Can I create an alias that has a param?

Question

I wish to shorten the typing of this:

rails g controller --skip-helper --skip-assets --skip-views --skip-template-engine c6

where c6 is the controller name.

I'd like to be able to type railsgbc c6 # note: gbc=generate basic controller

I've tried:

$ alias railsgc='rails g controller --skip-helper --skip-assets --skip-views --skip-template-engine'                                            

but then when I try to use it I get:

$ railsgc play5
No value provided for required arguments 'name'

which is actually the same as if I type:

$ rails g controller --skip-helper --skip-assets --skip-views --skip-template-engine c6                                                         
No value provided for required arguments 'name'

so it seems that I can't put the argument at the end, it needs to be right after controller ...

Answer 1

It is not possible to create an alias supporting a parameter. What you can do is to create a function. Adding it to ~/.bashrc will make it.

For example, to make backups:

f_bk () {
        cp -p $1 $1.$(date "+%Y%m%d")
}

In your case, if you want to add something after the last word, then this could make it:

myrails () {
    rails g controller --skip-helper --skip-assets --skip-views --skip-template-engine $1
}

And call it for example with:

myrails c8

Note that $1 will be the first parameter, $2 the second and so on.