i've spent a solid week searching online and trying many different ways to solve a tricky problem. basically i would like to use vim to edit custom commands / scripts that are in my $PATH without having to actually cd to their given directories first or manually type their full paths on the command line.
in essence, i'd love to be able to combine stock bash command completion (compgen -c) with simultaneous path expansion when specifying scripts in my $PATH as vim FILE ARGUMENTS. btw i'm using the caps to make clear what can be a tricky subject and not shouting.
it's probably easier to show you what i'm trying to do then explain it. lets say i have scripts in directories that are on my $PATH
~/bin/x/y/cmd1.sh
~/bin/a/b/cmd2.sh
/ppp/n/m/cmd3.sh
sometimes these scripts provide functionality on files that exist in other directories so i'd like to be able to edit them easily from anywhere in the file system. sometimes i just want to be able to edit those scripts from other directories because it's more convenient. lets say i'm currently in the following directory.
/completely/different/dir
but now i need to vim edit
~/bin/a/b/cmd2.sh
my options to achieve this solely with default bash functionality is to do one of the following which takes a long time
cd ~/bin/a/b/; vim cmd.sh
vim ~/<tab-complete-my-way-to-file>
open a new terminal window plus some combination of the above
since i know the names of my custom scripts it would be soooo much easier to just do the following which requires no tab completion of the full path to the file or directory as well as no cd'ing to a different directory to change my context!!!
vim cmd2.sh
but this won't work by default b/c vim needs the full path to the script
my first thought was to write a vim wrapper function which basically uses which to do the $PATH expansion for me and then tie bash command completion to my vc function like this:
vc () { vim $(which "$#"); }
complete -c vc
i can run the following in the shell to complete partial script names that start with "c" from the choices of cmd1.sh, cmd2.sh, cmd3.sh
vc c<tab>
until i get what i want here which is great
vc cmd2.sh
when i hit enter and execute the command it all works fine BUT it doesn't inject the expanded path into the READLINE command line and thus the FULL EXAPANDED PATH of 'cmd2.sh' never winds up in my command history! my history will show this
vc cmd2.sh
instead of
vc ~/bin/a/b/cmd2.sh
or
vim ~/bin/a/b/cmd2.sh
i want that expanded path in my command history because it makes future operations on that script file super easy when reusing command history. ie i can ls, file, diff, mv, cp that expanded path much easier reusing history than writing more wrapper scripts for ls, file, diff, mv, cp etc.. like i had to do with vc above.
QUESTIONS :
OPTION 1
is there a way to reinject the full expanded path provided by which in my vc function directly back into the original vc READLINE or just inject the entire "vim " command that actually gets executed in vc as a replacement for the original vc command into READLINE? any method that allows me to get the expanded vim command into the history even if it is in addition to the original vc command is ok by me.
basically how do you access and edit the current READLINE programmatically in bash?
OPTION 2
note i can also do something like this DIRECTLY on the command line in real-time
vim $(which cmd2.sh) C-x-e
which gives me what i want (it expands the path which will then put it into history) but i have to always type the extra subshell and which text as well as the C-x-e (to expand the line) on every iteration of the command while losing the command completion functionality which basically makes this useless. put another way, is there anyway to automate the above using a bind key so that
vc cmd2.sh
is automatcially transformed first into
vim $(which cmd2.sh)
and then automatically follows up with C-x-e so that it gets expanded to
vim ~/bin/a/b/cmd2.sh
but have all the editing movement, text insertion and final command line expansion happen all in the same bindkey macro? this might be the best solution of all.
