Looking out Wikipedia on the Linux command line with wikit

Have you ever ever imagined wanting up some subject on Wikipedia when you’re engaged on the Linux command line? What about displaying the ends in a unique language? Sure, it is attainable. In reality, it is fairly simple. The device that gives this service known as wikit (Wikipedia IT).

To test if wikit is put in in your system, simply sort “which wikit”. Whether it is, you’ll get a response like this:

$ which wikit
/usr/native/bin/wikit

If it is not, you may set up it, however you would possibly must first set up nodejs which wikit relies on and perhaps npm as effectively with a command like one among these:

$ sudo apt set up nodejs npm	# Debian/Ubuntu
$ sudo yum set up nodejs npm	# RHEL/CentOS
$ sudo dnf set up nodejs npm	# Fedora

Set up wikit utilizing a command like this:

$ sudo npm set up wikit -g

To strive wikit out, sort “wikit” adopted by the subject that you simply’re concerned with. For instance:

$ wikit IDG
 Worldwide Knowledge Group, Inc. (IDG) is a Massachusetts registered and
 headquartered media, occasions and analysis firm centered on the tech
 panorama. Based in 1964, it's made up of Worldwide Knowledge Company
 (IDC) and IDG Communications; the latter contains the manufacturers CIO journal,
 Computerworld, CSO, InfoWorld, JavaWorld, Macworld, NetworkWorld, PCWorld,
 and TechHive. IDG was purchased by China Oceanwide in 2017 whereas sustaining
 U.S. primarily based management.

A few of the Wikipedia content material is out there in a number of languages. To get the response to the command proven above in French, for instance, you could possibly do that:

$ wikit --lang fr IDG
 IDG est un sigle qui peut signifier : * informatique de gestion ; * Worldwide
 Knowledge Group, un groupe de presse américain ; * Indépendants de gauche,
 un groupe parlementaire sous la République française ; * Infrastructure
 de données géographiques, une organisation de partage d'informations géographiques
 ; * Initiative démocratique de gauche, un mouvement politique influant
 dans l'Aisne. IDG est un code qui peut signifier : *, Iowa, États-Unis,
 selon le code AITA des aéroports.

NOTE: To find out what letters to make use of to specify a selected language, go to this Wikipedia web page with ISO 639-1 (codes for the illustration of names of languages) codes.

Wikit will supply an inventory of presumably associated matters in case your search time period seems ambiguous. This occurs as a result of that is the response that Wikipedia is offering. Wikit is just passing your question to Wikipedia and delivering the outcomes.

$ wikit idg
? Ambiguous outcomes, "idg" could confer with: (Use arrow keys)
❯ IDG Ventures
  Apple Industrial Design Group
  Indigo Books and Music
  Makaziwe Mandela
  Australian Federal Police
  Worldwide Knowledge Group
  Fixed velocity drive
  Indo-Germanic
  Record of airports in Iowa
  Infinite by-product gravity

Some queries would require further element. For instance, if we’re look to seek out out one thing a couple of very small city in Virginia, we would want extra element than simply the city’s title:

$ wikit "Star Tannery"
Star Tannery not discovered :^(
$ wikit "Star Tannery, Virginia"
 Star Tannery is an unincorporated neighborhood in southwestern Frederick County,
 Virginia on the Shenandoah County line. Star Tannery is situated on Star
 Tannery Highway (State Route 604) off Wardensville Pike (State Route 55)
 alongside Cedar Creek. The Zip Code for Star Tannery is 22654.

Attempt to get comparatively native info like this in one other language and you may in all probability discover it is not out there.

$ wikit --lang de "Star Tannery, Virginia"
Star Tannery, Virginia not discovered :^(

One of many advantages of wikit is that you would be able to pull reference info from Wikipedia and redirect it right into a file that you simply’re constructing. For instance, you would possibly strive a script like this:

#!/bin/bash

cat record | whereas learn line
do
   echo $line
   wikit "$line"
achieved

To make use of this script, you have to to have recognizable matters in your “record” file, one subject per line. Then run the script whereas redirecting its output to a file like this:

./getinfo > REPORT

Now see: