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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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The benefits of using scripts over aliases (evanhahn.com)

submitted 1 day ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

33 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I've done something similiar to this over the years for organization purposes and not having to change much between shells except add a path. You can also add cases that check your shell and do something slightly different if needed.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

Functions are best for this.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

It still limits where / how you use them.

For example, it's easier / more efficient to call a shell script from sway (or whichever other software that might be running without a bash login session behind) than to try and force it to load a whole shell login session that includes those functions (which might also slow down the startup of the program and make it need a bit more ram without much of a benefit).

Scripts can reliably be run from everywhere (specially if placed somewhere in $PATH), functions require some preloading for every single new shell process and making sure the program invoking the shell (be it a terminal emulator or something else) is actually loading it. So as someone who likes to automate everything and often assigns hotkeys to particular commandline oneliners, scripts are much better.. even a symlink might be more reliable than an alias.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

I agree. My .zshrc is littered with functions. Most useful ones are my pack and extract I made ~10 years ago, they just recognize file extension and use the correct tool.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 17 hours ago

I even wrote a function to parse a json for some configuration details, and loop through it to dynamically create more named functions from that json profile. I use it at work for automating my cloud account logins with a single profile name from the command line. :)