OPTION 3
alternatively, since bash command completion automatically winds up in the READLINE and thus the history, a custom completion function would solve my problem. is there a way to make vc use a completion function that would BOTH complete commands in $PATH when used as vim arguments as described above AND ALSO SIMULTANEOUSLY EXPAND THEM TO THEIR FULL PATHS?
i know how to write a basic completion function. countless hours of attempts (which i am choosing not to put here to keep confusion / post length down) are failing for the simple reason that i'm not sure command completion is compatible with simultaneous full path expansion b/c it breaks traditional completion.
with a custom completion function, here's what happens when i try to find one of my scripts "cmd2.sh" living in "vim ~/bin/a/b/cmd2.sh" but start with a "c" and hit "".
vim c<tab>
instead of getting me these completions to choose from
cmd1.sh
cmd2.sh
cmd3.sh
it completes the first one it finds in the $PATH and inserts it into the READLINE which might be
/ppp/n/m/cmd3.sh
when i really want
~/bin/a/b/cmd2.sh
this effectively kills the completion lookup because the word before my cursor in the READLINE now starts with /ppp/n/m/cmd3.sh and there's no way of getting back to cmd2.sh
i hope that's clear.
thanks
This requires some boilerplate in your .bashrc file, but might work for you. It makes use of the directory stack (some might say it abuses the directory stack, but if you aren't using it for anything else, it might be OK).
In your .bashrc, add each directory of interest to your directory stack. End the list with your home directory, as pushd also changes your current working directory.
pushd ~/bin/x/y/cmd1.sh
pushd ~/bin/a/b/cmd2.sh
pushd /ppp/n/m/cmd3.sh
pushd ~
Yes, it duplicates your PATH entry a bit, but I contend you don't really need access to every directory in your PATH, just the ones where you have files you intend to edit. (Are you really going to try to edit anything in /bin or /usr/bin?)
Now, in your interactive shell, you can run dirs -v to see, along with its index, the directories in your stack:
$ dirs -v
0 ~
1 /ppp/n/m
2 ~/bin/a/b
3 ~/bin/x/y
4 ~
Now, no matter where you are, if you want to edit ~/bin/x/y/cmd1.sh, you can use
$ vi ~3/cmd3.sh
As long as you don't use popd or pushd elsewhere to modify the stack, the indices will stay the same. (Using pushd will add a new directory to the top of the stack, increasing each index; popd will decrease each index after it removes the top directory.)
A much simpler process would be to simply define some variables whose values are the desired directories:
binab=~/bin/a/b
binxy=~/bin/x/y
ppp=/ppp/n/m
and simply expand them
$ vi $ppp/cmd3.sh
The shell performs parameter name completion, so the variable names don't have to be particularly short, but the dirstack approach guarantees you only need 2 or 3 characters. (Also, it doesn't pollute the global namespace with additional varibles.)
Interestingly, I've found myself wanting to do something similar a while back. I hacked together the following bash script. It's pretty self-explanatory. If I want to edit one of my scripts (this one, for example is ~/bin/vm), I just run vm vm. I can open several files in my path, either in buffers, or vertical/horizontal splits etc...
Do with it what you like, pasting it here because it's all ready to use:
#!/usr/bin/env bash
Usage() {
cat <<-__EOF_
${0##*/} Opens scripts in PATH from any location (vim -O)
Example: ${0##*/} ${0##*/}
opens this script in vim editor
-o: Change default behaviour (vim -O) to -o
-b: Change default behaviour to open in buffers (vim file1 file2)
-h: Display this message
__EOF_
}
flag="O"
vimopen() {
local wrapped
local located
local found
found=false
[ $# -lt 1 ] && echo "No script given" && return
wrapped=""
for arg in "$#"; do
if located=$(which "${arg}" 2> /dev/null); then
found=true
wrapped="${wrapped} ${located}"
else
echo "${arg} not found!"
fi
done
$found || return
# We WANT word splitting to occur here
# shellcheck disable=SC2086
case ${flag} in
O)
vim $wrapped -O
;;
o)
vim $wrapped -o
;;
*)
vim $wrapped
esac
}
while getopts :boh f; do
case $f in
h)
Usage
exit 0
;;
o)
flag="o"
shift
;;
b)
flag=""
shift
;;
*)
echo "Unknown option ${f}-${OPTARG}"
Usage
exit 1
;;
esac
done
vimopen "$#"
Let me share something that answers OPTION3 part of your answer:
Behavior of this solution
The solutions that I will show will offer up basenames of commands (i.e. what compgen -c ${cur} returns where cur is last word on the command line) until there is only one candidate in which case it will be replaced by the full path of the command.
