User Commands alias(1)
NAME
alias, unalias - create or remove a pseudonym or shorthand
for a command or series of commandsSYNOPSIS
/usr/bin/alias [alias-name[= string...]]
/usr/bin/unalias alias-name...
/usr/bin/unalias -a
csh alias [name [def]]unalias pattern
kshalias [-tx] [name[= value]...]
unalias name...
unalias [-a]
ksh93alias [-ptx] [name[= value]...]
unalias [-a] [name...]
DESCRIPTION
The alias and unalias utilities create or remove a pseudonym
or shorthand term for a command or series of commands, withdifferent functionality in the C-shell and Korn shell
environments. /usr/bin/alias The alias utility creates or redefines alias definitions or writes the values of existing alias definitions to standard output. An alias definition provides a string value that replaces a command name when it is encountered.SunOS 5.11 Last change: 8 Apr 2008 1
User Commands alias(1) An alias definition affects the current shell execution environment and the execution environments of the subshellsof the current shell. When used as specified by this docu-
ment, the alias definition does not affect the parent pro-
cess of the current shell nor any utility environment invoked by the shell./usr/bin/unalias
The unalias utility removes the definition for each alias
name specified. The aliases are removed from the currentshell execution environment. The -a option removes all alias
definitions from the current execution environment. csh alias assigns def to the alias name. The assigned def is alist of words that can contain escaped history-substitution
metasyntax. name is not allowed to be alias or unalias. If
def is omitted, the alias name is displayed along with its current definition. If both name and def are omitted, all aliases are displayed. Because of implementation restrictions, an alias definition must have been entered on a previous command line before it can be used.unalias discards aliases that match (filename substitution)
pattern. All aliases can be removed by `unalias *'.
ksh alias with no arguments prints the list of aliases in the form name=value on standard output. An alias is defined for each name whose value is specified. A trailing space invalue causes the next word to be checked for alias substitu-
tion. The -t flag is used to set and list tracked aliases.
The value of a tracked alias is the full pathnamecorresponding to the specified name. The value becomes unde-
fined when the value of PATH is reset but the aliasesremained tracked. Without the -t flag, for each name in the
argument list for which no value is specified, the name andvalue of the alias is printed. The -x flag is used to set or
print exported aliases. An exported alias is defined forscripts invoked by name. The exit status is non-zero if a
name is specified, but no value, and no alias has been defined for the name. The aliass specified by the list of names can be removedfrom the alias list with unalias.
SunOS 5.11 Last change: 8 Apr 2008 2
User Commands alias(1) ksh93 alias creates or redefines alias definitions or writes the existing alias definitions to standard output. An alias definition provides a string value that replaces acommand name when the command is read. Alias names can con-
tain any printable character that is not special to the shell. If an alias value ends in a SPACE or TAB, the word following the command name the alias replaces is also checked to see whether it is an alias. If no names are specified, the names and values of all aliases are written to standard output. Otherwise, for each name that is specified, and =value is not specified, the current value of the alias corresponding to name is written to standard output. If =value is specified, the alias name is created or redefined.alias is built-in to the shell as a declaration command so
that field splitting and pathname expansion are not per-
formed on the arguments. Tilde expansion occurs on value. An alias definition only affects scripts read by the current shell environment. It does not affect scripts run by this shell.unalias removes the definition of each named alias from the
current shell execution environment, or all aliases if -a is
specified. It does not affect any commands that have already been read and subsequently executed. OPTIONSThe following option is supported by unalias:
-a Removes all alias definitions from the current shell
execution environment. ksh The following option is supported by alias:-t Sets and lists tracked aliases.
ksh93 The following options are supported by alias:-p Causes the output to be in the form of alias commands
that can be used as input to the shell to recreate theSunOS 5.11 Last change: 8 Apr 2008 3
User Commands alias(1) current aliases.-t Specifies tracked aliases.
Tracked aliases connect a command name to thecommand's pathname, and are reset when the PATH vari-
able is unset. The tracked aliases feature is now obsolete.-x Ignored, this option is obsolete.
The following option is supported by unalias:
-a Causes all alias definitions to be removed. name
operands are optional and ignored if specified. OPERANDS The following operands are supported: aliasalias-name Write the alias definition to standard output.
unalias
alias-name The name of an alias to be removed.
alias-name=string Assign the value of string to the alias
alias-name.
If no operands are specified, all alias definitions are written to standard output.OUTPUT
The format for displaying aliases (when no operands or only name operands are specified) is:"%s=%s\n" name, value
The value string is written with appropriate quoting so that it is suitable for reinput to the shell.SunOS 5.11 Last change: 8 Apr 2008 4
User Commands alias(1)EXAMPLES
Example 1 Modifying a Command's Output This example specifies that the output of the ls utility is columnated and more annotated:example% alias ls="ls -CF"
Example 2 Repeating Previous Entries in the Command History FileThis example creates a simple "redo" command to repeat pre-
vious entries in the command history file:example% alias r='fc -s'
Example 3 Specifying a Command's Output Options This example provides that the du utility summarize disk output in units of 1024 bytes:example% alias du=du -k
Example 4 Dealing with an Argument That is an Alias Name This example sets up the nohup utility so that it can deal with an argument that is an alias name:example% alias nohup="nohup "
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES See environ(5) for descriptions of the following environmentvariables that affect the execution of alias and unalias:
LANG, LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, LC_MESSAGES, and NLSPATH.
SunOS 5.11 Last change: 8 Apr 2008 5
User Commands alias(1) EXIT STATUS The following exit values are returned: 0 Successful completion. alias>0 One of the alias-name operands specified did not have
an alias definition, or an error occurred.unalias
>0 One of the alias-name operands specified did not
represent a valid alias definition, or an error occurred.ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attri-
butes: csh, ksh____________________________________________________________
| ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
|_____________________________|_____________________________|
| Availability | SUNWcs ||_____________________________|_____________________________|
| Interface Stability | Committed ||_____________________________|_____________________________|
| Standard | See standards(5). ||_____________________________|_____________________________|
ksh93____________________________________________________________
| ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
|_____________________________|_____________________________|
| Availability | SUNWcsu ||_____________________________|_____________________________|
| Interface Stability | Uncommitted ||_____________________________|_____________________________|
SEE ALSO
csh(1), ksh(1), ksh93(1), shell_builtins(1), attributes(5),
environ(5), standards(5)SunOS 5.11 Last change: 8 Apr 2008 6