I organise things into multiple `.stuff` files (see [[my stuff files]], and then `bash_common` loads the ones I always want loaded. I put all my stuff that I want all users to be able to access in `/usr/jda` somewhere.
(I tend to create a number of users so as to isolate projects and settings. See [[my etc skel]]. So my `.bashrc` is just
```bash
# ~/.bashrc: executed by bash(1) for non-login shells.
# see /usr/share/doc/bash/examples/startup-files (in the package bash-doc)
# for examples

. /usr/jda/etc/bash_paths.bashrc

# If not running interactively, don't do anything
case $- in
    *i*) ;;
      *) return;;
esac

# put things in ~/bin/my_stuff/
. /usr/jda/etc/bash_common.bashrc
```
then `/usr/jda/bash_paths
```bash
# bash_paths.bashrc -- run first to set PATH and similar
# this runs BEFORE we check to see if the shell is interactive or not.

# ~/.bashrc: executed by bash(1) for non-login shells.
# see /usr/share/doc/bash/examples/startup-files (in the package bash-doc)
# for examples

PATH="$(tidypath -c "$HOME/bin:/usr/local/cygbin:/usr/jda/bin2:/usr/jda/bin:/usr/jda/bin0:/usr/npm/bin:$PATH:/usr/jda/stuff:/usr/apps:$HOME/perl5/bin")"
. pathif.stuff
export PYTHONPATH="$(tidypath -c "$HOME/.python:$PYTHONPATH")"
export VISUAL=vim EDITOR=vim

```
see below for `tidypath`, and note that things get very borked if this command is not in the `PATH` that bash starts with (so it is one of the few things I put in `/usr/local/bin`). So `/usr/jda/etc/bash_common.bashrc` is
```bash
# make less more friendly for non-text input files, see lesspipe(1)
[ -x /usr/bin/lesspipe ] && eval "$(SHELL=/bin/sh lesspipe)"

# this allows me to source a file iff it exists, and ignore silently if not.
# useful for things like `~/.cargo/env` which isn't there if I haven't
# installed rustup
.if() { for s; do [ -f "$s" ] && { . "$s"; }; done; }

# this is so I can type ".s t<TAB>" and get completion for .stuff files
.stuff() { 
  if [ $# = 0 ]; then
    ( cd /usr/jda/stuff; ls *.stuff | cut -f1 -d.; )
  else
    for s; do 
      [ -e /usr/jda/stuff/"$s".stuff ] && . /usr/jda/stuff/"$s".stuff; 
    done; 
  fi
}
alias .s=.stuff
. stuff_completion.stuff

. dot_commands.stuff # .w and friends
. dircolors.stuff
. completion.stuff
. cd.stuff
. mpd.stuff
. hist.stuff
. mvdesc.stuff
. filecmds.stuff
. cygwin.stuff
. antlr.stuff
. python.stuff
. x11.stuff
. shopt.stuff
. perl.stuff
. my_prompt
. my.stuff
. aliases.stuff
. browser.stuff

.if . "$HOME/.cargo/env"
PATH="$(tidypath -p)" # remove duplicates
```
Here is [my collection of `.stuff` files](jda_stuff.tar.gz).
## Related commands
`tidypath`
```perl
#!/usr/bin/perl

use Cwd 'abs_path';

@p = ();
%p = ();
$conf = 1;

for(@ARGV) {
  if( /^-f$/ ) {
    # force inclusion of non-existent paths
    $conf = 0;
    next;
  }
  if( /^-p$/ ) {
    # splice in current PATH
    @a = split ":", $ENV{'PATH'};
    for $a(@a) {
      # force absolute paths (unless -f is active and a path does not exist
      if( -d "$a" ) { $a = abs_path($a); } elsif( $conf ) { next; }

      if( ! $p{$a} ) {
        push @p, $a;
        $p{$a} = 1;
      }
    }
    next
  } 
  @a = split ":";
  for $a(@a) {
    # force absolute paths (unless -f is active and a path does not exist
    if( -d "$a" ) { $a = abs_path($a); } elsif( $conf ) { next; }

    # add it if not already present
    if( ! $p{$a} ) {
      push @p, $a;
      $p{$a} = 1;
    }
  }
}

$path = join ":", @p;
print "$path\n";
```