ALIAS_SPEC.md

Edge Cases

• Closing brackets
• Single character commands
• Single character names

Definitions

• By default, an alias has the following format: <name>=<command>
• A name consists of a single word, without any whitespace characters
• If the name contains special characters, it will be surrounded by single quotes
• If the command contains special characters or whitespace, it will be surrounded by single quotes
• In order to use a single-quote in an alias, you must exit the current context of quotes, type \' and then open a new context. For example: alias name="it's a command" will become name='it'\''s a command'. If the single-quote is at the beginning or end of a name or command, the former single-quote is omitted. For example: alias name="'command"becomesname=''command'`.
• Aliases support the ANSI-C quoting syntax, see the docs
• Special characters are:
  • empty string
  • quotes (',",```)
  • whitespace characters (\s,\t,\n,\r)
  • $
  • =
  • ()
  • []
  • {}
• The names +, = and - are not allowed

Bugs with current validation system

• Mocks can generate duplicates
• Current system treats any unescaped \ as invalid, regardless of its position
• You are able to escape whitespace without quotes

Examples

 $ alias "a\$1b"="echo hello"
 $ alias "'a\$1b"="echo hello"
 $ alias "'a\$1b'"="echo hello"
 $ alias | grep "echo hello"   

outputs:

\''a$1b'='echo hello'
\''a$1b'\'='echo hello'
'a$1b'='echo hello'