Shell Aliases Every Linux User Needs
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 ส.ค. 2024
- One of the most common questions I get from new-to-Linux users is, "How can I become a power user?" Well, learning the terminal and the terminal commands is the best thing you can do. And big part of becoming more proficient at the command line is creating your own Bash aliases. So today, I'm taking a fresh install of Ubuntu and adding aliases to it's bashrc. These are aliases that I think most, if not all, Ubuntu users would find helpful.
REFERENCED:
► gitlab.com/dwt1/dotfiles/-/bl... - DT's personal bashrc
WANT TO SUPPORT THE CHANNEL?
💰 Patreon: / distrotube
💳 Paypal: www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr...
🛍️ Amazon: amzn.to/2RotFFi
👕 Teespring: teespring.com/stores/distrotube
DONATE CRYPTO:
💰 Bitcoin: 1Mp6ebz5bNcjNFW7XWHVht36SkiLoxPKoX
🐶 Dogecoin: D5fpRD1JRoBFPDXSBocRTp8W9uKzfwLFAu
📕 LBC: bMfA2c3zmcLxPCpyPcrykLvMhZ7A5mQuhJ
SOCIAL PLATFORMS:
🗨️ Mastodon: distrotoot.com/@derek
👫 Reddit: / distrotube
📽️ LBRY/Odysee: odysee.com/$/invite/@DistroTu...
DT ON THE WEB:
🕸️ Website: distrotube.com/
🐿️ Gemini Capsule: gemini://distro.tube
📁 GitLab: gitlab.com/dwt1
FREE AND OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE THAT I USE:
🌐 Brave Browser - brave.com/dis872
📽️ Open Broadcaster Software: obsproject.com/
🎬 Kdenlive: kdenlive.org
🎨 GIMP: www.gimp.org/
🎵 Ardour: ardour.org/
💻 VirtualBox: www.virtualbox.org/
🗒️ Doom Emacs: github.com/hlissner/doom-emacs
Your support is very much appreciated. Thanks, guys! - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
I always make sure to alias please='sudo !!' in all of my .bashrc files
Just added. 😁
I have that as DIDIFKINGSTUTTER
So good
@@yuvvrajkperson that is such a blessed alias XD
sudo: !!: command not found
bruh
The important thing to remember is when you forget your aliases, then type alias in the command prompt and it will print them all to you.
what would be the command to do this?
@@teyathebirb8922 you literally type 'alias' in the prompt to find what your shell aliases are...
alias
As a new user to Linux for about 4 months, I've never actually thought about aliases. It's so interesting and saves a bunch of time. Thanks for the great content as always DT.
It will make you less likely to learn and remember the actual commands.
Y I’d only add aliases after getting proficient in using/understanding the actual commands.
@@nyanates Yep, absolutelly. Which I already am. It's rather easy for me to pick up new stuff.
@@folksurvival That's true, for a first day user. At this point I've completely mastered the shown commands already so it's not a big of a prob.
@@alexsen3957 Fair enough.
I prefer to keep the aliases in a dedicated file, `.bash_aliases`. In my `.bashrc` I have:
if [ -f ~/.bash_aliases ]; then
. ~/.bash_aliases
fi
Then in said `.bash_alises` I have all the alias lines.
Those lines were plainly visible within the first couple minutes of the video. I'm surprised DT didn't go a little deeper into that in this video.
Short form:
[ -f ~/.bash_aliases ] && source ~/.bash_aliases
[ -f ~/.bash_functions ] && source ~/.bash_functions
[ -f ~/.fzf.bash ] && source ~/.fzf.bash
@@Phydoux2112 yes you need just create a file .bash_aliases in home dir without touhcing package generated files. Which will be a good style
It is the UNIX way.
Yes, the biggest advantage is that you can cp .bash_aliases to multiple systems where you want them without duplicating the entire .bashrc file.
You can do alias open="xdg-open" to open any file in its proper program in at least Ubuntu
Seeing Ubuntu gnome makes me smile every time. I startet with ubuntu 11.04 because my pc back in the day sucked, but i wanted to play minecraft. It made the difference if i could run it or not. After a short while, i wanted to play with friends, so i started using the shell to setup the server.
I was 11 back then, but my uncle (system admin) gave me all the informations i needed, to help myself.
10 years later i‘m a successful software dev running arch. I would never ever use ubuntu on a desktop again, but still use it on some server. The nostalgia seeing the desktop environment is still overwhelming
Something to watch out for when using the -h flag with ls is that it puts the human readable numbers in KiB, MiB etc. (units of 1024) instead of the KB, MB (units of 1000) you'll find elsewhere on the system. So a file's size will look different in the terminal with ls -h than it will in a graphical file manager
free -h or df -h probably are equally so.