$ vc c<TAB><TAB>
Display all 216 possibilities? (y or n)
$ vc cm<TAB>
cmake cmake-gui cmcprompt cmd1.sh cmd2.sh cmd3.sh cmp cmpdylib cmuwmtopbm
$ vc cmd<TAB>
cmd1.sh cmd2.sh cmd3.sh
$ vc cmd1<TAB>
$ vc /Users/pcarphin/vc/bin/cmd1.sh
which I think is what you want.
And for your vc function, you can still do
vc(){
vim "$(which "${1}")
}
since which /Users/pcarphin/vc/bin/cmd3.sh returns /Users/pcarphin/vc/bin/cmd3.sh and so it will work whether you do vc cmd3.sh<ENTER> or if you do vc cmd3.sh<TAB><ENTER>
Basic solution
So here it is, it's as simple as using compgen -c to get command basename candidates and checking if you only have a single candidate and if so, replacing it with the full path.
_vc(){
local cur prev words cword
_init_completion || return;
COMPREPLY=( $(compgen -c ${cur}) )
#
# If there is only one candidate for completion, replace it with the
# full path returned by which.
#
if ((${#COMPREPLY[#]} == 1)) ; then
COMPREPLY[0]=$(which ${COMPREPLY[0]})
fi
}
complete -F _vc vc
Solution that filters out shell functions
The compgen -c command will include the names of shell functions and if you want to leave those out (maybe because your vc function would fail which would be inelegant for an argument supplied by a completion function), here is what you can do:
_vc(){
local cur prev words cword
_init_completion || return;
local candidates=($(compgen -c ${cur}))
#
# Put in COMPREPLY only the command names that are files in PATH
# and leave out shell functions
#
local i=0
for cmd in "${candidates[#]}" ; do
if which $cmd 2>/dev/null ; then
COMPREPLY[i++]=${cmd}
fi
done
#
# If there is only one candidate for completion, replace it with the
# full path returned by which.
#
if ((${#COMPREPLY[#]} == 1)) ; then
COMPREPLY[0]=$(which ${COMPREPLY[0]})
fi
}
Solution that handles shell functions
If we want to handle shell functions, then we can get rid of the part that filters them out and enhance the part that replaces the command name by a full path when COMPREPLY contains only one candidate. This is based on turning on extdebug which causes declare -F shell_function to output the file where shell_function was defined:
cmd_location(){
local location
if location=$(which "${1}" 2>/dev/null) ; then
echo "${location}"
else
# If extdebug is off, remember that and turn it on
local user_has_extdebug
if ! shopt extdebug ; then
user_has_extdebug=no
shopt -s extdebug
fi
info=$(declare -F ${COMPREPLY[0]})
if [[ -n "${info}" ]] ; then
echo ${info} | cut -d ' ' -f 3
fi
# Turn extdebug back off if it was off before
if [[ "${user_has_extdebug}" == no ]] ; then
shopt -u extdebug
fi
fi
}
_vc(){
local cur prev words cword
_init_completion || return;
COMPREPLY=( $(compgen -c ${cur}) )
if ((${#COMPREPLY[#]} == 1)) ; then
COMPREPLY[0]=$(cmd_location ${COMPREPLY[0]})
fi
}
And in this case, your vc function would need the same kind of logic or you could just remember to always use the shell completion to end up calling it with a full path.
That's why I factored out the cmd_location function
vc(){
if [[ "${1}" == /* ]] ; then
vim "${1}"
else
vim $(cmd_location "${1}")
fi
}
I was looking for something else but I found this question which inspired me to do this for myself so thank you, now I'll have a neat vc function with a cool completion function. Personally, I'm going to use the last version which handles shell functions.
The declare -F command with extdebug prints out the function name, the line number, and the file, so I'll see if I can adapt the solution so that in the case of shell functions, it opens the file at the location.
