I'll be honest, the command line was once a terrifying place. I remember when Mac OS X launched, and there it was, the Terminal — the name encapsulated the fear I had towards it.
But I persisted, and what was once fear is now a friendship (though not reciprocal).
Taming the Beast took a while, for sure, but I'm at a point where I'm able to do useful things in Bash, like create aliases and functions.
So here are two functions I use a lot, which I've decided to share in the hope someone finds them useful, too!
Before taking the plunge, be sure to create a copy of ".bash_profile" first!
nano ~/.bash_profile
Also, feel free to rename the functions.
Edit a file with a native application
I'm no command line hero, so when it comes to editing big files and making multi-line edits, I like to use something native:
wsef () {
# edit file.
# Usage: wsef file_name
# Default application.
APP="BBEdit"
if [ "$1" ]; then
open -a $APP $1
else
echo "A file name is required."
return
fi
}
If required, swap out "BBEdit" for something else.
Find a command
The up arrow key is perfect for the first ten previous commands, but then I need something else:
wsfc () {
# find command.
# Usage: wsfc term
if [ "$1" ]; then
history | grep -i $1
else
echo "A search term is required."
return
fi
}
Also, as an added a bonus:
export HISTTIMEFORMAT="%d/%m/%y %T "
... which adds a timestamp to the search results, or whenever you run the history
command.
Extras
If you're a cat lover like me:
cat -n name_of_file
... and you'll see line numbers.
And for those who've got themselves stuck in vi as I have:
- press "i"
- make an edit, if you dare
- press "esc"
- write ":wq"
- then press enter
Have fun!
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