idank/explainshell

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match command-line arguments to their help text

Stars: 14.2k
Forks: 851
Open beginner issues: 0
Indexed issues: 54

Dominant language: Python
License: GPL-3.0
Last GitHub push: Aug 26, 2026
Latest indexed: Sep 20, 2026
Contributing guide: No contributing guide
Code of conduct: No code of conduct
Beginner labels: No beginner labels indexed
PR merge metrics: No merged PRs in 30d

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54 open issues indexed

Doesn't support contextual flags with multiple definitions (i.e. `pacman -Rc`) Open

Difficulty 3/5 1-2 days Newbie friendliness 65/100

idank/explainshell#365 · 2 comments · Opened Aug 12, 2026
is there non-web edition? would be super cool to run it inside command line and use local /usr/share/man Open

Difficulty 4/5 3-5 days Newbie friendliness 35/100

idank/explainshell#354 · 2 comments · 4 reactions · Opened Apr 10, 2026
Can't render `for (( expr1 ; expr2 ; expr3 )) ; do list ; done` Open

Difficulty 3/5 1-2 days Newbie friendliness 45/100

idank/explainshell#343 · Opened Aug 18, 2025
Multiline explainer (with popups) Open

Difficulty 5/5 Over a week Newbie friendliness 25/100

idank/explainshell#327 · Opened Jun 22, 2024
Support prompt expansions Open

Difficulty 4/5 3-5 days Newbie friendliness 35/100

idank/explainshell#326 · Opened May 21, 2024
Parser doesn't support Arithmetic Expansion Open

Difficulty 3/5 1-2 days Newbie friendliness 42/100

idank/explainshell#325 · Opened Apr 11, 2024
Parser doesn't handle less's (and probably vim's?) "plus" arguments Open

Difficulty 3/5 1-2 days Newbie friendliness 45/100

idank/explainshell#320 · Opened Nov 8, 2023
the parser doesn't support 'pattern' constructs in the command you tried. Open

Difficulty 4/5 3-5 days Newbie friendliness 35/100

idank/explainshell#318 · Opened Aug 26, 2023
any intention on making a cli interface for this? Open

Difficulty 5/5 Over a week Newbie friendliness 20/100

idank/explainshell#307 · 9 comments · 9 reactions · Opened Dec 2, 2022
'time' command not showing information Open

Difficulty 3/5 1-2 days Newbie friendliness 35/100

idank/explainshell#301 · Opened Sep 21, 2022
Mobile version Open

Difficulty 5/5 Over a week Newbie friendliness 15/100

idank/explainshell#300 · 3 comments · Opened Aug 9, 2022
website is not mobile responsive Open

Difficulty 3/5 1-2 days Newbie friendliness 25/100

idank/explainshell#295 · Opened Jan 25, 2022
Love this Site Open

Difficulty 1/5 Under an hour Newbie friendliness 1/100

idank/explainshell#294 · 2 comments · 8 reactions · Opened Jan 25, 2022
Feature: Actually explain shell constructs Open

Difficulty 5/5 Over a week Newbie friendliness 25/100

idank/explainshell#282 · 2 reactions · Opened Aug 3, 2021
echo "$((TRUEKNOWLEDGE+=128))" Open

Difficulty 4/5 3-5 days Newbie friendliness 15/100

idank/explainshell#273 · Opened Feb 1, 2021
[feature] Add a simple expand command mode Open

Difficulty 4/5 3-5 days Newbie friendliness 45/100

idank/explainshell#266 · 1 reaction · Opened Aug 6, 2020
nix command "time" not supported Open

Difficulty 4/5 3-5 days Newbie friendliness 35/100

idank/explainshell#257 · 1 reaction · Opened Apr 6, 2020
Multi-Line input Open

Difficulty 4/5 3-5 days Newbie friendliness 35/100

idank/explainshell#256 · Opened Mar 27, 2020
[feature request] a simple theme making output easier to parse via shell scripts Open

Difficulty 3/5 1-2 days Newbie friendliness 45/100

idank/explainshell#250 · Opened Dec 22, 2019
Does not know `:` as alias for `true` Open

Difficulty 3/5 1-2 days Newbie friendliness 42/100

idank/explainshell#249 · Opened Dec 16, 2019
Weird output for gcc -Wl,option Open

Difficulty 3/5 1-2 days Newbie friendliness 42/100

idank/explainshell#246 · Opened Nov 8, 2019
'while IFS= -r -u 4 filename' broke any response about while loops Open

Difficulty 3/5 1-2 days Newbie friendliness 35/100

idank/explainshell#245 · Opened Nov 1, 2019
the parser doesn't support 'arithmetic expansion' constructs in the command you tried Open

Difficulty 4/5 3-5 days Newbie friendliness 35/100

idank/explainshell#243 · Opened Oct 13, 2019
[feature request] command line explainshell tool Open

Difficulty 5/5 Over a week Newbie friendliness 25/100

idank/explainshell#241 · 2 comments · 13 reactions · Opened Jul 9, 2019
Missing the manpage for time Open

