Separating the first part of a list and the `alert` part with && (or any of the doubled control operators) will result the second character to be printed in the body of the message. Adding the asterisk after the [;&|] bracket expression fixes it.
alias alert='notify-send --urgency=low -i "$([ $? = 0 ] && echo terminal || echo error)" "$(history|tail -n1|sed -e '\''s/^\s*[0-9]\+\s*//;s/[;&|]*\s*alert$//'\'')"' Bug #1953151 -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/616028 Title: add an "alert" alias, which can optionally be added after long running commands To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/bash/+bug/616028/+subscriptions -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs