e

About

e is a small Bash utility that opens the most recently modified text file in the current directory.

It scans only the current folder, filters files by MIME type (text/*), sorts by newest first, and opens the selected file using the first available editor in this order: nvim, vim, nano, vi, less. If the file is not writable, it opens with sudo.

Installation

Prerequisites

• Linux with Bash
• One editor installed: nvim, vim, nano, vi, or less
• Common command-line tools: find, file, sort, grep, sudo

Recommended: Install Only for the Current User

This is the default setup for this project. It keeps the repository in ~/repos/e, makes the script executable, and creates ~/.local/bin/e only when it does not already exist:

mkdir -p ~/repos ~/.local/bin

if [ -d ~/repos/e/.git ]; then
   git -C ~/repos/e pull --ff-only
else
   git clone https://github.com/llagerlof/e.git ~/repos/e
fi

chmod +x ~/repos/e/e

if [ ! -e ~/.local/bin/e ]; then
   ln -s ~/repos/e/e ~/.local/bin/e
fi

If ~/.local/bin is not already on your PATH, add it in your shell profile before using e from anywhere.

Alternative: Download Only for the Current User

If you do not want a local clone, download the script directly:

mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/llagerlof/e/main/e -o ~/.local/bin/e
chmod +x ~/.local/bin/e

Alternative: Install for Everyone from a Local Clone

To make e available system-wide, keep the repository in a normal user's home directory and link it into /usr/local/bin:

mkdir -p ~/repos

if [ -d ~/repos/e/.git ]; then
   git -C ~/repos/e pull --ff-only
else
   git clone https://github.com/llagerlof/e.git ~/repos/e
fi

chmod +x ~/repos/e/e

if [ ! -e /usr/local/bin/e ]; then
   sudo ln -s "$HOME/repos/e/e" /usr/local/bin/e
fi

Alternative: Download for Everyone

To install the script directly into /usr/local/bin:

tmpfile="$(mktemp)"
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/llagerlof/e/main/e -o "$tmpfile"
chmod +x "$tmpfile"
sudo mv "$tmpfile" /usr/local/bin/e

Usage

e [-h] [number]

• -h: include hidden files
• number: 1-based order of the newest text file to open (1 means newest)

Examples

Open the newest text file:

e

Open the second newest text file:

e 2

Include hidden files and open the newest match:

e -h 1

Notes

• Searches only the current directory (maxdepth=1), not subdirectories.
• If no text files are found, the script exits with a message.