This program simulates the way in which aliases are expanded by tcsh. It is modelled on a Java program which has been a part of Ellexus Breeze.
Breeze includes a script which traces the execution of an arbitrary program. For example, to see what happens when you use Firefox to visit a web site, you might type something like:
trace-program.sh -f output firefox www.ellexus.com
But if you're using tcsh and try to trace something which is an alias, for example:
alias ff firefox
trace-program.sh -f output ff www.ellexus.com
then the "ff" alias is not expanded, because tcsh only looks for aliases as the first word of each simple command. (By prefixing the command with "trace-program.sh -f output", "ff" has become the fourth word, and tcsh leaves it unchanged.)
The trace-program.sh script in Ellexus Breeze has an optional command "-at ", which passes the command that the user has typed through the tcshParser program. This expands any aliases it finds and makes examples such as that above just work.
This version of tcshParser is written in C, and needs only the usual glibc library. To build it:
cd src
make
To run the program first copy tcshParser to somewhere on your path. Save the definitions of all your aliases in a file by typing something like:
alias > alias.txt
Now run tcshParser, giving it first the "alias.txt" file and then your command:
tcshParser alias.txt ff www.ellexus.com
and the program will print...
firefox www.ellexus.com
Tcsh aliases can use "history" substitutions, and tcshParser handles these as well. The "test" directory contains a script which runs a number of test cases through the program and checks that the output is what was expected. But do let us know if it gets something wrong!
cd test
./test.sh
This code is licensed under the GPL, but if this is a problem for you then please contact us.