Unix Bash - Refer to internal function and pass parameters

Question

I am installing a AMP server in OSX (much easier in Ubuntu) using the MacPorts methods. I would like to add a bash script in my path called apachectl that will refer to /opt/local/apache2/bin/apachectl. I have been able to do this, but I was wondering how I can then pass parameters to apachectl that would then pass it to /opt/local/apache2/bin/apachectl?

e.g. apachectl -t >>> /opt/local/apache2/bin/apachectl -t

For those wondering why I don't just reorder my path, I was asking so that I could do the same thing with other commands, such ls -l which I currently have as ll (Ubuntu style) that looks like

ls -l $1

in the file.

Is the only way to do this why positional parameters such as what I have done above?

Don't quite understand what you're saying but it seems that you need a function: `apachectl() { /opt/local/apache2/bin/apachectl "$@" }` — devnull, Mar 26 '14 at 19:42
@devnull Thank you, you answered my question but all I needed was "$@", which does what I wanted :v. Could you post that as the correct answer. — Luke Madhanga, Mar 26 '14 at 19:54
@twalberg Read my question properly please. The selected answer is the answer to my question, but thanks! — Luke Madhanga, Mar 27 '14 at 18:08

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:05

For what you want, you want to use "$@"

Explanation is from this answer that is in turn from this page

$@ -- Expands to the positional parameters, starting from one. 
When the expansion occurs within double quotes, each parameter 
expands to a separate word. That is, "$@" is equivalent to "$1" 
"$2" ... If the double-quoted expansion occurs within a word, the 
expansion of the first parameter is joined with the beginning part 
of the original word, and the expansion of the last parameter is 
joined with the last part of the original word. When there are no 
positional parameters,  "$@" and $@ expand to nothing (i.e., they are removed).

That would mean that you could call your ll script as follows:

ll -a /

"$@" will expand -a / into separate positional parameters, meaning that your script actually ran

ls -l -a /

You could also use a function:

apachectl() {
  /opt/local/apache2/bin/apachectl "$@"
}

Or an alias: `alias apachectl=/opt/local/apache2/bin/apachectl` — glenn jackman, Mar 26 '14 at 20:04
@Luke, you'll want to use `"$@"` for your `ll` function so it can take more than 1 argument: `ll -t "/some/dir with spaces"` — glenn jackman, Mar 26 '14 at 20:06

Unix Bash - Refer to internal function and pass parameters

1 Answers1