In my new job (started middle of 2021) I’m gaining a reputation as quite the bash hacker. It’s possible that I am turning into one of those sage old-timers that I’ve heard legends about, although it doesn’t feel like it personally. Still, it’s nice that the “old” tools like bash, sed, and awk seem to be inspiring awe and respect when they are used … well, appropriately really. I guess there is a reason why the elegant one-liners for those tools are called “incantations” even when they are just ordinary usage. To folks unfamiliar with the tools, they can look magical.

As a bash nerd, then, you know I’ve spent a non-trivial time finessing my .bashrc file. Near the beginning of my new job, in the middle of transitioning my old development environment to my new laptop, I realized just how big my standard file had gotten. So, I devised a better organizational scheme for it using the quasi-standard of stowing scripts in a “.bashrc.d” directory and sourcing them. After fiddling a little more with it today, I’ve posted it for fellow bash fans to use if they like.

https://github.com/bhavanki/bashrcd

By the way, I’m fully aware of the idea that you should abandon shell scripts when they get too complicated for a better language, like Python. I have considered this idea and decided that it’s good advice for a lot of people and situations, but I’m personally fine with continuing to use bash in unholy ways. Sometimes you’ve got to embrace your dark side a little.