CODEWITHSUNDEEP
gitbash
Sudar
Sudar

Reputation: 19992

Create multi-word alias in bash?

I want to create an alias in bash, such that

git diff somefile

becomes 

git diff --color somefile

But I don't want to define my own custom alias like

alias gitd = "git diff --color"

because if I get used to these custom alias, then I loose the ability to work on machines which don't have these mappings.

Edit: It seems bash doesn't allow multi-word alias. Is there any other alternative solution to this apart from creating the alias?

Upvotes: 21

Views: 14218

Answers (6)

Brōtsyorfuzthrāx
Brōtsyorfuzthrāx

Reputation: 4749

I wouldn't advise doing it, particularly, but you can always make aliases with non-breaking spaces (officially called no-break space; U+00A0; of course, you'll probably have to type them with your compose key or something, and your users might not appreciate that).

Example (copy and paste):

alias git diff="git diff --color"

You might be able to come up with a way to autoreplace git diff with git diff, though, or something wild like that.

Upvotes: 0

Kaz
Kaz

Reputation: 58578

To create a smarter alias for a command, you have to write a wrapper function which has the same name as that command, and which analyzes the arguments, transforms them, and then calls the real command with the transformed arguments.

For instance your git function can recognize that diff is being invoked, and insert the --color argument there.

Code:

# in your ~/.bash_profile

git()
{
  if [ $# -gt 0 ] && [ "$1" == "diff" ] ; then
     shift
     command git diff --color "$@"
  else
     command git "$@"
  fi
}

If you want to support any options before diff and still have it add --color, you have to make this parsing smarter, obviously.

Upvotes: 32

jcarballo
jcarballo

Reputation: 29103

Git has its own way to specify aliases (http://git-scm.com/book/en/Git-Basics-Tips-and-Tricks#Git-Aliases). For example:

git config --global alias.d 'diff --color'

Then you can use git d.

Upvotes: 6

Kaz
Kaz

Reputation: 58578

Better answer (for this specific case).

From git-config man page:

   color.diff
       When set to always, always use colors in patch. When false (or
       never), never. When set to true or auto, use colors only when the
       output is to the terminal. Defaults to false.

No function or alias needed. But the function wrapper approach is general for any command; stick that card up your sleeve.

Upvotes: 8

Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams
Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams

Reputation: 798676

You're barking up the wrong tree. Set the color.diff config option to auto.

Upvotes: 1

user unknown
user unknown

Reputation: 36229

Avoid blanks around assignment sign in bash:

alias gitd="git diff --color"

Upvotes: 2

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