Question

This question already has answers here:

Make a Bash alias that takes a parameter? (24 answers)

Closed 8 years ago.

Trying to create:

alias mcd="mkdir $1; cd $1"

Getting:

$ mcd foo
usage: mkdir [-pv] [-m mode] directory ...
-bash: foo: command not found

What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

An alias can only substitute the first word of a command with some arbitrary text. It can not use parameters.

You can instead use a shell function:

mcd()
{
  test -e "$1" || mkdir "$1"
  cd "$1"
}