Why when I try to write a function just in one line into .bashrc file,
list(){ ls -a }
I get error?
bash: /home/username/.bashrc: line num: syntax error: unexpected end of file
but when I write it in multi line it's ok?
list(){
ls -a
}
Functions in bash are essentially named compound commands (or code blocks). From man bash:
Compound Commands
A compound command is one of the following:
...
{ list; }
list is simply executed in the current shell environment. list
must be terminated with a newline or semicolon. This is known
as a group command.
...
Shell Function Definitions
A shell function is an object that is called like a simple command and
executes a compound command with a new set of positional parameters.
... [C]ommand is usually a list of commands between { and }, but
may be any command listed under Compound Commands above.
There's no reason given, it's just the syntax.
Since the list in the one-line function given isn't terminated with a newline or a ;, bash complains.
