Bdtyktl

I wish to create an alias, which runs program x, without changing the current directory I am in. What I have now is:

alias x = "cd /home/path_to_x && ./x"

This works, but changes my directory. What I wish to do is something like:

alias x="./home/path_to_x/x

But then I get no such file or directory. Anyone know a workaround for this?

DON'T CD, just run it using its absolute path

This version:

cd /home/path_to_x && ./x

changes directory to an absolute path (you see how /home/... starts at the root directory) and then runs the executable at the relative path ./x (that is, relative to the new working directory).

This version:

./home/path_to_x/x

tries to run the executable at the relative path ./home/path_to_x/x, which means relative to whatever your current working directory is now. That explains why you get the error - this relative path really doesn't exist.

The command you want would be:

/home/path_to_x/x

using the absolute path (starting at the root directory /) again.

Oh, and you can also just add /home/path_to_x to your PATH instead of creating the alias. See: How to run scripts without typing the full path?

If you do not want the cd to stick after the alias substitution, use a subshell with ( y ):

alias my_x="(cd /home/path_to_x && ./x)&" 

you can check it with

alias test_y="(cd /tmp && sleep 10 ) & "

Note that the solution

alias my_y="/home/path_to_x/x" 

is not exactly equivalent. In fact, if called via my_x, the x program is run with a current directory /home/path_to_x/, while if called by my_y, x is run with a current directory which is the one where the command my_y was issued. This can be important or not depending on what x is doing.

About the OP solution, it works in bash:

romano@RRyS:~$ pwd

/home/romano

romano@RRyS:~$ alias x="cd /bin && ./echo A >/dev/null  &"

romano@RRyS:~$ x

[1] 16611

romano@RRyS:~$ pwd

/home/romano

but not in zsh:

[romano:~] % pwd

/home/romano

[romano:~] % alias x="cd /bin && ./echo A >/dev/null &"

[romano:~] % x

[1] 16744

[1]  + 16744 done       ./echo A > /dev/null                                    

1& [romano:/bin] % pwd

/bin

[romano:/bin] % 

It seems that bash and zsh execute lists in different ways ...so it's better to add the explicit parenthesis... thanks @EliahKagan for pointing it to me.

Putting a & at the end seems to do the trick:

alias x = "cd /home/path_to_x && ./x &"