• BartyDeCanter@lemmy.sdf.org
    8·
    5 months ago

    My version is definitely wordier, but I like it.

    add-alias() {
  if [[ -z "$1"  ||  -z "$2" ]]; then
    echo "Useage: add-alias <alias_name> \"<command_to_alias>\""
    return 1
  fi
  echo "alias $1='$2'" >> ~/.bash_aliases
  source ~/.bash_aliases
  echo "Alias '$1' for command '$2' added and sourced."
  
}

    And, of course, the first thing I test it with is $ add-alias alias-add add-alias.

  • palordrolap@fedia.io
    7·
    5 months ago

    I have an alias called save_aliases that does alias > ~/.bash_aliases. alias on its own just dumps all the existing aliases to the terminal in a format that can be parsed by Bash.

    I felt especially clever when I came up with that and used it to save itself.

    Bonus fact: ${BASH_ALIASES["name-here"]} is a way to get at the contents of an alias without resorting sed or cut shenanigans on the output of the alias command.

    • Pankkake@lemmy.world
      1·
      5 months ago

      Bonus fact: ${BASH_ALIASES["name-here"]} is a way to get at the contents of an alias without resorting sed or cut shenanigans on the output of the alias command.

      Doesn’t alias name-here already do that? That or I didn’t get what you mean.

      • palordrolap@fedia.io
        1·
        5 months ago

        alias name-here yields the line alias name-here='contents-of-alias-here' as output, and if you want just the part between the single quotes from that, sed, cut or, come to think of it, related shell tricks that do the same thing, would be needed to capture and convert it.

        ${BASH_ALIASES["name-here"]} is a name for what’s only between those single quotes.

        For example, I have a lot of preferences built into my alias for ‘ls’. Occasionally I want to run watch ls -l somefilespec to watch a directory listing for changes to a file. But commands fed to watch don’t go through the alias mechanism, leaving the output somewhat different to my preferences.

        It’s wordy, but watch ${BASH_ALIASES["ls"]} -l somefilespec mostly* achieves what I want.

        * Unfortunately, watch also causes the stripping of colour codes and I have --color=auto, not --color=force in my ls alias, so it’s by no means perfect - I have add the latter if I want colour - but I don’t have to type the rest of the preferences I have in there.

        FWIW, my ls alias is currently:

        alias ls='LC_ALL=C ls --color=auto --group-directories-first --time-style="+ %F %T"'
  • arran 🇦🇺@aussie.zone
    3·
    5 months ago

    And then you can immediately solve the issue with programs arbitrarily adding things to your rc file by running:

    add exit
    • alias_qr_rainmaker@lemmy.worldOP
      1·
      5 months ago

      programs arbitrarily adding things to your .rc

      umm why would you ever do that, i only add to my .rc when i come up with an alias i know i’m gonna use a bunch

      • arran 🇦🇺@aussie.zone
        1·
        5 months ago

        When I’m contracting at a client sometimes they have boot strap scripts which push configuration out to your rc files that I want to gate. (Usually b/c I am using my own equipment or doing something a little strange.)

        • alias_qr_rainmaker@lemmy.worldOP
          12·
          5 months ago

          When I’m contracting, I…

          uh…

          dude this is just a hobby for me, I didn’t get serious about it until like a few months ago. Before that I was recovering from a traumatic brain injury, and before that I couldn’t live on my own, and right before that it was December 2014. My first programming class was back in 2005, and I went to a coding bootcamp, but I haven’t actually made an effort to get hired until my fourth manic episode in November of this year.

          • arran 🇦🇺@aussie.zone
            1·
            5 months ago

            Sorry. I didn’t mean to offend and it’s not an attack at the project in anyway - sorry if it came across that way. I think tools to help you manage RC files are great. I just dislike tools that automatically inject themselves automatically (like rvm), my statement was in no regards about the tool you wrote.