Quickly Edit Posts
==================

Recently I automated starting new posts with a python script. Today I want to work on the next part that is editing those posts quickly.

Date: January 18, 2021

Recently I automated starting new posts with a python script. Today I want to
work on the next part that is editing those posts quickly.

Automating my Post Starter [1]

> Check out this post about setting up my posts with python 🐍

## Enter Bash

For the process of editing a post I just need to open the file in vim quickly.
I dont need much in the way of parsing and setting up the frontmatter. I think
this is a simple job for a **bash** script and fzf.

1. change to the root of my blog
1. fuzzy find the post
1. open it with vim
1. change back to the directory I was in

## bash function

For this I am going to go with a bash function. This is partly due to being
able to track where I was and get back. Also the line with nvim will run fzf
everytime you source your `~/.alias` file which is not what we want.

Lets setup the **boilerplate**. Its going to create a function called ep
`"edit post"`, track our current directory, create a sub function `_ep`. Then
call that function and cd back to where we were no matter if `_ep` fails or
succeeds.

_boilerplate_
``` bash
ep () {
 _dir=$(pwd)
 _ep () {
 # open file here
 }
 _ep && cd $_dir || cd $_dir
}
```

Creating Reusable Bash Scripts [2]

> check out this post for more information about writing reusable bash scripts.

## FZF

Let's focus in on that `_ep` function here that is going to do the bulk of the
work to edit the post.

_cd to where I want to edit from_
``` bash
cd ~/git/waylonwalkerv2/
```

Next I need to find all markdown pages within my posts directory. There is
probably a better way to filter with the `find` command directly, but I am not
worried about perf here and I knew how to do it without google.

_find all markdown_
``` bash
find ~/git/waylonwalkerv2/src/pages/ | grep .md$
```

Now that we can list all potential posts, sending the selected post back to
neovim is as easy as piping those files into fzf inside of a command
substitution that is called with neovim.

_putting together the edit command_
``` bash
$EDITOR $(find ~/git/waylonwalkerv2/src/pages/ | grep .md$ | fzf)
```

## Final Script

_final ep function_
``` bash
ep () {
 _dir=$(pwd)
 _ep () {
 cd ~/git/waylonwalkerv2/
 $EDITOR $(find ~/git/waylonwalkerv2/src/pages/ | grep .md$ | fzf)
 }
 _ep && cd $_dir || cd $_dir
}
```

References:
[1]: /automating-my-post-starter/
[2]: /reusable-bash/