Nushell 0.88.0

Nushell, or Nu for short, is a new shell that takes a modern, structured approach to your command line. It works seamlessly with the data from your filesystem, operating system, and a growing number of file formats to make it easy to build powerful command line pipelines.

Today, we're releasing version 0.88.0 of Nu. This release adds a spread operator, output stream improvements, dynamic switch support, and much more.

Where to get it

Nu 0.88.0 is available as pre-built binaries or from crates.io. If you have Rust installed you can install it using cargo install nu.

Note

The optional dataframe functionality is available by cargo install nu --features=dataframe.

As part of this release, we also publish a set of optional plugins you can install and use with Nu. To install, use cargo install nu_plugin_<plugin name>.

Table of content

Themes of this release / New features [toc]

Hall of fame [toc]

Bug fixes [toc]

Thanks to all the contributors below for helping us solve issues and bugs 🙏

authordescriptionurl
@dead10ckinto binary -c: return 0 as single byte#11068
@zhiburtFix #11047#11054
@fdncredtweak table example/parameter text#11071
@fdncredadd "default" table theme#11072
@fdncredcorrect table example syntax#11074
@fdncredoptimize/clean up a few of the table changes#11076
@sophiajtFix the output type for 'view files'#11077
@danielsomerfieldFix toolkit to run workspace on 'check pr' (issue #10906)#11112
@hustcerExit the release job if creating binary package failed#11145
@hustcerFix release and nightly build workflow#11146
@amtoinefix the link to the nu_scripts in std clip deprecation#11150
@NotLebedevCp target expansion#11152
@MarikaChlebowskaAdd metadata to some filters#11160
@sholderbachRevert "Adding support for Polars structs"#11171
@sigodenFix spans passed to external_completer#11008
@nibon7Add boundary check for str index-of#11190
@WindSoilderWhen using redirection, if a command generates non-zero exit code, the script should stop running#11191
@nibon7Fix span of invalid range#11207
@nibon7Fix capacity overflow caused by large range of ports#11210
@IanManskeFix get -i ignoring errors for only the first cellpath#11213
@dtolnayFix Option<&str> == Option<&String> build error when using rust_decimal/rkyv feature#11205
@nibon7Add checks for ports#11214
@ysthakurFix highlighting of spread subexpressions in records#11202
@nibon7Fix overlay_use_main_not_exported hanging when an external spam command exists#11261
@AucaCoyan🐛 Fixes markdown formatting on LSP hover#11253
@MarikaChlebowskaAdd more descriptive error message when passing list to from_csv#10962
@sophiajtRespect non-zero exit code in subexpressions and blocks#8984
@WindSoilderError on use path item1 item2, if item1 is not a module#11183
@KAAtheWiseGitMatch ++= capabilities with ++#11130
@fdncredAdd nu lib dirs default#11248

Enhancing the documentation [toc]

Thanks to all the contributors below for helping us making the documentation of Nushell commands better 🙏

authordescriptionurl
@sholderbachCurate developer documentation in tree#11052
@IanManskeBuild nu-protocol docs with all features enabled#11180
@poliorceticsfeat: Add default docs for aliases, generated from the command they point to#10825
@amtoinefix nu-std README#11244

Working on internals [toc]

Thanks to all the contributors below for working on internals of Nushell, such as refactoring the code 🙏

authordescriptionurl
@fdncredbump rust-toolchain to 1.72.1#11079
@nibon7Apply nightly clippy fixes#11083
@drbrainConvert ShellError::CommandNotFound to named fields#11094
@drbrainConvert ShellError::NetworkFailure to named fields#11093
@drbrainAdd Argument::span() and Call::arguments_span()#10983
@IanManskeRefactor Value cell path functions to fix bugs#11066
@sholderbachBump version to 0.87.2#11114
@sholderbachBump procfs to 0.16.0#11115
@drbrainRemove ShellError::FlagNotFound#11119
@drbrainConvert ShellError::AliasNotFound to named fields#11118
@drbrainConvert FileNotFound to named fields#11120
@hustcerUpgrade Nu and script for release workflow#11121
@sholderbachUse record API in describe --detailed#11075
@drbrainConvert FileNotFoundCustom to named fields#11123
@drbrainConvert PluginFailedToLoad to named fields#11124
@drbrainConvert PluginFailedToEncode to named fields#11125
@drbrainConvert PluginFailedToDecode to named fields#11126
@sholderbachMove more commands to opaque Record type#11122
@rfaulhaberBump sysinfo to 0.29.11#11166
@drbrainConvert more ShellError variants to named fields#11173
@WindSoilderadd echo_env_mixed testbin to reduce windows only tests#11172
@cosineblastRemove file I/O from tests that don't need it#11182
@drbrainConvert more ShellError variants to named fields#11222
@nibon7Explicitly indicate duplicate flags#11226
@ysthakurReduce code duplication in eval.rs and eval_const.rs#11192
@ayax79Upgrading to polars 0.35#11241
@IanManskeRemove unnecessary boxing of Stack::recursion_count#11238
@schrieveslaachUpgrade lsp-server Dependency#11252
@drbrainConvert Shellerror::GenericError to named fields#11230
@sholderbachBump version to 0.87.1#11056
@dead10ckTesting support tweaks: exit status in Outcome#10692
@nibon7Simplify clear implementation#11273
@drbrainConvert remainder of ShellError variants to named fields#11276

