How can I improve my bash script - [1] select & [2] case commands and [3] a tortuous method to re-load keybindings?

Question

Long term lurker: I'm a total tinkerer, never learned to code & I'm only just at copy&paste script-kiddie level. I'd like to get better so I'd be grateful for ideas about how to improve my "kbdpicker" script.

Context:

distro = xubuntu 19.10
there's a few programs where I find the built-in keyboard-shortcuts hard to commit to muscle memory and in chromium (+/- a few others) I have to use xdotool to simulate mouse movements to create shortcuts (inspired by memories of autohotkeys in windows7) ==> it'd be much easier for me if I had the numpad digits 0-9 set to specified keyboard-shortcuts or xdotool-commands (and one day I'll create conky cheatsheet reminders for each program)
I can of course use the GUI settings > keyboard to create the keybindings BUT then they'll be active all the time and I won't be able to use the numpad digits to enter numbers
so I created multiple versions of the xfce-keyboard-shortcuts.xml file in my $HOME/config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml folder and a script bin/kbdpicker which copies/ overwrites from the program-specific profile to the active one :: it means in the terminal I can quickly swap between the default numpad or one of my custom program specific keybindings (once the script's looking better and proved itself I might actually re-assign the media keys - which I never use - to different kbdpicker selections).

It took a lot of googling but I'm a bit stunned to say that the kbdpicker script works but it's disastrously inelegent so I'd really like comments about how it could be done better.

It seems redundant to repeat the case structure just so that I can have either the "quick terminal command with option" method or the "full TUI" method.
Should I really have the select command at all, is there a better way to do a menu picker?
Do I really need the do/done loop that forces me to explicitly exit? (when I tried without the do/ done I kept getting errors)
I tried several methods to get the keyboard-shortcuts to be refreshed (a bit like doing . .bashrc after that's been changed). Is there a better way?

Thanks for reading and thanks in advance for any suggestions.

best wishes

Atilla

ls $HOME/config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml | grep shortcuts

xfce4-keyboard-shortcuts__0_nil__.xml
xfce4-keyboard-shortcuts__GEANY__.xml
xfce4-keyboard-shortcuts__GIMP__.xml
xfce4-keyboard-shortcuts__HEYDOC__.xml
xfce4-keyboard-shortcuts.xml

cat ~/bin/kbdpicker

    #!/bin/bash

    #  Script:    kbdpicker
    #  Created:   2020.05.04

    # https://linuxize.com/post/bash-select/            ===> select & case examples
    # https://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?id=11607     ===> successfully kill & restart daemons
    # https://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?id=8860      <=== failed ideas for daemons
    # https://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?id=7878      <=== failed ideas for daemons

    FoldeR="$HOME/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml"
    FilE="$FoldeR/xfce4-keyboard-shortcuts.xml"

    function runRoutine { 
    PS3="Select the kbdsetup profile to be used: "
    select kbdprofile in blank_default heydoc gimp geany exit; do
        case $kbdprofile in
            blank_default) 
                kill -9 $(pidof xfconfd) &
                kill -9 $(pidof xfsettingsd) &
                cp $FoldeR/xfce4-keyboard-shortcuts__0_nil__.xml $FilE
                xfsettingsd &
                /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/xfce4/xfconf/xfconfd &
                exit
                ;;
            heydoc)
                kill -9 $(pidof xfconfd) &
                kill -9 $(pidof xfsettingsd) &
                cp $FoldeR/xfce4-keyboard-shortcuts__HEYDOC__.xml $FilE 
                xfsettingsd & 
                /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/xfce4/xfconf/xfconfd &
                exit
                ;;
            gimp) 
                kill -9 $(pidof xfconfd) &
                kill -9 $(pidof xfsettingsd) &
                cp $FoldeR/xfce4-keyboard-shortcuts__GIMP__.xml $FilE  
                xfsettingsd & 
                /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/xfce4/xfconf/xfconfd &
                exit
                ;;
            geany)
                kill -9 $(pidof xfconfd) &
                kill -9 $(pidof xfsettingsd) &
                cp $FoldeR/xfce4-keyboard-shortcuts__GEANY__.xml $FilE  
                xfsettingsd & 
                /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/xfce4/xfconf/xfconfd &
                exit
                ;;
            exit)
                exit
                ;;
            *) 
                echo $red "Invalid option >> $REPLY" $cyn
                ;;
        esac
    done
    }


