A Modest Start in BASH and NVIM
Published on 21 Mar 2020
Instead of using ruby and atom to write a “create post” shell script, I decided to do it in bash and nvim instead. I’m still getting used to the vim keybindings, but it’s actually a lot of fun, and there’s something empowering about learning to interact more directly with the system in bash.
I could have easily written the following script in ruby in a fraction of the time, but in the process I learned a few new tricks in both bash and nvim.
#!/bin/bash
cd ~/Development/publish/clockworkpc.github.io
ymlTemplate=$(cat _front_matter_template.yml)
currentDate=`date`
dateStamp=`date +"%Y"-%m-%d-`
myTitle=$1
myTags=$2
# Generate YAML front matter by sub-string replacement
myYml="${ymlTemplate/MY_TITLE/$myTitle}"
myYml="${myYml/MY_DATE/$currentDate}"
myYml="${myYml/MY_TAGS/$myTags}"
myBasename="${myTitle,,}"
myBasename=`echo $myBasename | sed 's/[^a-zA-Z0-9]/_/g' | sed -e 's/\([_]\)\1\+/\1/g'`
# filePath="`pwd`/_posts/${dateStamp}${myBasename}.md"
filePath="`pwd`/_posts/${dateStamp}${myBasename}.md"
if [[ -z "$myTitle" ]] ; then
echo "No title provided"
elif [[ -z "$myTags" ]] ; then
echo "No tags provided"
else
nvim "${filePath}"
glow "${filePath}"
echo -e "${myYml}\n$(cat $filePath)" > $filePath
fi
If you’re wondering, this is the YAML template:
---
layout: post
title: MY_TITLE
date: MY_DATE
tags: [MY_TAGS]
---
all tags
activerecord android annoyances api apt arch array artix atom az3w backend bash blog browser bug callback career cli cloud code coding config configuration cp crud css database db design devops django email erp filter fugitive gif gist git gnome grep hebrew http ide isbn-fetcher iso javascript job search js kanban kanban\ kindle koans linux logger manjaro map markdown microservices mobi mtp neovim nodejs packages pastbin patch post python rails reduce refactoring rest routes rspec ruby scripting security sed shell sql string_replacement study tdd terminal testing version_control vim walkthrough workflow