No Stupid Questions @lemmy.world Rudee @lemmy.ml 2d ago

Can Bash aliases be nested?

For example if I have a setup like:

 alias llaa = pwd && ll'''

Will the second command work, or would I have to set it up in a more verbose manner (like ```alias llaa = pwd && ls -la```)

7 comments

Yes. How about just trying it out?
Should work. Just try it out and see if you get what you want. I tried:

alias llaa='pwd && ll'

then ran llaa and it did what I expected, current directory and the output of ls -al which is aliased.
You wanna use double quotes to wrap it:

alias llaa="pwd && ll'''"
I think you don't want the spaces around the= sign. Preferred over alias is function llaa { ... }. Alias is for backwards compatibility.
- Preferred over alias is function llaa { ... }. Alias is for backwards compatibility.
  
  Again what learned. What is wrong with having spaces around the equals sign, though?
  
  I think it might not work with the spaces. But if it does, then you are fine.

7 comments