[chubot]

FWIW the title says "functions", but it apparently uses aliases.

Shell functions have all the same functionality as aliases and they'll catch more syntax errors upon "source myscript". Example:

    ls() {
      command ls --color=auto "$@"
    }
    

is equivalent to

    alias ls='ls --color=auto'

but IMO less error prone. You also get syntax highlighting.

The only tricky thing is to remember the 'command' prefix if the "alias" has the same name as the command. Otherwise you'll get an infinite loop of the function trying to call itself!

[emmelaich]

Note there is one possibly important difference; aliases are resolved before globbing.

[chubot]

Hm what's an example of where you might want to take advantage of that?

In practice

    alias 'lspy=ls *.py'

seems to be interchangeable with

    lspy() {
      ls *.py "$@"
    }

[emmelaich]

I have a semi-made desk calculator with prefix notation.

You can make it an alias of * , / etc, so ...

   $ * 4 6
   24
   $

It would keep it's own stack, but let a persistent process do the actual maths.

The persistent process could almost any repl of python, ruby etc.

Or use a 'real' calculator like Pike's ivy; https://aplwiki.com/wiki/Ivy

[emmelaich]

Unfortunately, ( is not a valid alias name, so lispy things are difficult.

[ is a valid function name tho so fun could be had there.

[emmelaich]

Also = is a valid function name.

So you could use = to start the calc, and use infix or postfix notation.

[abathur]

You can do some wild ~metaprogramming stuff with aliases.

[jolmg]

Do you have examples of something neat?

[silentprog]

It generates functions. Though not with a “$@“ at the end, so passing additional arguments at this moment is not supported. I also run a syntax check before the function is added to the file.

[8n4vidtmkvmk]

I've always just written that as \ls to call the non-alias

[emmelaich]

Won't work with functions, so be careful.

    $ function ls () {
    > echo denied
    > }
    $ ls
    denied
    $ \ls
    denied