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Hafiz Jaafar
Hafiz Jaafar

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Git Bash on Windows: adding a permanent alias

#bash #git

If you are using Git Bash on Windows and you're used to Linux bash commands, chances are that you'd like to add aliases that help making your jobs easier.

These two are my favorite aliases:

$ alias cll='clear; ls -lah'
$ alias countFiles='ls -1 | wc -l'
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How to add an alias permanently for the Git Bash

  1. To add an alias permanently, you'd need to edit the file
    /C/Program Files/Git/etc/profile.d/aliases.sh .

  2. Run your text editor as an administrator and open that file.

  3. Add your alias and save the file.

  4. Open the Git Bash. Execute 'alias', and you're done. Have fun.

$ alias
alias cll='clear; ls -lah'
alias countFiles='ls -1 | wc -l'
alias ll='ls -lah'
alias ls='ls -F --color=auto --show-control-chars'
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Top comments (13)

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adeyemiadekore2 profile image
korey 🇳🇬 • • Edited

thanks for this.

a little thing to note is this works while navigating in bash

cd /c/'Program Files'/Git/etc/profile.d
not
cd /c/Program Files/Git/etc/profile.d as this one won't work in bash

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cornelius_figgle profile image
Max •

also to note: my git installation was in the AppData folder, so my path looked like this:

"%LocalAppData%\Programs\Git\etc\profile.d\aliases.sh"
OR
"C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Programs\Git\etc\profile.d\aliases.sh"
OR
"~/AppData/Local/Programs/Git/etc/profile.d/aliases.sh"
OR
"/c/Users/<username>/AppData/Local/Programs/Git/etc/profile.d/aliases.sh"
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natank profile image
natank •

Note: place the equal sign ('=') immediately after the alias without any spaces.
Examples:

alias k = 'kubectl' // not working
alias k= 'kubectl' // working

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prateek_aher profile image
Prateek Aher •

Dude, you're a lifesaver.

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binayashrestha profile image
Binaya Shrestha • • Edited

thanks a lot.
also worked multi-line alias like this:

dcosql() {
  cd ~
  cd /d/dio/dio-scripts/docker/development/
  docker-compose up -d mssql
  }
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flyingduck92 profile image
Sekti Wicaksono •

I always use ll with

alias ll='ls -lash'
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cuneyter profile image
cuneyter •

Thank you. That is a great help :)

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chrisdev_io profile image
Christopher Thompson •

Great little bit of advice! Totally worked for me. Thank you. :D

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sddecent profile image
Decent Coder •

Aliases can be created using git config command as well, without actually opening the git files.

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rsbmk profile image
Roberto Bocio Melo •

thanks for this, my workflow thanks you ❤️

View full discussion (13 comments)

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