KiB's (1024) are actually the standard, only hard drive manufacturers like using units of 1000, makes their drives look bigger than the actually are
It's kB, not KB
That’s what --si is for.
Since it's already there in the .bashrc, there's a much better way to organize the aliases by putting them into their own file altogether... ~/.bash_aliases. About 15 lines up in the video it's already directing .bashrc to use a .bash_aliases file. That's usually where I have my aliases and I don't have to disturb my .bashrc file with a bunch of aliases. I'm sure it loads the same way but the .bash_aliases is just really nice to have.
New users will have to create that .bash_aliases file, I just checked to see if it comes with Ubuntu and it does not. I would think it would since it's already directed in the .bashrc file. But it isn't, so "touch .bash_aliases" in the /home directory would create that file from the command line. Just make sure you're in your home directory before you do that. Then just add the aliases into that .bash_aliases file instead of .bashrc and they'll work exactly the same. Seems kind of silly to have that directed in the .bashrc file and there's no .bash_aliases file there. I would think that for new users that would cause a mad hunt for .bash_aliases. Gotta LOVE Ubuntu!
Great video BTW! I love the up directory stuff. I still learn things from watching your channel DT.
@@AbueloDelTiempo why isn't it a good practice?
@@cunjoz New users can easily mess up something. I think good practice is to backup file just before editing. I wrote scripts for backup files or folders on my own.
@@anormalnix i was asking why wasn't it a good practice to store aliases in the bashrc rather than a separate file. if you're talking about backing files up, then that doesn't bear on that issue.
@@cunjoz Answer for your question is in the first sentence. New users can completely accidentally change something in the .bashrc file, causing it to malfunction. This is the main reason why aliases should be kept in a separate file
@@anormalnix but doesn't making backups obviate this concern?
Confirmation aliases with the interactive flag (-i) is not a good idea if you often work with other Linux systems. It will cause you to become so accustomed to expecting an interactive prompt that once you do a 'rm' on a system without the confirmation alias, you will risk data loss. It is better to just get into the habit of specifying the '-i' flag explicitly for important files.
Good point 👍🏼
I'm probably missing something.. but if you have remembered to type 'i', you must just have asked yourself the same question as rm is about to ask you, again?
Maybe just remember that you set an -i flag on those in your own bashrc and that’s not going to be the case when moving to other systems? Like Robin said, if you remember to type an interactive flag, you don’t really need it.
This is one reason why I have avoided aliases so far as I know I will begin to forget some of the original commands and flags causing problems when I move to another linux computer. Of course I could just use the same aliases lists but maintenance of it all - would be more effort than just typing in a command when I need to run it.
I once deleted an entire home folder of a university group cluster because on my home machine I had that alias. Not anymore. :-)
Not aliases, but this is my favourite:
bind '"\e[A": history-search-backward'
bind '"\e[B": history-search-forward'
-> type a few chars of a recent command, and then up arrow to get it pop up instantly.
Very helpful video for those of us new to Linux. Thanks.
One of my personal favorite ones is :wq and :q to exit. It makes you a better vim user
You can do ZZ as well
just a heads up, dt: for ls, you can specify the -A flag *instead* of the -a flag to get all the files, but exclude the . and .. at the top. useful if you want to get a quick count of files in say nl
I think a really useful feature is to open a graphical file manager in your current directory. My alias for this usecase is:
alias fm='pcmanfm --new-win . 1>/dev/null 2>/dev/null &'
my alias is: dir-open = "xdg-open ."
Good idea.
KDE Konsole has an “Open File Manager” command for this precise purpose.
Love learning interesting things like this. Thanks DT!
Really nice! Thank you from a new Linux user. Really useful indeed.
Great video as always, thank you!
I'll be adding the apt aliases. Thanks for that tip.
i love these kind of videos!! I still remember downloading the noob to pro linux mint video it was the best thing I saw at that time I run arch with dwm now btw but you're the one who encourage to try everything in the first place demystified you could say..
Gnome in background : "yes, good yes, good, ur using gnome"
Thank you Derek, this was very helpful to me getting an Alias setup for Rofi
Awesome video, thank you! Although aliases have their dedicated file: ".bash_aliases". Some of the "ls" variants get "aliased" in Ubuntu there too. Cheers!
The awesome video DT, Hello from Brazil, great job!
The perfect timing of TH-cam ads...
DT : playmp4
TH-cam, instantly: well, my ads are MP4 ...
