Howto Create your own aliases in Debian

 General  Add comments
Jan 052009
 

    Aliases are shortcuts for certain commands. For example, if your current directory is /usr/bin and you want to navigate quickly to /var/cache/apt/archives you can do a "cd /var/cache/apt/archives", but this is quite long and you probably want to save time. So this is where aliases come in help. You can do only a "archive" or a "pak" command and the same action is accomplished.

    First, edit your ~/.bashrc

    #vi ~/.bashrc

    and make sure that it contains the following three lines (if not add them editing the file)

    if [ -f ~/.bash_aliases ]; then
    . ~/.bash_aliases
    fi

    After this all you have to do is edit your ~/.bash_aliases file and add your own aliases.

    #vi ~/.bash_aliases

    Examples

    alias dld='cd ~/downloads'

    alias x11='nano /etc/X11/XF86Config-4′

    alias pak='cd /var/cache/apt/archives'

    Save and exit the file.

    In the above examples, "dld", "x11″ and "pak" commands will execute the exact command from the right side of the equal sign.

    Related content:

    1. How to Add Date And Time To Your Bash History file
    2. Unpack (almost) everything with one command
    3. Difference between .bash_profile and .bashrc Files
    4. Upgrade multiple debian systems with Approx
    5. Making the mouse wheel work in Debian

    Incoming search terms:

       Posted by at 12:17 am
      • Gordon

        Why bother with the extra file, just put the aliases directly in the ~/.bashrc file.

      • wolfric

        Excellent, now when I type urnar instead of unrar it still works!

        Thanks

      • lied

        @Wolfric:

        Have a look at the ZSH instead of Bash. It has a autocorrection feature… Happy mistyping :)

      • http://lightlinux.blogspot.com Mikko

        I suppose everyone who can edit files using VI can already set aliases in .bashrc :-)

      • http://wiki.classesarecode.net John Allen

        Totally insane to use aliases for cd, IMHO

        Why not use the CDPATH variable instead.

        eg.
        CDPATH=.:/var/cache/apt:~/

        now “cd archives” will look in current dir, then /var/cache/apt, and ~/

      • luser

        Automake fails when using bash and CDPATH is set. If you’re a developer or build your programs from source it can be annoying sitting there for a few minutes until you remember the build is failing because the CDPATH environment variable is set. I’m not sure if that bug has been fixed yet.

        IMO, the best and safest solution is to either use tab completion or learn how to type.

      • JustinD

        I use it for SSH sessions, and prefer this file instead of .bashrc to get a clear overview

      QR Code Business Card