Bash: use an alias in a filepath

Question

I cannot seem to figure out how to use an alias for a filename in a path. For example:

alias a="ls /tmp/ -tr | tail -n 1"
cat /tmp/a

The alias gives me the name of the most recent file written in /tmp/ . Then I try to cat that file and I get cat: /tmp/a: No such file or directory .

When I just type a I get the right thing, for instance some_log_I_just_wrote_to.log .

Obviously what I want is for cat /tmp/a to be translated into cat /tmp/some_log_I_just_wrote_to.log so that I can see the log.

Any ideas on what the right way to do this is? I sometimes get tangled up in bash with when to use aliases and symlinks and just plain variables, etc.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Create the alias with

alias a='ls /tmp/ -tr | tail -n 1'

Use the alias with cat

cat $(echo -n /tmp/ && a)