zsh suffix alias
zsh suffix aliases are a quirky little hack that allow you to define an alias for a file extension.
2020-06-16
For example, if you would to just type the name of a
.js
file and open it in
vim instead of laboriously typing
out vim filename.js
, you can pop this into your
zshrc
file:
alias -s js=vim
Cute. I have it in my config. I rarely use it.
Another use case that I think is legit is bulking up media types as ~smhmd suggested on HN:
alias -s {ape,avi,flv,m4a,mkv,mov,mp3,mp4,mpeg,mpg,ogg,ogm,wav,webm}=mpv
But it’s this comment by ~rgrau that really rolls my socks:
suffix aliases do not even have to refer to a real existing file. They are an alias. That’s what I use to clone git repos I copypaste:
alias -s git=“git clone”
This one is cool, and I actually do use it a lot. Just copy and pasting a git repo URL into the terminal clones it.