[Bash]: Setting Alias on Terminal

Start

Bash (Terminal's default command line interpreter) allows you to create aliases. You can think of aliases as nothing more than a keyboard shortcut.

To add/modify alias on terminal:

Creating alias is simple. On command line, you can type

alias ll="ls -alh"

Creating this alias allows user to type in 'll' instead of 'ls -alh' on a command-line (to view list of all itmes with its file size). However, this is not permanent; once the terminal is quit, this alias will be removed. Unless:

Setting a permanent alias

By using your favorite text editor, open .bash_profile in your home directory. On Windows, you would need to have git bash installed.

vim ~/.bash_profile
# OR
nano ~/.bash_profile

Using zsh? Create alias inside ~/.zshrc

In this file you can simply add in

alias ll="ls -alh"

and save it. This will work after you restart your terminal

alias

By typing 'alias' on command line shows you what alias you currently have (not functions)

Another example:

function postup() {
    git add .
    git commit -m "[UPDATE]: updated post"
    git push
}
function pu() {
    git add .
    git commit -m "[UPDATE]: updated post"
    git push
}

You can also create a function to have a multiple command prompt in one keyword. I use this commonly when modifying a post on this page.

Usage:

postup

is equivalent to typing:

git add .
git commit -m "[UPDATE]: updated post"
git push

Using a different commit message:

function lazy() {
    git add .
    git commit -a -m "$1"
    git push
}

Usage:

lazy "added a new post"

More useful aliases

# Clears the screen
alias c="clear"

# Moves your directory to your desired location. I use this often to get to my project folder
alias movdir="/your/favorite/directory"

# Open the folder in finder
alias o="open ."

Above two commands can be a good combination; movedir -> o

To open a folder on Windows in command line, use start . instead of open .

# Shows how long the system has been up
alias ut="uptime"

alias dev="npm run dev"

# Push to heroku production
alias hero="git push heroku master"

alias sql="mysql -u root"

function newrepo() {
    git init
    git add .
    git commit -m "[INITIAL]: initial commit 🔥"
    git remote add origin $1
    git push -u origin master
}

Alias to shorten categorized commit messages

Refer to Categorize your GitHub Commit Messages

function add() {
    git add .
    git commit -a -m "[ADD]: $1"
    git push
}

Note: Make sure to include message inside "" on command-line. Ex) add "some message"

function update() {
    git add .
    git commit -a -m "[UPDATE]: $1"
    git push
}

function update() {
    git add .
    git commit -a -m "[UPDATE]: $1"
    git push
}

function styles() {
    git add .
    git commit -a -m "[STYLES]: $1"
    git push
}