Linux checking shell command (bash)

Question

How can I check if a shell command ends with some text? For instance if I type

$ http://example.com/file.webm

(ends with .webm) it will be automatically replaced with

$ wget http://example.com/file.webm

Of course only if command consists of one part.

I'm using bash as my shell.

If you specify a specific shell, such as bash or zsh, then you may get an answer for how it may be implemented in that shell. — Kusalananda
– Kusalananda, Commented Jun 29, 2016 at 9:07

chepner · Accepted Answer · 2016-06-29 11:53:07Z

3

bash 4 provides a hook for handling a "command not found" error. In this case, http://example.com/file.webm would not be a valid command, so define the following function in your .bashrc file:

command_not_found_handle () {
  if [[ $1 = http://*.webm ]]; then
      wget "$1"
  else
      return 127
  fi
}

When you attempt to run your URL as a command, command_not_found_handle will be called with the URL as the first argument. The function checks if the command name matches a webm URL, and if it does, runs wget with the URL as an argument. (For any other unrecognized command, just return 127, a the command is still unrecognized.)

answered Jun 29, 2016 at 11:53

chepner

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