New spread operator for list and record literals [toc]

#10598 asked for a spread operator (...), and in #11006 and #11144, @ysthakur implemented a spread operator in lists and records, respectively. Spreading arguments to commands has not been implemented yet.

The spread operator can help you avoid append in lists, e.g., this:

let list = ["foo"]
[
    1,
    ...$list,
    ...("foo" | split chars),
    ...[3 9],
    []
] | to nuon

will give:

[1, foo, f, o, o, 3, 9, []]

In records, it can help you avoid merge, e.g., this:

let record = { a: "foo" }
{
    ...$record,
    y: "bar",
    ...{ z: 2 }
} | to nuon

will give:

{a: foo, y: bar, z: 2}

You can spread variables, subexpressions, and either lists (inside list literals) or records (inside record literals). Note that there needs to be no whitespace between the ... and the expression being spread.

Passing boolean switches dynamically [toc]

In last release, a distinction has been introduced between switches, e.g. --enable-feature, and boolean options, e.g. --do-something: bool. The former is simply used as --enable-feature and the latter expects a value as --do-something false.

Up until now, this had the downside of disallowing one to pass boolean switches to inner calls of commands. An example would be two commands, foo and bar, which both have a --switch and where foo is calling bar internally with the opposite switch. It would have to look something like

def bar [--switch] {
    print $"switch in bar: ($switch)"
}

def foo [--switch] {
    print $"switch in foo: ($switch)"
    if $switch {
        bar
    } else {
        bar --switch
    }
}

or bar would have to take a boolean value instead of a switch, which would make the command less nice to use as part of a public API...

def bar [--switch: bool] {
    print $"switch in bar: ($switch)"
}

def foo [--switch] {
    print $"switch in foo: ($switch)"
    bar --switch (not $switch)
}

In this release and thanks to the work of @WindSoilder in #11057, boolean switches can now be passed around. This will simplify the code above and still preserve the nice signature of bar :partying:

def bar [--switch] {
    print $"switch in bar: ($switch)"
}

def foo [--switch] {
    print $"switch in foo: ($switch)"
    bar --switch=(not $switch)
}

Redirection to standard streams is getting better [toc]

Once again, @WindSoilder has been working on the redirection system of Nushell, fixing a bug and adding a new very nice feature:

  • #10851: one pipeline output stream can be redirected and the other one used as input to the rest of the pipe. Given the following Bash script called foo.sh that outputs both to stdout and stderr
    echo aaaaa
echo bbb 1>&2
echo cc
    it is now possible to run the following command, redirecting bbb to a file and the rest to the lines | each { ... } part of the pipeline:
    bash test.sh err> err.txt | lines | each { str length}
    resulting in [5, 2] as expected and bbb inside err.txt.
  • #10764: append to file with the >> syntax instead of overwriting with >
    (1 + 2 + 3) out> sum.txt
"\n" out>> sum.txt
(4 + 5 + 6) out>> sum.txt
    will create a file called sum.txt with the following content
    6
15

One-time theming of tables is there [toc]

A common question and feature request from the community was: how can i change the theme of Nushell tables for just one command?

