/bashrc_dispatch

Launch different bash configurations for Linux vs OSX, interactive vs batch

bashrc_dispatch: Different bash configurations for Linux vs OSX, interactive vs batch

Are you tired of trying to remember what .bashrc does vs .bash_profile vs .profile?

Are you tired of trying to remember how Darwin (Mac OS X) treats them differently from Linux?

Are you tired of not having your ~/.bash* stuff work the way you expect?

Symlink all of the following files to bashrc_dispatch:

  • ~/.bashrc
  • ~/.bash_profile
  • ~/.profile
  • ~/.bash_login

And then you can use these instead:

  • ~/.bashrc_all: sourced on every bash instantiation;
  • ~/.bashrc_script: sourced only when non-interactive;
  • ~/.bashrc_interactive: the one you'll probably fill up (mutually exclusive with ~/.bashrc_script);
  • ~/.bashrc_login: sourced only when an interactive shell is also a login.

To reiterate,

  1. ~/.bashrc_all will always be run first.
  2. Then either ~/.bashrc_script or ~/.bashrc_interactive will be run next depending on whether or not the bash invocation is interactive.
  3. Finally, sometimes, like when you first ssh into a machine or often when opening a new terminal window on a mac, the ~/.bashrc_login will be run after the ~/.bash_interactive. So ~/.bashrc_login is the one where you'd echo a banner or whatever.

In addition to the dispatching, you'll forever have the following available:

  • $SHELL_PLATFORM (either LINUX, OSX, BSD or OTHER),
  • shell_is_linux,
  • shell_is_osx,
  • shell_is_interactive,
  • shell_is_script.

The functions are meant for clean conditionals in your new ~/.bashrc_* scripts like:

$  shell_is_linux && echo 'leenux!'

or something like:

$  if shell_is_interactive ; then echo 'interact' ; fi

And now I think these comments have reached parity with the code itself which should be easy to extend.

Configuration

There are few knobs you can turn to make bashrc_dispatch behave as you prefer.

  • EXPORT_FUNCTIONS: set it to false to disable the export of $SHELL_PLATFORM and all the shell_is_* functions and avoid polluting all the other shells' environments.

Authors

Development

Code : https://github.com/gioele/bashrc_dispatch

Report issues : https://github.com/gioele/bashrc_dispatch/issues

License

This is free software released into the public domain.