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Translations:Aliases in .bashrc/1/en

What's a bashrc? What's a alias?

  • .bashrc is the configuration file for bash, a linux shell/command interpreter.
  • An alias is a substitute for a (complete) command. It can be thought of as a shortcut.
  • .bashrc is found in the home folder of a user ( ~ ) . It is a hidden file, to see it show hidden files in your file manager or use ls -a

Backup your current ~/.bashrc

It can be useful to backup the ~/.bashrc before editing it, as it allows one to be able to easily recover from the unexpected. To make a backup of your current .bashrc . Open a terminal and execute:

user $ cp ~/.bashrc ~/.bashrc.bak COPY TO CLIPBOARD


The original .bashrc can be restored with by executing

user $ cp -i ~/.bashrc.bak ~/.bashrc COPY TO CLIPBOARD


Note

Any changes made to the ~/.bashrc will have no effect on any currently open terminal windows. To test newly updated changes in your ~/.bashrc open a new terminal or use the command:

user $ source ~/.bashrc COPY TO CLIPBOARD


Aliases Examples

Aliases can turn a complex command string into a simple custom made command that one can type in the Terminal.

Standard syntax

Creating aliases in bash is very straight forward. The syntax is as follows:

~/.bashrc
...
alias alias_name="command_to_run"
...

For updating your system

To upgrade the system via pacman, the command used is

user $ sudo pacman -Syu COPY TO CLIPBOARD


This can be aliased in ~/.bashrc with

~/.bashrc
...
alias pacup="sudo pacman -Syu"
...

To upgrade packages installed from the AUR via pamac, the command used is

user $ pamac upgrade --aur COPY TO CLIPBOARD


This can be aliased with

~/.bashrc
...
alias aup="pamac upgrade --aur"
...

For editing commonly used files

To edit ~/.bashrc itself and automatically reload bash configuration file (so that changes made to .bashrc can be implemented in current terminal session)

~/.bashrc
...
alias bashrc="nano ~/.bashrc && source ~/.bashrc"
...

To edit /etc/fstab

~/.bashrc
...
alias fstab="sudo nano /etc/fstab"
...

To edit /etc/default/grub

~/.bashrc
...
alias grub="sudo nano /etc/default/grub"
...

To update GRUB

To update your grub bootloader using the sudo update-grub

~/.bashrc
...
alias grubup="sudo update-grub"
...

Creating Bash Aliases with Arguments (Bash Functions)

Sometimes you may need to create an alias that accepts one or more arguments. That’s where bash functions come in handy.

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