Because of how Nushell works, the way to do that has been the following for a long time

do {                                # use the scope of `do` to not alter the environment of the callee
    $env.config.table.mode = "none" # set the theme
    ls | table                      # call table to avoid just passing the value back to the callee and use the outside theme
}

In #11058, @zhiburt cracked the nut and added the long-wanted table --theme option. Below is a simple example:

  • let's define a table
let table = ls | where type == dir | reject type
  • and show it with a particular theme
$table | table --theme ascii_rounded
.#--name----size-------modified------.
|0|assets |4.1 KB|2023-12-05 18:32:30|
|1|benches|4.1 KB|2023-12-09 22:33:44|
|2|crates |4.1 KB|2023-12-09 22:33:44|
|3|devdocs|4.1 KB|2023-12-09 22:33:44|
|4|docker |4.1 KB|2023-12-09 22:33:44|
|5|scripts|4.1 KB|2023-12-09 22:33:44|
|6|src    |4.1 KB|2023-12-09 22:33:44|
|7|target |4.1 KB|2023-12-09 14:19:04|
|8|tests  |4.1 KB|2023-12-05 18:32:30|
|9|wix    |4.1 KB|2023-12-05 18:32:30|
'------------------------------------'

Exposing name of script to the wild [toc]

Coming from languages such as Python and Bash, it's quite expected to be able to access the name of the script itself the same way it's been called from the CLI: with sys.argv[0] in Python and $0 in Bash.

This was not possible in Nushell until the work of @p00f in #11203. This will expose to any script a new environment variable called $env.PROCESS_PATH and which will contain precisely something akin to argv[0]!

#!/usr/bin/env nu
# in demo.nu

def main [] {
    printf $"I was called as ($env.PROCESS_PATH)"
}
demo.nu          # will show "I was called as demo.nu"
./demo.nu        # will show "I was called as ./demo.nu"
/path/to/demo.nu # will show "I was called as /path/to/demo.nu"

Parsing human-friendly dates into Nushell values [toc]

In #11051, @fdncred added to into datetime the ability to parse human readable dates into Nushell datetime. This allows to write crazy things like

"Now" | into datetime        # same as `date now`
"A week ago" | into datetime # same as `(date now) - 1wk`

Note

see the full list of examples with into datetime --list-human

Show found externals via syntax highlighting in the REPL [toc]

We've added a new experimental feature that changes the syntax highlighting of text in the command position in the repl. Here's how it works. As you type, if a command is found with the current letter you've typed, the command will be highlighted according to your configuration of your color theme, specifically shape_external_resolved. As you keep typing, which fires to find out if the command is found or not. This allows you to know whether you've created a typo before you ever hit enter in the nushell repl.

Since this might have a performance impact, we've put this behind a configuration point named highlight_resolved_externals in the config.nu file. Set it to true to enable this functionality and false to disable it. It defaults to false.

Right now, with a dark theme, here's one way of configuring these colors, in the config.nu color theme, that showcases this functionality. Also, make sure you have highlight_resolved_externals set to true.

  shape_internalcall: cyan_bold               # internal commands that are found will be this color
  shape_external: darkorange                  # external "commands" that do not exist, will be this color
  shape_external_resolved: light_yellow_bold  # external commands that are found with `which`, will be this color

You can read more about it and see a gif in #11135 where @fdncred implemented the feature.

New "out of bound" error [toc]

@nibon7 introduces in #11201 a new error which is pretty common to programming languages: the "out of bound" error.

This will cause the following command to give an "out of bound" error:

"foo" | str index-of '' --range 10..11

Details on the 0.87.1 hotfix release [toc]

In between the last 0.87.0 release and the one from today, there has been a quick hotfix release to address two major bugs to two quite important filesystem commands: rm and cp.

Below are some details about these two bug fixes:

Need help to wrap... commands? [toc]

In the previous release, the extern-wrapped command has been deprecated and it is now being removed. An issue did persist though, making def --wrapped not a suitable replacement for the old command... which was fixed in #11235 by the changes from @KAAtheWiseGit: def --wrapped commands won't create a help page anymore, allowing to send -h and --help to other commands:

def --wrapped foo [...rest] { echo $rest }
foo --help -h

will give no help page

─┬──────
0│--help
1│-h
─┴──────

Restricting use of internal variables [toc]

Nushell features some internal variables that users can't redeclare, i.e. $nu, $env and $in.

