Re: Alias help

[zzapper <zsh@rayninfo.co.uk>]

On 27/04/2021 00:15, Eric Cook wrote:
> On 4/26/21 6:55 PM, Hoji, Aki wrote:
>> alias pu ="pip3 list -o | sed "1,2 d" |cut -d ' ' -f1 |  xargs -n1 
>> pip3 install -U”
>
> As a shell function:
> pu() { ~
>   pip3 list -o   |
>   sed "1,2 d"    |
>   cut -d ' ' -f1 |
>   xargs -n1 pip3 install -U
> }
>
> While not to the degree of say python, whitespace matters often in shell;
> You have an extra space after the name of the alias pu, so the =word 
> triggered a different
> feature of zsh that expands the path to a command. in this case "pip3 
> list -o | sed 1,2"
> once you remove the space you still have the problem of not quoting 
> correctly.
>
> alias pu='pip3 list -o | sed "1,2 d" |cut -d '\'' '\'' -f1 | xargs -n1 
> pip3 install -U'
>
> Is how to quote that command properly, which is less readable than a 
> function is in my opinion.
>
thanks for this explanation Eric (I've been having my own battles with 
shell white space recently)

When you are desperate to get something working not noticing a little 
thing like the extra space in >>>>alias pu ="pip3<<<

Pity we don't have an online script tester for zsh (many for bash)

I prefer an Alias to a Function where possible because it's easy to tab 
expand an alias and then if required tweak it