Making an alias for `ls` that includes `echo` in csh

Question

I want to make an alias that will add a space before and after each time I use ls . If I use just ls the result is to close to the line above and under it it I sometimes find it hard and confusing to read the output. So I've started to use the line:

echo "\n"; ls something ; echo "\n"

Is there a way to put it in an alias, so that each time I'll use the ls command it'll automatically add the echo commands?

Answer 1

Don't have csh/tcsh available so I cannot test, but this should work

alias ls 'echo "\n"; ls \!* ; echo "\n"'

Command line parameters in tcsh/csh:

• !! is the whole command line
• !* is all the arguments of the command
• !:1 is the first argument of the command
• !:2 is the second argument of the command
• !$ is the last argument of the command

Answer 2

alias ls 'echo ; /bin/ls something; echo'

请注意，您必须提供ls的完整路径，否则shell会将其视为尝试再次调用别名并抱怨递归尝试。

Answer 3

It might be unwise to alias ls directly, since you might use it in a script which expects the normal output. Instead, alias something like lss in you .cshrc :

alias lss 'echo; /bin/ls; echo;'

You don't need the "\\n" because echo alone simple prints a newline.