For that, I'd have to get rid of the part that puts a full path on the command line. So what I'm going to do for myself won't be an answer to your question. Note the use of parentheses for open_shell_function which makes it run in a subshell so I don't have to do the whole thing with user_has_extdebug.
open_shell_function()(
# Use subshell so as not to turn on extdebug in the user's shell
# and avoid doing this remembering stuff
shopt -s extdebug
local info=$(declare -F ${1})
if [[ -z "${info}" ]] ; then
echo "No info from 'declare -F' for '${1}'"
return 1
fi
local lineno
if ! lineno=$(echo ${info} | cut -d ' ' -f 2) ; then
echo "Error getting line number from info '${info}' on '${1}'"
return 1
fi
local file
if ! file=$(echo ${info} | cut -d ' ' -f 3) ; then
echo "Error getting filename from info '${info}' on '${1}'"
return 1
fi
vim ${file} +${lineno}
)
vc(){
local file
if file=$(which ${1} 2>/dev/null) ; then
vim ${file}
else
echo "no '${1}' found in path, looking for shell function"
open_shell_function "${1}"
fi
}
complete -c vc
Alternate title: How to loop without a loop or xargs.
Recently, I switched to zsh because of its many features. I'm curious: Is there a feature which expands wildcards such that the command is executed once for each match instead of only one time for all matches at once.
Example
The command ebook-convert input_file output_file [options] accepts just one input file. When I want to convert multiple files, I have to execute the command multiple times manually or use a loop, for instance:
for i in *.epub; do
ebook-convert "$i" .mobi
done
What I'd like is a wildcard that functions like the loop so that I can save a few keystrokes. Let said wildcard be ⁂. The command
ebook-convert ⁂.epub .mobi
should expand to
ebook-convert 1stMatch.epub .mobi
ebook-convert 2ndMatch.epub .mobi
ebook-convert 3rdMatch.epub .mobi
...
Still interested in other answers
I accepted an answer that works for me (thanks to Grisha Levit). But if you know other shells with such a feature, alternative commands which are shorter than writing a loop, or even a way to extend zsh with the wanted wildcard your answers are appreciated.
so that I can save a few keystrokes
OK, so let's say you typed out
ebook-convert *.epub .mobi
…and now you realized that this isn't going to work — you need to write a loop. What would you normally do? Probably something like:
add ; done to the end of the line
hit CtrlA to go the beginning of the line
type for i in…
etc…
This looks like a good fit for readline keyboard macro:
Let's write this out the steps in terms of readline commands and regular keypresses:
end-of-line # (start from the end for consistency)
; done # type in the loop closing statement
character-search-backward * # go back to the where the glob is
shell-backward-word # (in case the glob is in the mid-word)
shell-kill-word # "cut" the word with the glob
"$i" # type the loop variable
beginning-of-line # go back to the start of the line
for i in # type the beginning of the loop opening
yank # "paste" the word with the glob
; do # type the end of the loop opening
Creating the binding:
For any readline command used above that does not have a key-binding, we need to create one. We also need to create a binding for the new macro that we are creating.
Unless you've already done a lot of readline customization, running the commands below will set the bindings up for the current shell. This uses default bindings like \C-e ➙ end-of-line.
bind '"\eB": shell-backward-word'
bind '"\eD": shell-kill-word'
bind '"\C-i": "\C-e; done\e\C-]*\eB\eD \"$i\"\C-afor i in\C-y; do "'
The bindings can also go into the inputrc file for persistence.
Using the shortcut:
After setting things up:
Type in something like
ebook-convert *.epub .mobi
Press CtrlI
The line will transform into
for i in *.epub; do ebook-convert "$i" .mobi; done
If you want to run the command right away, you can modify the macro to append a \C-j as the last keypress, which will trigger accept-line (same as hitting Return).
You could checkout zargs in zsh.
This function has a similar purpose to GNU xargs. Instead of reading lines of arguments from the standard input, it takes them from the command line
zshcontrib(1): OTHER FUNCTIONS, zargs
So, we could write:
autoload -Uz zargs
zargs -I⁂ -- *.epub -- ebook-convert ⁂ .mobi
PS: you could find zmv is handy if you need to capture some portions of patterns for building commands.
The for loop has a shortened form that you might like:
for f (*.epub) ebook-convert $f .mobi
You could make yourself a script that does this :
#!/bin/bash
command="$1"
shift
if
[[ $# -lt 3 ]]
then
echo "Usage: command file/blog arg1, arg2..."
exit 1
fi
declare -a files=()
while [ "$1" != "--" ]
do
[ "$1" ] || continue
files+=("$1")
shift
done
if
[ "$1" != "--" ]
then
echo "Separator not found : end file list with --"
exit 1
fi
shift
for file in "${files[#]}"
do
"$command" "$file" "$#"
done
You cal call this like this (assumes the script is called apply_to).
apply_to command /dir/* arg1, arg2...
EDIT
I modified the code to insert filenames at the beginning of the command.
Is there a shorthand in bash to select an arbitrary file? * enumerates all files in the current directory, but what if I only want one file and don't care which it is?
FWIW I'm testing several different ffmpeg commands in a directory with similarly named video files, so tab-complete is cumbersome.
Here's the robust way of getting the first or a random file in a directory, handling the edge case of not having any files:
#!/bin/bash
# Let globs expand to 0 elements instead of themselves if no matches
shopt -s nullglob
# Add all the files in the current dir to an array
files=(*)
# Check if the array has any elements
if [[ ${#files[#]} -gt 0 ]]
then
first_file=${files[0]}
random_file=${files[RANDOM%${#files[#]}]}
echo "The first file is ${first_file}"
echo "A random file is ${random_file}"
else
echo "There are no files in the current directory."
fi
If you just want something short and hacky for interactive testing, you can create an array and reference it unindexed to get the first element with minimal typing:
$ testfile=( *.avi )
$ ffmpeg -i "$testfile" test.mp3
You can also bind Tab to zsh style completion:
$ bind 'TAB:menu-complete'
now, for the rest of this session, when you press Tab you'll get a complete filename instead of just a prefix (press Tab again to cycle through matches). This will let you conveniently pick a file with a single keystroke.
Occasionally I was using the shuf:
find -name '*whatever*' | shuf | head -n 1
The shuf is a tool, part of GNU coreutils, which prints the input lines in random order. In other words, it shuffles the lines.
It's difficult to tell what is being asked here. This question is ambiguous, vague, incomplete, overly broad, or rhetorical and cannot be reasonably answered in its current form. For help clarifying this question so that it can be reopened, visit the help center.
Closed 11 years ago.
Locked. This question and its answers are locked because the question is off-topic but has historical significance. It is not currently accepting new answers or interactions.
We all know how to use <ctrl>-R to reverse search through history, but did you know you can use <ctrl>-S to forward search if you set stty stop ""? Also, have you ever tried running bind -p to see all of your keyboard shortcuts listed? There are over 455 on Mac OS X by default.
What is your single most favorite obscure trick, keyboard shortcut or shopt configuration using bash?
Renaming/moving files with suffixes quickly:
cp /home/foo/realllylongname.cpp{,-old}
This expands to:
cp /home/foo/realllylongname.cpp /home/foo/realllylongname.cpp-old
cd -
It's the command-line equivalent of the back button (takes you to the previous directory you were in).
Another favorite:
!!
Repeats your last command. Most useful in the form:
sudo !!
