Bash alias: fork a repo then cd and install

Question

I'm trying to add an alias to my .bash_profile to automate cloning a GitHub repo. The cloning part is straightforward:

alias createApp 'git clone https://github.com/user/repo.git'

This allows me to execute:

createApp foo
createApp bar

How can I modify the cloning alias to cd <destination_folder> && npm install after cloning while keeping the current behavior of accepting a custom destination folder name?

Answer 1

Create a shell function rather than an alias.

createApp() {
    git clone https://github.com/user/repo.git "$1" &&
    (cd "$1" && npm install)
}

Putting the cd in a subshell limits it to the npm command.

Answer 2

I managed to do this indirectly with the help of .gitconfig .

in .gitconfig :

[alias]
    createApp = "!f() { git clone https://github.com/user/repo.git \"$1\" && cd \"$1\" && npm install; }; f"

in .bash_profile :

alias createApp='git createApp'

I will keep this question open to answer whether there is a direct (or better) way to do it.