Make a Bash alias that takes a parameter?

Question

I used to use CShell (csh), which lets you make an alias that takes a parameter. The notation was something like

alias junk=\"mv \\\\!* ~/.Trash\"
         


        

Answer 1

Functions are indeed almost always the answer as already amply contributed and confirmed by this quote from the man page: "For almost every purpose, aliases are superseded by shell functions."

For completeness and because this can be useful (marginally more lightweight syntax) it could be noted that when the parameter(s) follow the alias, they can still be used (although this wouldn't address the OP's requirement). This is probably easiest to demonstrate with an example:

alias ssh_disc='ssh -O stop'

allows me to type smth like ssh_disc myhost, which gets expanded as expected as: ssh -O stop myhost

This can be useful for commands which take complex arguments (my memory isn't what it use t be anymore...)