Article View: comp.unix.programmer
Article #1089Re: Problem: aliases and exec in shells
From: Kartik Subbarao
Date: Thu, 25 Oct 1990 20:52
Date: Thu, 25 Oct 1990 20:52
66 lines
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2641 bytes
In article <427@decvax.decvax.dec.com.UUCP> evans@decvax.DEC.COM writes:
> % csh
> % alias ls 'ls -F'
> % exec ls
>
>The result would be simply the results of running the ls command without
>any arguments, rather than running the ls command with the argument -F.
>
>The manuals and books that I have looked through don't define what the
>behavior is suppose to be in this case, and looking through the sources
>shows that aliases are in fact ignored.
>Does the current behavior seem intuitive to people? Am I just expecting
>something which I really shouldn't be? Your opinions are desired as I am
>debating if I will ask certain vendors to change the behavior to pay
>attention to the alias if it exists.
Well..... the problem might not be as bad as the shell's handling of 'exec'.
I think it just has to do with alias interpretation.
The thing with aliases is that the shell will only interpret an alias like
alias ls 'ls -F' if it's the first thing in the command line. (or the first
thing after a "|" , or enclosed in a ``, or the like something.) So even after
alias foo '| more', and typed w foo, it would certainly not do w | more.
It WOULD be nice if csh had a "global" alias option, but then there's the
chicken and egg problem of resourcing your global alias file after you've
already done so.
i.e
alias foo '| more'
is a global alias. The next time you sourced this file it might be interpreted
as
alias '| more' '|more' which would make no sense.
I guess this could be turned off during alias addition. Any other ideas?
-Kartik
>
>- Marc
>
>--
>===========================================================================
>Marc Evans - WB1GRH - evans@decvax.DEC.COM | Synergytics (603)635-8876
> Unix and X Software Contractor | 21 Hinds Ln, Pelham, NH 03076
>===========================================================================
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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!attcan!uunet!aplcen!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!udel!rochester!rutgers!njin!princeton!phoenix!subbarao From: subbarao@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Kartik Subbarao) Newsgroups: comp.unix.programmer Subject: Re: Problem: aliases and exec in shells Keywords: csh, ksh, exec Message-ID: <3586@idunno.Princeton.EDU> Date: 25 Oct 90 20:52:18 GMT References: <427@decvax.decvax.dec.com.UUCP> Sender: news@idunno.Princeton.EDU Lines: 66