Re: ls head and gv

[Lawrence Velázquez]

On Fri, Jul 28, 2023, at 11:11 PM, David Niklas wrote:
> I used this command:
> alias lgv="gv "$(ls -c *.pdf | head -n1)" &"
>
> What I expected was the latest pdf document to be brought up in gv and gv
> goes to the background.
> What happens is that a semi-random pdf document is loaded into gv and gv
> goes into the background.
>
> Any ideas?

The command substitution is being evaluated when the alias is
defined, not when it is run.

        bash-5.2$ alias foo="echo foo "$(date)" bar"
        bash-5.2$ alias foo
        alias foo='echo foo Fri Jul 28 23:49:59 EDT 2023 bar'

The quickest "solution" is to fix your quoting.

        bash-5.2$ alias foo='echo foo "$(date)" bar'
        bash-5.2$ alias foo
        alias foo='echo foo "$(date)" bar'

Even if you do this, your chosen method of finding the most recently
modified file is fragile.  Consider using something more robust.

https://mywiki.wooledge.org/BashFAQ/003

-- 
vq