🚀 go-pugleaf

> I pared my personal startup file down to 
> 
>     if [ "$PS1" ]; then :
>         alias
>         echo ====
>         unalias ls
>         alias
>         ls () { /usr/bin/ls -aCFq "$@"; }
>     fi
> 
> which fails as previously described, no output from the alias command,
> just:
> 
>     bash$ bash
>     syntax error near `()'
>     /home/alpha/ruck/.shrc+:6: `ls () { /usr/bin/ls -aCFq "$@"; }'
>     bash$ 
>     
> BUT when I pull that block out of the if-then by commenting out the
> first and last line, I get it working fine.
> 

There is alias expansion being performed, regardless of the presence of
the `alias' and `unalias' commands.  Bash always reads a complete command,
which may consist of multiple lines, before executing it.  In your case,
the `if...fi' block is a complete command, and bash is attempting to read
all of it and construct a command tree before executing the test or the
body.

Since alias expansion is performed when a command is read, the `ls' in
the above command is being expanded.  You need to put `unalias ls'
before the if statement in which your function is defined.  It won't
hurt to make the unalias unconditional; alias expansion is not performed
when the shell is not interactive.

> OR if I leave it in the if-then as shown above, and simply insert
> "function" in front of the function def, like 
> 
>         function ls () { /usr/bin/ls -aCFq "$@"; }

This works because the `ls' is no longer the first word in a simple
command and therefore not eligible for alias expansion.

Chet

--
``The use of history as therapy means the corruption of history as history.''
	-- Arthur Schlesinger

Chet Ramey, Case Western Reserve University	Internet: chet@po.CWRU.Edu