gdir is a command line tool which queries Google Directions. The tool displays results as human-readable text.
gdir is listed on the Python Package Index and may be installed using pip as follows:
$ python -m pip install gdir
You will need a Google Directions API key. See Google Directions API documentation for instructions on how to obtain a key.
Set the shell environment variable GOOGLE_MAPS_API_KEY to your API key. This typically involves adding something like the following to your .profile file:
export GOOGLE_MAPS_API_KEY="XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXXX-XXXXXXXX"Note: If you don't want to set up your own API key, there is a web-based version of gdir - try viewing https://gdir.telae.net in a terminal-based browser like links, lynx, or w3m! The web-based version (repo also available on GitHub) implements most of the features described below.
Display directions from Tower Bridge, London to Buckingham Palace, using any mode of public transport and departing now:
$ gdir "Tower Bridge, London" "Buckingham Place"
08:02-08:30 (U) Tower Bridge, Tower Bridge Rd, London SE1 2UP, UK -> London SW1A
1AA, UK 6.1km
7mins Walk to Tower Hill 0.5km
08:10-08:21 TOWER HILL board Circle underground towards Edgware Road alight at
ST. JAMES'S PARK
10mins Walk to London SW1A 1AA, UK 0.8km
Display directions for the same origin and destination, but prefer to travel by bus and depart at 10:00am today:
$ gdir -b -d 10:00 "Tower Bridge, London" "Buckingham Place"
10:00-10:38 (BB) Tower Bridge, Tower Bridge Rd, London SE1 2UP, UK -> London
SW1A 1AA, UK 7.0km
4mins Walk to Boss Street (Stop T) 0.3km
10:03-10:18 BOSS STREET (STOP T) board 381 bus towards Waterloo alight at COUNTY
HALL (STOP G)
3mins Walk to Westminster Cathedral / Victoria Station (Stop M) 0.2km
10:29-10:30 WESTMINSTER CATHEDRAL / VICTORIA STATION (STOP M) board 11 bus
towards Walham Green alight at VICTORIA STATION (STOP G)
10mins Walk to London SW1A 1AA, UK 0.8km
Display multiple options for travelling from London to Edinburgh, arriving by 2pm tomorrow:
$ gdir -M -a 14:00+1 "London" "Edinburgh"
09:00-13:20 (T) London, UK -> Edinburgh, UK 632km
09:00-13:20 KING'S CROSS board Lner train towards Edinburgh alight at EDINBURGH
WAVERLEY
08:30-13:12 (T) London, UK -> Edinburgh, UK 632km
08:30-13:12 KING'S CROSS board Lner train towards Edinburgh alight at EDINBURGH
WAVERLEY
08:10-13:29 (TT) London, UK -> Edinburgh, UK 644km
08:10-11:50 LONDON EUSTON board Avanti West Coast train towards Glasgow Central
alight at CARLISLE
12:07-13:29 CARLISLE board Transpennine Express train towards Edinburgh alight
at EDINBURGH WAVERLEY
08:00-12:20 (T) London, UK -> Edinburgh, UK 632km
08:00-12:20 KING'S CROSS board Lner train towards Edinburgh alight at EDINBURGH
WAVERLEY
Display walking sub-steps for travelling from The National Gallery, London to Kew Gardens, London, using any mode of public transport and departing at 2pm on 15th September this year:
$ gdir -S -d 091514:00 "The National Gallery, London" "Kew Gardens, London"
14:05-15:11 (UT) Trafalgar Square, London WC2N 5DN, UK -> Royal Botanic Gardens,
Kew, Richmond TW9, UK 18.3km
3mins Walk to Charing Cross Station 0.2km
1 Walk southTake the stairs 69m
2 Turn right towards Trafalgar Square/A4 24m
3 Turn left towards Trafalgar Square/A4 48m
4 Turn right onto Trafalgar Square/A4Destination will be on the left
4m
5 Take entrance 29m
14:08-14:10 CHARING CROSS STATION board Bakerloo underground towards Elephant &
Castle alight at WATERLOO
4mins Walk to Waterloo Station 0.2km
1 Take exit 60m
2 Take entrance London Waterloo Rail Station 0.1km
14:20-14:36 WATERLOO STATION board South Western Railway train towards Reading
alight at RICHMOND
15mins Walk to Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond TW9, UK 1.1km
1 Take exit Richmond Rail Station 38m
2 Walk north-east on Kew Rd/A307 towards Sun AlleyGo through 1
roundabout 1.1km
3 Turn left 38m
4 Turn rightDestination will be on the left 11m
Note: If you get a no directions found error, try appending the city to your origin/destination address. See also the -R flag below for setting region bias.
