adding a Drush alias in shared hosting

proposed additions to README.TXT:

For Linux/Unix/Mac:
1. Untar the tarball into a folder outside of your web site (/path/to/drush)
- on shared hosting with SSH you can place Drush in your home directory ~/drush since you will not have access to usr/bin/
2. Make the 'drush' command executable:
$ chmod u+x /path/to/drush/drush
3. (Optional, but recommended:) To ease the use of drush,
- create a link to drush in a directory that is in your $PATH, e.g.:
$ ln -s /path/to/drush/drush /usr/bin/drush
OR
- create an alias to drush:
$ alias drush='/path/to/drush/drush'
(this goes into .profile or .bash_aliases in your home folder)
- on shared hosting with SSH you can also create an alias with bash from the command line
navigate to the directory where you want to use drush (could be root public_html or a subdirectory)
create alias with '# alias drush="~/drush/drush"'

thanks for that info about persistence - shows why a little knowledge is dangerous at the command line~!

adding alias drush="/drush/drush" or alias drush="~/drush/drush"to .bashrc creates an alias in the ~/ home directory, how do I put the aliases in subdirectories eg public_html/faith ?

I get No such file or directory error:

user@domain.com [~/public_html/faith]# drush help
-jailshell: drush/drush: No such file or directory

I forgot you need to exit and start a new session [retarded at the command line]

putting alias drush="~/drush/drush" in .bashrc

THEN EXITING AND RESTARTING is now working in subdirectories

***********************************************************

so I would revise my proposed addition:
(note: I think the prompts $ and # are confusing, look like part of the code - guess it's part of the normal syntax/style)

OR
- create an alias to drush:
$ alias drush='/path/to/drush/drush'
(this goes into .profile or .bash_aliases in your home folder)
- on shared hosting add a permanent alias with
alias drush='~/drush/drush' in .bashrc and/or .profile and/or .bash_aliases
where ~/ is your home/username directory and drush/drush is where you have installed drush relative to that directory
* You may need to exit your SSH session and log in again for the changes to take place!!!!!!!!!!!
- you can also create a temporary alias just for the session: navigate to the directory where you want to use drush
create the temporary alias with $ alias drush="~/drush/drush"

changing title to reflect emphasis on shared hosting and de-emphasis on temporary alias from command line

As a Drush novice, I found the ~ confusing when following the DrupalCampNYC seminar. It did not look like the path given '/path/to/drush/drush'

Although many shared hosts do not allow shell access at all, I think some specifics about placing Drush in an atypical position below the usr/bin path AND how to alias it would be helpful.

I know that it would have saved me a couple of hours of trial and error.

And for the truly novice SSHer, a reminder to exit and restart to use the new settings would also be helpful! (but thanks for the source .bashrc tip)

Maybe this thread will be helpful to those struggling with these issues.

greg, I understand and basically agree - that is why I closed with "Maybe this thread will be helpful to those struggling with these issues."

very often I struggle with and solve a problem on a d.o. thread - and then later on a few people find the info useful enough to post thank yous

from the POV that someone looking to use Drush may know a thing or two about SSH - that is a point well-taken

as a former teacher, I also realize that the student may not grasp the content well enough to formulate a meaningful question (or Google search)

I am not lobbying for inclusion of every detail in README.TXT - but enough to provide info for addional learning, perhaps the hypexr.org manual you suggested.

my OP was a result of "discovering" a technique for a (turned out to be temporary) alias that was not specified in README or the DrupalCamp session - this thread has drifted a bit but it should be helpful for Drush noobs on shared hosting...

greg,

thanks for your consideration

I think it is pretty clear.

I'm not sure that it's clear where you can install drush for someone trying to install drush in usr/lib but without permissions (as was my case - I could look but not touch)

where the "home" directory is (in my case ~/ points to home/myusername/ so it's actually a subdirectory of "home")

I wouldn't fret too much, I was able to figure it out so let's hope others will with a bit more info than I started with.