Shell Alias Command – Commands to Find Shell Keywords, Built-in Functions, and User-defined Functions

An alias should effectively not (in general) do more than change the default options of a command. It is nothing more than simple text replacement on the command name. It can't do anything with arguments but pass them to the command it actually runs. So if you simply need to add an argument at the front of a single command, an alias will work. Common examples are

# Make ls output in color by default.
alias ls="ls --color=auto"
# make mv ask before overwriting a file by default
alias mv="mv -i"

A function should be used when you need to do something more complex than an alias but that wouldn't be of use on its own. For example, take this answer on a question I asked about changing grep's default behavior depending on whether it's in a pipeline:

grep() { 
    if [[ -t 1 ]]; then 
        command grep -n "$@"
    else 
        command grep "$@"
    fi
}

It's a perfect example of a function because it is too complex for an alias (requiring different defaults based on a condition), but it's not something you'll need in a non-interactive script.

If you get too many functions or functions too big, put them into separate files in a hidden directory, and source them in your ~/.bashrc:

if [ -d ~/.bash_functions ]; then
    for file in ~/.bash_functions/*; do
        . "$file"
    done
fi

A script should stand on its own. It should have value as something that can be re-used, or used for more than one purpose.

1. Aliases are expanded when a function definition is read, not when the function is executed …

   $ echo "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." > myfile
    
   $ alias myalias=cat
    
   $ myfunc() {
   >     myalias myfile
   > }
    
   $ myfunc
   The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
    
   $ alias myalias="ls -l"
    
   $ myalias myfile
   -rw-r--r-- 1 myusername mygroup 45 Dec 13 07:07 myfile
    
   $ myfunc
   The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

   Even though myfunc was defined to call myalias, and I’ve redefined myalias, myfunc still executes the original definition of myalias.  Because the alias was expanded when the function was defined.  In fact, the shell no longer remembers that myfunc calls myalias; it knows only that myfunc calls cat:

   $ type myfunc
   myfunc is a function
   myfunc ()
   {
   cat myfile
   }

2. … aliases defined in a function are not available until after that function is executed.

   $ echo "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." > myfile
    
   $ myfunc() {
   >     alias myalias=cat
   > }
    
   $ myalias myfile
   -bash: myalias: command not found
    
   $ myfunc
    
   $ myalias myfile
   The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

   The myalias alias isn’t available until the myfunc function has been executed.  (I believe it would be rather odd if defining the function that defines the alias was enough to cause the alias to be defined.)