NOTE: the current implementation is written in Rust. Go into the cgrc-rust directory for it.

cgrc is a binary that can filter text to improve formatting in a console. It is based on the excellent grc tool, but it is written in C++ with Qt. It should be mostly compatible with it, but only a selection of features that I needed were implemented. The reason why cgrc exists is that grc proved to be too slow for me in a few cases, so I quickly implemented a version for myself in C++. This means that currently only a few configuration files are available, but you can add everything you need. Open a MR if you want to add something to the repo.

cgrc should be mostly compatible with grc, so refer to https://github.com/garabik/grc for more info about the configuration file it needs. There are anyway a few changes that I found useful for me. This is the syntax of the command:

Usage: cgrc [options] conf
Configurable terminal text formatter

cgrc formats text from stdin according to custom configuration files and outputs the result with ANSI escape codes to stdout. Configuration files includes a set of regular expressions with the related format to be used to the match and the captures.

Options:
  -h, --help             Displays help on commandline options.
  --help-all             Displays help including Qt specific options.
  --version              Shows the version of the application
  --list-locations       Shows the location to use for the conf files
  --list-configurations  List available configurations

Arguments:
  conf                   Configuration file

cgrc enumerates configuration files from three different locations:

1. embedded configuration directory;
2. user directory;
3. system directory.

The first location searched by cgrc is the binary itself. The binary includes some typical conf files. These files can be used without placing any configuration file on disk. The user directory is a user-specific directory, typically located in the user's home. The system directory is a directory in the filesystem accessible by any user. By using the --list-locations options, you can print the exact locations on your system:

Locations on your system used by cgrc:
        System location: "/etc/cgrc"
        User location  : "/home/luca/.config/cgrc"

Locations may change according to the OS you are using or the installation method. Snap packages, for instance, cannot read regular locations under strict confinement.

cgrc can print a summary of all the configurations currently available:

Embedded configurations:
         :/conf/dockerps -> Formats the output of docker ps.
         :/conf/logcat -> Parser the Android logcat output
         :/conf/nginx -> Formats the default nginx log output
         :/conf/ping -> Formats the output of the ping Linux command
         :/conf/prio -> Formats the output of logs containing typical words associated to priorities

User configurations:
         /home/luca/.config/cgrc/conf.dockerps -> ?

System configurations:
        None

The description is included in the configuration file.

cgrc reads from stdin and outputs to stdout. Example:

ping 192.168.0.2 | cgrc ping

where the second "ping" is the name of the configuration file to use. In this case, ping is a configuration file embedded in the binary.

Refer to the grc readme for writing configuration files. If you wrote conf files for grc, then it is likely it may also work with cgrc. cgrc also reads a "desc" field in the configuration file. This description is reported once the --list-configurations option is used.

Snap packages are available for cgrc for architectures amd64, armhf and aarch64. To install:

sudo snap install cgrc --edge

An entry is available in the AUR: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/cgrc.

cgrc requires the Qt tools and the Qt base module >= 5.15 (earlier versions are untested). It can only be built using cmake:

mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make

There are only a few configurations available at the moment, the ones that I use. You can add your own configurations if you want into local files. If you want to share your configurations, please open a MR.