Shell Programming and Scripting

I'm trying to set up an alias in .bash_aliases to show just the filenames of the files in a directory, which the following command will do:

Code:

ls -l | grep ^- | awk '{print $NF}'

kjb.zip
ap.zip
tor.zip

However when I set up the following alias in .bash_aliases:

Code:

alias lf="ls -l | grep ^- | awk '{print $NF}'"

it only partially works. I get just the files listed but the -l longlisting too (permissions, owner, size, date, filename) and not just the filename on its own.

I'm guessing this is to do with the " and ' formatting but I can't seem to format it correctly. All the variations I've tried either fail with an awk error because the 'print' section isn't right, or do the same thing as already stated.

Any ideas? Thanks all.

Try this.

Code:

alias lf="ls -la|grep \^\-|awk '{print \$9}'"

Define a function:

Code:

lf() {
  perl -le'
    -f and print for glob "*"
    '
    }

With zsh it would be as simple as:

Code:

print -l -- *(.)

If you want to include dotfiles:

Code:

lf() {
  perl -le'
    -f and print for glob "* .?*"
    '
  }

With zsh:

Code:

print -l -- *(D.)

That gave me a series of empty lines, but the right amount for it to be one line per file in dir.

When I replaced the $9 with $NF it worked perfectly. Thanks for your help it is appreciated.

Cheers.

PS. Thanks too radoulov, but I prefer the alias solution now that it is working.

The reason it is not working is because it is expanding the $NF to an empty string when you define the alias:

Code:

>alias test_alias="ls -l | grep ^- | awk '{print $NF}'"

>alias test_alias
test_alias='ls -l | grep ^- | awk '\''{print }'\'

Try to excape the $ and it'll most likely work:

Code:

>alias test_alias="ls -l | grep ^- | awk '{print \$NF}'"
>alias test_alias
test_alias='ls -l | grep ^- | awk '\''{print $NF}'\'

Note that I tested this on ksh, not on bash.

soleil4716 - thanks that also works.

However I've descovered a problem with my original command. It does not work with filenames with spaces in them. Printing everything after the final space only.

EG. filename is:

this is a test.txt

will ouput just

test.txt

Damn, just when I thought it was working.

Any ideas how to fix this?

Thanks again.

Yes,
try the code I posted