making aliases

disorderly · 09-27-2004, 09:22 AM

i would like to make some permanant aliases for my user account but there is no .bashrc file in my home directory (that's the only way i know how to make perm aliases). what file do i change?

thanks!
disorderly

milir · 09-27-2004, 09:48 AM

This might me a dumb question , but are you using bash shell, or is there any other (hidden) *shrc in ur home folder

disorderly · 09-27-2004, 10:36 AM

hello milir
i think i'm using the bash shell because there is a file called .bash_history in the home directory
any ideas?

chrism01 · 09-27-2004, 12:21 PM

Try (as root)
grep <username> /etc/passwd
that will tell you your login shell.

disorderly · 09-27-2004, 12:25 PM

yep the shell is bash!
now how can set aliases?

disorderly · 09-27-2004, 01:13 PM

ok i don't know the difference between .bashrc and .bash_profile, but i read that i should create a file called .bash_profile, enter in my new alias, log in/out and now i have my alias!

does it matter which file i need/created??

- disorderly

btmiller · 09-27-2004, 01:40 PM

.bashrc is run for non-login shells and .bash_profile is run for login shells. The usual trick is to have one file source the other so they both get run, regardless of whether or not your shell is a login shell or not (shells started from within X are usually not). You can just create your .bashrc file if it doesn't exist.

disorderly · 09-27-2004, 02:04 PM

thanks btmiller -
i'm guessing login shell means that i ssh into the box right? i seem to remember on my home machine some script saying that if one doesn't exist use the other or create it or something...
thanks!
disorderly

jschiwal · 09-27-2004, 04:27 PM

You may want to look in the bash man page. There are different startup scripts that you can use such as ~/.bashrc ~/.profile ~/.bash_login. The script you use depends on when you want it to run and which shells should run it.

Kronux · 09-27-2004, 04:57 PM

Quote:

yep the shell is bash!
now how can set aliases?

This should help with your quest. Remember to [su] and google is your friend.

http://64.233.179.104/search?q=cache...nt+alias&hl=en

-Kx