How do I create a Bash alias?

macos bash shell
fancy picture fancy · Jan 23, 2012 · Viewed 209.8k times · Source

I'm on OSX and I need to put something like this, alias blah="/usr/bin/blah" in a config file but I don't know where the config file is.

Answer

jaypal singh picture jaypal singh · Jan 23, 2012

You can add an alias or a function in your startup script file. Usually this is .bashrc, .bash_login or .profile file in your home directory.

Since these files are hidden you will have to do an ls -a to list them. If you don't have one you can create one.

If I remember correctly, when I had bought my Mac, the .bash_login file wasn't there. I had to create it for myself so that I could put prompt info, alias, functions, etc. in it.

Here are the steps if you would like to create one:

  1. Start up Terminal
  2. Type cd ~/ to go to your home folder
  3. Type touch .bash_profile to create your new file.
  4. Edit .bash_profile with your favorite editor (or you can just type open -e .bash_profile to open it in TextEdit.
  5. Type . .bash_profile to reload .bash_profile and update any alias you add.

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