My favorite is '^string^string2' which takes the last command, replaces string with string2 and executes it
$ ehco foo bar baz
bash: ehco: command not found
$ ^ehco^echo
foo bar baz
Bash command line history guide
rename
Example:
$ ls
this_has_text_to_find_1.txt
this_has_text_to_find_2.txt
this_has_text_to_find_3.txt
this_has_text_to_find_4.txt
$ rename 's/text_to_find/been_renamed/' *.txt
$ ls
this_has_been_renamed_1.txt
this_has_been_renamed_2.txt
this_has_been_renamed_3.txt
this_has_been_renamed_4.txt
So useful
I'm a fan of the !$, !^ and !* expandos, returning, from the most recent submitted command line: the last item, first non-command item, and all non-command items. To wit (Note that the shell prints out the command first):
$ echo foo bar baz
foo bar baz
$ echo bang-dollar: !$ bang-hat: !^ bang-star: !*
echo bang-dollar: baz bang-hat: foo bang-star: foo bar baz
bang-dollar: baz bang-hat: foo bang-star: foo bar baz
This comes in handy when you, say ls filea fileb, and want to edit one of them: vi !$ or both of them: vimdiff !*. It can also be generalized to "the nth argument" like so:
$ echo foo bar baz
$ echo !:2
echo bar
bar
Finally, with pathnames, you can get at parts of the path by appending :h and :t to any of the above expandos:
$ ls /usr/bin/id
/usr/bin/id
$ echo Head: !$:h Tail: !$:t
echo Head: /usr/bin Tail: id
Head: /usr/bin Tail: id
When running commands, sometimes I'll want to run a command with the previous ones arguments. To do that, you can use this shortcut:
$ mkdir /tmp/new
$ cd !!:*
Occasionally, in lieu of using find, I'll break-out a one-line loop if I need to run a bunch of commands on a list of files.
for file in *.wav; do lame "$file" "$(basename "$file" .wav).mp3" ; done;
Configuring the command-line history options in my .bash_login (or .bashrc) is really useful. The following is a cadre of settings that I use on my Macbook Pro.
Setting the following makes bash erase duplicate commands in your history:
export HISTCONTROL="erasedups:ignoreboth"
I also jack my history size up pretty high too. Why not? It doesn't seem to slow anything down on today's microprocessors.
export HISTFILESIZE=500000
export HISTSIZE=100000
Another thing that I do is ignore some commands from my history. No need to remember the exit command.
export HISTIGNORE="&:[ ]*:exit"
You definitely want to set histappend. Otherwise, bash overwrites your history when you exit.
shopt -s histappend
Another option that I use is cmdhist. This lets you save multi-line commands to the history as one command.
shopt -s cmdhist
Finally, on Mac OS X (if you're not using vi mode), you'll want to reset <CTRL>-S from being scroll stop. This prevents bash from being able to interpret it as forward search.
stty stop ""
How to list only subdirectories in the current one ?
ls -d */
It's a simple trick, but you wouldn't know how much time I needed to find that one !
ESC.
Inserts the last arguments from your last bash command. It comes in handy more than you think.
cp file /to/some/long/path
cd ESC.
Sure, you can "diff file1.txt file2.txt", but Bash supports process substitution, which allows you to diff the output of commands.
For example, let's say I want to make sure my script gives me the output I expect. I can just wrap my script in <( ) and feed it to diff to get a quick and dirty unit test:
$ cat myscript.sh
#!/bin/sh
echo -e "one\nthree"
$
$ ./myscript.sh
one
three
$
$ cat expected_output.txt
one
two
three
$
$ diff <(./myscript.sh) expected_output.txt
1a2
> two
$
As another example, let's say I want to check if two servers have the same list of RPMs installed. Rather than sshing to each server, writing each list of RPMs to separate files, and doing a diff on those files, I can just do the diff from my workstation:
$ diff <(ssh server1 'rpm -qa | sort') <(ssh server2 'rpm -qa | sort')
241c240
< kernel-2.6.18-92.1.6.el5
---
> kernel-2.6.18-92.el5
317d315
< libsmi-0.4.5-2.el5
727,728d724
< wireshark-0.99.7-1.el5
< wireshark-gnome-0.99.7-1.el5
$
There are more examples in the
Advanced Bash-Scripting Guide at http://tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/process-sub.html.
My favorite command is "ls -thor"
It summons the power of the gods to list the most recently modified files in a conveniently readable format.
More of a novelty, but it's clever...
