make an alias that runs scripts

Question

i would like an alias that when i type

[Floodgate]~$: bash (pluginname)

in terminal it runs

[Floodgate]~$: . ~/bash\ plugins/(pluginname)

so far every alias i have tried has run

[Floodgate]~$: . ~/bash\ plugins/ (pluginname)

where the space between the slash and the (pluginname) is causing issues. it would be really nice to not have to make a new alias for every plugin but have one universal. so far the only thing that works is

alias bash='cd ~/bash\ plugins; .'

but that leaves me in

[Floodgate]~/bash plugins/$: 

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thank you for all of your help! it was much appreciated

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Answer 1

As mentioned by Basile Starynkevitch above, the easiest way to accomplish this is to: (1) make sure the files in your ~/bash\\ plugins directory are executable by you (and they contain valid shell commands). eg

chmod 0755 ~/bash\ plugins/* 

Then include ~/bash\\ plugins in your path. In your ~/.bashrc include:

export PATH=$PATH:~/bash\ plugins

Now to run your bash plugins, you can simply call them by name at the command prompt:

$ pluginname

There are many ways to do this. You can even create a function withing your .bashrc that takes the plugin names as an input and then executes the plugin, Eg inside .bashrc:

function exeplugins {
   [[ -n $1 ]] || { echo "error: this command requires pluginname as input"; return 1; }
   bash "~/bash plugin/${1}"
}

alias bplugin='exeplugins'  # or any alias name you want 'bplugin' to be...

Now from the comman line you could simply do:

$ bplugin pluginname

Hope this helps. (+1 don't make an alias named 'bash' - bad juju follows)

Answer 2

I highly recommend not to name the alias "bash" since this is the command for opening a new bash and it can cause you problems with other applications or scripts. Otherwise this should work:

  alias openplugin="cd ~/bash\ plugins && cd"