olafalders.com

On getting a more readable $PATH, installing “is” in GitHub Actions and using $GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY to put it all together.

When multiple versions of the same executable exist in your $PATH, the ‘is’ utility provides a clean way to discover all versions and their locations. This post demonstrates how ‘is’ can help identify version conflicts, clean up redundant installations, and streamline executable management with tabular and JSON output formats.

At the Perl Toolchain Summit a few of us shared our favourite command-line tools and terminal configurations. This compilation covers recommendations from Paul Johnson, Shawn Sorichetti, Mickey Nasriachi, Julien Fiegehenn, and Olaf Alders, including GPU-accelerated terminal emulators like WezTerm, file managers like yazi, advanced Neovim plugins, Git utilities, and system monitoring tools. Each tool includes descriptions and links for practical implementation.

The new “is battery” and “is known battery” subcommands can detect battery attributes with a clean, readable syntax. This post walks through practical examples of replacing complex shell commands with these new subcommands, demonstrating how they simplify a SketchyBar configuration on macOS. Learn how to check battery charge levels, charging state, and even conditionally load menu bar items based on whether your device has a battery.

I wanted a tool for debouncing shell commands, to ensure that tasks like installing nightly builds or running scripts only execute once within a set time period. This is the story of how I finally ended up with a solution that I’m happy with.

Earlier this year I was excited (one might even say well chuffed) when I heard that the London Perl Workshop was coming back after a hiatus of several years. I knew that in all likelihood I would not be able to attend, but it has been a bucket list item of mine for quite some time. You may be thinking to yourself that I have a weird bucket list. You’re not wrong.