How can I create a file and make it executable without typing the filename twice?

Question

I would like to be able to chmod +x and touch a file in one go without having to list the file name twice as in touch foo && chmod +x foo. Is there a way to do this is in one whack? Here is some pseudo-code explanation describing the expected behavior:

chmod <placeholder> && touch <placeholder> <-redirect- "filename"

I get sick of typing in one off commands and then to go back and execute the same command a few times for different files I have to edit the filename twice in each command. In my psuedo-code example I would only have to return to the previously entered command and edit only the filename string at the end.

I have tried,

touch "$(echo foo && chmod +x !$)"

but the filename is neither at the end of the string, and it doesn't seem to work because the last argument !$ is the one passed to the command before touch.

Answer 1

Like this:

$ touch foo && chmod +x $_

Now:

$ ls -l foo
-rwxrwxr-x 1 me me    0 mars  30 19:16 foo

Answer 2

If all you ever do is issue the touch / chmod pair, a simple function should suffice:

touchx() { touch "$1"; chmod +x "$1"; }

Taking for a test drive:

$ touchx myscript.sh
$ ls -l myscript.sh
-rwxrwx--x+ 1 username None 0 Mar 29 14:37 myscript.sh

On the other hand if the objective is to support a series of unknown-beforehand set of commands, another function may come in handy:

multicmd() {
    fname="$1"
    shift
    for cmd in "$@"
    do
        echo "##### $cmd $fname"
        $cmd "$fname"
    done
}

# or as a one-liner:

multicmd() { fname="$1"; shift; for cmd in "$@"; do echo "##### $cmd $fname"; $cmd "$fname"; done; }

Taking for a test drive

$ multicmd myscript.sh rm touch 'chmod +x' 'file' 'ls -l'
##### rm myscript.sh
##### touch myscript.sh
##### chmod +x myscript.sh
##### file myscript.sh
myscript.sh: empty
##### ls -l myscript.sh
-rwxrwx--x+ 1 username None 0 Mar 29 14:54 myscript.sh

Answer 3

Depending on your needs, umask may be a simple solution. umask +x will cause any file you create using the current shell to have execution privileges by default for example. If you're going to make a lot of files during a session and don't want to individually chmod them or write custom functions this would be a viable alternative.

The downside is that if you touch an existing file, this won't change its permissions. If that's what you want then use one of the other solutions instead.

Answer 4

The install command is especially designed for this kind of purposes and can do much more:

$ install -T -m755 /dev/null foo
$ ls -l foo
-rwxr-xr-x 1 léa léa 0 mars  30 19:35 foo