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stickmangumby
Asked: 2010-12-09 15:44:57 +0800 CST

How do I write a bash script that sets up aliases for the parent shell?

  • 772

I'm trying to write a script that will set up aliases for my bash shell, but I don't want to source it automatically in .bashrc - I need to have the aliases in a subset of my terminals.

Is it possible to alias a command in a script and have the aliased command work for the shell the script was run from?

Desired functionality:

$ alias
# ... no output here
$ ./my-script
$ alias
alias foo='bar'
alias alpha='beta'
...
bash alias

3 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Aliases are private to the shells that they're created in. They can neither be exported, nor can they be accessed from a parent shell.

    The easiest solution is to break the aliases out into a separate file, as you suggest, then either source that file by hand, or add a function to your .bashrc, that will source them when invoked.

    function extra-aliases {
     . /path/to/file/containing/additional/aliases
}
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  2. No. Aliases are private to the shell and subshells.

    • 2

  3. No.

    But to provide a 'solution', though I don't know if it's what you'd want.

    Try:

    # alias
... nothing
# . ./myscript.sh
# alias
alias ls='ls -laR'

    Note the . before ./myscript.sh. This is source.

    Or why not make an alias out of it (in .bashrc):

    alias mkalias="alias ls='ls -laR'; alias ll='ls -l'"
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