Oh My Zsh multiple commands with one alias

Question

I'm using Oh My Zsh, and was wondering if there is a way to create a function or alias to run multiple commands. Just as an example, running an 'update' command will update specific gems, but not all of them.

Figured it out alias name="something; something else" – snakesonatoni Oct 08 '13 at 19:37 — snakesonatoni, Oct 08 '13 at 19:37

score 72 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 09 '13 at 06:33

72

As you've discovered, you can chain commands in a single alias using ;:

alias update_my_gems="echo foo; echo bar"

Alternatively, you can write a function very easily in your ~/.zshrc file:

update_my_gems() {
    echo foo
    echo bar
}

For readability, I'd personally go for a function for anything that's semi-complex.

answered Oct 09 '13 at 06:33

simont

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I'd default to using a function for *anything*, unless there is a reason why an alias is better (which will rarely be the case). – chepner Oct 09 '13 at 14:30
I ended up making a function exactly like that. Thank you! – snakesonatoni Oct 09 '13 at 16:06
@snakesonatoni, do you know of an effective way to replace an OMZ alias with one that accepts parameters? I haven't had much luck: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/61109665/ohmyzsh-override-git-plugin-aliases-with-custom-multi-line-aliases-functions – Steven Choi Apr 12 '20 at 20:29

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 20 '19 at 15:00

If there are many commands, I find it useful to alias the execution of a .sh file located on my home directory

alias start_containers="./start-containers.sh"

To throw the alias inside the config file, you can do

echo alias start_containers="./start-containers.sh" >> ~/.zshrc

Oh My Zsh multiple commands with one alias

2 Answers2

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