nickkrym

Hi,

Im trying to create an alias on a Linux system, which is very simple done through the command line by "alias my_command=another_command" for example, and then to remove the alias you use "unalias my_command". The problem is when I use system(), or the whole range of exec functions none of them work (for both creating, and removing the alias). Any ideas?

MacGyver

I wrote some code before. It didn't work either. Why?

Get the idea? You're not giving enough information. I think I'm going to suggest that the phrase "doesn't work" get auto-replaced on these forums by something else, at least when used at the end of a sentence.

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zacs7

What error checking have you done?
Do you have some sample code...?

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bakefile | vim

nickkrym

Sorry for the lack of details. What it boils down to is that the system already has an alias defined and I need to remove it. The relevant part of my application (called "plz"):
Output:
root@nick:/home/nick# alias
alias ls='ls --color=auto'

root@nick:/home/nick# alias temp=/some/link

root@nick:/home/nick# alias
alias ls='ls --color=auto'
alias temp='/some/link'

root@nick:/home/nick# ./plz
sh: line 0: unalias: temp: not found

root@nick:/home/nick# alias
alias ls='ls --color=auto'
alias temp='/some/link'

Salem

system() and exec() functions are for running actual programs.

Aliases in your shell are basically nothing more than inline macros which get expanded into doing something by the shell.

I hope you don't surf the web as well as doing development work as root.

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If you dance barefoot on the broken glass of undefined behaviour, you've got to expect the occasional cut.

nickkrym

Thanks for the reply.

So is it possible to envoke these macros from within a C application? Something along the lines of 'echo "unalias temp" | /bin/bash'?

I usually don't use root but I was doing some configuration a second before i posted that, but thanks for noticing