If you really want to use single quotes in the outermost layer, remember that you can glue both kinds of quotation. Example:
alias rxvt='urxvt -fg '"'"'#111111'"'"' -bg '"'"'#111111'"'"
# ^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^
# 12345 12345 12345 1234
Explanation of how '"'"' is interpreted as just ':
'End first quotation which uses single quotes."Start second quotation, using double-quotes.'Quoted character."End second quotation, using double-quotes.'Start third quotation, using single quotes.
If you do not place any whitespaces between (1) and (2), or between (4) and (5), the shell will interpret that string as a one long word.
alias splitpath='echo $PATH | awk -F : '"'"'{print "PATH is set to"} {for (i=1;i<=NF;i++) {print "["i"]",$i}}'"'"It works when there are both single quotes and double quotes in the alias string!My interpretation: bash implicitly concatenates differently quoted string expressions.
worked for me, example of double escaped single quotes:
alias serve_this_dir='ruby -rrack -e "include Rack;Handler::Thin.run Builder.new{run Directory.new'"'"''"'"'}"'Certainly not the most readable solution. It over-uses single quotes where they are not really needed.
I contend that
'\''is vastly more readable in most contexts than'"'"'. In fact, the former is almost always clearly distinct within a single-quoted string, and thus is just a matter of mapping it semantically to the "it's an escaped quote" meaning, as one does with\"in double-quoted strings. Whereas the latter blends into one line of quote ticks and needs careful inspection in many cases to properly distinguish.