Getting a zsh alias including a pipe to execute

Question

I wanted a command that would quickly copy the current tmux window layout to the clipboard on Mac using zsh. I came up with the following:

tmux list-windows | awk '{print $7}' |  sed 's/\]$//' | pbcopy

When I run this from the command line it works perfectly with an output like the following:

d97b,135x32,0,0[135x16,0,0{87x16,0,0,0,47x16,88,0,1},135x15,0,17{87x15,0,17,2,47x15,88,17,3}]

However, I can't seem to run it as an alias. If I add the line:

alias layout="tmux list-windows | awk '{print $7}' |  sed 's/\]$//' | pbcopy"

to my .zshrc file when I run layout the command does not work as expected. It instead outputs the full tmux list-windows command with the word layout replacing the session name:

0: layout* (4 panes) [135x32] [layout d97b,135x32,0,0[135x16,0,0{87x16,0,0,0,47x16,88,0,1},135x15,0,17{87x15,0,17,2,47x15,88,17,3}]] @0 (active)

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks.

Answer 1

Is your '$7' interpreted during the .zshrc loading ? Couldn't it be the issue ?

Answer 2

alex_i is correct, if you escape the $7 everything works.

alias layout="tmux list-windows | awk '{print \$7}' | sed 's/\]$//' | pbcopy"

Note the backslash before the $7.

Answer 3

Don't use an alias; use a function:

layout () {
    tmux list-windows | awk '{print $7}' | sed 's/\]$//' | pbcopy
}

Then you don't need to worry about quoting.