User interaction

Shell vs command line¶

Shell mode will read and interpret the command and arguments as provided by the user
Command line mode (alien.py command arg1 arg2 ..) will first be interpreted by the shell
- Make sure to quote what is passed to alien.py: alien.py ‘command arguments’

Command completion (with TAB) (command only)
LFN completion: in special cases that are aware of lfn only arguments.
- N.B. subject to network latencies, each completion is a network query
Command history saved to ${HOME}/.alienpy_history
Default saving of last CWD
- Global value (racy between multiple parallel sessions)
  - so, pay attention when using relative paths
- Disabled by env var ALIENPY_NO_CWD_RESTORE set to any value
Shell mode prompt customizations (date and/or local cwd):
- In the current session with:
  - prompt date
  - prompt pwd
- Global settings of: ALIENPY_PROMPT_DATE and ALIENPY_PROMPT_CWD
Chaining of commands by separator ;
Piping the result of first AliEn-side command to the local shell.
- the first pipe will pass the result of left side to the right-side that is executed within local shell
Aliases definition in ${HOME}/.alienpy_aliases
- Format: tag=cmd1;cmd2;cmd3
- no logical operations between commands.
Enable json output
- per session: alien.py -json command
- per command: alien.py command -json arg1 arg2 ..