Re: strange 'delayed' aliases

[Jonathan]

On Dec 23, 7:34 am, Chet Ramey <chet.ra...@case.edu> wrote:
> I would think so, since you've inserted a command continuation (the escaped
> newline) into the command via the alias.  It's the same as if you had typed
>
> *$* echo \
> *>* Hello, World!
>
> The only unexpected part is the re-issuing of $PS1 as opposed to $PS2.
> I'll have to take a look at that.

It certainly seems to be related to command continuations. Here are a
few more symptoms:

1) Text on the same line as the alias is run directly as a separate
command. Bash doesn't see it as part of the original command:
    $ x Hello
    $ World!

    Hello: command not found

2) Adding text to the second line of the alias causes the alias to run
immediately but the added text is ignored:
    $ alias x='echo \
    > Hello'
    $ x

    $

3) Adding text before the continuation in the alias causes the command
history to report the second line as a separate command:
    $ alias x='echo Hello, \
    > '
    $ x
    $ World!
    Hello, World!
    $ history 2
      481  x; World!
      482  history 2

Hope this helps.

- Jonathan