Re: [50 character or so descriptive subject here (for reference)]

[Chet Ramey]

> Machine Type: i386-redhat-linux-gnu
> 
> Bash Version: 2.05
> Patch Level: 8
> Release Status: release
> 
> Description:
>       the shell builtin 'alias' removes \ and ' characters when displaying
>       a list of currently defined aliases.
> 
> Repeat-By:
>       [w2:pgl]:~ $ grep dos2u .bash_profile
>       alias dos2u='perl -pi -e 's/\cM//' *.{html,php3,php,php4,htm,inc,txt}'

This doesn't do what you think it does.  You may not have a single
quote inside single quotes, so your alias definition consists of two
single-quoted strings separated by your sed pattern.  Since the sed
pattern is unquoted, the backslash is removed before the alias is
assigned. 

You probably want something like

alias dos2u="perl -pi -e 's/\cM//' *.{html,php3,php,php4,htm,inc,txt}"

-- 
``The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.'' - Chaucer
( ``Discere est Dolere'' -- chet)

Chet Ramey, CWRU    chet@po.CWRU.Edu    http://cnswww.cns.cwru.edu/~chet/