explaingit

akavel/up

8,831GoAudience · developerComplexity · 1/5Setup · easy

TLDR

A terminal tool for Linux and macOS that lets you build text-processing command pipelines interactively, showing live output as you type each filter so you can refine commands without repeated trial and error.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((up - UltimatePlumber))
    What it does
      Live pipeline preview
      Edit as you type
      Save as shell script
    Workflow
      Pipe data in
      Type pipeline live
      CtrlX to save
    Features
      Scrollable output
      Freeze input buffer
      Target by process
    Platforms
      Linux binary
      macOS community port
    Audience
      Developers
      Linux power users
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Code map

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Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

Interactively build a complex grep or awk pipeline by watching live results update as you type each step.

USE CASE 2

Explore a log file's structure by typing filters in real time without running the command repeatedly from scratch.

USE CASE 3

Export a finished text-processing pipeline as a reusable shell script with a single keypress.

Tech stack

GoLinuxmacOS

Getting it running

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 5min

In plain English

Up, short for Ultimate Plumber, is a terminal tool for building Linux command pipelines interactively with a live preview. In Linux, a pipeline is a chain of text-processing commands where the output of one command feeds into the next. Normally you write the full chain, run it, see the result, adjust, and repeat. Up lets you do this in real time: you pipe some data into Up, then type your pipeline in an input box at the top of the screen, and the output appears immediately in a scrollable window below without having to press Enter after each adjustment. The workflow is to redirect any command's output into Up, then write and refine your processing pipeline while watching the results update. You can scroll through the output and continue editing the pipeline. When you are satisfied, pressing Ctrl-X writes the finished pipeline command to a shell script file in your current directory so you can reuse it later. Pressing Ctrl-C exits without saving. One practical note: because the pipeline runs live as you type, destructive commands like rm or dd would execute immediately. The README flags this clearly and recommends caution. For long-running input sources, there is a way to freeze the input buffer so that commands like wc or sort, which need to see all input before producing output, will show results on the data collected so far rather than waiting indefinitely. The tool is available as a binary download for Linux, and through package managers on Arch Linux, FreeBSD, and macOS. It is a hobby project written in Go by one developer, with macOS support described as community-maintained.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
How do I pipe a log file into the up tool and interactively filter for lines matching a pattern in real time?
Prompt 2
Show me how to use up to build an awk pipeline step by step and then save the final command to a shell script.
Prompt 3
How do I freeze the input buffer in up so that wc or sort can finish processing the collected data before showing results?
Prompt 4
How do I install up on macOS using Homebrew and run a quick test by piping some text through it?
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