How to create parameterized aliases in bashrc

[Aman Jain]

Hi

 I would like to create an alias to show Nth line of a file.

 I  tried something like
 alias shline='head -$1 $2 | tail -1'  #$1 is the line number and $2
is the filename
   # Usage should be :
$shline 5 file.txt

But it isn't working..

Can anyone suggest a better alternative

Thanks
Aman Jain

Re: How to create parameterized aliases in bashrc

[Dave B]

Aman Jain wrote:

> Hi
> 
>  I would like to create an alias to show Nth line of a file.
> 
>  I  tried something like
>  alias shline='head -$1 $2 | tail -1'  #$1 is the line number and $2
> is the filename
># Usage should be :
> $shline 5 file.txt
> 
> But it isn't working..

You can't pass parameters to aliases.

> Can anyone suggest a better alternative

Use a function.

shline() { head -n $1 "$2" | tail -n 1; }

-- 
D.

Re: kill job vs. pid

[Paul Jarc]

Daniel Norton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>   How do I tell bash to kill job 1, rather than pid 1 ?

man bash, in the section JOB CONTROL:
# There are a number of ways to refer to a job in the shell.  The
# character % introduces a job name.  Job number n may be referred to
# as %n.  A job may also be referred to using a prefix of the name
# used to start it, or using a substring that appears in its command
# line.  For example, %ce refers to a stopped ce job.

"kill %1" kills job 1; "kill 1" kills process 1.

Chet: it would probably be helpful to change that second sentence to
"The character % introduces a job name, or jobspec."  "jobspec" isn't
defined anywhere as fa r as I can see.


paul