Shell Programming and Scripting

First of all im using Bash, on a Debian-based machine. I tried to write a function that if the ls program found listed more than 25 lines I would automaticly use "ls | less". Its on another computer but if I recall it looked something like this...

Note: some code may look strange because im on this stupid spanish keyboard where nothing does as it says...

I tried assigning it to "ls" with the effect of (i think) infinite recursion.
System crashed...
Also tried assigning it to "lss" with the SAME problem (i think).
System crashed...

In despair i just tried to create an alias like:

alias lss="ls -F | less"

which only worked in the current directory..

also tried: lss="ls -F $@ | less" and lss="ls -F ${@:-$(pwd)}"

Have no idea what to do...

Regards
Richard

You can't pass parameters to an alias that uses a pipe, so perhaps use a shell function instead. A function does not need an alias since you can just invoke it directly. Also, take a look at the manual pages for less. You might find that there is an option to quit if one screen.

Code:

ls()
{
   /usr/bin/ls
}

i wouldn't recommend it though

ls | more

will work how you want

well the thing is that i want it to be automatic.. So i dont have to type a command TWICE when the screen gets filled... Thanks for your interest anyway...