I think autocomplete is more important than aliases. 99% of commands I type is the commands I already typed before. With zsh or fish shell I could easily pull any long commands from history by just typing beginning of line + couple "UP" presses.
Fantastic tutorial mate, much appriciate it!!
creating an alias file changed how i used linux forever. thanks for covering this DT
I absolutely love and appreciated this video Derek. I am now going down a bit of a rabit hole, but that's ok. This will certainly help me remember a lot less to perform the same functions being has I suffer from memory issues. hanks so much!
this is one of the greatest linux videos .
I don't often use aliases. More often I use bash functions (short ones but functions). I see them as more flexible, even if I have to type a little more.
This is GOLD! Thank you!
Thank you DT for such a great tutorial.
That's a great video mate! thanks for sharing!!
I never wanted to learn not universal commands, but you showed that this could be really useful and fun (and by using my own bashrc I can make it "universal" for my system). I suppose at first I will alias all those xrandr commands I often use, like this:
alias am='xrandr --auto'
alias 1m='xrandr --output eDP1 --off'
alias smirnoff='poweroff'
alias romanoff='poweroff'
alias davidoff='poweroff'
alias shutthefuckup='poweroff'
alias fu='poweroff'
Really, saying nano is "rather confusing," is very misleading. Just because VIM is muscle memory doesn't make Nano difficult.
Loved this one , need more of these kind of videos,,❤️❤️
Personally, I don't think it's a great idea to cover ls, or other commands, with flags you just might want to vary.. I use ' ll ' for ls with my favorite flags. All the UNIX folks I worked with did the same.. almost a standard.
I installed exa and I use - alias ls='exa -al --color=always --group-directories-first'. It really makes a nice and organized looking directory listing.
@@Phydoux2112 I do allmost the same with exa. I have also aliased ext to exa with modified date sorting.
@@Phydoux2112 Looks nice. However, I do think that replacing an existing command with a customised one in that way might indeed lead to confusion and breakage. Inventing your own commands this way might be wiser.
The standard ls is one of the most useful commands so I definitely wouldn't want to alias it with a bunch of flags.
The thing about that is, 'll' a NEW command, For noobs, remembering is the issue and remembering a new 'll' command is pretty much the same as remembering the switch on top of an already likely known command such as 'ls' What DT does here is quite clever as it uses the already remembered command command ls but just puts it into the more user friendly way with the common flags, although I personally wouldn't recommend this for noobs, but instead for those quite experienced with terminal commands.
Great vid. Love the power of Aliases.
My personal use:
There was a reference in my .bashrc file for an .aliasesrc file that, if found, would execute the creation for all the aliases within that file. So all I had to do was modify that file without having to change the .bashrc file. I also have an alias for standard packages that will load all standard packages for Kubernetes, pycharm, bashtop, etc., etc. If I add another worker to my Kubernetes system the stdpkg alias will get that distro in operational agreement with the other workers with one command. Keeps my houses in order.
Additionally, from my decades of coding on commercial iron, I find myself, out of habit, initially typing the command I used at work to do the task then stopping, erasing, and re-entering using the Linux command (old dog; new tricks syndrome). So I aliased my old commercial commands to use the Linux version. While this practice may aggravate the Linux purest -- I don't care. :~))
Again, thanks and keep up the good work.
Very helpful video, thanks a lot!
My favorite has got to be “alias pacman=‘sudo pacman --noconfirm’ ” - yes, I actually have an alias to A, force the Arch/EndeavourOS package manager to run as root all the time, and B, make it always install stuff without confirmation, because, well, many times when you’re installing software you just want to get it over with.
Making a video about systemd timers would be helpful as far as updates go, because that makes even the aliases for updating the system that you mentioned unnecessary by automatically running update commands in the background at specified intervals.
Excellent Derek!!!😊👍
The most commonly used:
alias ls='ls --color=auto'
alias ll='ls -alFX --group-directories-first --time-style=long-iso'
alias saulu='sudo apt update && apt list --upgradable && sudo apt upgrade'
alias untar='tar xvf'
2:33 *nano is too confusing* ???
I think it is more striaght forward than vim....all of the command-shortcuts are listed at the bottom of the terminal.
^K = Ctrl+K (cut line)
^U = Ctrl+U (uncut line)
Both of those can be used to copy/paste multiple lines.
Also two of the biggest ones (which is easier than vim):
^O = ctrl+O (write/save file)
^X = ctrl+X (exit)
he finds it rather confusing - he is much more accustomed to vim keys and has built up muscle memory for them. it is going to be 1000 times easier for him just to use vim because of that
I didn't know about the bashrc funcs. Cool
first thing first : an alias to source the .bashrc.. per example : alias src='source ~/.bashrc' use it quite often..
