Is there a more transparent alternative for aliases?

Jumpy

In ~/.bash.rc I have placed an alias like this: $ alias p='sudo eopkg up'

And I call it like this: $ p

If some one would change the alias in ~/.bash.rc (which is possible without sudoing) to malicious code I would have no glue, because when I run the alias using 'p' it asks for the password straigh away without showing the command to be executed.

Is there a way to make the terminal show the (aliased) command about to be executed?

davidjharder

Jumpy In my opinion it is not likely that anyone would target your aliases. Nevertheless:

Bash has the command alias which will print an alias, so if you change your alias to alias p="alias p && sudo eopkg up" then you should see the contents of the alias before the sudo prompt.

david@arthurdent-beta:~$ p
alias p='alias p && sudo eopkg up'
[sudo] password for david:

Now your alias has alias in it in case your aliases have been aliased by some ass.

Jumpy

davidjharder Thank you for the solution. If any of you come up with other solutions I am all ears. They will undoutedly help me learn more about terminal usage.

algent

If someone goes that far, I think the aliases are the least thing to worry about.

Jumpy

algent. I can think of other reasons, one being simply forgetting what my aliases are once they start piling up. Or prevent me from forgetting the real commands if I keep seeing them instead of just the aliases.

elfprince

Jumpy You can use \command to get the original, un-aliased effect. Also, by typing alias by itself, it will list all aliases. I have a separate file for all aliases, which I read in ~/.bashrc. 😀

Jumpy

I think I have what I was looking for with this:

alias p='stty -echo ; xdotool type "sudo eopkg up" ; stty echo'

user@machine ~ $ p
user@machine ~ $ sudo eopkg up

After calling the alias I am able to modify the command retrieved 😃

I am thinking this usage of alias could be a good way to teach solus newbies to update their solus machines without the software center gui. They could learn the whole command eventually after seeing this over and over again and not just be dependent on a regular alias.