linux - Alias with variable in bash

I want to create an alias in bash like this:

alias tail_ls="ls -l $1 | tail"

Thus, if somebody types:

tail_ls /etc/ 

it will only show the last 10 files in the directory.

But $1 does not seem to work for me. Is there any way I can introduce variables in bash.

Answer

I'd create a function for that, rather than alias, and then exported it, like this:

function tail_ls { ls -l "$1" | tail; }

export -f tail_ls

Note -f switch to export: it tells it that you are exporting a function. Put this in your .bashrc and you are good to go.