A TLDR client in Zig.

This is a fork of https://gitlab.com/ve-nt/outfieldr with fixes for Windows compatibility the benchmarks were carried out by the original author.

Usage

To view the TLDR page for chmod:

tldr chmod

Works with multiple-word pages as well, for example:

tldr git rebase

Update your local cache (you'll need to do this before using it for the first time):

tldr --update

To specify language (in this case, español):

tldr --language es bash

You can specify the platform too, it defaults to the platform the source was built for.

tldr --platform osx caffeinate

You can list all pages, as well as supported languages and operating systems:

tldr --list
tldr --list-languages
tldr --list-platforms

Specifying your language/platform alongside --list works as expected.

tldr --list --language fr --platform linux

Certain arguments may have both shortform and longform options available. Longform is the default. To display in shortform:

tldr git add --short-options

To display both shortform and longform options, ask for both:

tldr git add --short-options --long-options

You can also fetch a random page, just for fun. This respects your language and platform choice too.

tldr --random

For more, try:

tldr --help

Building

Install zig-0.15.1 and run:

$ zig build --release=fast -Dtarget=x86_64-native

Performance

I benchmarked against a few other tldr programs using Hyperfine with the following command:

hyperfine --warmup 100 \
	'./tldr-node-client/bin/tldr git commit' \
	'./tldr-c-client/tldr git commit' \
	'./tldr-python-client/tldr.py git commit' \
	'./tlrc/target/release/tldr git commit' \
	'./outfieldr/zig-out/bin/tldr git commit' \
	'./tealdeer/target/release/tldr git commit' \
	'./tinytldr/tldr git-commit'

Here are the results:

Program	Build Flags	Mean Time (ms)	User	System
Outfieldr	--release=safe	19.9 µs ± 57.5 µs	155.0 µs	183.9 µs
TLRC	--release	398.8 µs ± 106.2 µs	240.8 µs	523.9 µs ]
Tealdeer	--release	751.0 µs ± 119.7 µs	324.6 µs	706.9 µs
C Client	-O3	1.5 ms ± 0.2 ms	0.7 ms	1.0 ms
Tinytldr	-O3	2.6 ms ± 0.3 ms	1.3 ms	1.3 ms
Python Client	N/A	39.7 ms ± 1.2 ms	31.8 ms	7.6 ms
Node.js Client	N/A	377.9 ms ± 4.7 ms	425.2 ms	92.1 ms

Here is the raw log from Hyperfine:

Benchmark 1: ./tldr-node-client/bin/tldr git commit
  Time (mean ± σ):     377.9 ms ±   4.7 ms    [User: 425.2 ms, System: 92.1 ms]
  Range (min … max):   365.9 ms … 400.2 ms    1000 runs

Benchmark 2: ./tldr-c-client/tldr git commit
  Time (mean ± σ):       1.5 ms ±   0.2 ms    [User: 0.7 ms, System: 1.0 ms]
  Range (min … max):     1.4 ms …   2.4 ms    1000 runs

Benchmark 3: ./tldr-python-client/tldr.py git commit
  Time (mean ± σ):      39.7 ms ±   1.2 ms    [User: 31.8 ms, System: 7.6 ms]
  Range (min … max):    36.6 ms …  43.2 ms    1000 runs

Benchmark 4: ./tlrc/target/release/tldr git commit
  Time (mean ± σ):     398.8 µs ± 106.2 µs    [User: 240.8 µs, System: 523.9 µs]
  Range (min … max):   317.9 µs … 1154.7 µs    1000 runs

Benchmark 5: ./outfieldr/zig-out/bin/tldr git commit
  Time (mean ± σ):      19.9 µs ±  57.5 µs    [User: 155.0 µs, System: 183.9 µs]
  Range (min … max):     0.0 µs … 725.7 µs    1000 runs

Benchmark 6: ./tealdeer/target/release/tldr git commit
  Time (mean ± σ):     751.3 µs ± 119.7 µs    [User: 324.6 µs, System: 706.9 µs]
  Range (min … max):   664.3 µs … 1579.7 µs    1000 runs

Benchmark 7: ./tinytldr/tldr git-commit
  Time (mean ± σ):       2.6 ms ±   0.3 ms    [User: 1.3 ms, System: 1.3 ms]
  Range (min … max):     2.3 ms …   3.5 ms    1000 runs

Summary
  ./outfieldr/zig-out/bin/tldr git commit ran
   20.06 ± 58.27 times faster than ./tlrc/target/release/tldr git commit
   37.79 ± 109.47 times faster than ./tealdeer/target/release/tldr git commit
   77.67 ± 224.87 times faster than ./tldr-c-client/tldr git commit
  130.92 ± 378.91 times faster than ./tinytldr/tldr git-commit
 1999.62 ± 5783.72 times faster than ./tldr-python-client/tldr.py git commit
19012.19 ± 54988.72 times faster than ./tldr-node-client/bin/tldr git commit

TODO

• Pretty-print tldr pages

• Update the local cache by fetching/extracting a tarball from the tldr repo

• Make language overridable

• Make OS overridable

• Improve help page

• List all available languages

• List all supported operating systems

• List all available pages with small description

• Handle terminals that don't like color

• Conform to the TLDR Client Specification