113-the-alias-command.md

The alias command

The alias command lets you create shortcuts for commands or define your own commands.
This is mostly used to avoid typing long commands.

Examples:

1. To show the list of all defined aliases in the reusable form alias NAME=VALUE :

alias -p

2. To make ls -A shortcut:

alias la='ls -A'

Syntax:

alias [-p] [name[=value]]

Setting Persistent Options:

As with most Linux custom settings for the terminal, any alias you defined is only applied to the current opening terminal session.

For any alias to be active for all new sessions you need to add that command to your rc file to be executed in the startup of every new terminal. this file can be as follows:

• Bash: ~/.bashrc
• ZSH: ~/.zshrc
• Fish – ~/.config/fish/config.fish

you can open that file with your favorite editor as follows:

vim ~/.bashrc

type your commands one per line, then save the file and exit. the commands will be automatically applied in the next session.

If you want to apply it in the current session, run the following command:

source ~/.bashrc

Opposite command:

To remove predefined alias you can use unalias command as follows:

unalias alias_name

to remove all aliases

unalias -a