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The alias command allows you to make new shortcuts and synonyms for commonly used comands. The basic usage is:

  alias newcommand='yourcommand -arguments'

If you want to start aterm according to your preferences with the command term, do something like:

  alias term='aterm -ls -fg gray -bg black'

If you want a quick alias like ll for a more informative file listing:

  ls -al --color=yes

Starting alias without any options lists the current aliases:

  alias

  alias ls='ll'

  alias ls -al --color=yes

  alias term='aterm -ls -fg gray -bg black'

Use unalias to remove an alias.

  unalias term

You can also make aliases for existing commands. If you want ls to show colors by default, do:

  alias ls='ls --color=yes'

These aliases can be put in your login script (.bash_profile or .profile depending on what shell you are using).

Alias with variables

You can not make aliases with variables. But you can make functions, having a function in your .profile/.bashrc will work just like an
alias. To use ssh to copy files to a location on a server you can use

  sendpic () { scp "$@" mina@foo.bar.ca:/www/misc/Pictures/; }

[edit]

Another way for aliases with variables

If you dont like to use a function, if you need variables, try the following to change to the last working directory:

  alias cdo="cd \"\$OLDPWD\""

Note: it is important, that there are ONLY double quotes in the expression above, no single quotes like in the other examples!

[edit]

Creating aliases on shell startup

You can have your aliases created anytime you open an instance of a
shell. If you are using bash, edit your ~/.bashrc file and add one
alias per line. Once you save and close the file, run this to load your
new aliases immediately:

  source ~/.bashrc

Otherwise, the new aliases will load whenever you open a new instance of the shell.
Another place to put your aliases if you want them to be
system-wide for all users is in /etc/bashrc. To load those aliases, add
this line to ~/.bashrc

  source /etc/bashrc

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