Adding alias to bashrc to run multiple commands and pass a variable?

Question

Not good at creating aliases but I have several commands to run and I want to do them all at once.

$ activator
$ clean
$ compile
$ run 9002

I would like to combine all of these commands into a single command like:

$ activate 9002

Normally I think I would know how to do this but the issue here is that it will need to wait until the previous command finishes and the prompt returns. Also, if I do an $ activate 9000 then the last command would run $ run 9000

Is there a way to do this in my alias?

Mr. Llama · Accepted Answer · 2015-03-13 16:03:18Z

3

You can combine multiple commands in an alias using a semicolon:

alias name_goes_here='activator; clean; compile; run'

Then you can use name_goes_here 9002.

Alternately, if you need something more complex, consider making a function instead. They're considerably more flexible.

answered Mar 13, 2015 at 16:03

Mr. Llama

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2 Comments

newbie Over a year ago

I used this multiple times. But now, I am getting error syntax error near unexpected token ';'

amandeep1991 Over a year ago

Same with me, it's throwing error like "bash: syntax error near unexpected token `;'"

Ondrej · Accepted Answer · 2015-03-13 16:31:20Z

3

And if you want to continue the latter commands only when the former has finished successfully use && instead of ; like this:

alias activate="activator && clean && compile && run"

answered Mar 13, 2015 at 16:31

Ondrej

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1 Comment

o_O Over a year ago

Ok. The other answers weren't doing this so I was thinking maybe mine was not working properly.

Charles Duffy · Accepted Answer · 2015-03-13 16:47:47Z

0

For the general case, an alias is the wrong tool for this job.

It'll work in this specific case, because it's only the last command to which arguments are being passed and there's no conditional logic required, but a function is the safer approach.

For instance, a shell function with exactly equivalent use to the alias could be written like so:

activate() { activator; clean; compile; run "$@"; }

...but you could also add other steps to be performed after the command taking arguments, which an alias doesn't allow:

activate() { activator; clean; compile; run "$@"; cleanup; }

edited Mar 13, 2015 at 16:47

answered Mar 13, 2015 at 16:39

Charles Duffy

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Comments

sarlam · Accepted Answer · 2015-03-13 16:53:48Z

0

You can use 2 bash syntax system :

";" to separate commands
"$1" as your first argument.

It gives you the following alias :

alias activate="activator;clean;compile;run $1"

Hope that help.

edit :

My bad. You can use $1 with functions, not aliases.

edited Mar 13, 2015 at 16:53

answered Mar 13, 2015 at 16:10

sarlam

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3 Comments

Charles Duffy Over a year ago

$1 doesn't work in aliases. If this alias appears to work when used, it's doing so only because $1 is expanding to an empty string, then all content after the alias (not just the first argument, but everything -- this being how aliases work) is being appended. (Thus, if it were used in a case where $1 were previously set to an unexpected value, it would behave surprisingly).

Charles Duffy Over a year ago

If you wanted to be able to pass only the first argument, rather than appending all remaining command-line content, you'd need to use a function, not an alias.

sarlam Over a year ago

Indeed, my bad. I think about it after and couldn't correct my self. Thanks for the correction.

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