Using aliases in Terminal

An alias can substitute for a command not arbitrary text. So alias lsd='ls ~/Desktop' is ok but just alias lsd=~/Desktop will try to run /Users/name/Desktop as a command.

You could do something like:

dt=~/Desktop

then at the shell run:

ls $dt

From "man bash":

... The first word of each simple command, if unquoted, is checked to see if it has an alias. ...

Basically, an alias is only effective a the first word of a command. It can not be an argument within a command.

HOWEVER, you can create shell variables to hold information and then substitute the shell variable when desired

dt="$HOME/Desktop/"

Now when you want to substitute Desktop/ into a command you just enter

someCommand $dt

This could apply to any bit of text you want to substitute into a command line, it does not need to be a file path.

4 minutes late. I was beaten by Frank Caggiano

Message was edited by: BobHarris

try:

movies=/Volumes/iTunes\ -\ iMac/Plex\ Movies/

(use \ before the spaces)

then

ls "$movies"

don't know if there would be a way to do iy so you don;t need the quotes when you use the variable.

You could also do:

movies="/Volumes/iTunes - iMac/Plex Movies/"

put quotes around the path when you define the variable. Still need quotes when you use it.

Have you tried

variable="/Volumes/iTunes - iMac/Plex Movies"

cd $variable

Try

cd "$movies"

Or create a symlink that does not have spaces

ln -s "/Volumes/iTunes - iMac/Plex Movies" $HOME/PlexMovies

cd $HOME/PlexMovies

# or

movies="$HOME/PlexMovies

cd $movies

Or do not create paths with spaces in them where you intend to navigate via the shell.

Have you tried escaping each space in the plist file using \ (back slash) instead of putting quotes around the entire path?

ie:

movies=/Volumes/iTunes\ -\ iMac/Plex\ Movies/

I think we're over complicating it. This worked for me,

In the plist file put in the pate as is.

/Volumes/iTunes - iMac/Plex Movies/

When you use it put quotes around it:

ls "$movies"

I believe this is the best you're going to get. If the quotes around the variable when you use it are no good you'll have to do like Bob said and not put spaces in paths that you intend to use from the shell.

Have you considered using $HOME/.bash_profile for your environment variables? It is what all the "Cool" Unix kids are doing. OK maybe it is the "Old" guys :-)

.bash_profile is generally speaking portable to other Unix platforms (assuming you use bash as your shell on those platforms).

It does not require a special utility to edit it.

And it is invoked every time you startup a new Terminal session.

The behavior may not chance much from environment.plist.

See "man bash" for more information about bash shell initialization files.

Message was edited by: BobHarris

Gee that was fun, whats for extra credit?

Anyway I learnt something didn't know that environment.plist fie even existed! Even old dogs can learn new tricks.

regards & thanks for the check.

RCEnvironment from rubicode (free download) can be used to easily edit the environment.plist

<http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/14617/rcenvironment>

> Ah, you want extra credit? How 'bout this....

>

> I have two Macs... let's call 'em Mac A and Mac B.

>

> I got the variable working as desired on Mac B. It works perfectly when I'm sitting in front of Mac B.

>

> But, when I SSH into Mac B from Mac A, the variable doesn't work. I'm getting: ls: fts_open: No such file or directory

>

> What now? :-/

Because environment.plist is ONLY used by your Mac OS X GUI login. Ssh is NOT a GUI login, so your environment does not exist.

I go back to my "Cool" kids are using .bash_profile. This is invoked by your shell when it starts up, no matter whether it is a new Terminal session or an ssh session.

.bash_profile is portable across multiple Unix platforms.

See "man bash" and search for ".bash_profile" for more information about shell initialization files.