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All Rights Reserved. 45 .\" Portions Copyright (c) 1982-2007 AT&T Knowledge Ventures 46 .\" Copyright (c) 2007, Sun Microsystems, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 47 .\" 48 .TH ALIAS 1 "Apr 8, 2008" 49 .SH NAME 50 alias, unalias \- create or remove a pseudonym or shorthand for a command or 51 series of commands 52 .SH SYNOPSIS 53 .LP 54 .nf 55 \fB/usr/bin/alias\fR [\fIalias-name\fR[= \fIstring\fR...]] 56 .fi 57 58 .LP 59 .nf 60 \fB/usr/bin/unalias\fR \fIalias-name\fR... 61 .fi 62 63 .LP 64 .nf 65 \fB/usr/bin/unalias\fR \fB-a\fR 66 .fi 67 68 .SS "\fBcsh\fR" 69 .LP 70 .nf 71 \fBalias\fR [\fIname\fR [\fIdef\fR]] 72 .fi 73 74 .LP 75 .nf 76 \fBunalias\fR \fIpattern\fR 77 .fi 78 79 .SS "\fBksh\fR" 80 .LP 81 .nf 82 \fBalias\fR [\fB-tx\fR] [\fIname\fR[= \fIvalue\fR]...] 83 .fi 84 85 .LP 86 .nf 87 \fBunalias\fR \fIname\fR... 88 .fi 89 90 .LP 91 .nf 92 \fBunalias\fR [\fB-a\fR] 93 .fi 94 95 .SS "\fBksh93\fR" 96 .LP 97 .nf 98 \fBalias\fR [\fB-ptx\fR] [\fIname\fR[= \fIvalue\fR]...] 99 .fi 100 101 .LP 102 .nf 103 \fBunalias\fR [\fB-a\fR] [\fIname\fR...] 104 .fi 105 106 .SH DESCRIPTION 107 .sp 108 .LP 109 The \fBalias\fR and \fBunalias\fR utilities create or remove a pseudonym or 110 shorthand term for a command or series of commands, with different 111 functionality in the C-shell and Korn shell environments. 112 .SS "\fB/usr/bin/alias\fR" 113 .sp 114 .LP 115 The \fBalias\fR utility creates or redefines alias definitions or writes the 116 values of existing alias definitions to standard output. An alias definition 117 provides a string value that replaces a command name when it is encountered. 118 .sp 119 .LP 120 An alias definition affects the current shell execution environment and the 121 execution environments of the subshells of the current shell. When used as 122 specified by this document, the alias definition does not affect the parent 123 process of the current shell nor any utility environment invoked by the shell. 124 .SS "\fB/usr/bin/unalias\fR" 125 .sp 126 .LP 127 The \fBunalias\fR utility removes the definition for each alias name specified. 128 The aliases are removed from the current shell execution environment. The 129 \fB-a\fR option removes all alias definitions from the current execution 130 environment. 131 .SS "\fBcsh\fR" 132 .sp 133 .LP 134 \fBalias\fR assigns \fIdef\fR to the alias \fIname\fR. The assigned \fIdef\fR 135 is a list of words that can contain escaped history-substitution metasyntax. 136 \fIname\fR is not allowed to be \fBalias\fR or \fBunalias\fR. If \fIdef\fR is 137 omitted, the alias \fIname\fR is displayed along with its current definition. 138 If both \fIname\fR and \fIdef\fR are omitted, all aliases are displayed. 139 .sp 140 .LP 141 Because of implementation restrictions, an alias definition must have been 142 entered on a previous command line before it can be used. 143 .sp 144 .LP 145 \fBunalias\fR discards aliases that match (filename substitution) 146 \fIpattern\fR. All aliases can be removed by `\fBunalias *\fR'. 147 .SS "\fBksh\fR" 148 .sp 149 .LP 150 \fBalias\fR with no arguments prints the list of aliases in the form 151 \fIname=value\fR on standard output. An \fBalias\fR is defined for each name 152 whose \fIvalue\fR is specified. A trailing space in \fIvalue\fR causes the next 153 word to be checked for alias substitution. The \fB-t\fR flag is used to set and 154 list tracked aliases. The value of a tracked alias is the full pathname 155 corresponding to the specified \fIname\fR. The value becomes undefined when the 156 value of \fBPATH\fR is reset but the aliases remained