ~/.bash-dash/bash-dash.sh && chmod 711 ~/.bash-dash/bash-dash.sh && curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/n8n-io/bash-dash/main/commands.sh -o ~/.bash-dash/commands.sh && echo "alias -- -=~/.bash-dash/bash-dash.sh" >> ~/.bashrc

bash-dash requires bash version 4+. Unfortunately does MacOS ship with the outdated bash version 3 (last patch is from 2006). We highly recommend upgrading it. How to upgrade Bash on MacOS

Usage

After installing bash-dash, you can test it and add your own custom commands.

Update command

We are continuously improving the bash-dash. To update to the latest version, run:

- --update

Call commands

To call a bash-dash command, type a dash - followed by the command you want.

For example, a weather command is invoked like this:

- weather

You can supply additional parameters by typing them after the command. For example, to get the weather in Berlin, run:

- weather berlin

bash-dash comes with a pre-specified test command. You can try it out by running:

- test

Custom commands

You can create custom bash-dash commands for your personal use-cases. To do this, open the file ~/.bash-dash/commands.sh and add a new line to the commands array. There are two possible formats in which you can add new commands, depending on how specific you need them to be: simple format and advanced format.

Simple Format

Add a new command by specifying the name of your custom command and the URL that should be called when the command is issued. The command will then make a GET request (by default) to that URL. Custom commands in simple format look like this:

commands[command_name]="YOUR_URL"

Advanced Format

If you want more control over your custom commands, use the advanced format, which allows you to specify three parameters:

• URL[required]: The URL that the bash-command should call
• METHOD[optional]: The HTTP Request-Method (default: GET)
• TEST-URL[optional]: The Test-URL to use (default: as described under "Call a test Webhook")

For example, to add the test command, type:

commands[test]="URL:http://localhost:5678/webhook/test|METHOD:GET|TEST-URL:http://localhost:5678/webhook-test/test"

Response formatting

You can format how the response gets displayed in the terminal by using backslash escapes \.

For example, to display the word "green" in green color, type:

The following text is \033[32mgreen\033[0m

If you use bash-dash with n8n workflows, you can edit the displayed text in the Response node. For example, could the bash-dash-weather workflow display the output like this:

You can find the different codes for colors and formatting options (e.g., bold, underline) here.

Call a test Webhook

You can call a test webhook by adding --test as the last parameter of a command. The command will then call the URL that was defined as TEST-URL. If a test webhook has not been defined, the command will replace /webhook/ with /webhook-test/ in the URL.

Examples

There are many possible use-cases of bash-dash. To give you some ideas, here are some examples of n8n workflows:

• - weather berlin to return the current weather in Berlin. You can find the workflow here.
• - asana My new task to create a new task in Asana. You can find the workflow here.
• - sms wife Will be home late to send a messge to your partner
• - serverStats production1 to return server statistics
• - spotify next to skip to the next song on Spotify
• - light to toggle your IoT light

Backend

You can use bash-dash with anything that can receive HTTP request calls.

The requests that bash-dash makes are by default GET-requests. Optional call-commands that are supplied will be sent as query parameters. The server has at least 2 minutes to send a response, which is then printed in the terminal.

Upgrade Bash on MacOS

Unfortunately MacOS doesn’t provide the latest bash version which may prevent you to take advantage of the latest features that came with bash 4 and 5. Also, running an outdated bash version probably exposes you to some major vulnerabilities.

MacOS comes with Bash version 3 which is quite limiting and lack key features like the bash associative arrays, improved auto-completion, better Posix conformance, etc.

Follow these steps to upgrade:

Let's check your version first

$ bash --version
3.2.53(1)-release

Install Homebrew if you don't have it yet

$ /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

Install latest bash version

$ brew update && brew install bash

Add new bash version to $PATH

If you run:

$ which bash

It will show you most likely, /bin/bash. You might want to add the new bash to your path by editing the ~/.bashrc or ~/.bash_profile files, by adding the following line:

# add to .bash_profile (recommended) or .bashrc
export PATH="/usr/local/bin:$PATH"

Now $ which bash should give you the Homebrew installation: /usr/local/bin/bash. If not, refresh your terminal session or run $ source ~/.bash_profile or $ source ~/.bashrc and try again.

Configure terminal to use it

$ sudo bash -c 'echo /usr/local/bin/bash >> /etc/shells'

if you are using bash as your main shell (you can check via $ echo $SHELL if this prints /bin/bash you do) you should change to the updated version:

$ chsh -s /usr/local/bin/bash

Now close/refresh you terminal session.

That's it! you can check which bash version you are running via: $ bash --version

License

bash-dash is Apache 2.0 licensed.