Creating an alias containing bash history expansion

aliasbashbash-aliassudo

I often forget to run a command with sudo, so I find myself often typing sudo !! immediately afterwards.

I tried aliasing this, but bash chokes on the !! part. Is there some way to represent this shortcut within an alias?

Best Answer

AIUI the problem is that history substitutions (!!) are done before alias substitution. I haven't tested this thoroughly, but it looks like fc can be used to get what you want:

alias sudothat='eval "sudo $(fc -ln -1)"'

Related Solutions

Make bash stop parsing and validating a certain alias

My best guess is you should probably use single quotes around the alias definition.

I know that when using double quotes, shell variables are replaced with their content at the alias definition stage (like you said parsing and validating) and backticks or shell substitution like $(command).

A better explanation is in this Unix SE question!

If that doesn't help making the prompt load faster again, define a shell function instead of an alias.

edit: Don't forget to swap the cut argument to double-quotes like quixotic mentioned.

Using alias to echo backticks in bash

$ alias howtobacktick='echo Using \`which python\` etc'
$ howtobacktick
Using `which python` etc

EDIT:

It's because backticks (`) and other special characters are not treated specially inside single quotes. Compare:

$ echo 'Using `which python` etc'
Using `which python` etc
$ echo "Using `which python` etc"
Using /usr/bin/python etc

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Make bash stop parsing and validating a certain alias

Using alias to echo backticks in bash

Related Question