Built-in Commands

The aesh-builtins module provides ready-to-use POSIX-like command implementations for common shell operations. Instead of building basic commands from scratch, you can register these pre-built, tested commands in your CLI application.

Installation

Maven

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.aesh</groupId>
    <artifactId>aesh-builtins</artifactId>
    <version>3.17.5</version>
</dependency>

Gradle

implementation 'org.aesh:aesh-builtins:3.17.5'

Available Commands

File System Commands

Command	Class	Description
`cat`	`org.aesh.builtins.cat.Cat`	Display file contents
`cd`	`org.aesh.builtins.cd.Cd`	Change working directory
`ls`	`org.aesh.builtins.ls.Ls`	List directory contents with colors
`mkdir`	`org.aesh.builtins.mkdir.Mkdir`	Create directories
`mv`	`org.aesh.builtins.mv.Mv`	Move or rename files
`rm`	`org.aesh.builtins.rm.Rm`	Remove files and directories
`touch`	`org.aesh.builtins.touch.Touch`	Create files or update timestamps
`pwd`	`org.aesh.builtins.pwd.Pwd`	Print working directory
`pushd`	`org.aesh.builtins.pushd.Pushd`	Push directory onto stack
`popd`	`org.aesh.builtins.pushd.Popd`	Pop directory from stack

Text Processing

Command	Class	Description
`grep`	`org.aesh.builtins.grep.Grep`	Search text with regex, colored output
`echo`	`org.aesh.builtins.echo.Echo`	Print text to output

Display

Command	Class	Description
`less`	`org.aesh.builtins.less.Less`	File viewer with paging, search
`clear`	`org.aesh.builtins.clear.Clear`	Clear terminal screen

Usage

import org.aesh.AeshConsoleRunner;
import org.aesh.builtins.cat.Cat;
import org.aesh.builtins.cd.Cd;
import org.aesh.builtins.clear.Clear;
import org.aesh.builtins.echo.Echo;
import org.aesh.builtins.grep.Grep;
import org.aesh.builtins.less.Less;
import org.aesh.builtins.ls.Ls;
import org.aesh.builtins.mkdir.Mkdir;
import org.aesh.builtins.pwd.Pwd;
import org.aesh.builtins.rm.Rm;

public class MyShell {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        AeshConsoleRunner.builder()
                .command(Cat.class)
                .command(Cd.class)
                .command(Clear.class)
                .command(Echo.class)
                .command(Grep.class)
                .command(Less.class)
                .command(Ls.class)
                .command(Mkdir.class)
                .command(Pwd.class)
                .command(Rm.class)
                // Add your own commands here
                .command(MyCommand.class)
                .addExitCommand()
                .prompt("[myshell]$ ")
                .start();
    }
}

You can register all of them or just the ones your application needs.

Command Details

cat

Display one or more file contents:

[myshell]$ cat file1.txt file2.txt

grep

Search for patterns in piped input or (when piped) standard input:

[myshell]$ grep -i "error" /var/log/app.log
[myshell]$ cat file.txt | grep pattern

Options: -i (case insensitive), -c (count matches), -l (list filenames), -n (line numbers), -e (pattern).

less

View files with paging, search, and navigation:

[myshell]$ less large-file.txt

Key bindings:

Space / PgDn: Page down
b / PgUp: Page up
Enter / Down: Line down
Up: Line up
/pattern: Search forward
n / N: Next / previous match
g / G: Go to start / end
h: Help
q: Quit

Less also reads from piped input:

[myshell]$ cat file.txt | less

ls

List directory contents with color-coded file types:

[myshell]$ ls
[myshell]$ ls -la /tmp

pushd / popd

Directory stack for quick navigation:

[myshell]$ pushd /tmp
[myshell]$ pushd /var/log
[myshell]$ popd           # returns to /tmp
[myshell]$ popd           # returns to original directory

Legacy Extensions

The aesh-extensions repository contains additional commands that have not been moved to aesh-builtins, including matrix (terminal animation) and harlem (audio demo). These require the legacy aesh-extensions artifact:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.aesh</groupId>
    <artifactId>aesh-extensions</artifactId>
    <version>1.8</version>
</dependency>

Settings Configuration Command Registry