All special character sequences begin with a $. In their simpliest
form, the following have special meaning in aliases:
$* Expands to the rest of the arguments on the command line.
$n Where n is a non-negative number, expands to the nth arg.
$n-m Where n and m are non-negative numbers, expands to the
nth thru mth arguments inclusive.
$n- Where n is a non-negative number, expands from the nth
argument to the end of the argument list.
$-m Where m is a non-negative number, expands from the
beginning of the argument list to the mth argument.
This is the same as $0-m.
$~ Expands to the last word on a line.
$, Expands to the nickname of the last person who send you
a /msg
$. Expands to the nickname of the last person to whom you
sent a /MSG
$variable Expands to the value of one of the following:
1) Matching assign'd variable
2) Matching IRCII set variable
3) Matching environment variable
4) Nothing
It checks in the order shown. Thus, if 1 doesn't match, 2 is
tried. If 2 doesn't match, 3 is tried, etc.
See ASSIGN for more details.
$[number]variable Expands the variable and shows only 'number' of
characters. e.g. $blue == "nonsense" $[3]blue == "non"
and $[20]blue == "nonsense "
In the second case note it is left justified in the space.
$[-number]variable Expands as above but it is right justified when
the 'number' is bigger than the number of chars in variable.
$[-20]blue == " nonsense"
$#variable Expands to the number of words in the variable.
$@variable Expands to the number of letters in the variable.
$(sub-alias) This expands out the sub-aliases, then uses that
result in place of the (sub-alias) expression. For example
$($0) will first expand $0... suppose it expands to S. Then
it replaces that in the original text, giving you $S, which
is then expanded to the name of your current server.
$!history! This expands to a matching entry in your command
history. The text between the ! may contain wildcards.
$: Expands to the nickname of the last person to join your
channel
$; Expands to the nickname of the last person to send a public
message to your channel
$A Expands to the text of your away message
$B Expands to the body of the last MSG you sent.
$C Expands to your current channel
$D Expands to the nickname of the person whose sign-on was last
detected by the notify mechanism
$H Expands to the current numeric being processed
$I Expands to the name of the channel to which you were last
$K Expands to the current value of CMDCHARS. Useful to have
aliases work even when you change CMDCHARS.
$L Expands to the current contents of the input line
$N Expands to your nickname
$O Expands to the value of STATUS_OPER if you are currently an operator
$P Expands to "@" if you are a chanop on the current channel
$Q Expands to the nickname of the person you are querying.
$S Expands to the name of your server
$T Expands to the 'target' of your input (either a query nick or
a current channel)
$U Expands to the last thing cut from the command line. e.g. ^U to
clear line will put the line in the variable $U
$V Expands to the internal ircII release date
$W Expands to the current working directory
$Z Expands to the time of day
$$ Expands to $
Argument to aliases will automatically be appended to the expanded
alias unless you use one of the following forms in the alias:
$*
$n
$n-m
$-m
$n-
$(sub-alias)
If one of these forms is used in the alias arguments are not appended.
For example:
alias M /MSG
will be treated as:
However,
will not have the arguments appended. If you have an alias and you wish to
prevent arguments from being appended, add $() to the alias. The $() with
nothing between the parenthesis expands to nothing and prevents arguments
from being appended.
Any alias may be surrounded by {}s so that it can be imbedded within
another string. For example:
a${N}a
will expand to (assuming your nickname is BigCheese):
aBigCheesea
Aliases are automatically delimited by certain characters. For example:
"$N"
expands to:
"BigCheese"