Printer 🖨️

A sophisticated TUI (Terminal User Interface) for managing print queues on macOS, built with Go and Bubble Tea.

Features

📊 Queue Management

• Real-time monitoring of system print queue with automatic refresh
• Batch operations for canceling multiple jobs
• Job details including file names, sizes, and status
• Quick actions to open files or their containing folders

📁 Advanced File Browser

• Dual-pane interface with keyboard-driven navigation
• Smart file detection automatically identifies printable formats (PDF, DOC, images)
• Glob pattern matching for filtering files (e.g., *.pdf, report-*.doc)
• Directory navigation with arrow keys or vim bindings
• Batch selection with toggle-all functionality for printable files
• Visual indicators distinguish directories 📁, printable files 📄, and regular files

🎨 Responsive UI

• Adaptive layout that scales to terminal size
• Focus indicators with colored borders showing active pane
• Scroll support for long file lists with position indicators
• Path display showing current directory in file browser
• XDG-compliant data storage respecting system standards

Installation

# Clone and build
git clone https://github.com/adriangalilea/printer.git
cd printer
make install  # Installs to ~/.local/bin

Ensure ~/.local/bin is in your PATH.

Usage

Launch Modes

# Open queue manager
printer

# Start in file picker with pattern
printer add ~/Documents/*.pdf
printer add "~/reports/2024-*.pdf"

Keyboard Shortcuts

Queue Mode

Key	Action
a	Add files (opens file browser)
o	Open selected file
O	Open file's folder
x	Cancel selected job
X	Cancel all marked jobs
Space	Mark/unmark job
r	Refresh queue
q	Quit

File Browser Mode

Key	Action
Tab	Switch between input field and file list
↑/k	Navigate up (moves to input when at top)
↓/j	Navigate down (moves to files from input)
←/h/Backspace	Go to parent directory
→/l	Enter directory
Space	Mark/unmark file (or toggle all)
Enter	Add marked files / enter directory
Esc	Return to queue

File Pattern Matching

The input field supports glob patterns:

• *.pdf - All PDFs in current directory
• report-*.doc - All docs starting with "report-"
• **/*.pdf - All PDFs recursively (if supported)

Architecture

Core Components

• main.go - TUI application logic with Bubble Tea framework
• system.go - System integration for print queue operations
• tracker.go - Persistent job tracking with XDG-compliant storage

Data Persistence

Print job metadata is stored in $XDG_DATA_HOME/printer/jobs.json (defaults to ~/.local/share/printer/) to maintain file path associations and enable file/folder opening features.

Supported File Types

Automatically detected as printable:

• Documents: .pdf, .txt, .doc, .docx
• Images: .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .gif

Requirements

• macOS (uses lpr, lpstat, cancel commands)
• Go 1.19+ for building
• CUPS printing system (standard on macOS)

Development

# Build
make build

# Run without installing
make run

# Clean build artifacts
make clean

Technical Stack

• Bubble Tea - Terminal UI framework
• Lip Gloss - Style definitions for terminal layouts
• Bubbles - TUI component library

License

MIT

Author

Adrian Galilea (@adriangalilea)