zsh alias -> function?

Question

Suppose I have:

alias gg="git grep"

then stuff like:

gg "int x"

works, but

gg int x

gets complaints. Is there a way to rewrite gg as a function in zsh so that it takes all the arguments after gg, and stuffs them into a string?

Thanks!

Answer 1

gg() { git grep "$*"; }

Answer 2

For your particular use case, this is a bad idea. git-grep is expecting a single-arg pattern. You're trying to get the shell to treat your space (between int and x) as part of the pattern. This will break quickly when you try something like: gg foo.*bar or various other things that the shell might interpret. So anything after gg really should be quoted. This is why git grep int x also doesn't work: fatal: ambiguous argument 'x': unknown revision or path not in the working tree...

If you think gg is a worthwhile keystroke saver, you should keep your arg to it consistent with what git-grep expects. Your original alias is fine for this. And continue to single- or double-quote your pattern, just like you do with any other regex-accepting command.