CLI tools hidden in the Python standard library
Seth Michael Larson pointed out that the Python gzip module can be used as a CLI tool like this:
python -m http.server came in handy so many times!
@wasabi @learnbyexample one of my favorite super lazy ways to share a file
I use json.tool a lot to format JSON directly in vim. Simply highlight the text you want to format and run :!python3 -m json.tool. There are probably plugins to do this too, but doing it this way is probably the simplest, unless vim has a built-in for it.
Easier than grepping, you can just look at the standard library docs: https://docs.python.org/3/library/
How is that easier? It doesn't look like it provides a list of which modules have a __name__ == "__main__" block.
No. But, it does provide a list of all stdlib libraries and those, like gzip, that are intended to be compatible with the CLI tend to have explicit documentation showing usage (ex. https://docs.python.org/3/library/gzip.html) and provides any other contextual info related to using the library.
Don't get me wrong, grepping through the code is a great way of building skills needed as a professional. Really, I have to do this kind of thing multiple times every week at work. It is, however, also worth noting that Python only uses an "honor system" for public/private functions, methods, and classes so modules having an "if name == 'main'" block doesn't necessarily mean that they are appropriate to use as CLI tools. They might be but, without documentation to back it up, it's an "at your own risk" situation.
Pro tip: you can ignore filenames with ripgrep using -g "!test/". That should speed things up a bit.
CLITools can be hard to find, but when you do it's worth the effort.
python -m http.server has been a very useful tool to me, to test if a server is accessible.
Nice work!