tracked. Without the 157 \fB-t\fR flag, for each \fIname\fR in the argument list for which no 158 \fIvalue\fR is specified, the name and value of the alias is printed. The 159 \fB-x\fR flag is used to set or print \fIexported alias\fRes. An exported alias 160 is defined for scripts invoked by \fIname\fR. The exit status is non-zero if a 161 \fIname\fR is specified, but no value, and no alias has been defined for the 162 \fIname\fR. 163 .sp 164 .LP 165 The \fBalias\fRs specified by the list of \fIname\fRs can be removed from the 166 \fBalias\fR list with \fBunalias\fR. 167 .SS "\fBksh93\fR" 168 .sp 169 .LP 170 \fBalias\fR creates or redefines alias definitions or writes the existing alias 171 definitions to standard output. 172 .sp 173 .LP 174 An alias definition provides a string value that replaces a command name when 175 the command is read. Alias names can contain any printable character that is 176 not special to the shell. If an alias value ends in a SPACE or TAB, the word 177 following the command name the alias replaces is also checked to see whether it 178 is an alias. 179 .sp 180 .LP 181 If no names are specified, the names and values of all aliases are written to 182 standard output. Otherwise, for each name that is specified, and 183 \fB=\fR\fIvalue\fR is not specified, the current value of the alias 184 corresponding to name is written to standard output. If \fB=\fR\fIvalue\fR is 185 specified, the alias name is created or redefined. 186 .sp 187 .LP 188 \fBalias\fR is built-in to the shell as a declaration command so that field 189 splitting and pathname expansion are not performed on the arguments. Tilde 190 expansion occurs on \fIvalue\fR. An alias definition only affects scripts read 191 by the current shell environment. It does not affect scripts run by this shell. 192 .sp 193 .LP 194 \fBunalias\fR removes the definition of each named alias from the current shell 195 execution environment, or all aliases if \fB-a\fR is specified. It does not 196 affect any commands that have already been read and subsequently executed. 197 .SH OPTIONS 198 .sp 199 .LP 200 The following option is supported by \fBunalias\fR: 201 .sp 202 .ne 2 203 .na 204 \fB\fB-a\fR\fR 205 .ad 206 .RS 6n 207 Removes all alias definitions from the current shell execution environment. 208 .RE 209 210 .SS "\fBksh\fR" 211 .sp 212 .LP 213 The following option is supported by \fBalias\fR: 214 .sp 215 .ne 2 216 .na 217 \fB\fB-t\fR\fR 218 .ad 219 .RS 6n 220 Sets and lists tracked aliases. 221 .RE 222 223 .SS "\fBksh93\fR" 224 .sp 225 .LP 226 The following options are supported by \fBalias\fR: 227 .sp 228 .ne 2 229 .na 230 \fB\fB-p\fR\fR 231 .ad 232 .RS 6n 233 Causes the output to be in the form of \fBalias\fR commands that can be used as 234 input to the shell to recreate the current aliases. 235 .RE 236 237 .sp 238 .ne 2 239 .na 240 \fB\fB-t\fR\fR 241 .ad 242 .RS 6n 243 Specifies tracked aliases. 244 .sp 245 Tracked aliases connect a command name to the command's pathname, and are reset 246 when the \fBPATH\fR variable is unset. The tracked aliases feature is now 247 obsolete. 248 .RE 249 250 .sp 251 .ne 2 252 .na 253 \fB\fB-x\fR\fR 254 .ad 255 .RS 6n 256 Ignored, this option is obsolete. 257 .RE 258 259 .sp 260 .LP 261 The following option is supported by \fBunalias\fR: 262 .sp 263 .ne 2 264 .na 265 \fB\fB-a\fR\fR 266 .ad 267 .RS 6n 268 Causes all alias definitions to be removed. \fIname\fR operands are optional 269 and ignored if specified. 270 .RE 271 272 .SH OPERANDS 273 .sp 274 .LP 275 The following operands are supported: 276 .SS "\fBalias\fR" 277 .sp 278 .ne 2 279 .na 280 \fB\fIalias-name\fR\fR 281 .ad 282 .RS 14n 283 Write the alias definition to standard output. 