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Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!crdgw1!uunet!auspex!guy
From: guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions,comp.unix.shell
Subject: Re: csh alias command
Keywords: SunOS 4.1
Message-ID: <7232@auspex.auspex.com>
Date: 17 Apr 91 18:48:54 GMT
References: <1864@ontek.com>
Followup-To: comp.unix.shell
Organization: Auspex Systems, Santa Clara
Lines: 29

Is this some sneaky trick to drag some poor newbie into cross-posting to
"talk.bizarre", so you can roast him?

In any case, for those who are curious:

 >When I list my aliases one of them shows up parenthesized.  It
 >is one that is of the form
 >
 >  alias foo foo -options
 >
 >Typing "alias" results in
 >
 >  foo     (foo -options)
 >
 >Other aliases which have different names than the command they
 >alias to and aliases which have been quoted do not seem to get
 >parenthesized.

A quick look at the 4.3BSD C shell code indicates that aliases with only
one token aren't enclosed in parentheses, and those with more than one
token are.

	alias foo "foo -options"

has only one token, namely '"foo -options"'.

	alias foo foo -options

has two, namely 'foo' and '-options'.