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What is Base?

                Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.
                                                                 - Vincent van Gogh

Base is a sharing platform for shell settings, libraries, and light-weight tools. It gives a structured way for Bash users to organize the following across multiple hosts:

• .bash_profile
• .bashrc
• generic Bash libraries and commands
• company specific Bash libraries, commands, and configuration
• team specific Bash libraries, commands, and configuration
• user specific settings (aliases, functions, Bash settings)
• Bash libraries, commands, and configuration that are shared across teams

It can benefit anyone who engages with Mac/Linux command line to get their work done.

Requirements

Base needs Bash version 4.2 or above.

How can I get set up?

Set up is easy. Essentially, this is what you have to do:

• Check out Base. The standard location for Base is $HOME/base. In case your git directory is elsewhere, symlink $HOME/git to it or specify the path by setting BASE_HOME in $HOME/.baserc file.
• Consolidate your individual settings from your current .bash_profile and .bashrc into $USER.sh file. Place this file under base/user directory and check it in to git.
• Make a backup of your .bash_profile. Replace this file with a symlink to base/lib/bash_profile.
• Make a backup of your .bashrc. Replace this file with a symlink to base/lib/bashrc.

Log out and log back in or just do exec bash and you are all set!

Here is an example:

cd $HOME
mkdir git && cd git
git clone git@github.com:codeforester/base.git
cd $HOME
mv .bash_profile .bash_profile.safe && ln -sf $HOME/base/lib/bash_profile .bash_profile
mv .bashrc       .bashrc.safe       && ln -sf $HOME/base/lib/bashrc       .bashrc
cp $USER.sh $HOME/base/user
cd $HOME/base
git add user/$USER.sh
git commit -m "Adding the initial version of $USER.sh"
git push

If you don't want to disturb your .bash_profile and .bashrc, you can still use Base in a less full-fledged manner. See the FAQ section for details.

How does Base work?

In a typical setting, .bashrc sources in $BASE_HOME/base_init.sh which does the following:

• source in lib/stdlib.sh
• source in company/lib/company.sh if it exists
• source in company/lib/bashrc if it exists, if the shell is interactive
• source in user/$USER.sh if it exists and if the shell is interactive
• source in team specific bashrc from team/<team>/lib/bashrc for each team defined in BASE_TEAM and BASE_SHARED_TEAMS variables, if the shell is interactive. Note that BASE_TEAM and BASE_SHARED_TEAMS should be ideally set in user/$USER.sh.
• source in team specific library from team/<team>/lib/<team>.sh for each team defined in BASE_TEAM and BASE_SHARED_TEAMS variables, if they exist
• update $PATH to include the relevant bin directories
  • $BASE_HOME/bin is always added
  • $BASE_HOME/team/$BASE_TEAM/bin is added if $BASE_TEAM is set in user/$USER.sh
  • $BASE_HOME/team/$BASE_TEAM/bin is added for each team defined in $BASE_SHARED_TEAMS (space-separated string), set in user/$USER.sh
  • $BASE_HOME/company/bin is always added

Directory structure

Environment variables

• BASE_HOME
• BASE_DEBUG
• BASE_TEAM
• BASE_SHARED_TEAMS
• BASE_OS
• BASE_HOST
• BASE_SOURCES

Functions exported by base_init.sh

• import - sources in libraries from any place under BASE_HOME directory
• base_update - does a git pull on Base git directory; add it to user/<user>.sh to "auto update" Base

FAQ

My git location is not $HOME/base. What should I do?

You can either

• specify your Base location in $HOME/.baserc, like

  BASE_HOME=/path/to/base

• symlink $HOME/base to the right place

You need to do this on every host where you want Base.

I want to keep my personal settings private, and not in git. What should I do?

• write a one-liner in user/$USER.sh like this:

  source /path/to/your.settings

You would need to manage this file outside of Base.

I do want to use the default settings. What should I do?

Add this to your user/$USER.sh file:

import lib/base_defaults.sh

I want to make sure I keep my Base repository updated always. How can I do it?

Add this to your user/$USER.sh file:

base_update

I don't want to reorganize my .bash_profile or .bashrc. Can I still use Base?

Yes, you can, though you will lose the flexibility of keeping your .bash_profile and .bashrc synced across hosts in case you are working with multiple hosts.

To turn on Base upon login, add this to your .bash_profile:

export BASE_HOME=/path/to/base
source "$BASE_HOME/base_init.sh"

after making sure you have the base repo checked out under $BASE_HOME directory.

If you don't want to change your .bash_profile at all, you can still turn Base on and off as needed. First, make sure BASE_HOME is set appropriately, ideally in your .bash_profile.

Run this command to get a shell with Base turned on:

$BASE_HOME/base.sh shell

or $BASE_HOME/base.sh

Debugging

• You can turn on debug mode by touching $HOME/.base_debug file. You can also do the same by setting environment variable BASE_DEBUG to 1.
• You can add set -x to $HOME/.baserc file to trace the execution in detail.