Note 2: See -c -k -f flags below for setting other transport modes if required (driving, cycling, walking).
usage: gdir [-h] [-b] [-r] [-n] [-m] [-u] [-c | -k | -f]
[-d time_arg | -a time_arg] [-S] [-M] [-N] [-R region_code] [-C]
origin destination
Query the Google Directions API and write results to the standard output in
human-readable format. Uses public transport ('transit') mode by default.
Requires environment variable GOOGLE_MAPS_API_KEY defining a valid API key.
Language of directions is determined from locale configuration using
locale.getdefaultlocale(), which reads from LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, LANG and
LANGUAGE in descending order of priority. Word wrapping is achieved using
shutil.get_terminal_size(), which reads from COLUMNS and which may
alternatively use system calls to determine the terminal width, using a fall-
back value of 80 if the terminal width could not be determined. Scripts may
use the -N flag (see below) to disable word wrapping but should not make
excessive assumptions about the structure of output: When using the -N flag,
valid assumptions are 1) routes are delimited by empty lines 2) each route may
be represented as a two-column table, where rows are separated by newlines and
where the first and second column in the table are separated by a single space
3) values in the first column may be left-padded with a variable amount of
whitespace 4) the format of values in the first column may vary for all rows,
including the first row 5) route output may be followed by two empty lines,
followed by travel warnings and/or copyright/transport agency information.
Status codes: 0 success; 1 generic error; 2 invalid argument; 3
origin/desination not found; >=4 google-maps-services-python exceptions.
positional arguments:
origin start address (quote-enclosed) or latitude,longitude
pair
destination end address (quote-enclosed) or latitude,longitude
pair
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-b, --bus prefer to travel by bus
-r, --rail prefer to travel by rail (equivalent to train, tram,
underground)
-n, --train prefer to travel by train
-m, --tram prefer to travel by tram
-u, --underground prefer to travel by underground (a.k.a. subway)
-c, --car travel by car instead of public transport
-k, --bicycle travel by bicycle instead of public transport
-f, --foot travel on foot instead of public transport
-d time_arg, --depart time_arg
set departure time (see below)
-a time_arg, --arrive time_arg
set arrival time (see below)
-S, --substeps show sub-steps in output
-M, --multiple show multiple routes, if available
-N, --no-wrap disable word wrapping (affects command line mode only;
potentially useful for scripting)
-R region_code, --region region_code
set region bias using the specified top-level domain
two-character code (ccTLD)
-C, --copyright display copyright and transport agency information
(see Directions API terms and conditions)
Departure and arrival times are expressed in terms of local time at the origin
and destination, respectively. Times must be specified in the form
[[[[cc]yy]mm]dd]HH[:]MM[+N], where ccyy is the year, mm is the month (ranging
from 1 to 12), dd is the day (ranging from 1 to 31), HH is the hour (ranging
from 0 to 23) and MM is the minute (ranging from 0 to 59). When left
unspecified, ccyy, mm and dd values are assumed to be the current year, month
and day, respectively. For ambiguous times arising from daylight saving
transitions, it is assumed that the ambiguous time is expressed in the time
zone's standard time. The suffix +N may be used to offset the specified time
by N days. Thus, 12:00+1 means 'tomorrow at noon'.