Question

How do I pass the command line arguments to an alias? Here is a sample:

alias mkcd='mkdir $1; cd $1;'

But in this case the $xx is getting translated at the alias creating time and not at runtime. I have, however, created a workaround using a shell function (after googling a little) like below:

function mkcd(){
  mkdir $1
  cd $1
}

Just wanted to know if there is a way to make aliases that accept CL parameters.
BTW – I use ‘bash’ as my default shell.

Answer 1

You found the way: create a function instead of an alias. The C shell has a mechanism for doing arguments to aliases, but bash and the Korn shell don’t, because the function mechanism is more flexible and offers the same capability.