Re: autoload and alias expansion question

[Peter Hegedus <hegedus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks for the quick answer!

I need it mostly for global aliases, to reduce clutter, for example

alias -g  DN='>/dev/null 2>&1'
alias -g  NE='2>/dev/null'
alias -g  LF='>>$_LF 2>&1'

The separate file approach works, thanks, I just needed to added an
extra autoload wherever that base library was loaded.

Thanks,
Peter

>"Peter Hegedus" wrote:
>> hegedus@su20% cat >foobar <<EOF
>> foobar () { }
>> alias DATE=date ; barfoo () { setopt aliases ; DATE ; ECHO OK }
>> EOF
>> hegedus@su20% autoload foobar
>> hegedus@su20% foobar
>> hegedus@su20% barfoo
>> barfoo: command not found: DATE
>> OK
>
>> Do I miss something?
>
>No, you don't.  Aliases are expanded very early, during the initial
>parsing of the code, so the DATE is reached and parsed before the alias
>command is run.
>
>> Is there a way to make this work?
>
>You have two obvious options.
>
>Firstly, most people when writing scripts or functions would use scripts
>or functions at this point anyway, i.e. DATE() { date; }.  The main use
>of aliases is as a hack at the command line to save typing; they are
>rather less atractive if that's not an issue.
>
>Second, you can put the alias definitions in a separate file and ensure
>that that gets loaded before the function.  There are various ways of
>doing this if that's what you really need.  Until we know why you're not
>using a function for DATE it's hard to answer.
>
>-- 
>Peter Stephenson <pws@xxxxxxx>                  Software Engineer
>CSR PLC, Churchill House, Cambridge Business Park, Cowley Road
>Cambridge, CB4 0WZ, UK                          Tel: +44 (0)1223 692070
>