kens@hplsla.HP.COM (Ken Snyder) (06/09/90)
I just downloaded and installed 4DOS 3.0 on my system after reading all
the nice things many folks had to say about it on the net. I'm having a
strange problem with the alias function that I hope someone can shed some
light on.
I had an alias file with about 20 aliases in it that have the same forma
as 4dos requires so I just added an:
alias /r myalias
in my autoexec file. When it loaded the alias file I got a message:
l50: not a valid command
Now, it turns out l50 is the last alias in my list. It also turns out that
NO aliases were installed and everytime I tried to use the alias command I
got the same message. I had to remove the alias reference from autoexec
and reboot the system to try and use aliases.
After much futzing with alias file I finally just started typing in my
aliases by hand, one at a time. When I got to the alias:
alias cpd `find . | cpio -plmv` { using MKS toolkit unix commands }
the message I received was:
"cpd find . | cpio -plmv" is not an alias (the doublequotes are theirs)
Removing this alias from the myalias file solved the problem. The questions
I have are: Is the "|" or "." not allowed in an alias? I read the entire
section on aliases and their example file and the command reference to alias
and found nothing to indicate to me that this is true. Is it true in
general that if you mess up a single alias in an alias input file, the
entire alias system goes out to lunch?
Having read much of their supplied documentation I'm impressed with 4dos
and it's features. But my first attempt at installing and using one of it's
key features has dulled my enthusiasm. What am I doing wrong here?
Thanks,
_____________________________ K _ E _ N __________________________________
| |
| Ken Snyder ms/loc: 270 / UN5 |
| LSID div : Lake Stevens Instrument Division |
| Hewlett-Packard Co. gte/tn: (206) 335-2253 / 335-2253 |
| 8600 Soper Hill Road HPDESK: Ken_Snyder@hpa100/ux |
| Everett, WA 98205-1298 un-ix : kens@hplsla@hplabs |
|__________________________________________________________________________|robison@dfsun1.electro.swri.edu (Bob Robison) (06/11/90)
In article <5190092@hplsla.HP.COM> kens@hplsla.HP.COM (Ken Snyder) writes: > > I just downloaded and installed 4DOS 3.0 on my system after reading all >the nice things many folks had to say about it on the net. I'm having a >strange problem with the alias function that I hope someone can shed some >light on. [ some stuff deleted] >alias cpd `find . | cpio -plmv` { using MKS toolkit unix commands } > >the message I received was: > > "cpd find . | cpio -plmv" is not an alias (the doublequotes are theirs) > I am using 4dos 3.01a right now, and when I entered the alias you described above from the command line, it didn't complain. I also didn't see anything in the documentation that referenced a change in this area from 3.0 to 3.01. One other thing to note: The documentation describing alias does say that you need to use backquotes to delimit the alias (as you did above) when this is entered from the command line. It also says however, that you should NOT use them when putting that alias in a file to be read by the alias/r command. It doesn't say what will happen if you do .... It wasn't clear from your example whether you had backquotes in the file or not -- you might try changing this. I'm not sure why you had a problem entering it from the command line, I typed it in without a problem there. good luck, bob -- Bob Robison - Southwest Research Institute, Electromagnetics Div. robison@dfsun1.electro.swri.edu {sun!texsun, gatech!petro, uunet!cs.utexas.edu}!swrinde!dfsun1!robison