Ask HN: Best things in your bash_profile/aliases?

I understand why developers don't have it on by default in other text editors (space) but seeing as I don't fill my HDD with movies or games or any other large media like that, i've got all the space in the world.

It turns out that bash has a PROMPT_COMMAND variable which gets called before writing out PS1, so I use this to write my own rprompt. The main idea is just to use tput to draw a thing on the right and restore the cursor position afterward.

As is, I have something like below right-justified at each prompt:

    user@host:pwd (git-branch)

- profile: http://ix.io/1yiC/sh

- bashrc: http://ix.io/1yiA/bash

- mkshrc: http://ix.io/1yiB/ksh

There are a couple caveats. Bash clears the whole line when deleting characters, which causes the rprompt to be cleared as well. On the other hand, mksh works as expected. Also, if you enter really long commands into the prompt, they will eventually bump into and overwrite the rprompt, instead of clearing it wholesale. I've not found this too much of a problem though.

In the code above, the rprompt() function defines the actual contents of the prompt and performs the graceful degredation. The rprompt_draw() function does the actual drawing and prompt_draw() links these two together to be used by bash, mksh, etc.

Feel free to ask my any questions or hate on my code.

  # setting common options
  alias cp='cp -iv'
  alias mv='mv -iv'
  alias rmdir='rmdir -v'
  alias ln='ln -v'
  alias ls='ls --color=auto --human-readable --group-directories-first --classify'
  alias grep='grep --color=auto'

  # shortcuts
  alias e=vim
  alias music=ncmpcpp
  alias g='git status'
  alias gp='git push'

  # show pretty git diff
  alias gitdiff='git difftool -y -x "colordiff -y -W $COLUMNS" | less -R'
  # go to root git directory
  alias cdgit='cd $(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)'
  # view csv files in columns
  alias csv='column -s, -t'
  # activate python venv
  alias v='source ./venv/bin/activate'

  # show weather
  alias weather='curl wttr.in/Manchester'
  # get my calendar
  alias c='gcalcli --calendar  --monday calw'
  # alternate view of calendar
  alias agenda='gcalcli --calendar  agenda `date --iso-8601`T08 `date --iso-8601`T15'

  # rot13 some text
  alias rot13="tr '[A-Za-z]' '[N-ZA-Mn-za-m]'"

  # I always forget how to echo status code
  alias exitcode='echo $?'

  # make directory and enter it
  mdc() { mkdir -p "$@" && cd "$@"; }
  # create a file and make git track it
  ga() { touch "$@" && git add "$@" }
  # open a twitch stream in mpv
  twitch() { livestreamer --player "mpv -" "http://twitch.tv/$@" best }
  # set terminal window title
  title() { print -Pn "\e]2;$@\a" }
  # open a file with less or a directory with ls
  l() { if [ -f "$1" ]; then less "$1"; else ls "${1:-`pwd`}"; fi }

    ix []

Here's function at said pastebin (http://ix.io/1yiG/sh), and in raw form below:

    ix() {
    	curl=$(command -v curl)
    	[ -f "$HOME/.netrc" ] && curl="${curl} --netrc"
    
    	while getopts ":d:i:n:e:" opt; do
    		case "${opt}" in
    			d) ${curl} --request DELETE "ix.io/${OPTARG}"; return;;
    			i) curl="${curl} --request PUT"; id="${OPTARG}";;
    			n) curl="${curl} --form read:1=${OPTARG}";;
    			e) curl="${curl} --form ext:1=${OPTARG}";;
    			:) error "Expected argument: -${OPTARG}"; return 1;;
    			*) echo 'Usage: ix [-d ID] [-i ID] [-n N] []';
    				return;;
    		esac
    	done
    	shift $((OPTIND - 1))
    	unset -v OPTIND OPTERR
    
    	if [ -t 0 ]; then
    		filename="$1"; shift
    		if [ "$filename" ]; then
    			${curl} --form f:1=@"$filename" "${@}" "ix.io/${id}"
    			return
    		fi
    		echo "^C to cancel, ^D to send."
    	fi
    
    	${curl} --form f:1='