Path: utzoo!mnetor!tmsoft!torsqnt!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!WATMATH.WATERLOO.EDU!accwai
From: accwai@WATMATH.WATERLOO.EDU (Andy Wai)
Newsgroups: gnu.bash.bug
Subject: [idallen@watcgl: bash aliases not transitive?!]
Message-ID: <8908231938.AA03422@watmath.waterloo.edu>
Date: 23 Aug 89 19:38:47 GMT
References: <8908231650.AA01210@aurel.caltech.edu>
Sender: bob@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
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| Date: Wed, 23 Aug 89 09:50:51 PDT
| From: bfox@aurel.caltech.edu (Brian Fox)
| Reply-To: bfox@aurel.caltech.edu
| 
|    Date: Wed, 23 Aug 89 11:45:28 EDT
|    From: Andy Wai <accwai@watmath.waterloo.edu>
| 
|    > Date: Tue, 22 Aug 89 20:35:20 EDT
|    > From: "Ian! D. Allen [CGL]" <idallen@watcgl>
|    > To: accwai@watmath
|    > Subject: bash aliases not transitive?!
|    >
|    >     bash$ alias a=b
|    >     bash$ alias b=date
|    >     bash$ a
|    >     b: commmand not found
|    > [...]
| 
| Aliases are only expanded when they are in the position of a command
| word, or if they follow an alias whose expansion ends in a space.
| 
| Brian

I think alias expansion should be transitive.  In the above example,
'a' should be expanded into 'date'.  In fact, that's what ksh does.  Is
there any reason why this behavior is not desirable?

Andy Wai