Top 10 commands used:
$ history | awk '{print $2}' | awk 'BEGIN {FS="|"}{print $1}' | sort | uniq -c | sort -nr | head
Sample output:
242 git
83 rake
43 cd
33 ss
24 ls
15 rsg
11 cap
10 dig
9 ping
3 vi
^R reverse search. Hit ^R, type a fragment of a previous command you want to match, and hit ^R until you find the one you want. Then I don't have to remember recently used commands that are still in my history. Not exclusively bash, but also: ^E for end of line, ^A for beginning of line, ^U and ^K to delete before and after the cursor, respectively.
I often have aliases for vi, ls, etc. but sometimes you want to escape the alias. Just add a back slash to the command in front:
Eg:
$ alias vi=vim
$ # To escape the alias for vi:
$ \vi # This doesn't open VIM
Cool, isn't it?
Here's a couple of configuration tweaks:
~/.inputrc:
"\C-[[A": history-search-backward
"\C-[[B": history-search-forward
This works the same as ^R but using the arrow keys instead. This means I can type (e.g.) cd /media/ then hit up-arrow to go to the last thing I cd'd to inside the /media/ folder.
(I use Gnome Terminal, you may need to change the escape codes for other terminal emulators.)
Bash completion is also incredibly useful, but it's a far more subtle addition. In ~/.bashrc:
if [ -f /etc/bash_completion ]; then
. /etc/bash_completion
fi
This will enable per-program tab-completion (e.g. attempting tab completion when the command line starts with evince will only show files that evince can open, and it will also tab-complete command line options).
Works nicely with this also in ~/.inputrc:
set completion-ignore-case on
set show-all-if-ambiguous on
set show-all-if-unmodified on
I use the following a lot:
The :p modifier to print a history result. E.g.
!!:p
Will print the last command so you can check that it's correct before running it again. Just enter !! to execute it.
In a similar vein:
!?foo?:p
Will search your history for the most recent command that contained the string 'foo' and print it.
If you don't need to print,
!?foo
does the search and executes it straight away.
I have got a secret weapon : shell-fu.
There are thousand of smart tips, cool tricks and efficient recipes that most of the time fit on a single line.
One that I love (but I cheat a bit since I use the fact that Python is installed on most Unix system now) :
alias webshare='python -m SimpleHTTPServer'
Now everytime you type "webshare", the current directory will be available through the port 8000. Really nice when you want to share files with friends on a local network without usb key or remote dir. Streaming video and music will work too.
And of course the classic fork bomb that is completely useless but still a lot of fun :
$ :(){ :|:& };:
Don't try that in a production server...
You can use the watch command in conjunction with another command to look for changes. An example of this was when I was testing my router, and I wanted to get up-to-date numbers on stuff like signal-to-noise ratio, etc.
watch --interval=10 lynx -dump http://dslrouter/stats.html
type -a PROG
in order to find all the places where PROG is available, usually somewhere in ~/bin
rather than the one in /usr/bin/PROG that might have been expected.
I like to construct commands with echo and pipe them to the shell:
$ find dir -name \*~ | xargs echo rm
...
$ find dir -name \*~ | xargs echo rm | ksh -s
Why? Because it allows me to look at what's going to be done before I do it. That way if I have a horrible error (like removing my home directory), I can catch it before it happens. Obviously, this is most important for destructive or irrevocable actions.
When downloading a large file I quite often do:
while ls -la <filename>; do sleep 5; done
And then just ctrl+c when I'm done (or if ls returns non-zero). It's similar to the watch program but it uses the shell instead, so it works on platforms without watch.
Another useful tool is netcat, or nc. If you do:
nc -l -p 9100 > printjob.prn
Then you can set up a printer on another computer but instead use the IP address of the computer running netcat. When the print job is sent, it is received by the computer running netcat and dumped into printjob.prn.
pushd and popd almost always come in handy
One preferred way of navigating when I'm using multiple directories in widely separate places in a tree hierarchy is to use acf_func.sh (listed below). Once defined, you can do
cd --
to see a list of recent directories, with a numerical menu
cd -2
to go to the second-most recent directory.