Nice video, thank you.
Missed opportunity to call "sudo apt update" aptdate
My favourite alias is for make dir and cd into it right away. I'm not using verbose (-v) flag when mkdir is used, but you can if you want to
alias mcd='function _mcd(){ mkdir -p "$1"; cd "$1"; };_mcd'
alias clip='xclip -sel clip'
Used with piping to copy command output to clipboard.
`sudo apt install xclip` might be needed first.
I've been daily driving desktop linux on and off for years and never looked into aliasing. Thanks!
Great Video! Thank You very much! Greetings from Germany.
Good video. Thanks.
Thanks a lot 🙂
I keep aliases in a separate file, ~/.localrc, and source from ~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc, etc. Of course, if an alias only applies to a particular shell I still put it in the appropriate .*rc... Most of my aliases own are system specific, too; so I don't just overwrite my ~/.localrc when I update the rest of my *rc files. Some manual intervention required, but not enough to annoy me.
It's on screen inside .bashrc! If there's a .bash_aliases source .bash_aliases! It's part of the default .bashrc!. Just put your aliases inside .bash_aliases.
cool, real handy, thx
Interesting video. Can't believe nano confuses you 😎
another useful alias could be alias shutdown='sudo shutdown now'
Great Topic!!!!!
Thank you
A quicker exit out of vim with save is shift ZZ rather than :wq
At 2:52 you see that the Ubuntu team has a reference to load aliases from a ~/.bash_aliases file. That will be loaded it exists and also keeps it nice and tidy. Just another way of handling that. I incorporated some of your aliases that way. I'm running Pop! OS, which we know is based on Ubuntu.
3 minutes in you say it doesn't matter if you use single or double quotes. It DOES in fact matter, as the normal rules for single and double quotes apply. If there is a variable in the alias, double quotes will expand the variable when the alias is set. On the other hand, single quotes will preserve the variable name, and expand when the alias is run.
good examples
Good video, please do it for arch too :)
Hey DT, can you take a look at the Penrose X11 library? It's basically a template to create a window manager, written in Rust.
M A E S T R O!!!!!!!!!! muchas gracias!!!
I used to use 'forph' and 'rorph' to find and remove orphans -gotta put those back in.
THANKS :-D !
I always have aliases as lazy shortcuts for config files, I call this act "summoning the figs" and it makes my life easier.
What are your aliases?
Good video.
I prefer to add any aliases or environment variables in ~/.profile .
It is much easier to backup/restore settings/configurations. IMHO.
Thank you.
Hey i realized you never made a video about clear Linux, it would be cool to take a look at it, I really like the stateless design. I'm using it for my home server, it sucks that it's made by intel though
>finds nano confusing
>installs vim instead
old man, you've lost more than just your hair
If you are going to have an excessive amount of aliases, I'd create a separate file. It also makes it easier to share among different shells. I use ~/.aliases, and include in my .bashrc:
[ -f ~/.aliases ] && source .aliases # I prefer ". aliases", but I'm not sure how well that will post.
Some may prefer to bury it under ~/.local/config, but I started using Linux before FHS 3.0 was adopted.
It also has the benefit of not duplicating items in my PATH, greetings or other things I may include in my .bashrc by simply typing ". aliases" as opposed to ". .bashrc".
If you want to create the .aliases file easily you can simply type "alias>.aliases" to create it.
alias ls='exa -a --icons --group-directories-first'
An alias I recommend all new Linux users use while they are learning the terminal:
empdir='rm -ir ./*'
To empty out the current directory of any files and sub directories, but don't ever run it while you're at root (/). It's a safeguard to make sure you put the leading . before the / under a different name so you avoid running rm -rf /* when you're tired late at night working on something and not seeing straight. At work it can be a resume generating event. At home, all your precious "educational videos" will be done with your PC. ;)
I personally mostly use aliases for some safeguards, customizing the format of command output (like the ls='ls-lah' example), and for calling scripts with some of the required arguments filled in from my dedicated script directory on the system (I generally try to avoid updating the PATH variable when I can).
Old System/Network Admin here..... I live and die by Aliases!!!! In fact.... I do most of my Bash Scripting via Aliases. I only create normal scripts for system events. I keep most of my Scripts in 1 Aliases File and that file is activated in every terminal via the ".bashrc" file. Over the years, my Aliases File has gotten pretty big. I just find it extremely easy to maintain my Bash Scripts via 1 file instead of 100's of individual script files. I keep a copy of this file in a Cloud Account in case I need it on another system.
Not just aliases! In bashrc you can define bash function which behaves the same as alias!
