Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!morocco!landauer
From: landauer@morocco.Sun.COM (Doug Landauer)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: Novice games (was "Prompt Games")
Message-ID: <43590@sun.uucp>
Date: 29 Feb 88 22:40:21 GMT
References: <2336@tekcrl.TEK.COM> <3002@codas.att.com> <53@vsi.UUCP> <827@unmvax.unm.edu>
Sender: news@sun.uucp
Reply-To: landauer@sun.UUCP (Doug Landauer)
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mountain View
Lines: 17

>   % alias "unalias" \\unalias
>   % alias "alias" \\alias
> 
> Now, when someone types 'alias', the shell turns that into '\alias',
> and then, the backslash suppresses alias expansion, and the shell
> tries to execute the program 'alias'.  It ends up printing "alias:
> command not found.".  Of course, the same thing happens for unalias.
> There is no way out short of starting a new csh.

I suppose this depends on what version of "csh" you're using on what
operating system, but SunOS lets you escape this trap pretty easily.
The first thing I tried was to type

	% ''unalias unalias
	% unalias alais

This is one easy way out; I'm sure there are others.