HAL: Part 2 My Favourite Aliases

By Henry Grebler

I began this series with HAL: Part 1 Preliminaries. I plan to discuss scripts and functions in other articles.

If you downloaded my HAL from the the first of these articles, you will be drowned in 171 aliases, many of them obsolete and long-forgotten. I'm a hoarder: you never know when something might come in handy.

Of those 171 aliases, you can discard anything with "cd " in it. I no longer cd to anywhere (well, almost never). That gets rid of 30 aliases.

I will mention this one however:

	alias a='cd'

This exemplifies the point of HAL. I'd forgotten that it was there. I can no longer remember when I created it; I can confirm that it existed by November 1993 (because I use RCS).

On Prime computers, we "attached" to a directory. The command could be abbreviated to "a". When I joined Optimation, the company's main environment was Prime. Some form of *n*x did not come until later in the form of SunOS. This was one of the aliases which facilitated the transition from Prime to SunOS, and enabled me to switch back and forth seamlessly.

It became superfluous when I discovered pushd (also before November 1993), aliased it to its first letter, and began using it in preference to cd.

Aliases in this category include

	alias del='rm'
	alias dir='ls -la'

In all these cases, the alias acted like scaffolding. As I grew more comfortable with my new environment, I gradually discarded these props.

		* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Before proceeding, I will make one prefatory remark about aliases. I have a function (dating back perhaps to Mar 1991) called "alias" which is defined in $HOME/bash/csh-compat. Normally, you have to write

	alias name=value

My function allows me to write

	alias name value

This is why in $HOME/.ENV./.cshrc_bash you will see all the aliases defined without the use of an equal sign (=).

I started using c-shell before I discovered bash (which originated about 1989). In c-shell, the syntax for aliases does not use an equal sign:

	alias name wordlist

My function facilitated the transition from c-shell to bash.

		* * * * * * * * * * * * *

	alias cad='cat > /dev/null'

cad is a great alias. It's actually a lot more than an alias. I usually have at least one xterm with "cad" in the title bar. The xterm icon is placed near the top-right of my screen next to the clock in the corner. As soon as I launch this xterm, I enter the cad alias and just leave the window waiting.

I use it as a general purpose scratch pad or clipboard. If I want to remember something for a little while, I paste it there.

Sometimes I want to select several fields from, say, a browser window and paste it somewhere else, maybe another browser window. It is often more convenient to have the first browser window and the cad window open side by side and copy and paste from the first browser window into the cad window; and then bring up the destination window and copy and paste in the other direction.

This is extremely comfortable in my environment: I have focus-follows-mouse so I don't have to click to change windows; the window which has the focus does not have to be on top; the act of selecting causes the selection to be copied (no Ctrl-C is necessary); pasting is simply Middle-Click (no Ctrl-V is necessary). So, it's just swipe, move mouse, click, move back; swipe, move mouse, click, move back.

I use the cad window hundreds of times a day. It means I do very little typing. This is a good thing because I live in a command-line world and I am not a great typist. Yes, I'm lazy; no question. But, more importantly, copy-and-paste improves accuracy. Computers are more pedantic than humans; you can't get away with, "You know what I mean." And they're unforgiving. Better to avoid errors - especially when it can be done conveniently.

Finally, I sometimes use the cad alias in any window to temporarily store text. It's hard to think of a reason off the top of my head; but when the tool is there, it often finds a use.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

	alias acroread='acroread -geometry 800x898+152-0'

This is an example of an inadvertent alias. The way I have defined it, my usual invocation of acroread will invoke the alias. I'd have to do something special to not invoke the alias.

I don't recall why I defined this alias. My best guess is that I was annoyed with the defaults offered by acroread. I probably fooled around with different settings before settling on these. I can only say that it must be doing something right, because I cannot recall being annoyed with the acroread window when it pops up.

Of course, it's always possible that this alias has outlived its usefulness; that acroread now behaves differently. After all, I've had this alias for over 10 years.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

	alias cp='cp -ip'

Another inadvertent alias. The "p" option preserves inode information (date, permissions, ownership). The "i" option prevents me from inadvertently overwriting a file.

