Random Quotes

Rust app that displays a new quote every time you open a terminal

Setup

git clone git@github.com:program247365/random-quotes.git
cd random-quotes
make install

make install builds an optimized binary and installs it, together with quotes.csv, into $PREFIX (default ~/.kevin/bin). It then runs the installed binary to prove the install works, and warns if $PREFIX is not on your PATH.

make install PREFIX=~/bin   # install somewhere else
make uninstall              # remove both files from $PREFIX

To print a quote whenever you open a terminal, add the binary to your shell startup file:

echo 'random-quotes' >> ~/.zshrc.local

Updating

Re-run make install. It overwrites both the binary and quotes.csv in place, so there is nothing else to clean up:

git pull && make install

Usage

random-quotes              # print a random quote
random-quotes ~/mine.csv   # print one from a specific file
random-quotes --help       # full help (also -h, help)
random-quotes --version    # print the version (also -V)

With no FILE, it reads quotes.csv from the directory the binary lives in, so it works from any working directory.

Exit	Meaning
0	a quote was printed
1	the quotes file is missing or has no quotes
2	bad usage — the error and full help go to stderr

Because a missing file exits non-zero with a message on stderr rather than crashing, a broken install never derails your shell startup.

Who calls this

Running the bare command prints a quote, and that behaviour is load-bearing — a regression test in tests/cli.rs pins it. Known callers:

• ~/.zshrc.local — prints a quote on every new shell
• ~/.dotfiles/config/lua/plugins/dashboard.lua — pipes the quote into the Neovim snacks.nvim dashboard header

Quotes file format

RFC 4180 CSV, one quote per row, UTF-8:

"quote","author"
"Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.","Navy Seals"
"He said ""hello, world"" and left.","Anonymous"

• A quote,author header row is optional — it is skipped if present.

• Quoting every field is the safe default: commas, semicolons, colons, dashes, ellipses, and any Unicode all pass through untouched.

• A literal " inside a quote is escaped by doubling it (""), per RFC 4180. On output it is printed as a single quote, so the outer pair always marks where the quote begins and ends:

  "He said ""hello, world"" and left.","O'Brien, Jr."
    prints as:  "He said 'hello, world' and left." - O'Brien, Jr.
  

• Fields are trimmed, blank rows are skipped, and a trailing empty third column (from older exports) is ignored.

Development

make on its own prints every target it can run:

make            # same as make help
make check      # format check + clippy + tests, i.e. everything CI runs
make test       # tests only
make fmt        # format in place
make lint       # clippy, warnings treated as errors
make run ARGS=--help
make release
make clean

Targets document themselves: make help builds its listing from the ## comments in the Makefile, and a test fails if any target lacks one.

Tests live in two places — unit tests in src/main.rs and CLI tests in tests/cli.rs that drive the compiled binary. tests/fixtures/legacy-quotes.csv is the original 2019 quotes file, kept so the old format stays readable.

Future Things?

• Fix TODOs in program, once I get better at Rust ;)
• Allow specifying the filename via command-line options
• Integrate with Google Spreadsheets to fetch quotes