In this section we will give you some hints and tips to help make your CLI experience more fluid and productive.
We split them into three parts. Windows, Linux and MacOS.
Many hints and tips for MacOS and Linux will be the same.
- TODO: Add Command Hints for Windows Command
The best hint or tip we can give is the following...
To list the aliases that are already set use:
alias
If there are any aliases created, they will be listed similar to this:
To do this we open a Bash CLI in Terminal and then enter:
code ~/.bashrc
If it asks to create a new file, accept this.
Next check the file to see if it has the following:
if [ -e $HOME/.bash_aliases ]; then
source $HOME/.bash_aliases
fi
If it does not, add the above to the end of the file.
Once you have done this, save the file and quit from Visual Studio Code.
Likewise we now need to create the aliases file for the CLI to read when it starts up via the .bashrc
file we juse created/added to.
code ~/.bash_aliases
In the file add the following general Bash aliases for things like listing files:
# ---------------------------------------------
# General aliases for bash CLI
# ---------------------------------------------
# Clear the screen, and list all files
alias cll='clear; ls -lah'
# count the number of files in the current folder
alias countFiles='ls -1 | wc -l'
# Long List all files
alias ll='ls -lah'
# short List files
alias ls='ls -F --color=auto --show-control-chars'
# short list all files
alias las='ls -a -F --color=auto --show-control-chars'
If you want to shorten your Git commands then the following could be useful:
# ---------------------------------------------
# Git Aliases plus example use
# ---------------------------------------------
# Git Add: ga FILENAME
alias ga='git add'
# Git Commit: gc -m MESSAGE
alias gc='git commit --verbose'
# Git Pull: gpl
alias gpl='git pull'
# Git Push: gps -u origin main
alias gps='git push'
# Git History: gh
alias gh='git log --all --decorate --graph --oneline'
If you make these changes and wish to activate them without closing and reopening Terminal, then use:
source ~/.bashrc
- TODO: Add Command Hints for MacOS zshell
For MacOS using zshell, you would create or edit the ~/.zshrc
file. to verify
For the main part, you may use the Windows Git Bash aliases for Linux without any issues.
Likewise use the source ~/.bashrc
command to activate the aliases without having to close and reopen the terminal, Warp or iTerm.
Fancy being greeted nicely?
Edit the ~/.bashrc
file again.
At the top of the file add:
TIME=$(date "+%H")
if [ $TIME -lt 12 ]; then
echo "Good morning"
elif [ $TIME -lt 18 ]]; then
echo "Good afternoon"
else
echo "Good evening"
fi
echo "Welcome $USERNAME, to Bash on $HOSTNAME."
echo "Today's date is: $(date +"%A, %d-%m-%y")"
Here is an example greeting: