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SpaceOttersea

Member

Registered: 2016-02-21

Posts: 11

Alias limiting rclone arguments

I've set up an alias in my bashrc to simplify my rclone commands for google drive. If I type the full command directly to the terminal, it runs just as expected. When I use the alias, however, I get an error: "Command sync needs 2 arguments maximum"

The relevant bit of my .bashrc looks looks like:

alias gdrive-up='rclone sync ~/Gdrive gdrive: --exclude '.*' -vu'
alias gdrive-dn='rclone sync gdrive: ~/Gdrive --exclude '.*' -vu'

I've used . ~/.bashrc and whatnot. I've even messed with adding and removing arguments, just to test. I'm really at a loss, here.
Thanks

Edit: Even if I copy the full command straight from .bashrc I get the error.

Last edited by SpaceOttersea (2018-02-01 08:55:41)

ayekat

Member

Registered: 2011-01-17

Posts: 1,634

Re: Alias limiting rclone arguments

The first step to troubleshooting issues with aliases is... displaying them!

alias gdrive-up gdrive-dn

And there you should already see where it goes wrong.
You are trying to nest single quotes within single quotes, which is not possible. Try quoting it as ".*" instead.

--edit: I also hope you now also understand why it's giving you that "too many arguments" error?

Last edited by ayekat (2018-02-01 10:06:34)

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pkgs │ hacks │ cfg │ blag

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,396

Re: Alias limiting rclone arguments

Or rather remove the outer quotes, since the ~ will also not be correctly expanded otherwise.

ayekat

Member

Registered: 2011-01-17

Posts: 1,634

Re: Alias limiting rclone arguments

No, the outer quotes are required for alias definitions. See

alias a=b c
alias a

Also, the string is interpreted—and thus things like ~ and wildcards (e.g. .*) are resolved—by the shell the moment the alias is used, so that's not an issue. See:

alias a='echo ~'
a

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pkgs │ hacks │ cfg │ blag

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,396

Re: Alias limiting rclone arguments

Ah true, sorry I brainfarted for a sec there.

SpaceOttersea

Member

Registered: 2016-02-21

Posts: 11

Re: Alias limiting rclone arguments

Oh, yep. Adding double quotes solved the issue. I'm new to scripting and all, but that does make sense. Thanks for the replies!