SPUG: aliases, -> Korn Shell vs. PD-ksh

[SPUG-list-owner]

On Thu, Jan 23, 2003 at 05:33:28PM -0800, Michael R. Wolf wrote:
> Jeremy Mates <jmates at sial.org> writes:
> 
> > * Michael R. Wolf <MichaelRunningWolf at att.net>
> > > Korn shell does it by quoting the name.  Any quoting mechanism
> > > (single, double, backslash) on the name prevents alias substitution.
> > > That's the idea.  Since I don't have a ksh handy, I haven't tested
> > > this.
> > > 
> > >     alias cd='\cd "$@" && ls'
> > 
> > Goes wonky for me with the public domain ksh that ships with
> > OpenBSD; appeared to be working for a bit, but fails in unexpected
> > and strange ways.

There's no reason to use the crappy PD-ksh that ships with the free
UNIX-like systems (unless it's improved drastically in the past 18
months, since I last rejected it).  That's because for years now,
you've been able to get the real Kornshell for free from the AT&T
research web site.

I recommend downloading the binary-only version, because the
source-code distribution has the weirdest installation procedure
ever devised by man, and anybody having experience with conventional
installation techniques will undoubtedly foul it up.

Click on "ksh - standalone AT&T ksh executable" at
http://www.research.att.com/sw/download/

You won't get the man page with it, but that's available at
kornshell.org (look for the ksh93 manual page; yep, that's the
latest *major* version, apart from some newer GUI-friendly variants).

-Tim
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