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

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

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alias

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)'

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

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alias

We can use it as directly as we use commands:

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show_greetings

Remove Temporary Alias

We can use the unalias command to remove the temporarily created shortcut.

Let’s take a look at its help documentation:

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help alias

Let’s remove the show_greetings shortcut:

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unalias show_greetings

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

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alias

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:

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)'

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

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

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alias

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.

Let’s take a look at this command’s help documentation:

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help source

Let’s re-import .bashrc:

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source ~/.bashrc

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

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alias

References How to Create and Use Alias Command in Linux

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