Cannot create a bash alias or function for long command-CodePudding

I am at my wit's end trying to create an alias of a long git command. The command is of this format:

git clone "https://[email protected]/a/PathToRepo/RepoName" && (cd "RepoName" && mkdir -p .git/hooks && curl -Lo `git rev-parse --git-dir`/hooks/commit-msg https://[email protected]/tools/hooks/commit-msg; chmod  x `git rev-parse --git-dir`/hooks/commit-msg)

I am fine with either an alias or a bash function that can help me accomplish this.

CodePudding user response：

Don't use aliases. They are in every aspect inferior to functions.

Writing this as a function also avoids the quoting errors you probably were bumping into when trying to create an alias (though it's not impossible to solve those, too; but if that's what you want, probably ask a new question with your actual attempt).

The following only has very small changes compared to your original (and to the extent that the original worked in the first place, it would have worked just as well without any changes at all).

func () {
    git clone "https://[email protected]/a/PathToRepo/RepoName" &&
    (
      cd "RepoName" &&
      mkdir -p .git/hooks &&
      curl -Lo "$(git rev-parse --git-dir)/hooks/commit-msg" "https://[email protected]/tools/hooks/commit-msg" &&
      chmod  x "$(git rev-parse --git-dir)/hooks/commit-msg"
    )
}

The switch from legacy `command substitution` syntax to modern $(command substitution) syntax is mainly for aesthetic reasons. The addition of double quotes is crucial for handling file names with spaces or other shell metacharacters in them. Adding && instead of ; before chmod x seemed to make sense for consistency.

Personally, I would calling git rev-parse --git-dir twice, and just create a variable with the name of the directory:

func () {
    git clone "https://[email protected]/a/PathToRepo/RepoName" &&
    local hookdir=RepoName/$(git -C "RepoName" rev-parse --git-dir)/hooks &&
    mkdir -p "$hookdir" &&
    curl -Lo "$hookdir/commit-msg" "https://[email protected]/tools/hooks/commit-msg" &&
    chmod  x "$hookdir/commit-msg"
}

If you want to make the repository name and/or the URL configurable parameters, I would suggest to make the repo name the first parameter and the base URL the second, but this obviously depends on your use case.

func () {
    git clone "${2-https://[email protected]/a/PathToRepo}/$1" &&
    local hookdir="$1"/$(git -C "$1" rev-parse --git-dir)/hooks &&
    mkdir -p "$hookdir" &&
    curl -Lo "$hookdir/commit-msg" "https://[email protected]/tools/hooks/commit-msg" &&
    chmod  x "$hookdir/commit-msg"
}

The syntax ${2-default} falls back to default if $2 is unset.