Re: shell-command, its relatives, and aliases

[Bill Rising <brising@mac.com>]

On Nov 14, 2008, at 7:22 , Kevin Rodgers wrote:

> Bill Rising wrote:
>> I would like to use aliases in (shell-command ...) or (call-process  
>> region ...). Even if I tell the latter to behave as a login shell,  
>> and make sure that the aliases are available to the login shell, I  
>> cannot get them to execute.
>> The shell can see the aliases without any problem, because I can  
>> send the -alias- command and get the list of aliases.
>> It seems to me that elisp is trying to see if the command is  
>> defined before running it, instead of simply letting the shell chew  
>> on whatever was sent to it. This could be a grave misconception.
>> In any case, is there are way to be able to use aliases within any  
>> of the 'execute this line/region without starting a buffer with a  
>> shell' commands?
>
> call-process-region does not invoke the shell at all.  If you want to
> use any shell features (e.g. redirection, aliases) you need to use
> shell-command-on-region.

OK.

> There are several ways to make aliases available in the shell invoked
> by Emacs.  I would just explicitly read the shell definitions e.g.
>
> 	M-| . ~/my_aliases.bash && alias_1 arg_1
>
> Or you could create the ~/.emacs_bash file and read the shell
> definitions there (automatically) -- see the Interactive Shell
> node of the Emacs manual.

I created the ~/.emacs_bash file, and it sources the ~/.bash_aliases I  
have defined.

I'll go back and fiddle with (shell-commmand-on-region ...) again.

Thanks,

Bill