Add command to edit start-up files based on existance

[tbhaxor]

Description

Add an alias to automatically select the entry file and edit its content.

Motivation and Context

I recently switch to macOS from Linux and there while installing bashit, it selected bash profile without my knowledge but I have a habit of using vbrc. So i decided to add a general command with fallbacks

How Has This Been Tested?

Locally on macOS and Linux

Screenshots (if appropriate):

Types of changes

• Bug fix (non-breaking change which fixes an issue)
• New feature (non-breaking change which adds functionality)
• Breaking change (fix or feature that would cause existing functionality to change)

Checklist:

• My code follows the code style of this project.
• If my change requires a change to the documentation, I have updated the documentation accordingly.
• I have read the CONTRIBUTING document.
• If I have added a new file, I also added it to clean_files.txt and formatted it using lint_clean_files.sh.
• I have added tests to cover my changes, and all the new and existing tests pass.

[davidpfarrell]

Greetings!

Although this simple alias is pretty safe, I fee like it may be an indicator that you're not quite using .bash_profile and .bashrc correctly.

Your alias implies that you might be trying manage ALL of your shell configuration within .bashrc. If true, this is likely an un-optimal scenario, even for MAC OS

It is true that MAC OS is different in that:

• It does not invoke your login shell as part of logging into the machine - ie. the UI is not initiated by shell startup scripts.
• It treats each new Terminal App window as a new "Login" shell - This is related to the first point in that there is no global shell state to inherit from.

As such, this creates limitations in some use cases :

• You can't put startup scripts inside your bash profile that must run on OS login as they won't run until you open a Terminal window.
• For one-time scripts that you want to to run when you do open a Terminal Window, you have to manage them to ensure they are only invoked once.

Outside of that, though, .bash_profile and .bashrc behave as you might expect.

:: They have different life cycles:

• .bash_profile is invoked when the Terminal is first opened AND on any bash login shell.
• .bashrc is automatically invoked for non-login bash shells.
• .bashrc is not invoked automatically in scenarios where .bash_profile is invoked, and must be invoked by .bash_profile if desired (and it usually is desired)

:: They are meant to contain different types of shell configuration:

• .bash_profile should generally contain startup scripts (one-time or otherwise), and environment variable assignments - Environment variables are inherited by subshells so you don't need to re-assign them in every shell.
• .bashrc should generally contain functions and aliases, as these are not inherited by sub-shells and will only be available if you re-create them.

Here's an example of the profile/rc invocation across 3 different scenarios

1. Opening a new Terminal Window (I did Cmd-N from within another window)
2. Starting a non-login bash shell
3. Starting a login bash shell

---

Anyway this may all be overkill and you likely already know these things, but I decided to use this as exercise to gather my thoughts on these ideas and flesh them out a bit ...

Just the same, I'm not sure your new alias is quite valuable enough, but I don't have an opinion either way on whether it should be approved or rejected, as its seems pretty safe overall ...

[gaelicWizard]

@davidpfarrell, I think you may have misunderstood (or I did!). It's Bash It's installer that misuses ~/.bash_profile.

Aside: I don't think any GUI logins on any Linux distribution run an interactive login shell to start the GUI session.

[davidpfarrell]

@davidpfarrell, I think you may have misunderstood (or I did!). It's Bash It's installer that misuses ~/.bash_profile.

Let me take another run at a review of this PR...

My issues is that the vbsh alias is only useful if the user uses JUST one of bash_profile OR bashrc, but not if the user uses both of them, since, in that scenario, the alias will never edit bash_profile.

AND good shell management would seem to expect that BOTH will be used to manage their respective configuration types (variables vs aliases, etc)

So I'm just not sure if the new alias brings enough value ...

Aside: I don't think any GUI logins on any Linux distribution run an interactive login shell to start the GUI session.

YES you are correct - Its been awhile since I've used a linux+GUI, and my memory failed me. I was mis-remembering the execution of ~/.profile on GUI startup as being ~/.bash_profile

[gaelicWizard]

@davidpfarrell, if you are bored and want a rabbit-hole to fall down, here's some fun discussion on whether (and which) Linux GUI logins load ~/.profile (only on Fedora, and only for X11)`: https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=736660