How can I call an alias name in a shell script by concatenating two string?

Question

I have an alias that looks like the following

alias testalias12569537329="echo it works"

My question is: How can I call testalias12569537329 in a shell script by concatenating two strings?

x="testalias"
x+="12569537329" #timestamp
exec $x #command not found

I know that I can directly call testalias12569537329 in the shell script. But I would like to manipulate the timestamp. Thank you!

Thanks for the quick reply. But $(x) did not work for me. I'm using zsh tho. — ytbryan, Jul 11 '15 at 17:30
Instead of working around the limitations of aliases, I would suggest using a function which does something depending on a parameter.You could then just call it `testfunc $timestamp`. — Adaephon, Jul 13 '15 at 09:17

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 11 '15 at 17:30

1

You can do like this:

$ eval $x

answered Jul 11 '15 at 17:30

yolenoyer

4

Calling an alias from a non-interactive shell requires [`shopt -s expand_aliases`](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1615877/why-aliases-in-a-non-interactive-bash-shell-do-not-work). Otherwise, the script will report: `testalias12569537329: command not found` – Eugeniu Rosca Jul 11 '15 at 17:33

1 Answers1