HOWTO: make life easier in terminal using bash aliasing

[moment]

I prefer command line to anything else whenever it's possible. So I usually work in terminal. There is a capability in bash which enables you to define aliases for commands in order to make them easier to run or just as a matter of convenience. For instance you might want to have untgz as an alias for "tar xvfz" and simply type untgz foo.tar.gz to uncompress it. Or you might need to make the "rm" command safer by aliasing it to "rm -i" to ask you if it should be really removed in order to save you from horrible mistakes.

First of all open a terminal and type

gedit .bashrc

near the end of the file uncomment and change these lines:

# Define your own aliases here ...
#if [ -f ~/.bash_aliases ]; then
#    . ~/.bash_aliases
#fi

to:

# Define your own aliases here ...
if [ -f ~/.bash_aliases ]; then
    . ~/.bash_aliases
fi

save and close the file. Now you can define your own aliases in a file named ".bash_aliases" (note the dot before the name please) in your home directory. Mine as a sample looks like this:

# For safety
alias cp='cp -i'
alias ln='ln -s'
alias mv='mv -i'
alias rm='rm -i'

# convenience redefinitions
alias ..='cd ..'
alias ...='cd ...'
alias cd..='cd ..'
alias cd-='cd -'
alias ls='ls -lh --color=auto'
alias dir='ls -lh --color=auto'
alias df="df -h"
alias h=history

alias untgz="tar -xvfz"
alias untbz2="tar -xvfj"
alias netstati="netstat --verbose --tcp --udp --programs --extend"

# inventions!
alias aptsource='sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list'
alias penning='ssh  -L 5902:localhost:5902 myusername@myhost'
alias wireless='sudo iwconfig eth1 essid belkin54g; sudo dhclient eth1'

I hope that some people would join me and contribute by adding their own aliases

[Jesus Franco]

F*cking AWESOME!
I didnt even know that was possible. But then agian everything is possible with linux.
That is very VERY neat. Thanks for that cool and neat tut.

Ones I added so far. Will add more when I get the chance

alias aptU='sudo apt-get update'
alias aptUI='sudo apt-get upgrade'
alias aptI='sudo apt-get install'
alias browse=nautilus
alias sbrowse='sudo nautilus'

I hope breezy includes these.

[cdk]

this is wicked m8! i new aboit aliasing but i didnt realize i could do this much with it. Simple awesome. this is going to save me so much time.

cheers,

[dbeckham32]

Thanks very much for the bash aliases tips! It may be basic for advanced users, but newbies appreciate the tips.

[benplaut]

(my syntax might be wrong)

for everything that requires sudo,

alias synaptic='gksudo synaptic'
alias iwconfig='sudo iwconfig'

etc, etc, etc...

[cutOff]

more...

# some more aliases
alias vim='sudo vim'
alias nano='sudo nano'
alias up='sudo aptitude update'
alias search='sudo aptitude search'
alias show='sudo aptitude show'
alias ins='sudo aptitude install'
alias rem='sudo aptitude purge'
alias clean='sudo aptitude clean'
alias break='dpkg -l | grep -v ^ii'
alias purge='sudo dpkg --purge'
alias huerfan='sudo deborphan | sudo xargs apt-get remove -y'  (require deborphan installed)
alias rules='sudo iptables -L -n'
alias cd..='cd ..'
alias repos='sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list'

[benplaut]

more...

# some more aliases
alias nano='sudo nano'
alias up='sudo aptitude update'
alias search='sudo aptitude search'
alias show='sudo aptitude show'
alias ins='sudo aptitude install'
alias rem='sudo aptitude purge'
alias clean='sudo aptitude clean'
alias break='dpkg -l | grep -v ^ii'
alias purge='sudo dpkg --purge'
alias huerfan='sudo deborphan | sudo xargs apt-get remove -y'  (require deborphan installed)
alias rules='sudo iptables -L -n'
alias cd..='cd ..'
alias repos='sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list'

replace nano with your favorite editor, of course

[Kyral]

Here is mine!

kyral@ArcadianUbuntu:~$ cat .bash_aliases
alias cp='cp -i'
alias ln='ln -s'
alias mv='mv -i'
alias rm='rm -i'
alias ..='cd ..'
alias ...='cd ...'
alias cd..='cd ..'
alias cd-='cd -'
alias dir='ls -lh --color=auto'
alias df="df -h"
alias h=history
alias untgz="tar -xvfz"
alias untbz2="tar -xvfj"
alias aptsource='sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list'
alias aptU='sudo apt-get update'
alias aptUI='sudo apt-get dist-upgrade'
alias aptI='sudo apt-get install'
alias aptR='sudo apt-get remove'
alias aptS='apt-cache search'
alias aptSh='apt-cache show'
alias sourcebuild='sudo apt-get -b source'
alias depbuild='sudo apt-get build-dep'
alias debI='sudo dpkg -i'

[roots]

i love the quick suse style

alias l='ls -l'

cheers,
.roots

[roots]

sorry...double post by mistake