Alexey Komissarouk requested a modification to the cl command that opens the argument in the default text editor if it’s a file. The go command will open the file in the editor defined by the EDITOR environment variable.
Place this in your .bashrc, .bash_profile or analogous file:
go()
{
if [ -f "$1" ]
then
$EDITOR "$1"
else
cd "$1" && ls
fi
}
If you have not defined the default editor, perhaps you’d like to try emacs, my chosen editor. Add this to the .bashrc or .bash_profile as well:
export EDITOR=emacs
Zachary Wasserman 
Great command! Only problem is typing ‘go’ with no arguments tries to open a blank file, rather than cd/ls on the home directory. Switching the order to something like
go()
{
if [ -d $1 ]
then
cd $1 && ls
else
$EDITOR $1
fi
}
makes it change to and list the home directory when given no arguments.
-Lauren
Thank you for bringing this up. I actually realized that just by quoting the
$1argument in the test command you can get the desired functionality. It will look like this:go() { if [ -f "$1" ] then $EDITOR $1 else cd $1 && ls fi }I’m going to make this modification above, as this is the functionality I intended.
I have a further modification upon Lauren’s `go`, where a blank file is not opened if the file does not already exist.
For many, I can see where Lauren’s version has the desired behavior, but for my purposes, I’d rather be notified if I tried editing something that doesn’t exist. If I want to create a new file (not just edit an already existing file), I prefer to do so explicitly with my text editor.
go() { if [ -d $1 ]; then cd $1 && ls -AF elif [ -f $1 ]; then $EDITOR $1 else echo "$1 not found." fi }This is certainly a sensible behavior, Brian. Adding the quotes to the test command as I describe in my reply to Lauren will give you the error message from the cd command when you try to cd something that does not exist.
zacharywasserman:
Good catch with the quote marks around “$1”. I guess (at first glance) your updated version with the quotes now behaves as mine does; except without the extra
elifsilliness.I type too slow! JINX! ;P~
go() { if [ -f "$1" ]; then $EDITOR "$1"; else cd $1 && ls -AF; fi }Revision: Added quotes around the path to the EDITOR to handle for cases were spaces exist in the filename.
Apparently, I’m still not paying attention… final fix:
go() { if [ -f "$1" ]; then $EDITOR "$1"; else cd "$1" && ls -AF; fi }This is a pretty awesome idea. I’ve stolen the idea and I’ve tacked on another else to take also take advantage of autojump.
Here’s what I’m using now:
go() {
if [ -f "$1" ]; then
$EDITOR "$1";
elif [ -d "$1" ]; then
cd "$1"
elif [ "" = "$1" ]; then
cd
else
j "$1"
fi
}
I’m tempted to go one step further and use `xdg-open` as well, but I don’t really want that to get in the way of editing.
Hi,
The function can also be improved by :
– asking to open the file with sudo if the file is write protected
– asking to create the file if it does not exist
My “go” function is called “o” (as open) and is available here : https://github.com/tomsquest/dotfiles/blob/master/zsh/functions/o
Thanks for the ideas, Tom!
I really, really like the sudo idea, and I understand why you would have it ask first before starting the edit.
I’m not sure I like being asked for confirmation, though. By default on my few Centos servers, root has aliases that make cp, mv, and rm interactive. It drives me up a tree. 🙂
Your second suggestion has definitely given me some food for thought. On one hand, I’m not sure I want a command that opens things to start creating things (or offering to create things) when I typo. On the other hand, though, I can certainly see it being pretty handy.
I’ll be keeping an up to date copy of my “go” command on my blog:
http://blog.patshead.com/2011/05/my-take-on-the-go-command.html
I also plan to keep it working in both zsh and bash.
Pat