A while ago I made a few functions to handle all my bash files in a more automated way. Yes, “all”… I have a few.

When you setup your bash environment, you add your stuff to ~/.bashrc or perhaps ~/.bash_profile etc. Since they can get quite cluttered, I also have separate files for ~/.bash_aliases and ~/.bash_functions. It’s a great way to make things cleaner, better control/overview.

So, I hade a few aliases to handle the bash files. One (each) for open, reload (source file) and then to edit the file with nano. Of course, not so hard to type manually, but it has a simple pattern to it and one get use to it quite fast.

Example:

alias openBash='open ~/.bashrc'
alias openProfile='open ~/.bash_profile'
alias openAlias='open ~/.bash_aliases'
alias openFunc='open ~/.bash_functions'

alias reBash='. ~/.bashrc'
# etc.

alias nanoBash='nano ~/.bashrc'
# etc.

I also had that for .inputrc, .bash_history, .bash_logout etc… Then, by time, I’ve added a few others. I have separate files for git related stuff: .bash_git and two others for .bash_pacman and .bash_dnf. Not in my Mac but on each computer that runs Arch and Fedora.

As you can see, the list of aliases can grow quite large if you have an open-/re-/nano- for each file. I don’t mind that list and the pattern is easy to work with. But anyway…

Functions

Then I decided to make a few generic functions instead. Both in hope of reducing the code, and to make it more generic.

So, these are my new 3 functions… (in .bash_functions, of course ^^)

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# Usage: openBash [<letter>]
# Empty = .bashrc ($1 = 1st letter after .bash_)
function openBash()
{
  [[ $1 == 'i' ]] && open -e ~/.inputrc;
  [ -z $1 ] && open -e ~/.bashrc || \
  for file in $(ls -d ~/.* | grep bash | grep -v -e 'bashrc' | sed -e 's/.*\://'); do
      [[ $(echo $1 | cut -c 1) == $(echo `basename $file` | cut -c 7) ]] && open -e $file && break;
  done;
}

# Usage: nanoBash [<letter>]
# Empty = .bashrc ($1 = 1st letter after .bash_)
function nanoBash()
{
  [[ $1 == 'i' ]] && nano ~/.inputrc;
  [[ $1 == 'n' ]] && sudo nano /etc/nanorc;
  [ -z $1 ] && nano ~/.bashrc || \
  for file in $(ls -d ~/.* | grep bash | grep -v -e 'bashrc' | sed -e 's/.*\://'); do
      [[ $(echo $1 | cut -c 1) == $(echo `basename $file` | cut -c 7) ]] && nano $file && break;
  done;
}

# Usage: reBash [<letter>]
# Empty = .bashrc ($1 = 1st letter after .bash_)
function reBash()
{
  [[ $1 == 'h' ]] && return;
  [[ $1 == 'i' ]] && . ~/.inputrc;
  [[ $1 == 'n' ]] && . /etc/nanorc;
  [ -z $1 ] && . ~/.bashrc || \
  for file in $(ls -d ~/.* | grep bash | egrep -v -e 'bashrc|history' | sed -e 's/.*\://'); do
      [[ $(echo $1 | cut -c 1) == $(echo `basename $file` | cut -c 7) ]] && . $file && break;
  done;
}

That’s all…

The syntax/pattern is really simple. FUNCNAME [<letter>]. No letter defaults to .bashrc, and each letter is representing the first letter after the underscore.

openBash        # Opens .bashrc
openBash a      # Opens .bash_aliases
openBash f      # Opens .bash_functions
# etc..

And with a couple of special cases with nanorc and .inputrc. They’re manually coded to i and n. An of course… .bash_history is not included in reBash(). Could be devastating, mildly speaking.

Differences

What differs this (OS X) version from Linux/*BSD version is the command open. I have xgd-open installed, and aliased that to open, so one have to remove/change:

open -e     ->  open or xgd-open

Or you can of course use gedit or what program you use instead.

-e = open with TextEdit

If you’re on OS X you can replace that with: -a FavoriteProgram

Example: open -a BBEdit

Bonus

While it might look a bit “overkill”… The bonus part - it’s “scalable”. It can grow.

If I want to add another bash file I don’t need to add anything to it. Only thing is to keep track of the names so they won’t conflict:

.bash_functions
.bash_foo

Can’t have openBash f for both.

.bash_srv

Would work fine with openBash s.

Happy hacking…