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Thread: Help with a Terminal Command

  1. #1
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    Help with a Terminal Command

    I'm was troubleshooting another issue when this came up.

    I found a website with a suggested solution for my problem, but it contains a terminal command I'm not familiar with, and it apparently has no man-page. I'm wondering if this means it's not actually a terminal command, but some kind of executable? Some googling didn't really get me a concrete answer, but I gathered it's something like the "ls" (list) command. Anyway, not a big problem, I just like to understand what a terminal command does before I use it, both for safety and because I enjoy learning about linux.

    The command is
    Code:
    ~$ ll
    just two lower case L's

    It's being used in the following context
    Code:
    ~$ ll /dev/disk/by-partuuid
    It's UBUNTASTIC!
    -Custom Built Box Ubuntu 12.04 & Windows 7 dual boot: AMD-fx6300 3.5 GHz, Asrock 990FX Extreme4, Radeon HD7870, Ares 1600 Ram, Samsung EVO SSD, Momentus Hybrid HDD.
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  2. #2
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    alias

    It's an alias.

    Code:
    alias ll
    alias
    alias is a built-in capability in bash. If you dig deep in the manual page for bash, you can find a description of it and other built-in capabilities. It's useful for making shortcuts for long, but frequently used, commands. It's down in the section on 'shell builtin commands'

    Code:
    man bash

  3. #3
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    Re: Help with a Terminal Command

    Usually ll is short for ls -l. An alias indeed.

  4. #4
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    Re: Help with a Terminal Command

    Thanks for the responses, I appreciate it!

    Seems like enough commands are already "abbreviated" to an obfuscating degree... and now your telling me some of them also have aliases? *facepalm*
    It's UBUNTASTIC!
    -Custom Built Box Ubuntu 12.04 & Windows 7 dual boot: AMD-fx6300 3.5 GHz, Asrock 990FX Extreme4, Radeon HD7870, Ares 1600 Ram, Samsung EVO SSD, Momentus Hybrid HDD.
    -Thinkpad T500: KDE-Ubuntu 13.10 & Windows 7 dual boot

  5. #5
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    Re: Help with a Terminal Command

    Another piece of trivia is that "ll" is not always defined. If you "ssh" to a remote server, sometimes you have to tediously type the full "ls -l".

  6. #6
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    Re: Help with a Terminal Command

    Quote Originally Posted by dave2001 View Post
    ... and now your telling me some of them also have aliases?
    ...well... they exist strictly for the user's benefit. You don't have to use them.

    Short history:

    *nix programmers are a lazy lot (lazy like a fox), so whenever possible, they invent shortcuts that can cut keystrokes. Aliases are an example of this sort of constructive laziness. Instead of having to type ls -l all the time, an alias is defined (only in some distros) so that a simple ll substitutes for ls -l. Admittedly, this specific alias is a rather lame one, but the following one may make a little more sense. I run a multitude of VMs in VirtualBox and must often check their virtual driver version with the command:
    Code:
    modinfo vboxguest | grep -iw version
    By defining the alias vbinf for this string of commands, I not only save a lot of keystrokes, but also the need to remember the exact command string for something I don't use that frequently. For really long convoluted command strings, it's a godsend.

  7. #7

    Re: Help with a Terminal Command

    Code:
    type -f ll
    or
    Code:
    alias ll
    Windows assumes the user is an idiot.
    Linux demands proof.

  8. #8
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    Re: Help with a Terminal Command

    Just enter the command alias to see all the aliases currently defined.

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