Korn Shell: Unix and Linux Programming Manual, Third Edition, The

Aliases

There are two types of aliases: normal command aliases and tracked aliases. Command aliases are normally used as a short hand for a long or often used command. The shell expands command aliases (i.e., substitutes the alias name for its value) when it reads the first word of a command. An expanded alias is re-processed to check for more aliases. If a command alias ends in a space or tab, the following word is also checked for alias expansion. The alias expansion process stops when a word that is not an alias is found, when a quoted word is found or when an alias word that is currently being expanded is found.

The following command aliases are defined automatically by the shell:

autoload=’typeset -fu’

functions=’typeset -f’

hash=’alias -t’ ...