Hi Dt, I even alias my aliases so i have a list on hand.
alias _=sudo is great, I wouldn't do the systemctl alias as you may want to systemctl enable foo.service --user if you want it to not run as root.
nice
how about speeding up the alias creation process?
alias c='vim ~/.bashrc'
alias s='source ~/.bashrc'
Thanks DT. This touches on something I'd love to do but I'm still a bit to new to Linux to know how to do it.
Hardware device variants I have to swap out frequently change their "xrandr" name and their "xinput" id number.
To get them to work properly, I have to manually run the command...
xinput map-to-output
Anyone know how I can automate the process via an alias triggered by a user alias, say, "gset"
which runs xrandr, reads the name of the HDMI device, then runs the xinput command and reads the relevant id number
then proceeds to run the command xinput map-to-output
While watching I opened up my .bashrc file and discovered this if statement
# if [ -f ~/.bash_aliases ]; then
# . ~/.bash_aliases
# fi
# I added the comment hashtags
So I created a .bash_aliases file. The advantages are I don't modify the original, and my aliases are portable and if necessary temporarily.
While playing with this I discovered the double quote >"< does not always work. when I changed it to a single quote >'< the syntax error was fixed so I would recommend using the single quote.
20:30 Is it just me that always uses the -fr flags when doing rm.
I'd say that's the opposite of responsible.
Don‘t know, if i would alias that, but i fell you ^^
Hey DT! Could we have a gnome shell 42 video soon?
I keep an Emacs session running all the time, and use the following alias to edit files:
alias e='emacsclient -n'
That lets me type, in any terminal window
e «filename›
to open «filename» in my Emacs session.
What I have for apt update and apt upgrade is a compiled C program with setuid so I don't need to type my password for a routine work.
I use Linux Mint and use the Update Manager instead of the terminal so I presume I don't need it. Is there any reason to use the terminal command for update and upgrade? I do have plans for other aliases though.
3:06 I usually just type me aliases in the ~/.bash_aliases instead. If the source for that file isn't in the ~/.bashrc, I make one.
You think of commands you often run in the terminal and you come up with "using the package manager"? I do that once a day to do an update. Do you know how often I run "ls", "cd", "rm", "mkdir" or "vim"? Besides that I just write "sudo apt" and my shell proposes autocomplete "sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade"
Can someone help me with the Xrandr problem in arch linux I always have to do it again and again when I start my system isn't there any way to do it automatically in startup ??
Using "please" as an alias for adding sudo to previous commands is neat, but 'sudo !!' might not work as expected, shell can take !! literally, thus try using, alias please='sudo "$BASH" -c "$(history -p !!)"'
12:04 Changing to parent directories....
Could use the *bd* command with custom aliases (or shell functions) for this to allow
chaning into a parent directory just by giving one or more characters and will it change into the first parent directory starting with 'h'.
Need to instal bd via $ sudo apt-get install bd
I also have a custom action scrpt used with thunar (using bd) to change into sub-directories of a parent folder.
#### put in ..bashrc
function bd() {
bd_dir=$(/usr/bin/bd -si $@)
if [ "$bd_dir" != "No such occurrence." ] ; then
echo "$bd_dir"
fi
}
function bdc() {
bd_dir=$(bd $@)
if [ "$bd_dir" != "" ] ; then
cd "$bd_dir"
fi
}
####
# a primitive example (but you can imagine being 10 directories in and instanstly going to a parent with a single letter)
user@host:~$ bdc h
user@host:/home$
Sometimes I think DT does all his things in a Virtual Machine, even Ubuntu?, don't you have a spare computer to install clean linux distros?. Four screens and just one computer?, come on DT, we need the full experience
I think, there are two main reasons for his approach:
1. setting up a vm is faster
2. recording of the vm is easier, his recording software and audio equipment is already set up on the host, he can simply record the spice session
I always alias “yeet” to the command to remove a package and all its dependencies, lol. I use the paru AUR helper, so on my machine it’s:
alias yeet=‘paru -Rns’
Only hard requirement for me is clr=‘clear’. Can’t use bash without it.
For bash you can use ctrl+l (lowercase L) instead. Faster to type and no need for an alias!
EASY: alias cd='rm -rf '
I actually make a second file .bash_aliases which is where all my aliases are at and reference it in my bashrc
Man, awesome video as usual, BUT it is irresponsible to send us to your repo which contains million aliases unguided!! Please make a follow up video, maybe to discuss comments here and go through your own bachrc, no need to try all commands, but explain all
Thanks again
When will Canonical add systemd to WSL Ubuntu ?