Alias a shortcut to open a url

Question

I set an alias:

 $ alias net="open https://www."

Try it:

    $ net google.com
    The file /Users/me/google.com does not exist.

How enable the alias going to open any url without the prefix open https://www.?

Answer 1

You can't use an alias to do that exactly, since an alias expands to the whole words of its expansion, so the net result of net google.com is open https://www. google.com (which explains why it's trying to find a file named google.com.)

Instead of an alias, use a function, which essentially works in the same context as an alias, but it's more generic and allows for better handling of arguments.

Something like this would work:

(In case you still have the alias set, start by removing it:)

$ unalias net

Then define a function to open the URL:

$ net() { open "https://www.$1"; }

And then try it with:

$ net google.com

See also this answer about when to use aliases, functions or scripts in bash, which you might find interesting.