ZSH not recognizing my aliases? - bash

Using iTerm2 with zsh and it isn't recognizing my aliases. Sometimes I have to work in an IDE and can't just easily vim something and the stupid people thought it a good idea to name their applications like MyReallyLongApplicationName.app and since .html files open by default in browsers, I have to:
open -a MyReallyLongApplicationName.app something.html
I have an alias in my .zshrc like:
alias ide="open -a MyReallyLongApplicationName.app"
But zsh won't recognize my aliases. I tried another one just to see if it was me but none of the aliases I create are recognized. Just get "zsh: command not found: ide" or whatever.
So I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong and I've been searching around all day trying to fix things in zsh and the like. As a note, I'm not a pro at Linux/Unix systems so if you're too technical and vague I probably won't understand what you're telling me.
Thanks!

if you do a very simple alias in zsh, does it work? open your .zshrc file, and add the following line:
alias ls='ls -GpF'
after adding that line, type this line in your Terminal:
source ~/.zshrc
tell us what happens. Also, just for shiggles, make sure you are using single quotes vs. double quotes, I have seen that make a difference in the past on different versions of shells/OS/whatnot.

Add "source ~/.bash_profile" to your ~/.zsh config file.

Put this line:
/source: 'source ~/.bash_profile' into ~/.zshrc

After saving changes in ~/.zshrc file, open a new shell window and execute the command in it.

Sometimes the simple solution is what we need...
Add "source ~/.bash_profile" to your ~/.zshrc config file
echo source ~/.bash_profile >> ~/.zshrc

I needed to manually add the alias to my zsh config file and then run the source command on it.
echo alias this='some command' >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc

In my case issue was space b/w aliasName and equalTo. you should have to remove those space.
bad assignment
alias keu = 'k exec -it utils bash'
correct one
alias keu='k exec -it utils bash'

What I did, in this case, was created a separate file to store all my aliases. I found this way to be cleaner and easier maintained.
My aliases file is simply called aliases and within my .zshrc I have the following:
# Linking my aliases file
source ~/foldername/aliases

Make sure the double quotes are actual double quotes and not some other character which looks like double quotes.
I was editing ~/.zsh-aliases in OSX - TextEdit, which, when hitting the double quotes key substituted it for another special double quotes character, which is not what ZSH expects.
After editing the alias file with Sublime and replacing the old double quotes with actual double quotes everything runs just fine.
Hope this helps.

I had all my aliases on ~/.bash_profile, so i added at the last line on ~/.zshrc the following line: . ~/.bash_profile and it worked for me.

You should put alias at the end of ~/.zshrc file.
you can use below command to do that:
echo alias this='some command' >> ~/.zshrc
after that run
source ~/.zshrc
then, open a new terminal and execute the command in it.

I'm using both bash and zsh with one .bashrc, .bash_aliases and .zshrc file.
Put this in you .zshrc to load bash files:
# shortcut to refresh .zshrc
alias refz="source ~/.zshrc"
# Load bash files to zsh
test -f $HOME/.bashrc && . $HOME/.bashrc
test -f $HOME/.bash_aliases && . $HOME/.bash_aliases
If you have many bash aliases and functions you may will have some error messages like:
/proc/self/fd/13:12310: bad option: -t
caused by bash specific lines in.bash_aliases or .bashrc files
You can skip those problematic ones using:
if [ -n "$BASH" ] ;then
lines to ignore by zsh
fi
For example kubectl autocompletion
# To fix error massage .bashrc:16: command not found: shopt
# Check if bash is the current shell, if not, skip it
if [ -n "$BASH" ] ;then
# kubectl and bash completions
if [ -x "$(command -v kubectl)" ]; then
source <(kubectl completion bash)
complete -F __start_kubectl k
fi
if ! shopt -oq posix; then
if [ -f /etc/profile.d/bash_completion.sh ]; then
. /etc/profile.d/bash_completion.sh
fi
fi
fi
# Instead I need to put this line somewhere in my zshrc
# to have kubectl autocompletion replacing the skipped bash one:
plugins=(git git-flow brew history node npm kubectl)
# To fix error message .bash_aliases:4: parse error: condition expected: =
# Change these to this syntax to be used by zhs
# Not compatible with zsh:
if [ $HOSTNAME = "x1" ]; then
# Compatible with bash and zsh:
if [[ $HOSTNAME == "x1" ]]; then

I had a bad alias line that should have been obvious.
There is no error checking in these zsh custom scripts, so you may, like me, waste a couple of precious hours trying to find out why your custom aliases or functions are not loading in iTerm2.
I am using MacOS Ventura 13.1 and iTerm 2 v3.4, zsh 5.8.1.
I reloaded and using . ~/zshrc and followed a lot of the suggestions above.
I finally copied my list of aliases and function to the ~/.zshrc file.
Another ~/.zshrc gave me a bad pattern error.
The fix for my case was as follows.
In line with a Unicode string or something that is escaped and requires ' ' (single quotes), you must use the other quote character (double quotes) to encapsulate the alias sting.
In my case, I had entered.
alias fixitemerrow='printf '\e[?2004l''
The fix for this is:-
alias fixitemerrow=" printf '\e[?2004l' "
Do not add spaces in your alias assignment. This is here just for illustration.
Spaces would also require double encapsulation " ' ' ".

Need to create a profile for .zshrc and register the alias into it. (only if the profile isn't available)
cd ~
touch .zshrc && open .zshrc
add all the alias in .zshrc file
source ~/.zshrc
close and re-open terminal and run the alias.

Related

MacOS .bash_profile - /usr/bin/alias: line 4: builtin: alias: not a shell builtin - how to create an alias?

I have no idea why it isn't working. Using MacOS and bash:
$ echo $SHELL
/bin/bash
Here is the content of the file ```.bash_profile``:
I would imagine that I'm using right file - How do I create a Bash alias? - and the right syntax...
UPDATE:
Tried also .bashrc
When I tried to reload it:
$ source ~/.bashrc
/usr/bin/alias: line 4: builtin: alias: not a shell builtin
UPDATE:
Yes, it looks weird
$ type alias
alias is a shell builtin
$ source ~/.bashrc
/usr/bin/alias: line 4: builtin: alias: not a shell builtin
Given the set of possibilities we've eliminated --
Since you're using bash 3.2, set -x may not be visibly rendering all hidden characters, such as a byte order marker at the beginning of your file.
If the BOM is in fact the problem, then the first line of the file will always cause an error regardless of its contents, and if you move the alias command to the second line, it will then function. Similarly, if you install a more recent version of bash from MacPorts or Homebrew, then running bash -x -l -i will show the hidden characters at the beginning of the command it's trying to run in the generated log.
To solve this, recreate the file in a text editor that doesn't save a BOM, or use "Save As..." and choose a format with no BOM in an editor that gives you the option.
Run the alias command to display all created aliases. Also, you should use ~/.bashrc for aliases, not .bash_profile.
echo "alias p='python -m SimpleHTTPServer'" >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

Aliases in .bash_profile not working properly [closed]

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This question was caused by a typo or a problem that can no longer be reproduced. While similar questions may be on-topic here, this one was resolved in a way less likely to help future readers.
Closed 3 years ago.
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I have been trying to alter the .bash_profile that is in my root directory, but have been running into some problems. I am on OS X, Yosemite, on a Macbook Pro. As I understand it, the .bash_profile file contains the script that is called automatically whenever the Terminal app is opened and the bash shell starts.
This is what I currently have written in that file:
PATH="/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/bin:${PATH}"
export PATH
This works perfectly fine. However, I want to add an alias (right underneath the above two lines) as follows:
alias test='cd ..'
However, when I save this and start up the Terminal, I get the following message:
-bash: alias: ..": not found
Replacing the single quotes with double quotes doesn't help, nor does taking them away altogether. Curiously however, the following alias works:
alias c=clear
When I type c into the terminal, it clear the screen, as you would expect. However, if I instead entered this line with quotes in the bash profile as:
alias c='clear'
Then I will get the following whenever I enter c into the Terminal:
-bash: 'clear': command not found
Note that I do not get an error message on startup for this alias.
What am I doing wrong? Is there a setting I need to change somewhere to get aliases to work properly? I have seen previous examples of aliases and they simply do not work for me.
It looks like shell is not accessing your .bash_profile when logging via terminal.
.bash_profile is a config file of bash shell. When bash shell starting, shell will execute the commands in .bash_profile. But there are many kinds of shells, and different shells execute different config file.
Terminal is a software to receive user input, shell will execute commands.You can use cat /etc/shells to list acceptable shells. For example:
$ cat /etc/shells
/bin/bash
/bin/csh
/bin/ksh
/bin/sh
/bin/tcsh
/bin/zsh
The default shell is bash shell on Mac OX. But if you have installed zsh, the default shell is zsh, when zsh shell starting, shell will find out the file named .zshrc, and execute the commands in .zshrc.
You can use echo $SHELL to determine the current shell:
$ echo $SHELL
/bin/bash
-> echo $SHELL
/bin/zsh
If your default shell is zsh, .bash_profile don't work. The config file of zsh is .zshrc. And I guess your problem is that your default shell is not bash shell. For example, if your default shell is zsh, you should config the .zshrc , just add
PATH="/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/bin:${PATH}"
export PATH
or other config to ~/.zshrc.
Then source ~/.zshrc, and the config will work immediately.
Wrapping the command with double quotation worked for me. I was trying with every possible way mentioned in this thread and none of them worked. Then I replaced single quote to double and that worked.
alias mysql_start="sudo /path/to/server/mysql.server start"
For me, it didn't work in the same terminal. I had to open a new one to get it work.
The killer for me was space and single quotes.
alias test="cd .." worked.
Don't put any spaces between alias_name=
User level 'system' files need to contain 'plain text'. How to set/configure this for your 'editor-of-choice' can vary (I don't use a Mac so I'm not much help with that.) Soo,
create your profile 'from the shell' by appending lines directly, i.e. remove the 'bad lines and then:
echo "some command string" >> ~/path/bash_profile
use 'vi' or 'vim' ## should be 'safe'
review your file via:
cat -v ~/path/bash_profle | more ## see any 'funny chars'? or
cat -ve ~/path/bash_profle | more ## see any 'funny chars'? or
or
vi ~/path/bash_profle # then set 'control codes' to 'on'
set list ## see any 'funny chars' for your 'quotes'?
What I realised is that Mac has option for smart quotes and dashes.
alias ..='cd ../' is different from alias ..=‘cd ../‘, where the former works but the latter doesn't.
You can run alias custom auto startup in ~/.bash_profile or ~/.alias_file... by paste file name alias in ~/.bashrc if you use bash or ~/.zshrc if you use zsh.
Ex:
if [ -s ~/.bash_profile ]; then
source ~/.bash_profile;
fi
I fixed this by editing my .bash_profile in vim or nano something about text edited messed it up unsure why.
I tried to edit in in notepad just using "open .bash_profile" however something about the symbols translated wrong. So you have to either "vim .bash_profile" or "nano .bash_profile"
Doing this corrected this problem for me.
Make sure that the alias commands are together in the .bash_profile too. That is what was wrong with mine.
Also, if you just type in alias in the terminal, it should list all the known alias commands, so if you don't see your command you know something is wrong.
If alias is not recognizing, first identify what shell you're using when you open up your terminal or commandlineprompt echo $SHELL. For me it's /bin/bash so i'll input my aliases in ~/.bash_profile
Take note, the file ~/.bash_profile can store both aliases to call out during a terminal session and autorun those same aliases upon opening up a terminal session. The example below would be to open up a file to edit by text via vim-software. You may change it other text-editors as you wish. You can see the difference by closure-method.
ALIAS CALLOUT (uses parenthesis)
alias editbp="vim ~/.bash_profile"
ALIAS AUTORUN (uses tilda)
alias editbp=`vim ~/.bash_profile`

Appending bash alias to .bashrc doesn't work

I want to create a alias of my cd command. I have created the .bashrc file and append the command cd ...... to it. (Since the file was newly created, it just has this one line that I added).
After that, only after I typed . ~/.bashrc, can the alias works. If I close the terminal and open it again, I need to retype . ~/.bashrc.
It's really annoying to do this every time. Is there any way to solve this problem?
Thank you so much for help
When you login to linux system, only ~/.profile will be called:
$ cat ~/.profile
# if running bash
if [ -n "$BASH_VERSION" ]; then
# include .bashrc if it exists
if [ -f "$HOME/.bashrc" ]; then
. "$HOME/.bashrc"
fi
fi
You need to source ~/.bashrc inside ~/.profile manaully.
Read this to learn more.
EDIT:
If you're using iTerm2 on mac, it actually start a login shell by default when open tabs.
But you can change it: Preferences > General > Command
If using OS X, append the alias to ~/.bash_profile.
You could also add alias to ~/.bashrc, then add source ~/.bashrc to ~/.bash_profile.
Better yet, put all your aliases in ~/.aliases, and source it in ~/.bash_profile.
By default, OS X first sources /etc/bashrc (which shouldn't be modified unless absolutely necessary), then sources the user's ~/.bash_profile at the start of every interactive session.

How to load ~/.bash_profile when entering bash from within zsh?

