30 lines
1.5 KiB
Markdown
30 lines
1.5 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: "Abbreviations are better than aliases"
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date: 2024-08-25 01:02:35
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tags: [Shell, zsh, Linux]
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---
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Aliases are a way to shorten long or complicated commands or to easily add additional arguments when running commands.
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Common aliases are `gs` for `git status`, `a` for `artisan` and `dr` for `drush`.
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I've been experimenting with Zellij today and have written aliases like `zl` for `zellij list-sessions`, but have also added extra arguments such as `zellij list-sessions | sort | grep -v EXITED` to sort the sessions and filter any exited sessions.
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Running these aliases means it's easier and quicker for me to run these commands.
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The issue with aliases, I think, is that you can forget that the underlying commands are if you only type `gs` or `zl`.
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It's also not easy when giving demos, pair programming for others to see and understand the commands that are being run.
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Instead of aliases, I mostly use abbreviations that expand automatically after pressing the space key.
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That way, I and others get to see and understand the commands being run.
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Note: I originally saw this done by [Sebastian Daschner](https://blog.sebastian-daschner.com/entries/zsh-aliases) and I originally used his ZSH expansion code, but now use [zsh-abbr](https://zsh-abbr.olets.dev). There are settings for this in Nix/Home Manager.
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## Links
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- <https://github.com/olets/zsh-abbr>
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- <https://mynixos.com/search?q=zsh-abbr>
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- <https://github.com/opdavies/dotfiles.nix/blob/main/lib/shared/modules/zsh/abbreviations.zsh>
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