How to write a multi-command alias in xonsh?

Question

In bash and zsh I used to write:

alias nb='cd /home/lincoln/Dropbox/nupis/ && jupyter notebook'

But in xonsh this returns an error saying that the command was not found. The tutorial's section on aliases says that I should do something like:

aliases['g'] = 'git status -sb'

I could make this work in the case of only one command, but when I try the two commands of my bash example, it complains that I am giving too many inputs to cd.

Note: I know I could import the alias from the other shells, but I am interested in learning to do this in xonsh.

This works fine in recent versions of xonsh. – Quantum7 May 03 '22 at 09:43 — Quantum7, May 03 '22 at 09:43

score 9 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 29 '16 at 05:14

@lincolnfrias, xonsh does not yet have support for string aliases that have multiple commands. This is a bug / deficiency that will hopefully be addressed soon. Until then, though, you can use a function alias for this behaviour.

def _nb(args, stdin=None):
    cd /home/lincoln/Dropbox/nupis/ && jupyter notebook

aliases['nb'] = _nb

Or if you really wanted to do this in one line:

aliases['nb'] = lambda a, s: ![cd /home/lincoln/Dropbox/nupis/] and ![jupyter notebook]

Thanks for using it! – Anthony Scopatz Oct 02 '16 at 20:15 — Anthony Scopatz, Oct 02 '16 at 20:15

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 21 '20 at 14:44

0

Separating commands with ; works fine, as in:

aliases['gp'] = 'git add -A :/; git commit -m asdf;git push;'

answered Apr 21 '20 at 14:44

vishvAs vAsuki

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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 09 '23 at 11:03

Aliases which are a single string are evaluated as though they were typed, so you can chain commands using ;, &&, etc.

You can access the arguments passed to the alias as $args in a Python context, i.e. @($args). Note the dollar sign is inside the parenthesis!

For example:

robmee01@C02F2508MD6R:~
@ aliases['nb'] = 'echo cd /home/lincoln/Dropbox/nupis/ && echo jupyter notebook @($args)'

Sample usage:

user@host:~ @ nb --option1 --option2
cd /home/lincoln/Dropbox/nupis/
jupyter notebook --option1 --option2

The guide I've found most useful: anki-code/xonsh-cheatsheet: Cheat sheet for xonsh shell with copy-pastable examples. The best doc for the new users.

How to write a multi-command alias in xonsh?

3 Answers3