Difficulty 2/5 1-3 hours Newbie friendliness 45/100

idank/explainshell#240 · Opened Jul 8, 2019
`command echo` isn't recognized as normal `echo` Open

Difficulty 3/5 1-2 days Newbie friendliness 35/100

idank/explainshell#213 · Opened Jun 13, 2018
Run shellcheck on input command Open

Difficulty 4/5 3-5 days Newbie friendliness 35/100

idank/explainshell#200 · 5 comments · Opened Jan 21, 2018
A more thorough explanation of redirections Open

Difficulty 4/5 3-5 days Newbie friendliness 35/100

idank/explainshell#196 · 1 comment · 1 reaction · Opened Oct 20, 2017
Incorrect output for complex gcc commands Open

Difficulty 4/5 3-5 days Newbie friendliness 25/100

idank/explainshell#194 · 4 comments · Opened Sep 14, 2017
'history' command not recognized Open

Difficulty 3/5 1-2 days Newbie friendliness 30/100

idank/explainshell#176 · 2 comments · 6 reactions · Opened Mar 29, 2017
"[[ -z $foo ]]" not parsed Open

Difficulty 3/5 1-2 days Newbie friendliness 35/100

idank/explainshell#174 · 2 reactions · Opened Feb 6, 2017
What do you think about support pipe? Open

Difficulty 5/5 Over a week Newbie friendliness 25/100

idank/explainshell#173 · 1 comment · Opened Feb 2, 2017
Idea: Create a tool to run programs by displaying a ncurses dialog to select/set parameters and then running it with them. Open

Difficulty 5/5 Over a week Newbie friendliness 20/100

idank/explainshell#172 · 1 reaction · Opened Jan 14, 2017
time { ruby doit.rb; } Open

Difficulty 3/5 1-2 days Newbie friendliness 30/100

idank/explainshell#168 · 1 comment · Opened Dec 13, 2016
Proposal: highlight under command Open

Difficulty 3/5 1-2 days Newbie friendliness 25/100

idank/explainshell#164 · 3 comments · Opened Nov 28, 2016
Fails to parse -std=c11 Open

Difficulty 3/5 1-2 days Newbie friendliness 35/100

idank/explainshell#159 · Opened Aug 1, 2016
Idea: CLI that replaces flags in a given command with corresponding longer versions Open

Difficulty 5/5 Over a week Newbie friendliness 25/100

idank/explainshell#156 · 2 comments · 1 reaction · Opened Apr 26, 2016
Does not support bash4 "coproc" Open

Difficulty 4/5 3-5 days Newbie friendliness 20/100

idank/explainshell#154 · 1 reaction · Opened Mar 10, 2016
explainshell should recognize `--' options (XCU) Open

Difficulty 3/5 1-2 days Newbie friendliness 35/100

idank/explainshell#144 · 1 comment · Opened Oct 27, 2015
Missing popover description of process/command substitutions Open

Difficulty 3/5 1-2 days Newbie friendliness 38/100

idank/explainshell#136 · 1 comment · Opened Oct 5, 2015
Mention word splitting and globbing Open

Difficulty 2/5 1-3 hours Newbie friendliness 45/100

idank/explainshell#129 · 2 comments · Opened Jul 1, 2015
Autocomplete Open

enhancement

Difficulty 5/5 Over a week Newbie friendliness 20/100

idank/explainshell#122 · 2 comments · 4 reactions · Opened Apr 10, 2015
Problem with git log -2 Open

Difficulty 3/5 1-2 days Newbie friendliness 35/100

idank/explainshell#116 · Opened Feb 5, 2015
Does not recognise multi-letter GCC options Open

Difficulty 3/5 1-2 days Newbie friendliness 35/100

idank/explainshell#113 · 4 comments · 1 reaction · Opened Nov 26, 2014
Misidentification of arithmetic expansions Open

Difficulty 3/5 1-2 days Newbie friendliness 42/100

idank/explainshell#109 · 1 comment · 1 reaction · Opened Nov 3, 2014
Head command -number Open

Difficulty 3/5 1-2 days Newbie friendliness 35/100

idank/explainshell#96 · 2 comments · Opened Jul 14, 2014
shell built-ins are missing Open

Difficulty 3/5 1-2 days Newbie friendliness 30/100

idank/explainshell#95 · 1 comment · Opened Jul 9, 2014
Auto-scroll on clicking a fragment of the shell Open

Difficulty 3/5 1-2 days Newbie friendliness 45/100

idank/explainshell#79 · 3 comments · 3 reactions · Opened Feb 7, 2014
add an HTTP API Open

Difficulty 5/5 Over a week Newbie friendliness 42/100

idank/explainshell#60 · 12 comments · 2 reactions · Opened Dec 5, 2013
Strip common bin paths when searching for program Open

Difficulty 3/5 1-2 days Newbie friendliness 45/100

idank/explainshell#49 · 1 comment · 1 reaction · Opened Dec 3, 2013

idank/explainshell

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