binsync

A simple tool for managing user scripts.

The line between source code and binary is a blurry one when it comes to scripting. If you frequently find yourself running ./foobar.sh, it is tempting to rename the script to “foobar” and place it somewhere in your path. This makes execution easier – now you can just run foobar as you would any other binary – but is less than ideal when it comes to editing. A much cleaner approach is to keep all your script sources together in one directory (with descriptive extensions like .sh or .rb) and symlink ‘binary’ versions of them into your path as necessary.

binsync can take care of this for you: for every executable script you place in ~/src it will create a corresponding ‘binary’ in ~/bin. You can control which scripts get symlinked simply by the setting of the executable bit on the source file.

Installation

1. Create ~/bin and ~/src if you don’t have them already:

   mkdir ~/bin ~/src && chmod 700 ~/bin ~/src

   Hide them from Finder on OS X:

   chflags hidden ~/bin ~/src

   Or from Nautilus on Ubuntu:

   printf 'bin\nsrc\n' >> ~/.hidden

2. Make sure that ~/bin is in your PATH – run echo $PATH | grep -c ~/bin and check for a 1. If you get 0, you can add it using:

   echo 'export PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc && source ~/.bashrc

3. Save binsync.sh into ~/src and make it executable:

   cd ~/src && curl -sSL cridge.co/1dWPW6p -o binsync.sh
   chmod +x binsync.sh

4. Run ./binsync.sh to invoke binsync for the first time. binsync will now symlink itself into ~/bin so that you can call it using binsync in the future.

5. You’re good to go! Next time you write a script and save it into ~/src, you can invoke binsync to create an easy access symlink of it for you. binsync will also notify you if you forgot to make the script executable, and will remove any stale symlinks for scripts that you’ve moved or made non-executable. If you regularly add or remove scripts from ~/src, you can have binsync automatically run (silently) whenever you open a new terminal window:

   echo 'binsync > /dev/null' >> ~/.bashrc

License

This is free and unencumbered software released into the public domain.

Anyone is free to copy, modify, publish, use, compile, sell, or distribute this software, either in source code form or as a compiled binary, for any purpose, commercial or non-commercial, and by any means.

In jurisdictions that recognize copyright laws, the author or authors of this software dedicate any and all copyright interest in the software to the public domain. We make this dedication for the benefit of the public at large and to the detriment of our heirs and successors. We intend this dedication to be an overt act of relinquishment in perpetuity of all present and future rights to this software under copyright law.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

For more information, please refer to http://unlicense.org/.