Shortening paths
Fit a file path into a fixed-width column with truncate(), keeping both ends — the directory it starts in and the file it names.
A path's two ends carry the information: where it starts and what file it names. Cut from the middle, and give the column a fixed width, and every path fits it exactly:
import { truncate } from 'linegauge';
const files = ['README.md', 'packages/linegauge/src/truncate.test.ts', 'apps/docs-linegauge/content/docs/recipes/shortening-paths.mdx'];
for (const file of files) console.log(`[${truncate(file, 24, { position: 'middle' })}]`);[README.md]
[packages/lin…ate.test.ts]
[apps/docs-li…g-paths.mdx]The ellipsis is inside the 24 columns, so the bracket never moves. A path that already fits
comes back as it was. For a log line where the file name matters most, cut from the start
instead: truncate(file, 24, { position: 'start' }) keeps the end.
A path with a wide character in it is cut by columns, not characters, so a Japanese directory name spends two of the 24 per character and the result is still no wider than 24.
Aligning columns
Pad text to a column count with width() and widest(), so CJK names and emoji do not push a column out of line the way padEnd does.
Wrapping help text
Wrap a paragraph to the terminal's width with an indent, and to a fixed width in a pipe or a test, so help output never runs off the right edge.