Tag Archives: command shell

My Top 10 Ubuntu Aliases

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aka: The Ultimate List of Ubuntu Aliases

Okay, maybe this isn’t the ultimate list, and maybe it’s more than 10, but this is my list of essential, must-have aliases for Ubuntu (or any version of Linux). Aliases are “shortcuts”. For example, if you’re at the command prompt and want to exit, you normally type exit. But I have an alias for the letter e to exit. I cut my typing by 75%!! Do this all throughout your workflow and you’ll seriously wonder how you ever lived without it. Backup your aliases.

By adding these aliases, I have turned 277 characters of typing down to just 35. That’s a reduction of over 87%!!! Finally, I can leave work at 10am. :)

If you want to use an alias in Ubuntu Linux, insert these commands (or any other commands that speed up your workflow) at the bottom of your .profile or .bashrc files:

    alias sp=’sudo pico’
    alias la=’ls -alh’
    alias m=’mutt’
    alias e=’exit’
    alias cdw=’cd /var/www/’

      alias cdb=’cd /var/www/brockangelo/’
      alias cda=’cd /var/www/angeloarchive/’ (if you host multiple websites, replace the “a” with a website identifier. aka, photoshopsamurai = ps)
      alias cdps=’cd /var/www/photoshopsamurai/’

    alias cdn=’cd /usr/local/nagios/etc/’
    alias nr=’sudo /etc/init.d/nagios restart’
    alias ar=’sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart’
    alias coffee=’cat > /var/www/brockangelo/coffees.txt’ (I used to have a coffee-counter on my website and I would update the number of coffees my espresso machine had made – you can use this to replace the contents of a text file quickly)
    alias s=’sudo’
    alias aa=’/home/brock/scripts/add_alias.sh’ (I created a shell script to add new aliases by just typing aa – leave a comment if you’d like to download the script)

And here is the code for the shell script:

    #!/bin/bash
    echo Enter the shortcut, or alias, you want to use:
    read SHORTTEXT
    echo Now enter what text you want it to replace:
    read LONGTEXT
    echo “alias $SHORTTEXT=’$LONGTEXT’” >> ~/.profile
    echo “alias $SHORTTEXT=’$LONGTEXT’ was added to your profile. Changes effective after logout/in.”

How to Remove Non-Empty Directories in Linux

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How to Remove Non-Empty Directories in Linux

Here is one that I am using all the time: deleting directories or an entire directory in Ubuntu (linux). It’s very easy (and dangerous) as it will delete everything without asking for confirmation. But very handy when you know you just want to delete it all quickly.

This is dangerous! Use with caution!

sudo rm -r *

That deletes everything inside the current directory. But if you want to delete an entire directory that is inside your current directory, you do this:

rm -r directoryname

Be careful, and good luck! :)

Create Aliases in Ubuntu

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How to Create an Alias in Ubuntu

If you run the same commands in Linux (or Ubuntu) all the time, you can add what is called an “alias” to your user account. For example, I regularly type:

ls -alh

So I setup an alias so that I can just type la. (also, see my Top 10 Aliases list) To do this, simply edit your “profile”. Bash is the program that you typically use when you are in a command shell, so it may be called your “bash profile”. Your profile is in your Home folder and stores all of your preferences. Just edit the “.profile” or the “.bash_profile” if it exists.

cd ~
pico edit .profile

Add the following code to the bottom:

alias la='ls -alh'

Now when you are typing at the command prompt, you just type la and it acts like you typed ls -alh. Pretty handy.