Dev tools · September 16, 2024
Sol – A de-minifier for shell programs
I've built a tool called sol (like "soul") that helps you inspect and format complex shell one-liners. Features: - Choose which transformations you want (break on pipe, args, redirect, whatever) - "Peeks" into stringified commands (think xargs, parallel) and formats those, too - Auto-breaks at a given width (e.g., 80 characters) - Shows you non-standard aliases, functions, files, etc. that you might not have in your shell environment - Breaks up long jq lines with jqfmt because—let's be honest—they're getting out of hand As a security researcher and tool developer, I often encounter (or…
In plain words
Sol is a de-minifier tool that reformats complex shell one-liners into readable, multi-line code. It allows users to selectively apply transformations such as breaking on pipes, arguments, and redirects, while also inspecting stringified commands embedded in tools like xargs and parallel. The tool includes automatic line-width breaking, jq formatting support, and detection of non-standard aliases and functions. Sol is designed for security researchers, developers, and anyone who needs to understand, debug, or share complex shell scripts.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
In the maker’s words, at launch
I've built a tool called sol (like "soul") that helps you inspect and format complex shell one-liners. Features: - Choose which transformations you want (break on pipe, args, redirect, whatever) - "Peeks" into stringified commands (think xargs, parallel) and formats those, too - Auto-breaks at a given width (e.g., 80 characters) - Shows you non-standard aliases, functions, files, etc. that you might not have in your shell environment - Breaks up long jq lines with jqfmt because—let's be honest—they're getting out of hand As a security researcher and tool developer, I often encounter (or create) long pipelined Bash commands. While quick and powerful, they can be a nightmare to read or debug. I created sol to make it easier to understand and share these commands with others.
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