profile

This project aims to create an advanced bash profile. It includes aliases, a customized prompt and several functions for different purposes. It's mostly targeted to system administrators but might satisfy some regular users.

1. Requirements

profile requires Bash 4.3 or higher (for associative arrays and namerefs). It will refuse to load on older versions and will also refuse to load if the current shell is not bash.

2. Getting started

Download and extract (or use git clone) the profile archive into your home directory. You will have to modify your ~/.bashrc and/or ~/.profile file to add at the end (preferably):

source <installpath>/profile/profile.sh

You may also set the PROFILE_PATH environment variable before sourcing if you want to override the automatic path detection:

export PROFILE_PATH=/opt/profile
source /opt/profile/profile.sh

It's not recommended to load that profile in /etc/profile as users' .bashrc files might interfere with some aliases and functions defined in profile.

2.1. Initial configuration

Copy the example configuration file and customise it to your needs:

cp <installpath>/profile/doc/profile.conf.example <installpath>/profile/profile.conf

profile.conf is git-ignored so your personal settings will never be accidentally committed. All keys are optional — sensible defaults apply when unset. See section 4 for the full reference.

3. What's the purpose?

profile gives access to numerous functions, aliases and to an advanced prompt. All functions are organized into modules under the profile.d/ directory and are loaded automatically at startup.

3.1. Prompt

A bar-style prompt showing current time, execution time of the last command (with sub-millisecond precision), and the exit code of the last command.

3.2. Functions reference

Function	Module	Description
busy	fun	Monitor /dev/urandom for a hex pattern — look busy
check_updates	updates	Check whether a newer profile version is available online
clean	filefct	Erase backup files in given directories, optionally recursive
disp	disp	Display formatted info / warning / error / debug messages
dwl	net	Download a URL using curl, wget, or fetch transparently
expandlist	filefct	Expand glob expressions into a quoted, separated list
file_stats	filefct	Display file size statistics for a path
findbig	filefct	Find the biggest files in the given or current directory
finddead	filefct	Find dead symbolic links in the given or current directory
findzero	filefct	Find empty files in the given or current directory
gacp	git	Add, commit and push changes; auto-pulls with rebase first if needed
genpwd	pwd	Generate one or more random secure passwords with configurable constraints
ggraph	git	Display a decorated git history graph
gpid	processes	Give the list of PIDs matching the given process name(s)
gprune	git	Delete local branches already merged into the main branch
greset	git	Reset the current branch to upstream, stashing local changes first
groot	git	Display the repository root path, or change directory to it with -g
gsync	git	Fetch and rebase the current branch onto its upstream
gst	git	Display compact git status with branch tracking information
gwip	git	Create a quick WIP checkpoint commit
help	help	Display the list of available functions and basic usage
isipv4	net	Tell if the given parameter is a valid IPv4 address
isipv6	net	Tell if the given parameter is a valid IPv6 address
ku	processes	Kill all processes owned by the given user name or ID
matrix	rain	Console screensaver with Matrix-style digital rain (binary, kana, ascii charset)
mcd	filefct	Create a directory and immediately move into it
meteo	info	Display weather forecast for the configured or given city
myextip	net	Get information about your public IP address
get_pkgmgr	packages	Detect the active package manager of the running distribution (apt, dnf, yum, zypper, pacman, apk, portage, xbps, nix)
pkgs	packages	Search for a pattern in installed package names (distro-aware via get_pkgmgr, supports -i)
ppg	processes	Look for the given pattern in running processes
ppn	processes	List processes matching an exact command name
ppu	processes	List processes owned by a specific user
profile_upgrade	updates	Upgrade profile to the latest version (git pull or archive)
pwdscore	pwd	Calculate the strength score of a given password
rain	rain	Console screensaver with falling-rain effect (multiple color themes)
rmhost	ssh	Remove host (name and IP) from SSH known_hosts; supports --all-users as root
rmspc	filefct	Replace spaces in filenames with underscores (or a custom character)
setc	lang	Set locale to standard C (POSIX)
setlocale	lang	Set console locale to any installed locale
settrace	debug	Activate or deactivate ERR trap to display backtrace on script errors
showinfo	info	Display welcome banner and system information (figlet + neofetch/fastfetch)
ssr	ssh	SSH into a server as root, forwarding extra ssh options
taz	compress	Compress files and directories into a chosen archive format
urlencode	net	URL-encode a string
utaz	compress	Smartly uncompress archives (zip, tar.gz/bz2/xz/lz, rar, arj, lha, ace, 7z, zst, cpio, cab, deb, rpm)
ver	info	Display the installed profile version

Locale shortcut functions (setfr, setus, etc.) are dynamically generated at startup from the SET_LOCALE configuration key (see section 4).