In addition to the "i" option, I also use bash's noclobber option so that output redirection (>) cannot overwrite an existing file.

I rely on the dates in the inode. If I copy a file, I haven't changed its contents. I want the default date to reflect that fact. The "c" date (ls -ltc) will indicate when I copied the file; the "t" date (ls -lt) will reflect the date the contents last changed.

Also
	alias mv='mv -i'

		* * * * * * * * * * * * *

	alias ed='emacs -nw --basic-display --unibyte'

One of my core aliases. Fits into almost all categories. I think "ed" was the name of the editor on Prime. Further, this alias helps protect me from GNU. (Almost) every new rev of emacs comes out with some incompatibility with a previous rev of emacs. In my view, FSF has an awful lot to answer for. I won't repeat myself: see Ten Things I Dislike About Linux.

My most recent change comment:

	# 15 Jan 2010 Don't let emacs colourise.

		* * * * * * * * * * * * *

	alias gcat='gunzip -vdc'
	alias gunzip='gzip -vd'

Just for convenience. I prefer "gcat" to "gzcat".

		* * * * * * * * * * * * *

	alias h='history'

Saves so much typing when referring to bash's history.

		* * * * * * * * * * * * *

	alias hmg='more /home/henryg/hmg/help'

Long forgotten. I'm guessing that, once upon a time, I had a single help file! Wow! What a discovery! Sometimes this archaeology pays dividends. This is where it all began. Look at the first line:

	help - a file to help me with things I forget

There is also help2 through help5. Waddya know?

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	alias lok='sleep 1;xset s activate'

I've acquired the habit of using this whenever I leave my computer. It blanks the screen.

		* * * * * * * * * * * * *

	alias mph='less /home/henryg/hmg/phone'

I use this to look up my personal phone directory. It has other information, not just phone numbers.

		* * * * * * * * * * * * *

	alias psa='/bin/ps auxw'

Apart from its obvious purpose, this is a different sort of alias. It is not defined in $HOME/.ENV./.cshrc_bash, but rather in $HOME/.ENV./.shells_rc.* where the asterisk represents one of the possible platforms I've worked on - because the ps command is rarely the same on any two platforms. So far I have these platforms: AIX, HP-UX, Linux, SCO_SV, SunOS4, SunOS5.

Ben has reminded me that I also ought to have

	alias psag 'psa | grep -v grep | grep'

And now I have!

		* * * * * * * * * * * * *

	alias rlok='rlog -R -L RCS/*,v'
	alias rloka='rlog -R -L RCS/*,v RCS/.*,v'

Answers the question, "Which files in RCS are locked?"

		* * * * * * * * * * * * *

	alias rs='rsync -urlptog'

should be

	alias rs='rsync -urlptogH'

The essential rsync options.

		* * * * * * * * * * * * *

For FreeBSD only:

	alias seq='gseq'

On Linux it's called seq; on FreeBSD gseq.

		* * * * * * * * * * * * *

	alias su='BSD_su'

su is one of the most idiosyncratic commands - a bit like the ps command (above). Because I'm human and inconsistent (perhaps because the alias goes back further), this gets defined in ~/.bashrc - unlike ps.

		* * * * * * * * * * * * *

	alias w='(pwd; /bin/pwd ) | uniq'

Bash's notion of where you are sometimes differs from where you really are if there are symlinks involved. If the two pwds agree, only one entry is printed. The use of "w" for "where am I?" comes from DEC or Prime.

I've just discovered that I have defined this twice - and inconsistently. Here's why:

#  Henry Grebler    31 Jul 96  bash (and only bash) sometimes has a different
#                               answer for pwd. Print both if different.

The file .cshrc_bash is intended to be shared between csh and bash.

I have just changed this alias to

	alias w '(pwd; /bin/pwd ) | uniq; df -h | tail -1'

I often also want to know whether I'm on a local disk or not.

