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alias - Aliases interpretation - Unix & Linux Stack Exchange

Asked 13 years, 11 months ago

Viewed 633 times

I have a few aliases in .bash_aliases. I defined c alias as follows, but it does not work as it should:

...
alias cd='cd; ls -r --time=atime'
alias c='cd'
...

In .bashrc there is a line:

alias ls='clear; ls --color=auto'

Commnand c gives bad output now. It should give the same output as cd; clear; ls -r --time=atime --color=auto.

Other problem: When I type cd dir I should stay in dir but I'm in $HOME as a result.

How can I solve this and improve in defining aliases? Is .bash_aliases interpreted as a regular grammar?

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asked Sep 1, 2011 at 16:17

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Use functions instead, the advantage being the possibility to pass parameters and a cleaner syntax.

function cd() {
  command cd "$@"
  ls -r --time=atime
}

function c() {
 cd "$@"
}

function ls() {
  clear
  command ls --color=auto "$@"
}

(command is a bash builtin used to refer to the real command, and not functions with the same name).

answered Sep 1, 2011 at 16:42

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c should be exactly equivalent to cd. I expect you'll see the same error from cd dir as from c dir, and that c alone works.

cd won't work the way you've defined it, because aliases perform a simple text substitution. cd dir is expanded to cd; ls -r --time=atime dir. Aliases are pretty much limited to giving a command a shorter name or providing default options, e.g. alias c=cd or alias cp='cp -i'. For anything more complex, such as running several commands, use a function.

cd () {
  command cd "$@" &&
  ls -r --time=atime
}

See also Aliases vs functions vs scripts, How to pass parameters to an alias?.

answered Sep 1, 2011 at 23:27

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