UNALIAS(1POSIX)

📦 version 2017a, in debian bookworm, debian trixie, ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

💅 UNALIAS(1POSIX) — the POSIX Programmer's Manual, but make it a group chat

okay bestie, welcome to the POSIX Programmer's Manual entry for unalias, straight out of the IEEE Std 1003.1-2017 universe. yes we're doing this. sit down, grab a boba 🧋, and let's clean up your shell like we're cleaning out your camera roll.

✨ PROLOG ✨

so this page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual, meaning it's the official spec voice and not necessarily what your laptop does. the Linux implementation of this interface may differ (like, go check the corresponding Linux manual page for the details of Linux behavior), or honestly the interface may not even be implemented on Linux at all. no cap. 🫶

🎀 NAME 🎀

unalias — remove alias definitions. it's giving "delete, but for your shortcuts." periodt.

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

unalias alias-name...

unalias -a

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

bestie, unalias shall remove the definition for each alias name you specified. see Section 2.3.1, Alias Substitution if you want the lore.

the aliases shall be removed from the current shell execution environment — see Section 2.12, Shell Execution Environment. so it's not a global thing, it's a right here, right now, in this shell thing. very main character, very local. 👑

💖 OPTIONS 💖

the unalias utility shall conform to the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2017, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines. the following option shall be supported:

  • -a — Remove all alias definitions from the current shell execution environment. literally all of them. scorched earth. iconic.

🍓 OPERANDS 🍓

the following operand shall be supported:

  • alias-name — The name of an alias to be removed. one at a time, or many, we don't judge. ✨

🧚 STDIN 🧚

Not used. she does not read from stdin, she's not taking questions rn.

💜 INPUT FILES 💜

None. nothing to see here.

🌈 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES 🌈

these shall affect the execution of unalias, so listen up:

  • LANG — Provide a default value for the internationalization variables that are unset or null. (See the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2017, Section 8.2, Internationalization Variables for the precedence of internationalization variables used to determine the values of locale categories.)
  • LC_ALL — If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of all the other internationalization variables. she's the boss fr fr.
  • LC_CTYPE — Determine the locale for the interpretation of sequences of bytes of text data as characters (for example, single-byte as opposed to multi-byte characters in arguments).
  • LC_MESSAGES — Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard error.
  • NLSPATH — Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing of LC_MESSAGES.

⭐ ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS ⭐

Default. nothing spicy.

🫶 STDOUT 🫶

Not used. she's silent, she's mysterious, she just does the thing. 🙈

🔥 STDERR 🔥

The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages. that's it, that's the vibe.

💀 OUTPUT FILES 💀

None.

👑 EXTENDED DESCRIPTION 👑

None. we love a low-effort queen.

🎀 EXIT STATUS 🎀

the following exit values shall be returned:

  • 0 — Successful completion. slay.
  • >0 — One of the alias-name operands specified did not represent a valid alias definition, or an error occurred. so like, either you asked to delete something that isn't an alias, or something else went wrong. either way, sad.

🌸 CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS 🌸

Default.

heads up: the following sections are informative. so they're the ✨ commentary track ✨, not the actual rules. iykyk.

✨ APPLICATION USAGE ✨

since unalias affects the current shell execution environment, it is generally provided as a shell regular built-in. so it's built in, bestie. it lives inside your shell. it's roommates with your prompt. 🏠

🦋 EXAMPLES 🦋

None. this manpage said "no examples, figure it out" and honestly? respect.

💜 RATIONALE 💜

okay so the unalias description is based on the one from historical KornShell implementations. known differences exist between that and the C shell. the KornShell version was adopted to be consistent with all the other KornShell features in this volume of POSIX.1‐2017, such as command line editing. consistency, we love her. 💅

the -a option is the equivalent of the unalias * form of the C shell, and it's provided to address security concerns about unknown aliases entering the environment of a user (or application) through the allowable implementation-defined predefined alias route, or as a result of an ENV file. (Although unalias could be used to simplify the ``secure'' shell script shown in the command rationale, it does not obviate the need to quote all command names. An initial call to unalias -a would have to be quoted in case there was an alias for unalias.)

not me pointing out that you'd have to quote unalias -a in case unalias itself is aliased 😭 that's the trap. that's the whole trap.

🌈 FUTURE DIRECTIONS 🌈

None. the future is unspecified and honestly that's fine.

💖 SEE ALSO 💖

  • Chapter 2, Shell Command Language, alias
  • the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2017, Chapter 8, Environment Variables, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines

Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1-2017, Standard for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7, 2018 Edition, Copyright (C) 2018 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .

Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are most likely to have been introduced during the conversion of the source files to man page format. To report such errors, see https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .

okay that's the whole page, bestie 💖 go forth and unalias responsibly.

IEEE/The Open Group · 2017 · UNALIAS(1POSIX) — that's the footer, the source, the version, the date, all of it. love u, bye 🦋✨

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