.bashrc alias for a command with fixed second parameter

Question

I would like to create an alias for the move command -

trash='mv <some files> /home/$USER/.local/share/Trash/files'

How do I make this work?

I want the destination to always be the same. But I want to be able to pass the files to be moved.

There is already a command-line interface to the trash: in 18.04 it's `gio trash` (in earlier versions of Ubuntu, `gvfs-trash`) i.e. you can just type `gio trash `. If that's really too long then you can alias it `alias trash='gio trash'`. — steeldriver, Apr 21 '19 at 13:27
@steeldriver I thought of voting to close this as a duplicate of [Can I pass arguments to an alias command?](https://askubuntu.com/questions/626458/can-i-pass-arguments-to-an-alias-command) but I think your comment is really the best answer to the question here (and so it's not a duplicate of that). Would you consider posting it as an answer? — Eliah Kagan, Aug 15 '19 at 12:21

score 10 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 21 '19 at 10:11

10

Use function instead of alias, defined in .bashrc

nano ~/.bashrc 

# put inside .bashrc:
trash() { 
  for item in "$@" ; do
    echo "Trashing: $item" 
    mv "$item" /home/$USER/.local/share/Trash/files 
  done
}

Then in shell prompt you can use:

$ trash file1 file2

answered Apr 21 '19 at 10:11

LeonidMew

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Don't forget to close shell and open again to make this work – LeonidMew Apr 21 '19 at 10:16
`source ~/.bashrc` works too – charsi Apr 21 '19 at 10:17
5

You don't need a loop: `trash() { mv "$@" destination; }` – glenn jackman Apr 21 '19 at 14:34

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 21 '19 at 14:32

5

You can only append arguments to an alias. Fortunately, mv allows you to do this, with the -t option

alias trash='mv -t ~/.local/share/Trash/files'

answered Apr 21 '19 at 14:32

glenn jackman

17,625
2
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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 24 '19 at 19:16

0

You can also create a bash script and run that script with an alias.

trash.sh:

#!/bin/sh

for arg in $*; do
    mv $arg /home/$USER/.local/share/Trash/files
done

exit 0

.bashrc:

alias trash="/path/to/script/trash.sh"

answered Apr 24 '19 at 19:16

CPH

368
2
9

.bashrc alias for a command with fixed second parameter

3 Answers3

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