PREDICTING A COMMAND IN A COMMAND LINE INTERFACE

• US 20130179460A1
• Filed: 01/11/2012
• Published: 07/11/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/11/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Cervantes, Ezequiel, Taljanovic, Nedzad, Acua, Jorge D.
• Granted Patent: US 9,384,184 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/758
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3346 using probabilistic model
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3349 Reuse of stored results of previous queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/274 Converting codes to words; Guess-ahead of partial word inputs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/33 Intelligent editors

Abstract

An apparatus for predicting a command in a command line interface includes a template command module, a parameter derivation module, and a parameter substitution module. The template command module is configured to determine a template command based on a command line history. The template command includes a command name and a parameter and the command line history includes two or more previously entered commands. The parameter derivation module is configured to determine a parameter derivation rule for deriving the parameter in the template command based on the command line history. The parameter substitution module is configured to substitute a substitute parameter for the parameter of the template command according to the parameter derivation rule.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a computer readable storage medium storing computer readable program code executable by a processor, the computer readable program code comprising;

a template command module configured to determine a template command based on a command line history, the template command comprising a command name and a parameter, the command line history comprising a plurality of previously entered commands;

a parameter derivation module configured to determine a parameter derivation rule for deriving the parameter in the template command based on the command line history; and

a parameter substitution module configured to substitute a substitute parameter for the parameter of the template command according to the parameter derivation rule.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the command line history further comprises outputs of the plurality of previously entered commands.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the template command module locates the template command by searching the command line history for a matching sequence that matches a current sequence.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the template command is a command immediately following the matching sequence.

5. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein searching the command line history for the matching sequence comprises searching for command names of the current sequence independently of command parameters.

6. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the matching sequences comprises the same command names as the current sequence.

7. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the current sequences comprises one or more commands that were most recently entered into the command line interface.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the parameter derivation module derives the parameter derivation rule by:

locating a parameter value within the template command;

searching the command line history for a match with the parameter; and

defining the location of the match with respect to the location of the parameter value of the template command.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the searching the command line history for a match with the parameter comprises searching one or more of:

commands previous to the template command; and

outputs previous to the template command.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the parameter derivation rule comprises one or more of

a command offset;

an line offset;

a delimiter character; and

a column offset.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the template command with the substitute parameter comprises a predicted next command.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the predicted next command is unique from any command in the command line history.

13. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the predicted next command is comprised in a first predicted next command and wherein the apparatus determines the first predicted next command and a second predicted next command.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, further comprising a priority module configured to prioritize the first predicted next command and the second predicted next command.

15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the first predicted next command and the second predicted next command are prioritized based on one or more of

a length of a matching sequence that matches a current sequence;

a number of occurrences for the matching sequence; and

how recently the matching sequence occurred.

16. A computer program product for predicting a command in a command line interface, the computer program product comprising:

a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therein, the computer readable program code configured to;

determine a template command based on a command line history, the template command comprising a command name and a parameter, the command line history comprising a plurality of previously entered commands;

determine a parameter derivation rule for deriving the parameter in the template command based on the command line history; and

substitute a substitute parameter for the parameter of the template command according to the parameter derivation rule.

17. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the template command with the substitute parameter comprises a predicted next command and wherein the predicted next command is unique from any command in the command line history.

18. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein determining a parameter derivation rule comprises:

locating a parameter value within the template command;

searching the command line history for a match with the parameter; and

defining the location of the match with respect to the location of the parameter value of the template command.

19. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the parameter derivation rule comprises one or more of

a command offset;

a line offset;

a delimiter character; and

a column offset.

20. A system comprising:

a command line interpreter configured to process commands entered at a command prompt in a command line interface;

a template command module configured to determine a template command based on a command line history, the template command comprising a command name and a parameter, the command line history comprising a plurality of previously entered commands;

a parameter derivation module configured to determine a parameter derivation rule for deriving the parameter in the template command based on the command line history; and

a parameter substitution module configured to substitute a substitute parameter for the parameter of the template command according to the parameter derivation rule.