    case $1 in 
            1) 
                kill -9 $(pidof xfconfd) &
                kill -9 $(pidof xfsettingsd) &
                cp $FoldeR/xfce4-keyboard-shortcuts__0_nil__.xml $FilE
                xfsettingsd &
                /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/xfce4/xfconf/xfconfd &
                exit
                ;;
            2)
                kill -9 $(pidof xfconfd) &
                kill -9 $(pidof xfsettingsd) &
                cp $FoldeR/xfce4-keyboard-shortcuts__HEYDOC__.xml $FilE 
                xfsettingsd & 
                /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/xfce4/xfconf/xfconfd &
                exit
                ;;
            3) 
                kill -9 $(pidof xfconfd) &
                kill -9 $(pidof xfsettingsd) &
                cp $FoldeR/xfce4-keyboard-shortcuts__GIMP__.xml $FilE  
                xfsettingsd & 
                /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/xfce4/xfconf/xfconfd &
                exit
                ;;
            4)
                kill -9 $(pidof xfconfd) &
                kill -9 $(pidof xfsettingsd) &
                cp $FoldeR/xfce4-keyboard-shortcuts__GEANY__.xml $FilE  
                xfsettingsd & 
                /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/xfce4/xfconf/xfconfd &
                exit
                ;;
            *) 
                runRoutine 
                ;;
    esac

UPDATE: ok so I dealt with the repetition of the case constructions - which will make it much easier to change the script in future

#!/bin/bash

#  Script:    kbdpicker_2
#  Created:   2020.05.04

# https://linuxize.com/post/bash-select/            ===> select & case examples
# https://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?id=11607     ===> kill & restart daemons
# https://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?id=8860      <=== failed ideas for daemons
# https://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?id=7878      <=== failed ideas for daemons

source $HOME/bin/bashcolours # import the colour schema 
###  CODES: rst blk red grn ylw blu mag cyn wte 
###  PREFIX: ...  (b)right   (d)im   (u)nderline   (BG) 
###  USAGE: 'echo $cyn"TextToPrint" $rst'

FoldeR="$HOME/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml"
FilE="$FoldeR/xfce4-keyboard-shortcuts.xml"


case $1 in 
        1) 
            kbdprofile="blank_default"
            echo $red "selected: $kbdprofile"
            ;;
        2)
            kbdprofile="heydoc"
            echo $red "selected: $kbdprofile"
            ;;
        3) 
            kbdprofile="gimp"
            echo $red "selected: $kbdprofile"
            ;;
        4)
            kbdprofile="geany"
            echo $red "selected: $kbdprofile"
            ;;
esac


if [[ -z $kbdprofile ]]
then 
    echo $cyn
    PS3="Select the kbdsetup profile to be used: "
    select kbdprofile in blank_default heydoc gimp geany exit
    do
         echo $red "selected: $kbdprofile"
    break
    done
fi

case $kbdprofile in
    blank_default) 
        kill -9 $(pidof xfconfd) &
        kill -9 $(pidof xfsettingsd) &
        cp $FoldeR/xfce4-keyboard-shortcuts__0_nil__.xml $FilE
        xfsettingsd &
        /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/xfce4/xfconf/xfconfd &
        exit
        ;;
    heydoc)
        kill -9 $(pidof xfconfd) &
        kill -9 $(pidof xfsettingsd) &
        cp $FoldeR/xfce4-keyboard-shortcuts__HEYDOC__.xml $FilE 
        xfsettingsd & 
        /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/xfce4/xfconf/xfconfd &
        exit
        ;;
    gimp) 
        kill -9 $(pidof xfconfd) &
        kill -9 $(pidof xfsettingsd) &
        cp $FoldeR/xfce4-keyboard-shortcuts__GIMP__.xml $FilE  
        xfsettingsd & 
        /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/xfce4/xfconf/xfconfd &
        exit
        ;;
    geany)
        kill -9 $(pidof xfconfd) &
        kill -9 $(pidof xfsettingsd) &
        cp $FoldeR/xfce4-keyboard-shortcuts__GEANY__.xml $FilE  
        xfsettingsd & 
        /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/xfce4/xfconf/xfconfd &
        exit
        ;;
    exit)
        exit
        ;;
    *) 
        echo $red "Invalid option >> $REPLY" $cyn
        ;;
esac

Also check out StackOverflow's [Code Review](https://codereview.stackexchange.com/) sister site — that other guy, May 05 '20 at 05:09
I’m voting to close this question because it belongs on Code Review — l0b0, May 05 '20 at 10:41

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered May 05 '20 at 10:37

Some quick tips (I won't have time to go into details, all of these are mentioned on Greg's Wiki:

kill -9 does not belong in scripts.
By convention local variables (including function names) should be snake_case, exported values should be SHOUTY_SNAKE_CASE. No Bash variables should be mixed case.
Use More Quotes™.
#!/usr/bin/env bash is a more portable shebang.
The default way to use a script should be non-interactive.
Use shellcheck to get more tips.

A couple meta-tips:

Don't post your updated code in the same question.
This post is probably better suited for Code Review.

Hi @l0b0, just realised I never said thank you – Atilla Apr 10 '21 at 17:58 — Atilla, Apr 10 '21 at 17:58

How can I improve my bash script - [1] select & [2] case commands and [3] a tortuous method to re-load keybindings?

1 Answers1