How do I create a Bash alias?

Question

I'm on OSX and I need to put something like this, alias blah="/usr/bin/blah" in a config file but I don't know where the config file is.

Answer 1

You can add an alias or a function in your startup script file. Usually this is .bashrc, .bash_login or .profile file in your home directory.

Since these files are hidden you will have to do an ls -a to list them. If you don't have one you can create one.

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If I remember correctly, when I had bought my Mac, the .bash_login file wasn't there. I had to create it for myself so that I could put prompt info, alias, functions, etc. in it.

Here are the steps if you would like to create one:

1. Start up Terminal
2. Type cd ~/ to go to your home folder
3. Type touch .bash_profile to create your new file.
4. Edit .bash_profile with your favorite editor (or you can just type open -e .bash_profile to open it in TextEdit.
5. Type . .bash_profile to reload .bash_profile and update any alias you add.

Answer 2

I just open zshrc with sublime, and edit it.

subl .zshrc

And add this on sublime:

alias blah="/usr/bin/blah"

Run this command in terminal:

source ~/.zshrc

Done.

Answer 3

On OS X you want to use ~/.bash_profile. This is because by default Terminal.app opens a login shell for each new window.

See more about the different configuration files and when they are used here: What's the difference between .bashrc, .bash_profile, and .environment?

and in relation to OSX here: About .bash_profile, .bashrc, and where should alias be written in?

Answer 4

MacOS Catalina and Above

Apple switched their default shell to zsh, so the config files include ~/.zshenv and ~/.zshrc. This is just like ~/.bashrc, but for zsh. Just edit the file and add what you need; it should be sourced every time you open a new terminal window:

nano ~/.zshenv alias py=python

Then do ctrl+x, y, then enter to save.

This file seems to be executed no matter what (login, non-login, or script), so seems better than the ~/.zshrc file.

High Sierra and earlier

The default shell is bash, and you can edit the file ~/.bash_profile and add aliases:

nano ~/.bash_profile alias py=python

Then ctrl+x, y, and enter to save. See this post for more on these configs. It's a little better to set it up with your alias in ~/.bashrc, then source ~/.bashrc from ~/.bash_profile. In ~/.bash_profile it would then look like:

source ~/.bashrc

Answer 5

In my .bashrc file the following lines were there by default:

# Alias definitions.
# You may want to put all your additions into a separate file like
# ~/.bash_aliases, instead of adding them here directly.
# See /usr/share/doc/bash-doc/examples in the bash-doc package.

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

Hence, in my platform .bash_aliases is the file used for aliases by default (and the one I use). I'm not an OS X user, but I guess that if you open your .bashrc file, you'll be able to identify what's the file commonly used for aliases in your platform.

Answer 6

It works for me on macOS Mojave

You can do a few simple steps:

1. open terminal

2. sudo nano /.bash_profile

3. add your aliases, as example:

   some aliases

   alias ll='ls -alF' alias la='ls -A' alias eb="sudo nano ~/.bash_profile && source ~/.bash_profile" #docker aliases alias d='docker' alias dc='docker-compose' alias dnax="docker rm $(docker ps -aq)" #git aliases alias g='git' alias new="git checkout -b" alias last="git log -2" alias gg='git status' alias lg="git log --pretty=format:'%h was %an, %ar, message: %s' --graph" alias nah="git reset --hard && git clean -df" alias squash="git rebase -i HEAD~2"

4. source /.bash_profile

Done. Use and enjoy!

Answer 7

cd /etc
sudo vi bashrc

Add the following like:

alias ll="ls -lrt"

Finally restart Terminal.

Answer 8

The config file for scripts and programs is ~/.bashrc and the config file that gets loaded when you use Terminal is ~/.bash_login.

I think the best way is to just have everything in ~/.bashrc.

For your specific question just enter (this will overwrite any existing ~/.bashrc):

echo "alias blah=\"/usr/bin/blah\"" >>~/.bashrc

into the Terminal and a ~/.bashrc file will be created with your new alises. After that just edit the file to add new aliases, functions, settings etc.

Answer 9

1. Go to home
2. Open .bashrc

3. Create alias at bottom of the file

   alias alias_name='command to do'
   eg: alias cdDesktop='cd /Desktop'
   

4. Save the file

5. source .bashrc

   source ~/.bashrc
   

6. Open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) & type cdDesktop & press enter

Answer 10

If you put blah="/usr/bin/blah" in your ~/.bashrc then you can use $blah in your login shell as a substitute for typing /usr/bin/blah

Answer 11

For macOS Catalina Users:

Step 1: create or update .zshrc file

vi ~/.zshrc

Step 2: Add your alias line

alias blah="/usr/bin/blah"

Step 3: Source .zshrc

source ~/.zshrc 

Step 4: Check you're alias, by typing alias on the command prompt

alias

Answer 12

You probably want to edit the .bashrc file in your home directory.

Answer 13

I need to run the Postgres database and created an alias for the purpose. The work through is provided below:

$ nano ~/.bash_profile 

# in the bash_profile, insert the following texts:

alias pgst="pg_ctl -D /usr/local/var/postgres start"
alias pgsp="pg_ctl -D /usr/local/var/postgres stop"


$ source ~/.bash_profile 

### This will start the Postgres server 
$ pgst

### This will stop the Postgres server 
$ pgsp

Answer 14

create a bash_profile at your user root - ex

/user/username/.bash_profile

open file

vim ~/.bash_profile

add alias as ex. (save and exit)

alias mydir="cd ~/Documents/dirname/anotherdir"

in new terminal just type mydir - it should open

/user/username/Documents/dirname/anotherdir

Answer 15

I think it's proper way:

1) Go to teminal. open ~/.bashrc. Add if not exists

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

2) open ~/.bash_aliases. If not exists: touch ~/.bash_aliases && open ~/.bash_aliases

3) To add new alias rather
- edit .bash_aliases file and restart terminal or print source ~/.bash_aliases
- print echo "alias clr='clear'" >> ~/.bash_aliases && source ~/.bash_aliases where your alias is alias clr='clear'.

4) Add line source ~/.bash_aliases to ~/.bash_profile file. It needs to load aliases in each init of terminal.

Answer 16

To create a permanent alias shortcut, put it in .bash_profile file and point .bashrc file to .bash_profile file. Follow these steps (I am creating an alias command called bnode to run babel transpiler on ES6 code):

1. Go to terminal command prompt and type “cd” (this will take you to the home directory. Note: even though your programming files may be located on your “D: drive”, your “.bash” files may be located on your “C: drive” )
2. To see the location of the home directory, type “pwd” (this will show you the home directory path and where the .bash files are probably located)
3. To see all dot "." files in the home directory, type “ls -la” (this will show ALL files including hidden dot "." files)
4. You will see 2 files: “.bash_profile” and “.bashrc”
5. Open .bashrc file in VS Code Editor or your IDE and enter “source ~/.bash_profile” in first line (to point .bashrc file to .bash_profile)
6. Open .bash_profile file in VS Code Editor and enter “alias bnode='./node_modules/.bin/babel-node'” (to create permanent bnode shortcut to execute as bash command)
7. Save and close both files
8. Now open the file you want to execute (index.js) and open in terminal command prompt and run file by using command “bnode index.js”
9. Now your index.js file will execute but before creating bnode alias in .bash_profile file you would get the error "bash: bnode command not found" and it would not recognize and give errors on some ES6 code.
10. Helpful link to learn about dotfiles: https://dotfiles.github.io/

I hope this helps! Good luck!