Shortname

Shortname is a tool built to make it easier to get to your favorite sites.

Usage

First run the binary to create an initial config:

$ sudo ./shortname -f $HOME/.shortnamerc        # need sudo since we're on port 80

Now, edit your ~/.shortnamerc file and give it some appropriate mappings:

sites:
  drive: https://drive.google.com
  hn: https://news.ycombinator.com

Finally, go to hn/ in your browser, and you should see a Hacker News redirect!

You can also go to paths on your links! For example if I have:

sites:
  gp: https://github.com/pennlabs/

I can go to gp/kittyhawk/ in my browser, and it'll take me to github.com/pennlabs/kittyhawk!

Finally, if you want a list of all your sites, just go to sn/ in your browser to get a json-serialized list of all your sites and where they redirect to.

Installation

Make sure you've got go installed, and go get the package:

$ go get github.com/pawalt/shortname

Once you've got the binary, make sure it's in your path, and you're ready to roll. I recommend starting it at login if your OS supports that.

Enabling on startup

Since shortname has to run as root, we have to start it up with an init process like systemd. If you're using systemd, drop this file at /etc/systemd/system/shortname.service:

[Unit]
Description=shortname
After=network.target
StartLimitIntervalSec=0
[Service]
Type=simple
Restart=always
RestartSec=1
User=root
ExecStart=/home/<YOUR_USER_HERE>/bin/shortname -f /home/<YOUR_USER_HERE>/.shortnamerc

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Now start it and enable it at startup:

$ sudo systemctl enable shortname
$ sudo systemctl start shortname