Chromix is a command-line and scripting utility for controlling Google chrome. It can be used, amongst other things, to create, switch, focus, reload and remove tabs.

Here's a use case. Say you're editing an asciidoc or a markdown document. The work flow is: edit, compile, and reload the chrome tab to see your changes.

Chromix can automate this, particularly the last step. Change the build step to:

markdown somefile.md > somefile.html && chromix load file://$PWD/somefile.html

Now, chrome reloads your work every time it changes. And with suitable key bindings in your text editor, the build-view process can involve just a couple of key strokes.

Jump straight to here for a list of available commands.

Chromix involves three components:

• A Chrome extension known as Chromi.
  Chromi is packaged separately. It is available either at the Chrome Web Store or from GitHub.
• A server: chromix-server.
• A client: chromix.
  This is Chromix's command-line and scripting utility.

This project provides the Chromix server and client.

To install:

sudo npm install -g chromix

Install Chromi.

The server executable is installed by the NPM module. The server can be run with an invocation such as:

chromix-server

The extension broadcasts a heartbeat every five seconds. If everything is working correctly, then these heartbeats (and all other messages) appear on the server's standard output.

By default, the server binds to localhost. To expose the server to devices outside of your local machine, set the bind address:

node script/server.js --host=0.0.0.0

The server might beneficially be run under the control of a supervisor daemon such as daemontools or supervisord.

The client executable is also installed by the NPM module. A chromix invocation looks something like:

chromix CHROMIX-COMMAND [ARGUMENTS...]

There are two types of Chromix commands: general commands and tab commands. The latter group operate on tabs.

chromix ping

This produces no output, but yields an exit code of 0 if Chromix was able to ping Chromi/Chrome, and non-zero otherwise. It can be useful in scripts for checking whether Chromi/Chrome is running.

This is the default command if no arguments are provided to chromix, so the ping, above, can be omitted.

chromix load https://github.com/

This first searches for a tab for which https://github.com/ is contained in the tab's URL. If such a tab is found, it is focussed. Otherwise, a new tab is created for the URL.

Additionally, if the URL is of the form 'file://.*', then the tab is reloaded.

If Chrome is running but has no window, then a new window will be created. However, if chrome is not running, then Chromix will not start it.

chromix with other close

This closes all tabs except the currently focused one.

Another example:

chromix with chrome close

This closes all tabs which aren't http://, file:// or ftp://.

The first argument to with specifies the tabs to which the rest of the command applies. other, above, means "all non-focused tabs"). The rest of the command must be a tab command.

Tabs can be specified in a number of ways: all, current, other, http (including HTTPS), file, ftp, normal (meaning http, file or ftp), pinned, or chrome (meaning not normal).

Any other argument to with is handled as follows. If it is an integer (specifically, if a prefix is parseable with parseInt) then it matches the corresponding tab identifier. Otherwise, it is taken to be a pattern which is used to match tab URLs. Patterns may contain JavaScript RegExp operators.

Here are a couple of examples:

chromix with "file:///.*/slidy/.*.html" reload
chromix with "file://$HOME" reload

The first reloads all tabs containing HTML files under directories named slidy. The second reloads all tabs containing files under the user's home directory.

chromix without https://www.facebook.com/ close

This closes all windows except those within the Facebook domain.

without is the same as with, except that the test is inverted. So without normal is the same as with chrome, and without current is the same as with other.

Here's another example:

chromix without "file://$HOME" close

This closes all tabs except those containing files under the user's home directory.

And another example:

chromix without pinned close

This closes all unpinned tabs.

chromix window

This ensures that there is at least one normal Chrome window. It does not start Chrome if Chrome is not running.

chromix newTab

Create a new, empty tab, creating a new window, if necessary.

chromix raw chrome.tabs.update '{"pinned":true}'

Pass raw function and arguments to Chrome.

The first argument is the name of a Chrome function. Subsequent arguments are JSON encoded arguments to the function. (The outer quotes ', here, are just protecting the JSON from shell expansion.)

chromix bookmarks

This outputs (to stdout) a list of all Chrome bookmarks, one per line.

chromix booky

This outputs (to stdout) a list of (some of) Chrome bookmarks, but in a different format.

Tab commands operate on one or more tabs. They are usually used with with or without, above.

chromix with http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/ focus

Focus the indicated tab.

chromix with http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/ reload

Reload the indicated tab.

chromix with current duplicate

Duplicate a tab. Chromix can duplicate many tabs at once, but duplicating the current tab is probably the most useful case.

chromix with http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/ reloadWithoutCache

Reload the indicated tab, but bypass the cache.

chromix with http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/ close

Close the indicated tab.

chromix with current goto http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/

Visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/ in the current tab.

(The naming here is a little confusing. Use load if you want to focus or switch to an existing tab.)

chromix with chrome list

List all open Chrome tabs to standard output, one per line. The output format is: the tab identifier, the URL and the title.

chromix with current pin

Pin tab.

chromix with current unpin

Unpin tab.

chromix url

Output the URL of the current tab.

chromix url | xsel

Copy the current URL to the X selection.

If a tab command is used without a preceding with clause, then the current tab is assumed.

So, the following:

chromix goto http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/

is shorthand for:

chromix with current goto http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/

If no command is provided, then ping is assumed. So:

chromix

is shorthand for:

chromix ping

Please post an "Issue" if you have ideas for improving Chromix.