z/OS V1R9.0 UNIX System Services Command ... - Christian Grothoff

Chapter 2. Shell command descriptions
Following are the descriptions of all the commands for the z/OS shell. The
descriptions are listed in alphabetic order. For instructions on how to read the
command descriptions, see “Reading the command descriptions” on page 1.
The z/OS shell is based on the KornShell that originated on a UNIX system. As
implemented for z/OS UNIX System Services, this shell conforms to POSIX
standard 1003.2-1992.
Restriction: z/OS UNIX shell commands can only read a large format sequential
data set that has no more than 65,535 tracks of data on any single volume.
This information assumes that your z/OS system includes the Resource Access
Control Facility (RACF). Instead of RACF, your system could have an equivalent
security product.
alias — Display or create a command alias
Format
Description
alias [–tx] [name[=value] ...]
alias –r
tcsh shell: alias [name [wordlist ]]
When the first word of a shell command line is not a shell keyword, alias causes
the shell to check for the word in the list of currently defined aliases. If it finds a
match, the shell replaces the alias with its associated string value. The result is a
new command line that might begin with a shell function name, a built-in command,
an external command, or another alias.
When the shell performs alias substitution, it checks to see if value ends with a
blank. If so, the shell also checks the next word of the command line for aliases.
The shell then checks the new command line for aliases and expands them,
following these same rules. This process continues until there are no aliases left on
the command line, or recursion occurs in the expansion of aliases.
Calling alias without parameters displays all the currently defined aliases and their
associated values. Values appear with appropriate quoting so that they are suitable
for reinput to the shell.
Calling alias with parameters of the form name=value creates an alias for each
name with the given string value.
If you are defining an alias where value contains a backslash character, you must
precede it with another backslash. The shell interprets the backslash as the escape
character when it performs the expansion. If you use double quotes to enclose
value, you must precede each of the two backslashes with an additional backslash,
because the shell escapes characters—that is, the shell does not interpret the
character as it normally does—both when assigning the alias and again when
expanding it.
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