Combine two commands in .bash_profile

Question

In my .bash_profile file, I'd like to setup a single command alias that is two commands that execute one after another. The first command takes an argument from the command line and the second is actually script (located in ~/bin with execute permissions).

My profile file has this:

alias pd='function pd2() { pushd "$@"; set_title_tab; }'

I attempt to execute it in the shell like so:

$ pd ~/Documents/

and I get an error:

-bash: syntax error near unexpected token `~/Documents/'

set_title_tab is a shell script written by William Scott

Is there a better way to accomplish this?

Answer 1

aliases do not support input parameters, and there's no need to wrap functions in aliases. Simply use a function:

pd() {
    pushd "$@"
    set_title_tab
}

pd ~/Documents

Answer 2

Why not this:

pd () { pushd "$@"; set_title_tab; }

What you have right now is a function definition inside an alias which is ... unusual. Once you define a function (like I did with pd above) you can use it just like any other command.