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pranay rauthu
pranay rauthu

Posted on • Updated on

.bashrc alternative in windows

.bashrc is a very useful file in Linux environments. It basically runs every time a new Linux shell is opened & you can add commands like aliases. I wanted to have something similar in windows. After searching over internet I have found the following technique.

  • create a .bat file with the command name in a directory. (for example if you want to use ls to list directories create a file with the name ls.bat in C:\myBatCommands with dir in it.)
  • add the folder(C:\myBatCommands) to PATH environment variable
  • you can start using the commands.

This looks simple but every time you want to add a command you need to create a new file with the name in the folder. so create a .bat file(something like cmdrc.bat) to simplify this with following content.


@echo off

set filename=%~1
set command=%~2

echo %command% > C:\myBatCommands\%filename%.bat

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Anytime you want to add a command to the folder run the following command.


#cmdrc <alias-name> <command>
cmdrc ls dir

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There are couple of other ways listed here. If there are any others ways of achieving the same please post in comments.

EDIT: 4-11-2018

If you are using powershell you can use profile.ps1 with all the aliases. for more info.

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