On 06/12/2016 11:54 AM, Andrew Lowe wrote: > On 06/12/16 23:07, Andrew Lowe wrote: >> On 06/12/16 22:43, Alan McKinnon wrote: >>> On 12/06/2016 16:33, Nico Verrijdt wrote: >>>> Hi Andrew, >>>> >>>> 2016-06-12 16:26 GMT+02:00 Andrew Lowe <a...@wht.com.au >>>> <mailto:a...@wht.com.au>>: >>>> >>>> Hi all, >>>> A bit off topic here, but there are plenty of people who >>>> seem to know their shells back to front so here goes. >>>> >>>> I have set up a Win32 based development environment, >>>> bash/cc/ls/etc/etc, for 1st year Engineering students who have to >>>> learn C on a command line. It's fine for me to remember to put >>>> the & >>>> at the end of the command when I fire up the editor but for them, >>>> it's major angst. >>>> >>>> The first thing that comes to mind is an alias. Just off >>>> the top of my head I tried: >>>> >>>> alias "npp=npp %1 &" >>>> >>>> Shouldn't this be: alias npp="npp %1 &" ? >>>> >>>> >>>> npp being the editor, but that didn't work. Is an alias the >>>> best/easiest way to do this and if so, what would the syntax be, or >>>> is there a better way? >>>> >>>> Any thoughts, greatly appreciated, >>>> >>>> Andrew >>>> >>>> >>>> Hope this helps, >>>> Nico >>> >>> >>> Or just tell them to remember to add the & at the end. >>> With an alias what will they do when they don't want it? >>> >>> Or look at it this way: >>> >>> It's syntax, it's important. C is probably more syntax-critical than any >>> other language around (binds to the right, anyone?) so what's the >>> problem with requiring correct syntax on the command line as well? >>> >>> Obligatory disclaimer: I've recently had a bellyache full of dumb people >>> who insist I put code when a human (themselves) belongs... >>> >> Yes, I agree BUT, this is a "half subject" in a common first year of >> an Engineering degree. These are people who will become >> Civil/Mechanical/Electrical/Chemical Engineers and they have no desire >> to learn programming. To put it bluntly, all they are interested in is >> their car, getting drunk and trying to get a root - the order may vary, >> but that is the top three priorities. Anything else is just too much to >> think about. >> >> In reality, I'm doing this to make my life easier. As much as I tell >> them to do something, write up documents that tell them what to do and >> reiterate what they have to do, I still get the question "It's broken, >> it won't do as I want...." >> >> Andrew >> >> p.s. Nico's point was a typo on my part in the email. >> > > Simple answer to this which a single google search found. You CAN'T > pass parameters to an alias under Bash. You need to do a function. A > simple function of: > > npp() > { > npp $1 & > } > > was all I needed. > > Andrew > >
A better function for the same (that also doesn't loop forever because
the function might be calling itself):
npp() {
command npp "$@" &
}
This allows any number of arguments to be passed, instead of "exactly
one" and allows filenames containing spaces, etc. to be passed correctly.
--
Jonathan Callen
signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature
