My Bash aliases don't work

Question

I'm not sure why but my Bash aliases don't seem to work. Here is my .bashrc file

    # v 0.0.1 - 7/03/12

[[ -s "$HOME/.rvm/scripts/rvm" ]] && source "$HOME/.rvm/scripts/rvm" # Load RVM into a shell session *as a function*

PATH=$PATH:$HOME/.rvm/bin # Add RVM to PATH for scripting

# expanding history to 10000 commands
export HISTSIZE=10000

# don't store repeated commands more than once
export HISCONTROL=ignoredups

# where to look for Java
export JAVA_HOME=/Library/Java/Home

# tomcat server configuration
export CATALINA_HOME=/usr/local/apache-tomcat-6.0.35

# default editor
export EDITOR=vim

if [ -f ~/.bash_aliases ]; then
    . ~/.bash_aliases
fi

Here is my .bash_aliases file

# v 0.0.1 - 7/03/12

# aliases for directory traversal
alias ..='cd ../'
alias ...='cd ../../'
alias ....='cd ../../../'

alias gs='git status '
alias ga='git add '
alias gb='git branch '
alias gc='git commit'
alias gd='git diff'
alias go='git checkout '
alias gk='gitk --all&'
alias gx='gitx --all'

alias got='git '
alias get='git '

Impassion

I like your get/got aliases. As a typo-master, I'm borrowing them. Also, you should not need the trailing space in your aliases. – Suburbanize

If you've ssh-ed into a machine, then logout and log back in so that these settings take effect. That fixed it for me. – Armelda

Answer 1

Add this to the end of your .bashrc:

if [ -f $HOME/.bash_aliases ]
then
  . $HOME/.bash_aliases
fi

Rocaille

If you're going to use "$HOME" instead of a tilde, you should quote it for safety. – Appearance

If you are going to be working on a system where $HOME needs to be quoted for safety, you should check into an asylum; you're going to end up there pretty soon anyway. – Ardenia

@WilliamPursell Still, why ask the shell to do a round of string-splitting when you know that you want something to be parsed as a single argument? – Pyrite

If you're using Bash (.bashrc!) use [[ -f $HOME/.bash_aliases ]] then you don't have to worry about quoting! – Irena

@Sean Bright I inserted the snippet you suggested, but my alias are still coming up "-bash: ..: command not found". Any ideas? Thanks – Impassion

Are you sure your .bashrc file is being sourced? Add set -x to the beginning of that file. Future shells will print a long list of what it is executing on startup; you'll be able to see if it is processing your alias commands. – Biltong

@Sean Bright, why is $HOME needed? Why doesn't ~ work? I'm in the same situation here. – Mendez

@MichaelHoffmann #5931171 could be helpful – Laritalariviere

Why is there a dot before $HOME? What does it do? – Morose

@AaronFranke The dot is for loading the file equivalent to source. This is a common bash pattern "if file exists, load it" – Derzon

Answer 2

I had a similar problem recently. The solution appeared to be closing ALL open shells (root and user; I didn't notice that I was running a minimized root shell at the time while editing my user .bashrc and .bash_aliases files). The .bash_aliases file then seemed to get read.

Mentor

Answer 3

By default

if [ -f ~/.bash_aliases ]; then
.  ~/.bash_aliases
fi

These are available in your .bashrc file in ubuntu 18,19 Actually the problem is sourcing the files, therefore source both files by runing the commands below. I faced the same issues and that is how i solved it.

source ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bash_aliases

Vallo

Answer 4

Sometimes forgetting to source the bashrc also creates this problem. So after adding your aliases don't forget to source it.

source ~/.bashrc

Gambol

Answer 5

Bash doesn't look for a file called .bash_aliases; you have to source it explicitly.

Looking around a bit, it appears ~/.bash_aliases is sourced from the default .bashrc on Ubuntu boxes; I don't have access to one to confirm. However, it is not a standard bash configuration file.

Biltong

Don't understand the answer. The poster has the lines for .bash_aliases in his .bashrc exactly as you have shown. Why doesn't simply source ~/.bashrc work then? – Meshed

That was added a week after I posted my answer. Note that adding those lines is exactly what the accepted answer suggested doing. The question probably should not have been edited like that in the first place. – Biltong

Interesting. The accepted answer doesn't work for me using bash in KUbuntu. Maybe it's not supported on UBuntu since you mentioned it wasn't a standard config file. I was hoping to find an answer here that worked on UBuntu. – Meshed

Answer 6

I recently installed RVM and changed my terminal profile to "run command as login shell". This disabled .bashrc from loading.

Fix: edit -> profile preferences -> Title and Command -> Run command as a login shell (uncheck)

Find this post for more information, fixed it for me.

https://askubuntu.com/questions/161249/bashrc-not-executed-when-opening-new-terminal

Peddada

Answer 7

You need to include the file. Example code to do so from a default .bashrc file is below:

# Alias definitions.
# You may want to put all your additions into a separate file like
# ~/.bash_aliases, instead of adding them here directly.
# See /usr/share/doc/bash-doc/examples in the bash-doc package.

if [ -f ~/.bash_aliases ]; then
    . ~/.bash_aliases
fi

Omniumgatherum

Same thing, but more concise: [ -f ~/.bash_aliases ] && . ~/.bash_aliases – Appearance

Answer 8

don't forget to

chmod 600 ~/.bash_aliases

on kubuntu 22.04

;)

Herron

Answer 9

It may be something simple. Like you are actually running zsh or korn instead of bash. Check your shell. I have done this on installing and testing various flavors. Wasted so much time I now never assume I am on bash anymore.

Sik

Answer 10

After searching here and there finally I got my solution. As I run my Kali Linux so the default shell is ZSH. You can check yours by using echo $SHELL.

I got my shell /usr/bin/zsh So I just updated by .bash_aliases files to my ~/.zshrc file with this:

if [ -f ~/.bash_aliases ]; then
    . ~/.bash_aliases
fi

Note: you can change the aliases file or create new one if you don't have any. But remember you must change ~/.bash_aliases' this name which I have chosen according to your preference.

Leighton

Answer 11

Don't be like me, friends. I was pulling my hair out trying to figure out why my aliases wouldn't work. All I had to do was close and reopen the terminal for it to take effect.

Avigdor