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7/28/2019 How to Make an Alias in macOS or OSX using Terminal and Bash Shell

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Make an Alias in Bash Shell in macOS, OS X Terminal

July 19, 2011 — 27 Comments

To make aliases of macOS commands in your bash shell on macOS and earlier versions, it is done via your .bash_profile file which lives in your home account , if the file does not already exist, just create one.

Launch Terminal from the /Application/Utilities folder

Go to your home directory by just entering cd followed by the ‘return’ key to enter the command:

cd

List your home directory contents including invisible files to see if the file already exists, use:

ls -la

drwxr-xr-x+ 18 ladmin staff 612 Jul 14 09:21 . drwxr-xr-x 6 root admin 204 Jul 3 18:28 .. -rw------1 ladmin staff 3 Jun 2 12:53 .CFUserTextEncoding -rw-r--r--@ 1 ladmin staff 6148 Jul 14 09:01 .DS_Store drwx------5 ladmin staff 170 Jul 3 18:44 .Trash -rw------1 ladmin staff 1157 Jul 14 08:59 .bash_history drwx------+ 5 ladmin staff 170 Jul 14 08:33 Desktop drwx------+ 6 ladmin staff 204 Jun 2 13:48 Documents drwx------+ 8 ladmin staff 272 Jul 3 18:10 Downloads drwx------+ 29 ladmin staff 986 Jul 3 17:49 Library drwx------+ 3 ladmin staff 102 Jun 2 12:53 Movies drwx------+ 3 ladmin staff 102 Jun 2 12:53 drwx------+ 4 ladmin staff 136 Jun 2 12:53 Pictures

https://coolestguidesontheplanet.com/make-an-alias-in-bash-shell-in-os-x-/ 1/10 7/28/2019 How to Make an Alias in macOS or OSX using Terminal and Bash Shell drwxr-xr-x+ 4 ladmin staff 136 Jun 2 12:53 Public drwxr-xr-x+ 6 ladmin staff 204 Jul 3 18:11 Sites

Create the .bash_profile file using the command line program called ‘nano’ if it doesn’t exist:

nano .bash_profile

bash-alias-OSX

When the .bash_profile file is created you are ready to enter your alias commands. So here I am using the alias ‘l’ to alias the command ‘ls -lah’

alias l='ls -lah'

In nano ‘control+o’ to the file out and ‘control+x’ to exit the file.

Refresh the bash shell environment by entering the command below:

source ~/.bash_profile

That’s it, now the alias will take effect.

To add other aliases just start a new line, and apply the same formatting. https://coolestguidesontheplanet.com/make-an-alias-in-bash-shell-in-os-x-terminal/ 2/10 7/28/2019 How to Make an Alias in macOS or OSX using Terminal and Bash Shell

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Cats: macOS Tags: alias, bash, OSX, shell

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Asaf • 2 months ago when i use `source ~/.bash_profile` it takes me into the editor of the .bash_profile file

how do i correct this? △ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Chuba Wub • a year ago When I do this, I get this error message.

Can someone explain how to fix it?

"Error writing /.bash_profile: Permission denied" △ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Mark Heath > Chuba Wub • 8 months ago You should be using ~/.bash_profile not /.bash_profile. The other answer will fix the symptom but not the problem. △ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

krishna garikapati > Chuba Wub • a year ago sudo -s chmod 755 ./.bash_profile △ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Andreas Alme • 2 years ago • edited can you add aliases with an argument? For example, if you'd like to navigate to the applications folder and a specific app? Say that the alias could look like 'o ', where 'Safari' is the argument. △ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Ashwani Garg > Andreas Alme • 4 months ago cd ls -la nano .bash_profile alias ht='cd /Applications/Mamp/htdocs/'

press control+X Y Enter

source .bash_profile

Restart terminal △ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

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Mr. Devboy • 2 years ago thank you! △ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Chris Myers • 2 years ago thanks! very helpful! △ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

RobLui • 2 years ago t h a n k y o u. 1 △ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Absolute0 • 2 years ago thanks 1 △ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

IdontReallywolf • 2 years ago Thank you alot! 1 △ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Quang Minh LE NGUYEN • 2 years ago Thanks :D △ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

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Sarath Uch • 2 years ago This is really nice, that works really well. Appreciate 1 △ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Tibin Geo • 3 years ago well explained 1 △ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Anonymous • 3 years ago The only Tutorial, that worked for me...! Great! Thank You" △ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Azol • 3 years ago Thank you. That's what I was looking for. △ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Mert Gülsoy • 4 years ago Thank you. That is what i was looking for 1 △ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Adam Holt • 4 years ago Thanks, nice and simple! △ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

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Erick Jones • 4 years ago https://coolestguidesontheplanet.com/make-an-alias-in-bash-shell-in-os-x-terminal/ 5/10 7/28/2019 How to Make an Alias in macOS or OSX using Terminal and Bash Shell Hallo, is there some way I can use this aliases in any folder? Like global aliases? △ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Tuncay Kaplan • 6 years ago If anybody gets this error

-bash: alias: samplealias: not found -bash: alias: =: not found -bash: alias: cd /DirName/: not found

Probably you put before and/or after = sign. Removing spaces will solve this problem.

All credit goes to rorx in #MacOSX room at freenode 7 △ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Landon Orr • 7 years ago Thanks, this worked great. 3 △ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Brad • 7 years ago I love OSX! Well done your posts are very useful and easy to . Thanks mate! △ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Dave Woodall • 7 years ago My aliases were working great (as you have laid out here) until I upgraded to 10.8. Now it just says "-bash: l: command not found"

Any ideas?

1 △ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

naren459 > Dave Woodall • 7 years ago check to see if your .bash_profile file is still there. if so run source ~/.bash_profile again. It should come back. △ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Clarence Olivier • 8 years ago Thanks, this is just what I needed!

Going a step further, would it be possible to make an application that launches the command on the terminal?

△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Bob Jonson > Clarence Olivier • 7 years ago You could use Automator with a type of application and an action that runs a shell script △ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Alva_ > Clarence Olivier • 7 years ago A few apps let you do that: LaunchBar, Alfred, Quicksilver,... Just create a script and associate it with an action. △ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

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