		* * * * * * * * * * * * *

        alias xd       "date '+%a %d %b %Y %H:%M:%S %z %Z';\
                        date '+%A %d %B %Y %H:%M:%S %z %Z';\
                        date '+%a %e %b %Y %H:%M:%S %z %Z';\
                        date '+%A %e %B %Y %H:%M:%S %z %Z';\
                        date '+%Y%b%d.%H:%M:%S';
                        date '+%d %b %y'"

This looks meaningless until you see its output:

Tue 08 Feb 2011 10:47:00 +1100 EST
Tuesday 08 February 2011 10:47:00 +1100 EST
Tue  8 Feb 2011 10:47:00 +1100 EST
Tuesday  8 February 2011 10:47:00 +1100 EST
2011Feb08.10:47:00
08 Feb 11

In my opinion, there is no more useless date format than the default for Linux:

	date
	Tue Feb  8 10:47:32 EST 2011

Who uses this format? Why?

In this alias I have a template for every form of the date I'm ever likely to want: both full and abbreviated day and month name; day of month with leading space and leading zero. The second last form is for appending to filenames, e.g.

	cp /var/log/xxx /var/log/xxx.2011Feb08

The last form is for change log entries at the head of shell scripts and C code:

	#  12 Nov 01  Henry Grebler    First cut.                       sh
	   12 Nov 99  Henry Grebler    Start of initial coding.         c

But I'm starting to prefer 4 digits for the year to avoid any possibility of ambiguity:

	#  12 Nov 2011  Henry Grebler    First cut.

		* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Aliases Which Invoke Scripts

Arguably, these are unnecessary: I could simply use a symlink.

I will discuss the shell scripts in another article.

I have written these in the form they appear in $HOME/.ENV./.cshrc_bash because then they retain environment variables.

        alias cleanup $HOME/scripts/cleanup.sh
	alias diff $HOME/scripts/diff.sh
	alias lns '$HOME/scripts/lns.sh'
	sol='/home/henryg/scripts/sol.sh'
	alias tcg='/home/henryg/scripts/tarcompressuuencode.sh +u -g'
	alias tcu='/home/henryg/scripts/tarcompressuuencode.sh'
	alias uue='/home/henryg/scripts/uuencode.sh'
	alias uut='/home/henryg/scripts/uudecodeuncompresstar.sh'
	alias x='/home/henryg/scripts/expr.sh'
	alias xr='/home/henryg/scripts/xrenamewindow.sh'
	alias xt='/home/henryg/scripts/xterm.sh'

Summing Up

I've tried to restrict myself to aliases which are in some way instructive.

If anyone is interested in any of this, I have a recommendation. Don't try to expand your repetoire with too many aliases (or anything else) at one time. It can be extremely difficult, and the exercise may end in disappointment.

The aliases can be categorised. Clearly, many are obsolete, as this waltz down memory lane has revealed. They may have been very important for a while, then fell into disuse.

But that is true for many things in life. At home, we have many Thomas the Tank Engine videos. There was a time when my younger son watched them constantly. Now, at 22, not so much.

On the other hand, some become more important, give rise to variations which sometimes outgrow the capabilities of aliases. They become functions or shell scripts.

Sometimes, I create an alias and soon after wonder how I ever got by without it.

I've shown (What Really Matters or The Counting Article) that I almost cannot live without 2 of them, 'p' and 'bdx'. Some are not quite as essential, but are still used frequently:

	cad cp mv ed h lok mph psa rs su w xd

Some are only invoked occasionally.

The last category is aliases which invoke scripts. I will discuss these in an article about scripts.

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Henry has spent his days working with computers, mostly for computer manufacturers or software developers. His early computer experience includes relics such as punch cards, paper tape and mag tape. It is his darkest secret that he has been paid to do the sorts of things he would have paid money to be allowed to do. Just don't tell any of his employers.

He has used Linux as his personal home desktop since the family got its first PC in 1996. Back then, when the family shared the one PC, it was a dual-boot Windows/Slackware setup. Now that each member has his/her own computer, Henry somehow survives in a purely Linux world.

He lives in a suburb of Melbourne, Australia.