Shell Programming and Scripting

#!/bin/bash
#mka -- make an alias, append it to ~/.aliases, source ~/.aliases and make the new alias available to the parent environment.

_dir=$HOME
_aliasfile="$_dir/.aliases"
[ -f $_aliasfile ] || echo "#! /bin/bash" > $_aliasfile
# so it looks pretty in vi

echo -n "Enter command: "
read _command

echo -n "Enter alias name: "
read _aliasname

_entry="alias $_aliasname='$_command'"
echo "The following entry will be made to your ~/.aliases file:"
echo
echo "---$_entry---"
echo
echo "Append entry to ~/.aliases?"
read _ans
case "$_ans" in
    y)
    echo $_entry >> $_aliasfile
    echo
    echo "Here are your ~/.aliases file contents:"
    echo
    cat $_aliasfile
    echo
    echo "Sourcing $_aliasfile..."
    source $_aliasfile
    if [ $? = 0 ]; then
        echo "Done."
    else
        echo "Error."
    fi
    ;;
    n)
    echo "Alrighty then."
    ;;
esac

source $_aliasfile