What Is the History Behind pipes.sh and Pipeseroni?

Updated

pipes.sh began in early 2010, when Matthew Simpson posted the original Bash script to the Arch Linux Forums and later released it on Gist into the public domain. Pipeseroni, the collective that now maintains it, formed in 2015 when the MIT license was added and developers of related projects combined efforts. The history matters if you want to know who maintains the script, why several language versions exist, or what license applies when you reuse it.

Timeline of pipes.sh

When What happened
Early 2010 Matthew Simpson creates pipes.sh and posts it to the Arch Linux Forums; it is later posted to Gist and released into the public domain.
Early 2013 Yu-Jie Lin posts a modification of the script to Gist after reading about it on a blog.
2013 (a few months) The modified script is maintained independently on Gist.
2014 The script gets its own GitHub repository, which encourages contributions from other developers.
2015 The MIT license is added and the Pipeseroni collective is formed to maintain the projects.

Why the Project Split Into Several Versions

As pipes.sh gained popularity, the decision was made to combine forces with developers of similar projects. That is why Pipeseroni now hosts more than one program built on the same core pipes concept:

  • pipes.sh (Bash) — the original script.
  • pipes.c (C) — a version written in C.
  • snakes.pl (Perl) — a version written in Perl.
  • maze.py (Python) — a version written in Python.
  • pipesX.sh (Bash) — the original pipes, but with a diagonal weave.
  • weave.sh (Bash) — described as injecting some mathematics into your pipes.

If you only need the original behavior, pipes.sh is the reference implementation. If you want the same idea in another language, or a variation such as diagonal weaving, the list above tells you which file to look for.

What This Means If You Plan to Use or Reuse It

  • License: The MIT license was added in 2015, so reuse and modification are governed by that license rather than the earlier public-domain release.
  • Maintenance: Current members are listed on GitHub, so check that page if you need to know who is actively maintaining the projects.
  • Origin of changes: The 2013 modification by Yu-Jie Lin is the point where the script moved beyond the original 2010 release, which helps explain differences you may notice between older copies and the current repository.

The site itself is generated with GitHub Pages, and the project list above is the authoritative summary of what Pipeseroni maintains.