This repository contains a script that fills ~/.bash_aliases (or whatever file is used to store custom aliases, exports and so on) using text files.

Setup

Here is an explanation of how I use this repository, but script has arguments that make it flexible and adaptable to different usages.

In data folder I created file exports.txt with various exports: its content will be added as-is to ~/.bash_aliases, so it uses Bash syntax. Some exports differ based on distro, so I created exports-arch.txt and exports-debian.txt; others differ between personal PC and work PC, so I created exports-personal.txt and exports-work.txt.

Similarly I created aliases.txt, which contains frequent aliases, with aliases-arch.txt and aliases-debian.txt for distribution-specific aliases. Then I created path.txt for PATH and other.txt for remaining stuff.

Do note that if any file used during the execution is empty or does not exist it will be skipped, without raising any errors.

Usage

• -c specifies which files the script has to search for and in what order, in my case it is exports-aliases-path-other.
• -s allows to use specific files in addition to common ones, separated by hyphen if multiple, with empty one that refers to common file. Here are some examples to clarify (only exports are explained but same holds for any other category):
  • If empty or unspecified only exports.txt is used.
  • arch- uses exports-arch.txt and exports.txt in this order.
  • arch--personal uses exports-arch.txt, exports.txt, exports-personal.txt in this order.
  • -arch-personal uses exports.txt, exports-arch.txt, exports-personal.txt in this order.
  • arch-personal uses exports-arch.txt and exports-personal.txt in this order.
• -r is a flag used to write data in ~/.bashrc instead of ~/.bash_aliases.
• -p is a flag used to write data in ~/.bash_profile instead of ~/.bash_aliases.
• -o allows to use a custom output file.
• -a is a flag used to append content to output file instead of overwriting it.

Examples

If you copy samples directory content in repository directory, here are sample commands and their outputs, resulting files are included in samples directory as well.

Sample commands:

bash bash-config.sh -c exports-aliases-path -o output-arch.bash_aliases -s "-arch"
bash bash-config.sh -c exports-aliases-path -o output-debian.bash_aliases -s "-debian"
bash bash-config.sh -c exports-aliases-path -o output-common.bash_aliases

Respective outputs ([...] will be replaced by the directory where you cloned this repository):

+ Appended content of [...]/bash-config/exports.txt to output-arch.bash_aliases
+ Appended content of [...]/bash-config/exports-arch.txt to output-arch.bash_aliases
+ Appended content of [...]/bash-config/aliases.txt to output-arch.bash_aliases
- File [...]/bash-config/aliases-arch.txt not found, skipping it
+ Appended content of [...]/bash-config/path.txt to output-arch.bash_aliases
- File [...]/bash-config/path-arch.txt not found, skipping it

+ Appended content of [...]/bash-config/exports.txt to output-debian.bash_aliases
+ Appended content of [...]/bash-config/exports-debian.txt to output-debian.bash_aliases
+ Appended content of [...]/bash-config/aliases.txt to output-debian.bash_aliases
+ Appended content of [...]/bash-config/aliases-debian.txt to output-debian.bash_aliases
+ Appended content of [...]/bash-config/path.txt to output-debian.bash_aliases
- File [...]/bash-config/path-debian.txt not found, skipping it

+ Appended content of [...]/bash-config/exports.txt to output-common.bash_aliases
+ Appended content of [...]/bash-config/aliases.txt to output-common.bash_aliases
+ Appended content of [...]/bash-config/path.txt to output-common.bash_aliases