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mbac32768
Asked: 2010-10-27 06:16:22 +0800 CST

synthesizing a bash functional application operator

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This is a bit pie-in-the-sky but I've learned not to make assumptions about the capabilities of anything, since I'm frequently amazed by hidden features buried in UNIX/Linux tools, so here goes.

I often find myself running commands where I need to locate a file on a system and then once I've eyeballed the location for sanity, I need to do something with the path.

Take this workflow, for instance:

$ which foo.sh
/path/to/something/foo.sh
$ vim `which foo.sh`

That second command takes me 1-2 entire seconds to type. It's madness. I do it so often it's starting to feel like boilerplate that I should be able to factor out.

What I'd love is fantasy shell magic that would let me do the following:

$ which foo.sh
/path/to/something/foo.sh
$ which foo.sh |! vim

This second case is far superior IMO. I find it much easier to type "|! vim" after the up-arrow than I do seeking the start of the line, typing vim backtick, then seeking the end of the line and typing a final backtick.

Imagine the pipe-bang operator doing something similar to "| xargs,vim" but in a way that preserves the terminal for vim and as also something much shorter to type. Pipe-bang is of course a syntax error in bash and it cannot be aliased, so the thing I want to do seems impossible.

Or is it? I suspect this is a case of TMTOWTDI but I'm having a mental block.

It doesn't have to be literally pipe-bang either, but something close is the goal.

bash shell

3 Answers

  1. This should also work:

    which foo.sh | xargs vim

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  2. I do the same thing, often (usually with which to find a binary, then rpm -qf to see which package provides it)! My route is better than what you do, but slower than what you want; I offer it as a half-way house.

    $ which foo.sh
/path/to/something/foo.sh
$ vim `!!`

    On most keyboards, the backtick and the 1 key are pretty close, too, so it's fairly fast to type.

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  3. Give this (vim previous) a try:

    $ alias vp='vim $(fc -s)'
$ which foo.sh
$ vp

    The fc -s re-executes the previous command with a substitution (null in this case).

    You can put the alias in your ~/.bashrc file. I have mine in an aliases file which is sourced by my ~/.bashrc.

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