284 .RE 285 286 .SS "\fBunalias\fR" 287 .sp 288 .ne 2 289 .na 290 \fB\fIalias-name\fR\fR 291 .ad 292 .RS 21n 293 The name of an alias to be removed. 294 .RE 295 296 .sp 297 .ne 2 298 .na 299 \fB\fIalias-name\fR\fB=\fR\fIstring\fR\fR 300 .ad 301 .RS 21n 302 Assign the value of \fIstring\fR to the alias \fIalias-name\fR. 303 .RE 304 305 .sp 306 .LP 307 If no operands are specified, all alias definitions are written to standard 308 output. 309 .SH OUTPUT 310 .sp 311 .LP 312 The format for displaying aliases (when no operands or only \fIname\fR operands 313 are specified) is: 314 .sp 315 .in +2 316 .nf 317 "%s=%s\en" \fIname\fR, \fIvalue\fR 318 .fi 319 .in -2 320 .sp 321 322 .sp 323 .LP 324 The \fIvalue\fR string is written with appropriate quoting so that it is 325 suitable for reinput to the shell. 326 .SH EXAMPLES 327 .LP 328 \fBExample 1 \fRModifying a Command's Output 329 .sp 330 .LP 331 This example specifies that the output of the \fBls\fR utility is columnated 332 and more annotated: 333 334 .sp 335 .in +2 336 .nf 337 example% \fBalias ls="ls \(miCF"\fR 338 .fi 339 .in -2 340 .sp 341 342 .LP 343 \fBExample 2 \fRRepeating Previous Entries in the Command History File 344 .sp 345 .LP 346 This example creates a simple "redo" command to repeat previous entries in the 347 command history file: 348 349 .sp 350 .in +2 351 .nf 352 example% \fBalias r='fc \(mis'\fR 353 .fi 354 .in -2 355 .sp 356 357 .LP 358 \fBExample 3 \fRSpecifying a Command's Output Options 359 .sp 360 .LP 361 This example provides that the \fBdu\fR utility summarize disk output in units 362 of 1024 bytes: 363 364 .sp 365 .in +2 366 .nf 367 example% \fBalias du=du \(mik\fR 368 .fi 369 .in -2 370 .sp 371 372 .LP 373 \fBExample 4 \fRDealing with an Argument That is an Alias Name 374 .sp 375 .LP 376 This example sets up the \fBnohup\fR utility so that it can deal with an 377 argument that is an alias name: 378 379 .sp 380 .in +2 381 .nf 382 example% \fBalias nohup="nohup "\fR 383 .fi 384 .in -2 385 .sp 386 387 .SH ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES 388 .sp 389 .LP 390 See \fBenviron\fR(5) for descriptions of the following environment variables 391 that affect the execution of \fBalias\fR and \fBunalias\fR: \fBLANG\fR, 392 \fBLC_ALL\fR, \fBLC_CTYPE\fR, \fBLC_MESSAGES\fR, and \fBNLSPATH\fR. 393 .SH EXIT STATUS 394 .sp 395 .LP 396 The following exit values are returned: 397 .sp 398 .ne 2 399 .na 400 \fB\fB0\fR\fR 401 .ad 402 .RS 5n 403 Successful completion. 404 .RE 405 406 .SS "\fBalias\fR" 407 .sp 408 .ne 2 409 .na 410 \fB\fB>0\fR\fR 411 .ad 412 .RS 6n 413 One of the \fIalias-name\fR operands specified did not have an alias 414 definition, or an error occurred. 415 .RE 416 417 .SS "\fBunalias\fR" 418 .sp 419 .ne 2 420 .na 421 \fB\fB>0\fR\fR 422 .ad 423 .RS 6n 424 One of the \fIalias-name\fR operands specified did not represent a valid alias 425 definition, or an error occurred. 426 .RE 427 428 .SH ATTRIBUTES 429 .sp 430 .LP 431 See \fBattributes\fR(5) for descriptions of the following attributes: 432 .SS "\fBcsh, ksh\fR" 433 .sp 434 435 .sp 436 .TS 437 box; 438 c | c 439 l | l . 440 ATTRIBUTE TYPE ATTRIBUTE VALUE 441 _ 442 Interface Stability Committed 443 _ 444 Standard See \fBstandards\fR(5). 445 .TE 446 447 .SS "\fBksh93\fR" 448 .sp 449 450 .sp 451 .TS 452 box; 453 c | c 454 l | l . 455 ATTRIBUTE TYPE ATTRIBUTE VALUE 456 _ 457 Interface Stability Uncommitted 458 .TE 459 460 .SH SEE ALSO 461 .sp 462 .LP 463 \fBcsh\fR(1), \fBksh\fR(1), \fBksh93\fR(1), \fBshell_builtins\fR(1), 464 \fBattributes\fR(5), \fBenviron\fR(5), \fBstandards\fR(5)