Note

$env is the special of the three because one can mutate it with

$env.FOO = "i'm foo"

but it is impossible to do let env = 123

However, up until now and the work of @KAAtheWiseGit in #11169 and #11228, it was possible to redefined these variables in command definition: the code would parse and run, but you would get the internal values instead of the ones passed to the command, which is a nasty silent bug! From now on, the following will give an error

def foo [nu] { print $nu }
def bar [env] { print $env }
def baz [in] { print $in }

Also, because $nu and $env don't have spans by construction, i.e. they are not defined in any script where a span would make sense but rather internally when Nushell starts, accessing their metadata does not make sense. This release makes the error more helpful:

metadata $env
Error:   × Built-in variables `$env` and `$nu` have no metadata
   ╭─[entry #1:1:1]
 1 │ metadata $env
   ·          ──┬─
   ·            ╰── no metadata available
   ╰────

A small update on the LSP [toc]

@schrieveslaach has been working again on the built-in LSP of Nushell. With #10941, completions should get better with this release :partying:

Our set of commands is evolving [toc]

As usual, new release rhymes with changes to commands!

New commands [toc]

A local in-memory database with stor

With this release we've implemented a new sqlite family of commands called stor. stor is meant to be short for "storing data in an in-memory sqlite database". That's right, this family of commands supports an in-memory database. This in-memory database will be accessible as long as they share the same executable instance. A new instance is created with each new nushell instance and the in-memory database cannot be shared between instances. We're exited to see what new things you'll invent with this technology, although we still consider it in the experimental phase. Please feel free to submit PRs to make the usage of it better and more robust. There are examples of how to use each command in the PR.

Here the summary you get when you execute the stor command.

Usage:
  > stor

Subcommands:
  stor create - Create a table in the in-memory sqlite database
  stor delete - Delete a table or specified rows in the in-memory sqlite database
  stor export - Export the in-memory sqlite database to a sqlite database file
  stor import - Import a sqlite database file into the in-memory sqlite database
  stor insert - Insert information into a specified table in the in-memory sqlite database
  stor open - Opens the in-memory sqlite database
  stor reset - Reset the in-memory database by dropping all tables
  stor update - Update information in a specified table in the in-memory sqlite database

Flags:
  -h, --help - Display the help message for this command

Input/output types:
  ╭─#─┬──input──┬─output─╮
  │ 0 │ nothing │ string │
  ╰───┴─────────┴────────╯

Changes to existing commands [toc]

  • thanks to @KAAtheWiseGit in #11195, input list will accept more input/output types
  • the list<string> -> string I/O pair has been added to the last command by @amtoine in #11137
  • with the work of @IanManske in #11258, insert, update and upsert should now work more consistently with lists, e.g.
[0, 2] | update 0 {|i| $i + 1 }  # will give [1, 2]
[0, 1, 2] | insert 5 5           # will give "index too large" error

Deprecated commands [toc]

  • std clip in #11097: this command was handy but did not fit the philosophy of the standard library
  • std testing in #11151: even though in a VERY EARLY stage of its development, we would like to focus our efforts on the Nupm project and especially its simple nupm test command

Removed commands [toc]

as part of the deprecation plan of last release, the following commands and options have been removed by @amtoine:

  • extern-wrapped and export extern-wrapped in favor of def --wrapped in #11000
  • --not from glob in favor of --exclude in #10839
  • size in favor of str stats in #10784
  • unfold in favor of generate in #10773
  • def-env and export def-env in favor of def --env in #10999

Breaking changes [toc]

  • #8984 Respect non-zero exit code in subexpressions and blocks

Starting with this release, if a subexpression (eg (echo foo.txt)) or block (eg if true { echo foo.txt } evaluated to a non-zero exit code, it will no longer be lost and instead will be the exit code of that expression. This allows them to act more naturally when an external command fails.

  • #11144 No longer allow {a: 1, a: 2}

We now error if you repeat the same field name when creating a record, for example {a: 1, a: 2}.

  • #10999 remove def-env and export def-env
  • #11000 remove extern-wrapped and export extern-wrapped

We've removed the deprecated commands def-env and export def-env. Instead, use def --env. Likewise, we've done the same for extern-wrapped and export extern-wrapped. Instead, use def --wrapped.

  • #10773 remove the unfold command

We've renamed the previous unfold command. Instead, use the generate command.

  • #10784 remove size command in favor of str stats

We've also removed the size command, which had an ambiguous name. Now, use str stats to get information about string content.

This release replaces the confusing --not flag of glob to instead be glob --exclude.

  • #11058 nu-table/ Add -t/theme argument && Replace -n/start-number with -i/index

To make how to update the table numbering more clear, we've replaced table -n with table -i/table --index.

Full changelog [toc]

Nushell

Extension

Documentation

Nu_Scripts

Reedline

Edit this page on GitHub
Contributors: Ian Manske, Lily, Antoine Stevan, Yash Thakur, Darren Schroeder, Sophia June Turner