4. Configuration

profile uses an INI-style configuration file (profile.conf) located in the same directory as profile.sh. Sections are declared with [section_name] and keys follow key = value syntax. Each module calls load_conf "<section>" at load time, which exports every key in that section as an environment variable. Unknown keys are silently ignored; all keys are optional — sensible defaults apply when unset.

profile.conf is listed in .gitignore so personal values (API keys, cities, compiler flags, …) are never accidentally staged. Start from the annotated template at doc/profile.conf.example (see section 2.1).

4.1. Core sections

Section	Purpose
[system]	Bash history size, pager, and other shell behaviours
[general]	General-purpose variables (e.g. compilation flags, MAKEFLAGS)
[aliases]	User command aliases, loaded for interactive shells only

4.2. Module defaults

Each module exposes its hardcoded defaults as configuration keys. Set a key to change the default without having to pass flags every time.

[compress] — taz / utaz

Key	Default	Description
TAZ_DEFAULT_FORMAT	tar.gz	Archive format for taz (tar.gz, tar.bz2, tar.xz, zip, …)
TAZ_DEFAULT_THREADS	0	Compression threads (0 = auto-detect)
TAZ_DEFAULT_LEVEL	6	Compression level (1–9)
UTAZ_DEFAULT_DELETE	0	Set to 1 to delete the source archive after extraction
UTAZ_DEFAULT_DIR_MODE	0	Set to 1 to always extract into a subdirectory

[filefct] — file utilities

Key	Default	Description
EXPANDLIST_DEFAULT_SEPARATOR	(space)	Separator used by expandlist
CLEAN_DEFAULT_RECURSIVE	0	Set to 1 to make clean recurse into subdirectories
RMSPC_DEFAULT_CHAR	_	Replacement character used by rmspc
FINDBIG_DEFAULT_LIMIT	10	Number of results returned by findbig

[rain] — screensavers

Key	Default	Description
RAIN_DEFAULT_SPEED	0.1	Falling speed for rain
RAIN_DEFAULT_COLOR	Green	Colour for rain
MATRIX_DEFAULT_SPEED	0.05	Falling speed for matrix
MATRIX_DEFAULT_COLOR	Green	Colour for matrix
MATRIX_DEFAULT_CHARSET	binary	Character set for matrix (binary, kana, ascii)

[ssh]

Key	Default	Description
SSH_DEFAULT_OPT	(empty)	Extra options passed to ssr (e.g. -Y for X forwarding)

[pwd] — password tools

Key	Default	Description
GENPWD_DEFAULT_LENGTH	16	Generated password length
GENPWD_DEFAULT_OCCURS	1	Number of character class occurrences
GENPWD_DEFAULT_COUNT	1	Number of passwords to generate
GENPWD_DEFAULT_SYMBOLS	1	Include symbols (0/1)
GENPWD_DEFAULT_UPPERCASE	1	Include uppercase letters (0/1)
GENPWD_DEFAULT_LOWERCASE	1	Include lowercase letters (0/1)
GENPWD_DEFAULT_NUMBERS	1	Include digits (0/1)
PWDSCORE_DEFAULT_VERBOSE	0	Set to 1 for detailed scoring output from pwdscore

[fun]

Key	Default	Description
BUSY_DEFAULT_PATTERN	[0-9a-f]	Hex pattern matched by busy
BUSY_DEFAULT_DELAY	0.1	Polling delay (seconds) for busy

[git]

Key	Default	Description
GIT_MAIN_BRANCH	main	Fallback main branch name used when remote HEAD cannot be detected
GIT_DEFAULT_REMOTE	origin	Default remote used by git helper functions
GIT_WIP_PREFIX	wip	Prefix used by gwip when generating automatic checkpoint messages
GIT_GACP_AUTO_ADD	1	Set to 1 to make gacp automatically add all modified files when no explicit file list is given; set to 0 to require explicit paths or the -a flag

[info]

Key	Default	Description
METEO_DEFAULT_CITY	(empty)	Default city for meteo when no argument is given

[net]

Key	Default	Description
DWL_PREFERRED_TOOL	(empty)	Force dwl to use curl, wget, or fetch (auto-detected when unset)
MYEXTIP_DEFAULT_URL	https://ip-api.com/json	API endpoint used by myextip

[packages]

Key	Default	Description
PKGS_DEFAULT_IGNORE_CASE	0	Set to 1 to make pkgs case-insensitive by default

[processes]

Key	Default	Description
PPU_DEFAULT_FORMAT	pid,user,comm,args	ps output format used by ppu
KU_DEFAULT_SIGNAL	TERM	Default signal sent by ku

[updates]

Key	Default	Description
UPDT_DEFAULT_BRANCH	master	Git branch used for update checks and profile_upgrade. Changing this value causes profile_upgrade to automatically switch the local checkout to the new branch on the next run and display a warning.

