Making a Command Alias

First, I get to my home directory and find out what shell I am using. I then find out what dot files I have. I then start up a vi session on the .bashrc file.

$ cd
$ echo $SHELL
/bin/bash         
$ ls -a 
./             .htpasswd      .wusage/
../            .pine-debug1   bin/
.bash_history  .pine-debug2   hold/
.bash_logout   .pinerc        htsdata/
.bash_profile  .redirect      stage/ 
.bashrc        .screenrc      store/
$ vi .bashrc

I use the vi editor to add this line to my .bashrc file:

alias ll='ls -lst' 

I then save my .bashrc file and exit the vi editor.

Then watch what happens when I use my ll alias in one of my directories without having first restarted the shell. The alias is not recognized. So I need to use the source command on the .bashrc file. I could also have just logged off and logged on again. Then my ll alias works.

$ cd store/test
$ ll
bash: ll: command not found   
$ source .bashrc
$ ll
total 5
   1 -rw-r--r-- 1 december december  21 Dec 19 21:59 applebad.txt
   1 -rw-r--r-- 1 december december  23 Dec 19 21:41 applegood.txt
   1 -rw-r--r-- 1 december december  21 Dec 19 21:38 bag.txt
   1 -rw-r--r-- 1 december december  91 Dec 19 21:19 basket.txt
   1 -rw-r--r-- 1 december december  21 Dec 19 21:19 apple.txt  
$