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![]() Example of alias command | |
Original author(s) | Bill Joy |
---|---|
Developer(s) | Various open-source and commercial developers |
Operating system | Unix, Unix-like, AmigaDOS, FreeDOS, Microsoft Windows, ReactOS, AROS, KolibriOS, IBM i |
Platform | Cross-platform |
Type | Command |
In computing, alias is a command in various command-line interpreters (shells), which enables a replacement of a word by another string.[1] It is mainly used for abbreviating a system command, or for adding default arguments to a regularly used command. alias
is available in Unix shells, AmigaDOS, 4DOS/4NT, FreeDOS, KolibriOS, Windows PowerShell, ReactOS, and the EFI shell.[2] Aliasing functionality in the MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows operating systems is provided by the DOSKey command-line utility.
An alias will last for the life of the shell session. Regularly used aliases can be set from the shell's rc file (such as .bashrc
) so that they will be available upon the start of the corresponding shell session. The alias commands may either be written in the config file directly or sourced from a separate file.