4.3. Locale shortcuts

The [lang] key SET_LOCALE accepts a comma-separated list of alias:locale pairs. Each pair generates a function of that name at startup:

SET_LOCALE = fr:fr_FR.UTF-8, us:en_US.UTF-8

This creates setfr and setus. Use setlocale <locale> to switch to any installed locale directly.

Set DEFAULT_LANG to one of the defined aliases to activate that locale automatically at login:

DEFAULT_LANG = fr

If DEFAULT_LANG is set but does not match any alias in SET_LOCALE, a warning is displayed and no locale change is applied.

4.4. Prompt theming

The prompt appearance is controlled by two mechanisms that are applied in order (later values win):

1. Theme file — sets a base colour palette.
2. [prompt] section in profile.conf — per-key overrides on top of the theme.

Selecting a theme:

[prompt]
PROMPT_THEME     = dark          # bare name → profile.d/themes/dark.theme
PROMPT_THEME_DIR = ~/.mythemes   # optional: custom search directory

Built-in themes: default, dark, light, solarized, solarized-light, monokai, monochrome, abyss, plasma, adwaita.

Overriding individual prompt colour slots:

[prompt]
PROMPT_COLOR_USER_FG = $ICyan
PROMPT_COLOR_DIR_FG  = $IYellow

The eleven available PROMPT_COLOR_* keys are:

Key	Role
PROMPT_COLOR_TIME_FG / TIME_BG	Clock foreground / background
PROMPT_COLOR_BAR_BG	Main bar background
PROMPT_COLOR_OK_FG / OK_MARK	Exit-code text / checkmark on success
PROMPT_COLOR_ERR_BG / ERR_FG / ERR_MARK	Error bar background / text / X mark
PROMPT_COLOR_ROOT_FG	Username colour when running as root
PROMPT_COLOR_USER_FG	Username@host colour for normal users
PROMPT_COLOR_DIR_FG	Working directory colour

Writing a custom theme file:

Theme files live in profile.d/themes/ and use the .theme extension. They are parsed, not executed — no shell code runs. Only two value forms are accepted:

# Colour variable reference (resolved from profile.d/disp.sh)
PROMPT_COLOR_DIR_FG = "$ICyan"

# Raw ANSI escape sequence (single block, 16-colour or 24-bit true-colour)
PROMPT_COLOR_BAR_BG = "\e[48;2;7;54;66m"

Any unknown key, unsafe value, or shell construct is discarded with a warning. Theme files may also override the standard colour variables (Black, Blue, On_IBlack, etc.) to remap the entire terminal palette used by ls, grep, and other colour-aware tools.

True-colour themes (solarized, solarized-light) require a terminal with 24-bit colour support (Konsole, iTerm2, kitty, Alacritty, Windows Terminal). Verify support with:

printf '\e[38;2;38;139;210mTrue colour test\e[0m\n'

5. Contact and more information

5.1. New users

If you use (or plan to use) profile, I'll be happy if you simply mail me to let me know, especially if you don't plan to contribute. If you plan to contribute, I'll be twice happier for sure!

5.2. Bugs

profile bug tracker is hosted on its Gitea instance. Check the https://git.geoffray-levasseur.org/fatalerrors/profile page. If you find a bug, you can also submit a bug report to the maintainer mail address mentioned at the end of that document. A bug report may contain the command line parameters where the bug happens, OS details, the module that triggered it, if any, and the log file containing the error. Cygwin users: please note that the bash implementation in Cygwin regularly triggers bugs on advanced code that works fine on Linux or BSD. Please do not send syntax error bug reports if you have not tested the same code under a real Unix environment.

Check the FAQ and the to-do list before sending any feature request or bug report, as it might already be documented.

5.3. How to contribute?

You are free to improve and contribute as you wish. If you have no idea what to do or want some direction, you can check the to-do list, containing desired future improvements. Make sure you always have the latest development version before starting your work.

Read CONTRIBUTING.md for code style conventions, branch workflow, and how to submit a patch or pull request.

It's heavily recommended to use git to obtain the latest copy of the profile tree. Make sure your git configuration is correct in order to contribute. Please contact me to obtain push authorizations, or, if you want to submit a patch, you can send it by mail to the maintainer of profile.

Code written in Python or Perl might be accepted as long as it is not mobilizing a lot of dependencies (forget big frameworks). Anything that requires installing packages not provided in a minimal Debian or CentOS installation will probably be rejected.

If you want to make a financial contribution, please contact me by mail.

5.4. License, website, and maintainer

Everything except configuration files is licensed under the BSD-3 license. Please check the license file alongside this one.

Please check https://www.geoffray-levasseur.org/profile.

You can mail the author at fatalerrors <at> geoffray-levasseur <dot> org.

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Documentation (c) 2021-2026 Geoffray Levasseur.

This file is distributed under the 3-clause BSD license. The complete license agreement can be obtained at: https://opensource.org/licenses/BSD-3-Clause