el

el is a small shell script that I find quite useful. For me, it's an intuitive way to open (edit) files. It also works well in little wrapper functions.

Download link: http://code.cutup.org/sh/el

There's also a man page : http://code.cutup.org/sh/el.1

el is also available as a function for .bashrc/.kshrc. The function has an additional option: -g - that cd's to $el. http://code.cutup.org/sh/el.function

Save or copy the file to somewhere in your path. You may need to chmod +x el. Run el -h for a brief help message.

el - searching editor

SYNOPSIS
el [-h] [-z] [-a [search terms] ]

DESCRIPTION
Finds and edits files matching all arguments in basedir. Arguments are
regular expressions delimited by whitespace. Basedir is defined by  the
value of $el. If unset it defaults to current directory.

With no arguments, lists all files in basedir. If a single file matches
all arguments, opens the file with $EDITOR. If  multiple  files  match,
prints a numbered list of matches and prompts for input.

The first item in the list, 0) , is always the search string. Selecting
a number will open the file in $EDITOR. Lastly,  input  that  does  not
begin with a number is treated as the filename to edit.

OPTIONS
-a     include hidden files

-h     brief help

-z     print value of $el

CONFIGURATION

Add  export el to .bashrc to make the variable easily available.  el(1)
gets more useful when wrapped in .bashrc functions, for example:

export el
function howto {
  local el=~/docs/howto
  el $@
}

This redefines the basedir locally in the function, executes  el(1)  as
normal, and leaves the value of basedir unchanged. The basedir can also
be temporarily changed in a shell session by setting el=/path/to/dir
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