How can I write a bashrc alias, that can call itself?

Question

I have following setup:

In my ~/.bashrc I only call a script, where my actual settings are stored in:

source C:/path/To/mybashrc.sh

As you might see I use the git-bash for Windows (not sure, if that is important):

$ bash --version GNU bash, version 4.4.23(1)-release (x86_64-pc-msys) Copyright (C) 2016 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html> This is free software; you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

Now I want to create a command, that makes me able to edit this script directly. I found out how to get the directory of the script (1) and in another post I found out how to get the scripts name itself (2).

# Edit this file with nano #(1) __dir="$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")" && pwd)" #(2) script_name=`basename "$0"` # script_name="mybashrc.sh" # This works. alias mybashrc='nano ${__dir}/${script_name}'

However my problem is that I can't combine these two solutions. When I try the script it opens a file called bash in the right directory in nano and not mybashrc.sh. The problem is probably the sourcing of the script in .bashrc and I wonder if I can still get to the desired solution. I am looking forward towards any hints. (Of course the out-commented line works as the name is hard-coded, but that is not a solution for me as the script names differ in the real-world scenario, that I have.)

Change nano with echo and tell us what you get when you do what you want. — SEoF
– SEoF, Commented Feb 1, 2022 at 12:28
$0 will name an executable script, not one you have sourced. If the path is hardcoded in bashrc then get it from there. The better solution is to symlink ~/.bashrc to the script you want to use, instead of a single line which sources it. Then you'll have a consistent reference. — dan
– dan, Commented Feb 1, 2022 at 12:38
@SEoF That path in where the script is located with the file called bash as I have described: C:/path/To/bash — h0ch5tr4355
– h0ch5tr4355, Commented Feb 1, 2022 at 12:57

KamilCuk · Accepted Answer · 2022-02-01 13:24:46Z

The path is already in ${BASH_SOURCE[0]}. Your code takes directory from ${BASH_SOURCE[0]} and filename from $0. So don't take it from $0, take it from BASH_SOURCE[0].

alias mybashrc="nano ${BASH_SOURCE[0]}"

However, BASH_SOURCE[0] may be relative. So let's make sure it's absolute.

alias mybashrc="nano $(readlink -f "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")"

will break on paths with spaces. A more experienced shell programmer may write:

alias mybashrc="nano $(printf "%q" "$(readlink -f "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")")"

Or you could use a variable that expands upon use, but still remember to quote the expansion:

thescript=$(readlink -f "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}") alias mybashrc='nano "$thescript"'

bash: realink: command not found Here a Windows problem occurs.
typo, it's readlink. Well, then replace $0 with ${BASH_SOURCE[0]}.

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