Rewrite it in Rust

[teohhanhui]

Description

Rewrite hyfetch (Python) in Rust.

TODO:

• --config option to interactively create new config
• --june option for the Pride month animation
• --backend other than neofetch
  • fastfetch, fastfetch-old
  • qwqfetch (seems tricky... the integration was via importing the qwqfetch Python library and calling a function) replaced with a new backend - macchina
• --c-overlay option for experimental color overlay mode (probably remove as it's no longer useful) removed

Relevant Links

#296

Screenshots

TBD

Additional context

TBD

[teohhanhui]

Finally we have recolored ascii output:

The work is not done, but we're getting somewhere lol

[teohhanhui]

No more screen flickering: rust-malaysia#43

[nexplorer-3e]

Hello it's possible to save backend choice in config? Looks like directly run without specify backend with -b it would always use neowofetch.

[teohhanhui]

@nexplorer-3e Backend choice is saved in config. You can even run with e.g. hyfetch --config -b fastfetch the first time to not need neowofetch at all.

(Not the best experience on Termux, for example. If you don't pass -b fastfetch the first time it'll fail without a clear error message. Maybe we can have better logic to fallback to another backend if the default fails?)

[CarterLi]

Hyfetch will let user select the preferred backend, won't it?

I think the backend should default to fastfetch on Windows, at least.

[teohhanhui]

@CarterLi I'll add some heuristics for selecting the default backend.

UPDATE: Done. We now default to fastfetch except on non-Android *nix. The user should be able to tell they need to install fastfetch from the error message...

UPDATE 2: Changed to just default to fastfetch if it's installed (on any platforms).

[1337isnot1337]

Hello,
What's the project status on this? If there's anything left I can help with let me know. Just seems to be like there hasn't been any activity in a bit.

[teohhanhui]

@1337isnot1337 I think we just need to wait for @hykilpikonna to review and merge. Our work is done here, except for further improvements which could definitely be done as separate pull requests...

[eleanordoesntcode]

kinda annoying if this becomes the only option, as older OSes sometimes won't have support for that rust version (i.e. my PowerMac G5 with macOS 10.5)

[teohhanhui]

@eleanordoesntcode While I'm sympathetic to that struggle, ultimately that's an unsupported platform that has been unmaintained for a long time now...

The closest thing I could find with a quick Google search is this: https://www.wezm.net/v2/posts/2023/rust-on-ppc-classic-mac-os/ (the working approach that they found was to compile from Rust to WebAssembly, and then from WebAssembly to C, lol... and their target was Mac OS 9 🙈)

[teohhanhui]

/ping @hykilpikonna Have you had the chance to take a look at this rewrite yet?

[devnoname120]

IMO it's not a great idea because in its current state the tool runs anywhere with just a bash environment. Rewriting it in Rust makes it non-portable and a hassle to get working in some exotic environments.

[teohhanhui]

@devnoname120 No, the current version needs Python (and optionally Bash).

[catumin]

IMO it's not a great idea because in its current state the tool runs anywhere with just a bash environment. Rewriting it in Rust makes it non-portable and a hassle to get working in some exotic environments.

Do note that this rewrite is for specifically HyFetch, neofetch is staying as just the bash script. Currently, HyFetch requires a working python 3.7 or newer to be available which is going to limit which hardware it works on as well, though I think is still more widely available than Rust. But neofetch is staying completely portable.

[hykilpikonna]

Just published the last python release 1.99.0 and merged this PR. All future releases from this point will be in rust now. Thanks for all the great work!

[eleanordoesntcode]

@devnoname120 No, the current version needs Python (and optionally Bash).

@teohhanhui I was mentioning my G5 before, and this G5 can run the latest version of Python. However Rust does not compile for this machine. There is more support for Python on older machines so your argument is invalid
It's useless now since the change has been pushed anyway but yeah.

[teohhanhui]

@eleanordoesntcode Sorry for the confusion. I was not trying to make an argument, just making a factual correction.

But anyway, like I've said before, I'm sympathetic to trying to support as much old hardware as feasible. Perhaps we can consider doing the Rust (-> WASM) -> C build, then it should be truly portable.

Another project to maybe keep an eye on: https://www.reddit.com/r/rust/comments/1bhajzp/rust_to_c_compiler/ (and the latest status update I could find: https://www.reddit.com/r/rust/comments/1e5vrrs/media_the_rust_to_net_compiler_backend_can_now/)

Also to note:

Python 3.9 requires macOS 10.6 or newer.

So a bump in Python version requirement could easily have the same effect for your platform :(

[eleanordoesntcode]

@teohhanhui This G5 runs macOS 10.5. Again, by compiling Python from source it works just fine.

I'll keep an eye on those Rust to C projects.

[nexplorer-3e]

@teohhanhui Hello, are there any working installation methods? crate on https://crates.io/crates/hyfetch is just a stub, and when I trying to install by cargo install --path crates/hyfetch/, it throws failed to get distro ascii error:

Error: failed to get distro ascii

Caused by:
    0: failed to get distro name
    1: failed to get distro name from neofetch
    2: neofetch command not found

[teohhanhui]

@nexplorer-3e Sorry, I didn't try with cargo install. But I'll try to take a look today and send a PR if there's something that needs to be fixed.

neofetch command not found

You'd need neofetch or fastfetch in PATH

EDIT: There's nothing to be done here... cargo install is not capable of dealing with auxiliary files.

EDIT 2: Easy installation instructions after git checkout from master:

cargo install --locked --path crates/hyfetch
mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
cp neofetch ~/.local/bin/neowofetch

(Assuming ~/.local/bin is prepended to PATH. It's the default in Fedora at least.)