Alias

bichonfrise74 · 10-22-2008, 11:32 PM

Hi,

In my .bashrc, I have this entry.

alias rm='echo mv $1 /tmp/.rm'

If I try to use this command,
home@home]#> rm test.txt

It will give this output.
home@home]#> echo mv /tmp/.rm test.txt

What I want is actually this output
home@home]#> echo mv test.txt /tmp/.rm

Any ideas?

Thanks,
bichonfrise74

David the H. · 10-23-2008, 12:06 AM

It's simple. You can't do that with an alias. Aliases are limited to simple substitutions. If you want to do something more complex like this, you need to set it up as a shell function. Create a function and put it in your bashrc, and the command will be available just like an alias would.

A nice short description of aliases and functions can be found at LinuxCommand.org

AnanthaP · 10-23-2008, 01:29 AM

Also, a single quote is exactly passed, so effectively, the command that is being executed is

'echo mv $1 /tmp/.rm' followed by $1

So maybe, you can substitute double-quotes for single-quotes.

End