Alias to source .bashrc after it's been edited?

Question

I would like to add an alias (for convenience sake) that would allow me to edit my bashrc, and if changes were made, source it, but if no changes were made, don't source (in case I changed my mind).

I initially tried alias vb='vi ~/.bashrc && source ~/.bashrc' but then I realized that even just quitting out of vi :q or :q! probably still returns a success return value which is why it still sources.

Is there some way to make an alias such that quitting vi without making any changes to the file doesn't source .bashrc but if something is changed, it does?

Answer 1

What about:

alias vb='SUM1=$(md5sum ~/.bashrc) && vi ~/.bashrc && SUM2=$(md5sum ~/.bashrc) && if [ "$SUM1" != "$SUM2" ] ; then source ~/.bashrc ; fi'

Answer 2

How about using a bash function instead of an alias? The following works in my tests:

• Add the following function to ~/.bashrc
• source ~/.bashrc

• when you want to change ~/.bashrc type bashmod at the prompt

  function bashmod () {
  
          pre=$(shasum ~/.bashrc);
          vim mybuf;
          post=$(shasum ~/.bashrc);
  
          if [ "$pre" = "$post" ]; then
                  echo "~/.bashrc unchanged";
          else
                  . ~/.bashrc;
          fi
  }
  

Answer 3

Same idea as the other answers, but comparing the files directly instead of going the detour via checksums:

vb() {
    local old="$(<~/.bashrc)"
    vim ~/.bashrc
    if ! cmp -s ~/.bashrc <<< "$old"; then
        source ~/.bashrc
    fi
}