Access position parameters in multi-command inline alias/command

Question

I'm trying to create an alias for a command that renames a folder and then tar-zips it:

alias txz='of=$1; nf=$of$(date -I); mv $of $nf; tar cJvf $nf.txz $nf --remove-files'

call with

txz test_folder

I get errors

mv: missing destination file operand after ‘2014-05-14’
Try 'mv --help' for more information.
tar: 2014-05-14: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
test_folder/
test_folder/1
test_folder/2
tar: Exiting with failure status due to previous errors

Because of multiple commands. If there is only one command (no ;), $1 works.

Is there any way to resolve it?

ps: here is the command to create the test folder:

mkdir test_folder; touch test_folder/1 test_folder/2

score 3 · Accepted Answer · edited May 14 '14 at 16:50

3

Better to make it a function like this as aliases don't have support for positional parameters like $1, $2 etc:

txz() {
   of="$1"
   nf="$of"$(date -I)
   mv "$of" "$nf"
   tar cJvf "$nf.txz" "$nf" --remove-files
}

Or to make in one line:

txz() { of="$1"; nf="$of"$(date -I); mv "$of" "$nf"; tar cJvf "$nf.txz" "$nf" --remove-files; }

edited May 14 '14 at 16:50

glenn jackman

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answered May 14 '14 at 16:42

anubhava

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Thank you. i'm looking for an inline answer – kirill_igum May 14 '14 at 16:44
This can be made incline also: `txz() { of="$1"; nf="$of"$(date -I); mv "$of" "$nf"; tar cJvf "$nf.txz" "$nf" --remove-files; }` – anubhava May 14 '14 at 16:45
3

@kirill_igum aliases don't support positional parameters. – that other guy May 14 '14 at 16:47
Thanks @thatotherguy I should have added that at first place – anubhava May 14 '14 at 16:49
I get `bash: syntax error near unexpected token `$1'` error when I copy and paste it – kirill_igum May 14 '14 at 16:49
Try edited code now. @glennjackman: Thanks so much for your edit. – anubhava May 14 '14 at 16:56
@anubhava i get the error still: `> txz() { of="$1"; nf="$of"$(date -I); mv "$of" "$nf"; tar cJvf "$nf.txz" "$nf" --remove-files; } bash: syntax error near unexpected token `$1'` – kirill_igum May 14 '14 at 17:16
1

Why do you have `> ` before txz? Did you run `unalias txz` before? – anubhava May 14 '14 at 17:20

Access position parameters in multi-command inline alias/command

1 Answers1