Sometimes a frequently used Linux command can be very long, and when that happens, we need the alias command to help simplify the work of human input.

We can create aliases in two common ways, one for temporary aliases and the other for permanent aliases.

Let’s take a look at its help documentation:

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help alias
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Check alias's definition and usage

We can use the alias command to view the shortcuts owned by current user:

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alias
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List all the available shortcuts

Create Temporary Alias

Let’s create a temporary shortcut for a text that needs to be displayed:

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alias show_greetings='echo Hi, I am $(whoami)'
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Create a shortcut named show_greetings

Let’s see if the temporary shortcut we just created exists:

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alias
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show_greetings shortcut created successfully

We can use it as directly as we use commands:

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show_greetings
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Use the created shortcut, it runs echo command and output the text

Remove Temporary Alias

We can use the command to remove the temporarily created shortcut:

Let’s take a look at unalias help documentation:

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help alias
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Check unalias's definition and usage

Let’s remove the show_greetings shortcut:

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unalias show_greetings
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Remove the show_greetings shortcut

Let’s check to see if the shortcut has gone:

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alias
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show_greetings shortcut removed successfully

Create Permanent Alias

We can add or remove a permanent shortcut by modifying the .bashrc file in the current user’s home directory.

We use the vim text editor to open it:

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vim ~/.bashrc

Once we open the bashrc file, we can see some predefined permanent shortcuts:

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show_greetings shortcut removed successfully

We can add the commands we used earlier to create the temporary shortcut:

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alias show_greetings='echo Hi, I am $(whoami)'
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we added the show_greeting shortcut in the bashrc file

After saving and exiting, let’s have a check on the shortcuts list.

Aas we can see, the permanent shortcut we just added does not appear in the shortcuts list:

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alias
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the show_greetings shortcut doesn't not exist

We can use the source command to re-import the bashrc file into the running system, so that we can use the permanent shortcut we just created without having to re-login:

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help source
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Check source's definition and usage

Let’s re-import bashrc:

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source ~/.bashrc
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re-import the bashrc

The newly added permanent shortcut, show_greetings, should be visible and usable:

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alias
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the permanent show_greetings shortcut exists

References How to Create and Use Alias Command in Linux

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