Linux (basics) - How to use conditional on command in bashrc depending how terminal is spawned?

Question

I am using Guake Terminal in Ubuntu.

I have added the following line to my bashrc:

guake -e "cd /home/jasoons/Documents/Termainal" -r launch

This opens a tab called 'launch' in that directory where I'll put useful scripts. Some of these scripts I will use to configure the tabs of Guake or anything else based on what I want to work on; as detailed here.

The issue is that if one of these script opens a new Guake tab in a specific directory, then that line in the bashrc overwrites whatever directory I wanted to open in.

A solution I have in mind is of the form:

#in bashrc
if [USE SOME CONDITIONAL]; then
guake -e "cd /home/jasoons/Documents/Termainal" -r launch
fi

#in script
guake -n /home/jasoons/Desktop/Programming/ -r "ownComp" -e "SET SOME CONDITIONAL"

How can 'USE SOME CONDITIONAL' and 'SET SOME CONDITIONAL' be filled in to avoid this issue?

Any other suggestions? Is this an appropriate line of thought to solve this issue?

Answer 1

You need to use an environment variable, such as KEEP_WD, which should be exported to ensure that it will be passed to whichever shell incarnation runs .bashrc. Your commands then become:-

In .bashrc:

if [ -z "$KEEP_WD" ]; then
    guake -e "cd /home/jasoons/Documents/Termainal" -r launch
fi

In script:

guake -n /home/jasoons/Desktop/Programming/ -r "ownComp" -e "export KEEP_WD=y"