[sclug] script or alias to page directory listings

[Bob Franklin]

On Mon, 5 Sep 2005, John Stumbles wrote:

> In Ye Olde Days before GUIs[1] I used to have a script (called lsl) 
> which did ls -al --color $* | more
>
> This was convenient, but breaks when filenames have spaces in them[2]. 
> Putting "" quotes around the $* works for single filenames but messes up 
> with wildcards or without an argument.
>
> Can anyone suggest how to do this (either as a script or a bash command 
> alias)?

I suspect you want something like this:

   #!/bin/bash

   ls -al --color "${*:-.}" | more

The :- bit means that, if the previous parameter is not defined, use the 
bit after it.  So it assumes '.', if you miss out the argument.  As for 
handling wildcards, I'm not sure you can easily do that -- it is the 
responsibility of the caller (usually the shell) to expand those; you 
could pass the argument through something to expand them, but then you run 
the risk of expanding things twice.

   - Bob


-- 
  Bob Franklin <r.c.franklin at reading.ac.uk>          +44 (0)118 378 7147
  Systems and Communications, IT Services, The University of Reading, UK