My Favorite Linux Aliases
“A misspelled word is probably an alias for some desperate call for aid...” - Ben Marcus
The alias command (and the related unalias command) is a means to make command-line interface commands easier to remember. What follows is a sample of my favorite aliases.
I have provided a link to them here in my keypuncher GitHub repository -- note that there are more aliases in that file than covered here. Note further that Bash and zsh (see https://ohmyz.sh/) are almost (if not fully) compatible with one another. At least I haven’t yet run into any differences between these two shells. In any case, the examples provided in my repository are written in zsh.
Networking
Show open ports (see netstat - Wikipedia):
alias ports="netstat -tulanp"
Show current connections (see lsof - Wikipedia):
alias connections="sudo lsof -nPi"
dos2unix
If the need arises to remove those pesky windows-style line endings (see Newline) then this dos2unix alias may be helpful:
alias d2u="dos2unix"
See also DOS to Unix: Commands and Examples (phoenixnap.com).
Trash Instead of Remove (rm)
I have previously covered (see Useful Utils) my affinity for the trash tool. The given alias is now a bit out of date because a while ago you had to enter “trash-put” instead of “trash” but now I think most flavors of Linux accept “trash” once the trash-cli package is installed. Nonetheless it’s still hanging around in my .zshrc file:
alias trash="trash-put"
To further enforce not using the Linux remove command (see rm (Unix)) I have defined an in-line function to do just that:
alias rm='function remove(){ rm "$1"; echo -e "\e[1m\e[91mPlease use trash-put to delete.\n\e[0m"; };remove'
With this alias in place, if rm is called with any options the result is:
a call to remove a directory will fail
a call to remove a file will only delete the first file in the list and then echo a polite request to use trash in the future.
Some scripts I run require the rm command explicitly so I allow rm if it is called without options.
Filesystem Aliases
To prevent unintentional overwrites with cp (see cp (Unix) - Wikipedia):
alias cp="cp -i"
To prevent unintentional overwrites with mv (see mv (Unix) - Wikipedia):
alias mv="mv -i"
Find files taking up too much space (to identify the fat ducks):
alias ducks="du -ch | sort -hr | less"
See du (Unix), sort (Unix), and less (Unix).
Alias for ls by date (see ls - Wikipedia):
alias lsdate="ls -FlAtr"
Alias for ls by size:
alias lssize="ls -FlASr"
Processes
The ps command with lots of info (see ps (Unix) - Wikipedia):
alias psverbose='ps -Helf'
Calls psverbose listing only the current user’s processes:
alias psme="psverbose | grep $USER"
Better Diff and Git
Arguably better diff (see Stack Overflow):
alias diff="colordiff"
Git Aliases:
alias gs="git status"
alias gf="git fetch"
alias ga="git add"
alias gb="git branch"
alias gbd="git branch -d"
alias gbD="git branch -D"
alias gc="git commit"
alias gcm="git commit -m"
alias gcam="git commit --amend -m"
alias gco="git checkout"
alias gcob="git checkout -b"
alias grv="git remote -v"
alias grs="git reset"
alias gcp="git cherry-pick"
alias gcpa="git cherry-pick --abort"
alias gcpc="git cherry-pick --continue"
alias gdiff="git diff"
alias gl="git log"
alias grl="git reflog"
alias grb="git rebase"
alias grba="git rebase --abort"
alias grbc="git rebase --continue"
alias grbi="git rebase --interactive"
alias gsm="git submodule"
alias gsms="git submodule sync"
alias gsmsr="git submodule sync --recursive"
alias gsmu="git submodule update"
alias gsmur="git submodule update --recursive"
alias gsmuir="git submodule update --init --recursive"
alias gw="git whatchanged"
alias gls="git ls-files"
And that’s it for now! For those who don’t like scrolling, the link to my repo above is: https://github.com/mday299/keypuncher/tree/main/aliases.
Please let me know some of your favorite aliases in the comments!
Credits
6 lesser-known but seriously useful Linux commands | Enable Sysadmin (redhat.com)
The 40 Most-Used Linux Commands You Should Know (kinsta.com)
Git - Git Aliases (git-scm.com)
10 git aliases for faster and productive git workflow | Snyk
