Bash Commander is a version of the GNU Bourne Again Shell, with one extra feature: a visual mode with two panels for browsing folders and navigating file systems. This makes Bash Commander similar to other text-mode visual shells like Midnight Commander.
By default, Bash Commander behaves exactly like traditional bash,
so it's safe to install it as a system-wide /bin/sh.
File panels are enabled only in interactive mode, when
an environment variable COMMANDER is set.
It is recommended to add the following lines to your ~/.bashrc script:
declare -x EDITOR="le"
declare -x VIEWER="le --read-only"
. /usr/local/etc/bash_commander
Bash Commander also has scripting capabilities.
When function keys F1-F12 are pressed, it calls a shell function with
appropriate name like commander_f1(), in case it is defined.
When is pressed, a function commander_start_file()
is called with a parameter - a name of the file.
You can define the functions in your ~/.bashrc file.
See /usr/local/etc/bash_commander
as an example.
When building Bach Commander from sources, a few tools and libraries must be pre-installed.
On Ubuntu:
sudo apt install build-essential git cmake bison libncursesw5-dev dialog
On MacOS:
brew install git cmake bison ncurses dialog
On FreeBSD:
pkg install git cmake bison cdialog
make
make install
Three files are installed:
/usr/local/bin/bashc- binary executable of Bash Commander/usr/local/etc/bash_commander- startup script with F1-F12 keys defined/usr/local/etc/bash_dialog- configuration script for/usr/bin/dialogwith proper colors