The Awesome .bashrc File

Table of Contents

• Frequently accessed directories
• Command Shortcuts
• Compatible with commands from other OS
• Command Options
• Better Bash History
• SSH Hosts
• .bashrc vs .bash_profile
• Organize .basrch

Frequently accessed directories

export blog=/usr/local/google/home/jefferyyuan/jeffery/doc/blog
alias cdb="cd /usr/local/google/home/jefferyyuan/jeffery/doc/blog"
alias gdrive='cd ~/Google\ Drive'
alias cd1="cd .."
alias cd2="cd ../.."
alias cd3="cd ../../.."
alias cd4="cd ../../../.."
alias cd5="cd ../../../../.."
alias cd6="cd ../../../../../.."

Command Shortcuts

alias open=xdg-open
alias atb=atom-beta
alias markdownToHtml=/home/jefferyyuan/jeffery/doc/blog/resource/script/markdownToHtml.sh

alias q=exit
alias c=clear
alias grep='grep --color=auto'
alias egrep='egrep --color=auto'
alias fgrep='fgrep --color=auto'
alias ping='ping -c 5'

alias bashrc='atb ~/.bashrc'
alias reloadbash='source ~/.bashrc'
alias pserver='python -m SimpleHTTPServer 8000'

alert alias for long running commands

• usage: sleep 5; alert

alias alert='notify-send --urgency=normal -i "$([ $? != 0 ] && echo error)" "$(history|tail -n1)"'

Compatible with commands from other OS

If we have scripts that were originated written for MacOS, now we want to run it in another Linux System: for example, Debian. Some commands like “pbcopy and pbpaste” are only available in Mac. We can change the code to detect which command it should use like below:

pb() {
  if ! type "pbcopy" > /dev/null; then
    pbcopy
  else
    xsel --clipboard --input
  fi
}

Or we can just define alias in .bashrc:

function pbcopy () {
   xsel --clipboard --input "$@"
}
function pbpaste () {
  xsel --clipboard --output "$@"
}

Command Options

# Let there be color in grep!

export GREP_OPTIONS=' — color=auto'

# Set Atom-Beta as the default editor
export EDITOR="atom-beta --wait"

# http://bashrcgenerator.com/
# only show current directory
export PS1="\w \[$(tput sgr0)\]"

Better Bash History

# append to the history file rather than overwrite it
shopt -s histappend

HISTSIZE=9999999
HISTFILESIZE=9999999

# Store and reload the history immediately
PROMPT_COMMAND="PROMPT_COMMAND; history -a; history -c; history -r;"

# use one command per line
shopt -s cmdhist

HISTTIMEFORMAT="%h %d %H:%M:%S "
HISTCONTROL=ignorespace:erasedups
HISTIGNORE="history"

SSH Hosts

alias sshmycloud='ssh <insert whatever here>'

.bashrc vs .bash_profile

• .bash_profile: runs when user logins in the shell
• .bashrc: runs every time when user opens a new terminal
• Mac OS X’s Terminal runs a login shell by default for each new terminal window

Organize .basrch

• Put .bashrc (and other dotfiles) under version control.
• Make .bashrc a symlink to a place which we keep under version control

split .bashrc

• make a ~/profile.d directory, and source it in .bashrc:
• example: bash_aliases.sh

# Include profile.d files.
for i in ~/profile.d/*.sh ; do
     if [ -r "$i" ]; then
          . $i
     fi
done