Make a Bash alias that takes a parameter?

Question

I used to use CShell (csh), which lets you make an alias that takes a parameter. The notation was something like

alias junk=\"mv \\\\!* ~/.Trash\"
         


        

Answer 1

For taking parameters, you should use functions!

However $@ get interpreted when creating the alias instead of during the execution of the alias and escaping the $ doesn’t work either. How do I solve this problem?

You need to use shell function instead of an alias to get rid of this problem. You can define foo as follows:

function foo() { /path/to/command "$@" ;}

OR

foo() { /path/to/command "$@" ;}

Finally, call your foo() using the following syntax:

foo arg1 arg2 argN

Make sure you add your foo() to ~/.bash_profile or ~/.zshrc file.

In your case, this will work

function trash() { mv $@ ~/.Trash; }