How can I source several files into my .bashrc?

Question

I want to write my Bash functions each in a separate file, for easier version control, and source the whole lot of them in my .bashrc.

Is there a more robust way than e.g.:

. ~/.bash_functions/*.sh

Answer 1

It's simply a matter of surrounding it all with appropriate error checks:

fn_dir=~/.bash_functions
if [ -d "$fn_dir" ]; then
    for file in "$fn_dir"/*; do
        [ -r "$file" ] && . "$file"
    done
fi

Answer 2

As for source multiple files at once, it can be done by creating a redirect of it's concatenated output, like:

source <(cat ~/.bash_functions/*.sh)

As for the robust part you might need to have an error check properly set for whatever you're sourcing, such as:

source <(cat ~/.bash_functions/*.sh)||echo "ERROR: failed while sourcing $?";exit 1

here is another snippet, where you can also validate the sourced files it-self like:

sourced_files=$(source <(cat ~/.bash_functions/*.sh) 2>&1 > /dev/null)
if [ -n "$sourced_files" ]; then
 echo "ERROR: nonzero returned"
fi

Would be even better if possible to add an error validation inside whatever you're sourcing, with custom error codes so you can have a better track where it failed, such as:

err=0
...
...
# your shell script
...
some-command-i-wanna-check
if [ "$?" -ne 0 ];then
 echo "ERROR: my failed description"
 err=101
 exit $err 
fi