Creating Multiple Temporary Aliases in Linux

alias

I am not a root user & I don't have access to the global alias file which has all the aliases created, but I want to create some aliases which remain active only for the session I am logged in.
I use the command alias x='cd /parent/child' to create an alias which will enable me to just type x on the console & I change dir to /Parent/Child .

However, I want to create multiple aliases & I don't want to type each alias I create every time.

I tried putting all the alias='do this' lines in a file (gave it 777 permission) hoping that on running the file all these aliases would be created every time I login. But that didn't happen.

ex :

alias x='cd /parent/child'
alias y='cd /a/b/c'
alias z='tail -0f some.log'

I also tried this in the file but in vain:

alias x='cd /parent/child';alias y='cd /a/b/c';alias z='tail -0f some.log'

None of the alias names I tried were already present in the global alias. (I typed alias & saw the output on the screen).

Best Answer

generate all you session alias in a file, for instance alias.txt

alias x='cd /parent/child'
alias y='cd /a/b/c'
alias z='tail -0f some.log'

then use

 . ./alias.txt

You sould have all you alias in alias list, for this single session.

Edit:

Be sure to use

. ./alias.txt

not

./alias.txt

In former case, content is read 'as if typed', while the latter case will define alias in a shell that will exit.

Related Solutions

zsh – How to Stack Shell Aliases

A shell alias behaves pretty similarly to a #define, i.e. redefining a shell alias would override the previous one.

I'm not sure what would be the Right Way^TM, but one approach would be making use a shell function that accepts parameters and using that to create an alias. Your code snippet could be rewritten as:

if [ -f /usr/bin/pacmatic ]; then
    pacman() { pacmatic "$@"; }
fi

# Colorized Pacman output
alias pacman="pacman --color auto"

Moreover, even if you were using different aliases and were trying to use one for defining the other, it would not work as aliases are not expanded in non-interactive mode by default. You need to enable it by setting expand_aliases:

shopt -s expand_aliases

Quoting from the manual:

   Aliases are not expanded when the shell is not interactive, unless  the
   expand_aliases  shell option is set using shopt (see the description of
   shopt under SHELL BUILTIN COMMANDS below).

Bash – How to create permanent aliases on Unix-like systems

Please have a look at bash manual:

/etc/profile

The systemwide initialization file, executed for interactive login shells
/etc/bash.bashrc

The systemwide initialization file, executed for interactive, non-login shells.
~/.bash_profile

The personal initialization file, executed for interactive login shells
~/.bashrc

The individual per-interactive-shell startup file
~/.bash_logout

The individual login shell cleanup file, executed when a login shell exits

So you need to put your aliases in /etc/profile or /etc/bash.bashrc in order to make them available for all users.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

zsh – How to Stack Shell Aliases

Bash – How to create permanent aliases on Unix-like systems

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