MacOS – Make shortcuts to directories via terminal

aliasbashmacosterminal

My problem is: whenever I'm coding, I work inside folders that are inside other folders and it's a long way to type:

cd /folder1/folder2/.../folderN

I know it's possible to make a shortcut to the folder using alias. So it would be:

alias ep="cd /Users/thi/Dropbox/CurrentProject"

My question is, where should I put this alias? Inside /etc/bashrc? Or should I create a file called ~/.profile and place it there? Where should I put it?

Best Answer

I keep aliases in ~/.bash_profile.

Terminal and iTerm 2 open new shells as login shells by default. When bash is invoked as an interactive login shell, it reads ~/.bash_profile but not ~/.bashrc. The terminal emulators on other platforms often open new shells as non-login shells, so for example bash reads ~/.bashrc but not ~/.bash_profile. OS X users often use ~/.bash_profile as the personal configuration file corresponding to ~/.bashrc on other platforms, but it is also possible to source ~/.bashrc from ~/.bash_profile or to tell Terminal or iTerm 2 to open new shells as non-login shells.

If both ~/.profile and ~/.bash_profile exist, bash only reads ~/.bash_profile when it is invoked as an interactive login shell. ~/.profile is also used by other shells and programs that might not understand the same configuration options as bash.

/etc/bashrc is owned by root, and it might get replaced when you upgrade OS X.

See man bash|less +^INVOCATION or https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/html_node/Bash-Startup-Files.html for more information.

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How to update Python on a Mac with Unix commands

So your Mac is still looking for an old version of Python. You need to inform it that there is in fact a new version and where it can find it. To do this, you need to update the PATH to Python.

This can be done in your .bash_profile file.

# Setting PATH for Python 3.3.2.
# The original version is saved in .profile.pysave.
PATH="/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.3.2/bin:${PATH}"
export PATH

After you update the .bash_profile file Terminal should run the new version of Python, when you ask for it.

MacOS – Installing software on a MacBook

Generally application (.app) bundles are meant to be stored in /Applications of ~/Applications. I recommend using /Applications for the vast majority of installations, since the apps there will be accessible to other users' accounts`.

Application bundles aren't directly executable. Instead, their executable file is stored within the bundle (right click and select "Show package contents"), in {APPLICATION.app}/Contents/MacOS/

To open an Application bundle from the terminal, you can use the wicked open command with the -a flag, like: open -a /Applications/Application.app. This comes in handy occasionally, though I don't know why you'd want to open applications through terminal, rather than through the dock, dock stack, or spotlight.

Best Answer

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How to update Python on a Mac with Unix commands

MacOS – Installing software on a MacBook

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