mult

Run a command multiple times and glance at the outputs.

mult -- curl -sSif https://flaky.service.example

🧰 Use Cases

mult can come in handy in a few scenarios, such as:

• Investigating inconsistent responses from a web server
• Checking the outcomes of a flaky test suite
• Running quick and dirty performance/stress tests

💾 Installation

Pre-built binaries

Download a pre-built binary from the latest release. See Verifying release artifacts for instructions on verifying your download.

Install from source

You can also install from source using the go toolchain:

go install github.com/dhth/mult@latest

⚡️ Quick start

mult -n 10 -- curl -sSif https://flaky.service.example

This runs the command 10 times, shows the status and duration of each run in the left pane, and displays the selected run's output in the right pane. Press <tab> to switch panes and ? for help.

mult runs commands concurrently by default. Without --num-runs, it starts 5 runs. Use --sequential to run them one at a time.

The -- separator prevents command flags from being interpreted as mult flags. mult executes the command directly, without invoking a shell, and captures its combined standard output and standard error. To use shell features such as pipes, redirects, or variable expansion, invoke a shell explicitly:

mult -- sh -c 'curl -sS https://example.com | wc -c'

Each invocation receives a 1-indexed MULT_RUN_NUM environment variable.

🎛️ Execution Options

Choose the number of runs

mult -n 10 -- yourcommand

The number of runs must be between 2 and 1000, inclusive. To enter it interactively instead, use:

mult -i -- yourcommand

Run sequentially

mult -s -- yourcommand

Pause between runs

Use --delay to wait between sequential runs. The value is in milliseconds.

mult -s -d 500 -- yourcommand

Stop on the first failure or success

mult -s -F -- yourcommand # stop on the first failure
mult -s -S -- yourcommand # stop on the first success

Follow the latest run

In sequential mode, follow mode automatically selects the latest run:

mult -s -f -- yourcommand

Press <ctrl+f> to toggle follow mode from the run list or output pane.

The --delay, --follow, --stop-on-first-failure, and --stop-on-first-success flags only apply in sequential mode.

📟 TUI

mult has three views:

• Command Run List View — Shows the status and duration of each run
• Output View — Shows the combined output of the selected run
• Help View — Shows the available keyboard shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts

General

Key	Action
<tab> / <shift+tab>	Switch focus between panes
?	Show or hide the help view
q / <esc>	Go back or quit
<ctrl+c>	Quit immediately

Command Run List View

Key	Action
j / ↓	Go to next run
k / ↑	Go to previous run
l / →	Go to next page (if applicable)
h / ←	Go to previous page (if applicable)
g	Go to start of the list
G	Go to the end of the list
<ctrl+r>	Restart all runs
<ctrl+f>	Toggle follow mode

Output View

Key	Action
j / ↓	Scroll output down
k / ↑	Scroll output up
l / →	Go to next run
h / ←	Go to previous run
<ctrl+r>	Restart all runs
<ctrl+f>	Toggle follow mode

>_ CLI reference

mult [flags] -- <command>

Flag	What it does
-n, --num-runs <number>	Set the number of runs (default: 5)
-i, --interactive	Prompt for the number of runs; takes precedence over -n
-s, --sequential	Run commands sequentially
-d, --delay <milliseconds>	Wait between sequential runs
-f, --follow	Start sequential runs with follow mode enabled
-F, --stop-on-first-failure	Stop sequential execution after the first failure
-S, --stop-on-first-success	Stop sequential execution after the first success
-h, --help	Show help

Run mult --help for the authoritative command-line reference.

🔐 Verifying release artifacts

Each release includes checksums for all artifacts. The checksum file is signed using cosign (version 3.1.3).

Replace x.y.z below with the release version you want to verify.

1. Get the checksum and cosign signature from the release:

   curl -sSLO https://github.com/dhth/mult/releases/download/vx.y.z/mult_x.y.z_checksums.txt
   curl -sSLO https://github.com/dhth/mult/releases/download/vx.y.z/mult_x.y.z_checksums.txt.sigstore.json

2. Verify the checksum file's signature:

   cosign verify-blob \
       --bundle mult_x.y.z_checksums.txt.sigstore.json \
       --certificate-identity-regexp 'https://github\.com/dhth/mult/\.github/workflows/.+' \
       --certificate-oidc-issuer "https://token.actions.githubusercontent.com" \
       mult_x.y.z_checksums.txt

3. Download the archive for your platform and validate its checksum. For example, for Linux x86-64:

   curl -sSLO https://github.com/dhth/mult/releases/download/vx.y.z/mult_x.y.z_linux_amd64.tar.gz
   sha256sum --ignore-missing -c mult_x.y.z_checksums.txt

4. Once both checks pass, extract the archive:

   tar -xzf mult_x.y.z_linux_amd64.tar.gz
   ./mult -h
   # profit!