Very easy to use, very handy.
Here's the code:
# do ". acd_func.sh"
# acd_func 1.0.5, 10-nov-2004
# petar marinov, http:/geocities.com/h2428, this is public domain
cd_func ()
{
local x2 the_new_dir adir index
local -i cnt
if [[ $1 == "--" ]]; then
dirs -v
return 0
fi
the_new_dir=$1
[[ -z $1 ]] && the_new_dir=$HOME
if [[ ${the_new_dir:0:1} == '-' ]]; then
#
# Extract dir N from dirs
index=${the_new_dir:1}
[[ -z $index ]] && index=1
adir=$(dirs +$index)
[[ -z $adir ]] && return 1
the_new_dir=$adir
fi
#
# '~' has to be substituted by ${HOME}
[[ ${the_new_dir:0:1} == '~' ]] && the_new_dir="${HOME}${the_new_dir:1}"
#
# Now change to the new dir and add to the top of the stack
pushd "${the_new_dir}" > /dev/null
[[ $? -ne 0 ]] && return 1
the_new_dir=$(pwd)
#
# Trim down everything beyond 11th entry
popd -n +11 2>/dev/null 1>/dev/null
#
# Remove any other occurence of this dir, skipping the top of the stack
for ((cnt=1; cnt <= 10; cnt++)); do
x2=$(dirs +${cnt} 2>/dev/null)
[[ $? -ne 0 ]] && return 0
[[ ${x2:0:1} == '~' ]] && x2="${HOME}${x2:1}"
if [[ "${x2}" == "${the_new_dir}" ]]; then
popd -n +$cnt 2>/dev/null 1>/dev/null
cnt=cnt-1
fi
done
return 0
}
alias cd=cd_func
if [[ $BASH_VERSION > "2.05a" ]]; then
# ctrl+w shows the menu
bind -x "\"\C-w\":cd_func -- ;"
fi
Expand complicated lines before hitting the dreaded enter
Alt+Ctrl+e — shell-expand-line (may need to use Esc, Ctrl+e on your keyboard)
Ctrl+_ — undo
Ctrl+x, * — glob-expand-word
$ echo !$ !-2^ * Alt+Ctrl+e
$ echo aword someotherword * Ctrl+_
$ echo !$ !-2^ * Ctrl+x, *
$ echo !$ !-2^ LOG Makefile bar.c foo.h
&c.
I've always been partial to:
ctrl-E # move cursor to end of line
ctrl-A # move cursor to beginning of line
I also use shopt -s cdable_vars, then you can create bash variables to common directories. So, for my company's source tree, I create a bunch of variables like:
export Dcentmain="/var/localdata/p4ws/centaur/main/apps/core"
then I can change to that directory by cd Dcentmain.
pbcopy
This copies to the Mac system clipboard. You can pipe commands to it...try:
pwd | pbcopy
$ touch {1,2}.txt
$ ls [12].txt
1.txt 2.txt
$ rm !:1
rm [12].txt
$ history | tail -10
...
10007 touch {1,2}.txt
...
$ !10007
touch {1,2}.txt
$ for f in *.txt; do mv $f ${f/txt/doc}; done
Using 'set -o vi' from the command line, or better, in .bashrc, puts you in vi editing mode on the command line. You start in 'insert' mode so you can type and backspace as normal, but if you make a 'large' mistake you can hit the esc key and then use 'b' and 'f' to move around as you do in vi. cw to change a word. Particularly useful after you've brought up a history command that you want to change.
Similar to many above, my current favorite is the keystroke [alt]. (Alt and "." keys together) this is the same as $! (Inserts the last argument from the previous command) except that it's immediate and for me easier to type. (Just can't be used in scripts)
eg:
mkdir -p /tmp/test/blah/oops/something
cd [alt].
String multiple commands together using the && command:
./run.sh && tail -f log.txt
or
kill -9 1111 && ./start.sh