How to Create a Bash Alias

John John (304)
2 minutes

Bash aliases are essential for anyone using the command line. An alias is basically just a shortcut for some other, typically longer command. In this guide I'll show you how to set up and use bash aliases.

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Using a text editor, open your .bashrc file, which is typically found in your home directory.

vim ~/.bashrc
Why .bashrc?

This file is loaded whenever a new bash instance is started and should included bash-specific commands, like aliases.

The anatomy of an alias is as follows:

alias alias_name="text to alias"

Here is a common example:

alias ll="ls -lha"

This means that whenever you type ll, it will be as if you had typed ls -lha.

It is basically a substitution, so if you have an alias set up like this: alias g="git". Then you can type g pull, which will execute git pull.

If you'd like to use your alias, you can either open a new bash shell, or source your .bashrc file in your current shell using:

source ~/.bashrc

This basically executes everything in your .bashrc file as if you had typed each command.

Not sure what version of Python you’re running? Time to find out!
Ash Ash (362)
2 minutes

It's good to know what version of Python you're running. Sometimes you may need a specific version to support an application. To check which version you currently have, we'll be using command line.