how to create an alias in the gh CLI
what i learned
you can create aliases in the GitHub CLI. i'm not super familiar with aliases. i've used them in the past to automate long commands.
currently i'm using a couple at work to shorten dbt commmands ever so slightly (from dbt run --target prod --select <models> to prod-run <selection query>).
however, i had only seen these as aliases one sets up at the profile level/scope. as in, we'd go to ~/.bash_profile or ~/.zsh_profile and add a new alias that's set every time we open a new terminal.
this is the first time i see a cli offer that within the tool itself. i wonder if this is a common practice i've missed until now.
in the GitHub cli you can use the command alias set to set an alias (docs).
i usually have to google the full list of flags i would like to run when creating a repo via the gh-cli so i figured i'd save it as an alias now. this is why i ~~wish i remembered~~ would like to run most times:
gh repo create <name> \
--public \
--add-readme \
--clone \
--gitignore Python \
--license bsd-3-clause-clear
simply create a public repo named
i might add the --disable-wiki simply because i don't use the wikis.
from the docs:
The expansion may specify additional arguments and flags. If the expansion includes positional placeholders such as "$1", extra arguments that follow the alias will be inserted appropriately. Otherwise, extra arguments will be appended to the expanded command.
so what i did was run
gh alias set pyrepo 'repo create "$1" --public --add-readme --clone --gitignore=Python --license=bsd-3-clause-clear'
and if i choose to i can add a description by adding -d "my repos description" right after gh pyrepo <name>
how i learned
i've been creating lots of small project repos lately and this feels like a small automation that could solve some frustrations.