This repository contains a collection of useful Bash utilities not found in any official package.
Most scripts accept both forms of input, as either command-line arguments or read from standard input stdin (pipeline, file redirect, etc.). See the header comments in the respective script file for more usage details.
| File | Description |
|---|---|
chkvar |
chkvar verifies a variable with given identifier is defined and that it does not have a "false-like" value. |
elapsed |
elapsed formats the given number of seconds using the given date-time format. If no date-time format is given, uses a default format. |
escape |
escape prints the given arguments in a quoted format that can be reused as input to other bash commands. |
fprintf |
fprintf is identical to printf(1), except the first argument is a filepath to write to (append to file with flag -a). Useful when file redirection can be tricky or cumbersome (e.g., xargs, find -exec, etc.) |
ipvalid |
ipvalid exits with a non-zero status if any given string is not a valid IPv4 address. Input may be given as command-line arguments or via stdin. |
joinstr |
joinstr prints all arguments following the first, delimited by the first. Nothing is printed if fewer than 2 arguments are given, and only the second argument is printed if exactly 2 are given. |
prepath |
prepath echoes the :-delimited path variable with given name, prepended with each path in the given :-delimited list(s) of paths, removing each from its original location if it existed. Used to change the priority of directories in a path list. |
relpath |
relpath constructs a relative path from the first argument to the second. If only one path is given, the first argument is assumed to be $PWD. |
start |
start runs commands as a background job. It supports a lot of options for tracing and logging. See flag -h for details. |
touchuniq |
touchuniq prints the given file path appended with an increasing numeric suffix such that no file exists at that path. |
trim |
trim prints the given input string with all leading and trailing whitespace removed. All arguments are joined together with a single space, and the result is trimmed as a single string. |
trimslash |
trimslash removes all trailing / from each of the given input strings, unless the remaining trailing / is also the leading slash (i.e., the root directory). |
uniqpath |
uniqpath echoes each path from the given :-delimited list(s) of paths which does not already exist in the path variable with the given name. Useful for removing duplicate directories in a path list. |
uniqstr |
uniqstr prints each unique string in the given input. |
Functions are used when the operating behavior depends on the callers environment and/or should not be run in a subshell.
| Name | File | Description |
|---|---|---|
define |
functions.bash | define is syntactic sugar for assigning HEREDOC content to a variable. Works with quoted content (e.g., define foo <<'EOF' ...), as well as scripts that set -e. |
desc |
functions.bash | desc prints a shell-style declaration of the given variable identifiers. This can be useful with eval, logging, and scope-limited environments. |