On Sun, Sep 22, 2002 at 09:42:51PM -0400, alex wrote: > But, can someone explain why 'functions' should be used instead of > 'aliases' ?
Well, there are a few reasons related to the rules on exactly when alias definitions are evaluated and when substitution is done, but the only real-world situation I can think of where that would be an issue is if you mixed functions and aliases (aliases defined inside a function won't actually be available until after the function exits). And you have to be a little more careful about shell wildcard and variable expansion in an alias, but as long as you think about what you're doing you'll probably never have a problem. You're not doing any of that stuff. For simple things, aliases are usually faster and easier. Use them unless you see a reason not to. Some people like functions better than aliases, just like some people like C shells better than Bourne shells. I wouldn't be surprised if at least some of the "experts" who told you to use functions were just parroting what they read in the bash documentation (or something similar). -- Michael Heironimus -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