I've used bash for two years, and just tried to switch to zsh shell on my OS X via homebrew. And I set my default (login) shell to zsh, and I confirmed it's set properly by seeing that when I launch my Terminal, it's zsh shell that is used in default.
However, when I try to enter bash shell from within zsh, it looks like not loading ~/.bash_profile, since I cannot run my command using aliases, which is defined in my ~/.bash_profile like alias julia="~/juila/julia", etc.. Also, the prompt is not what I set in the file and instead return bash-3.2$.
For some reasons, when I set my login shell to bash, and enter zsh from within bash, then ~/.zshrc is loaded properly.
So why is it not loaded whenever I run bash from within zsh? My ~/.bash_profile is symbolic linked to ~/Dropbox/.bash_profile in order to sync it with my other computers. Maybe does it cause the issue?
Open ~/.zshrc, and at the very bottom of the file, add the following:
if [ -f ~/.bash_profile ]; then
. ~/.bash_profile;
fi
Every time you open the terminal, it will load whatever is defined in ~/.bash_profile (if the file exist). With that, you can keep your custom settings for zsh (colors, and etc). And you get to keep your custom shell settings in .bash_profile file.
This is much cleaner than using bash -l IMO.
If you prefer putting your settings in .bashrc, or .bash_login, or .profile , you can do the same for them.
Similarly, you could also move the common profile settings to separate file, i.e. .my_common_profile, and add the following to both .bash_profile and .zshrc:
if [ -f ~/.my_common_profile ]; then
. ~/.my_common_profile;
fi
An interactive bash reads your ~/.bash_profile if it's a login shell, or your ~/.bashrc if it's not a login shell.
A typical .bash_profile will contain something like:
if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then . ~/.bashrc; fi
so .bashrc can contain commands to be executed by either login or non-login shells.
If you run bash -l rather than just bash, it should read your .bash_profile.
Reference: https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/html_node/Bash-Startup-Files.html
For those who have just installed zsh and want their alias from bash to work on zsh do the following
Open .zshrc file in vim like so
vi ~/.zshrc
Scroll to the bottom
click "i" to enable write mode
Tell zsh to load items from bash_profile when needed like so
source ~/.bash_profile
Write and quit like so
:wq
Refresh your zsh like so
source ~/.zshrc
That's it. Now all your saved alias in .bash_profile will be ready to use in zsh.
To complement #Keith Thompson's excellent answer:
macOS:
As #chepner puts it succinctly (emphasis mine):
In OS X, bash is not used as part of the initial [at boot time] login process, and the Terminal.app (or other terminal emulators) process exists outside any pre-existing bash sessions, so each new window [or tab - read: interactive bash shell] (by default) treats itself as a new login session.
As a result, some OSX users only ever create ~/.bash_profile, and never bother with ~/.bashrc, because ALL interactive bash shells are login shells.
Linux:
On Linux, the situation is typically reversed:
bash shells created interactively are [interactive] NON-login shells, so it is ~/.bashrc that matters.
As a result, many Linux users only ever deal with ~/.bashrc.
To maintain bash profiles that work on BOTH platforms, use the technique #Keith Thompson mentions:
Put your definitions (aliases, functions, ...) in ~/.bashrc
Add the following line to ~/.bash_profile
[[ -f ~/.bashrc ]] && . ~/.bashrc
Copy the contents from ~/.bash_profile and paste them at the bottom of ~/.zshrc file.
For ZSH users on MacOs, I ended up with a one liner.
At the very bottom of the ~/.zshrc I added the following line :
bash -l
What it does is simply load the .bash_profile settings(aliases, function, export $PATH, ...)
If you decide to get rid of ZSH and go back to plain BASH, you'll be back to normal with no hassle at all.
If this is something that you do infrequently, or it just isn't appropriate to make changes, you can also 'source' the .bash_profile after launching the child bash shell.
. ~/.bash_profile
This will pull in the settings you make in the .bash_profile script for the life of that shell session. In most cases, you should be able to repeat that command, so it's also an easy way to test any changes that you make without needing to do a full login, as well as bring all of your existing shell sessions up-to-date if you make upgrades to the .bash_profile &/or .bashrc files.
For macOS Big Sur (Version 11.5.2)
Open .zshrc
For example: sudo nano ~/.zshrc
At the end of the file add source ~/.bash_profile
Every time you open the terminal the contents inside the bash profile will be loaded.
Recently I installed oh-my-zsh on OS X and set zsh as default shell and faced the same problem.
I solved this problem by adding source ~/.bash_profile at the end of .zshrc file.
I am using a zsh framework called oh my zsh and I have tried most of the solutions listed here and it broke the format for my custom theme. However, these steps worked for me.
Add new alias(es) at the bottom of my .bash_profile
vi ~/.bash_profile
Make zsh to load items from .bash_profile
source ~/.bash_profile
Refresh zsh
source ~/.zshrc
Restart OSX Terminal app
Try your new alias!
If you'd like to be "profile-centric", you can create .profile as a single source of truth, then load it from both .bash_profile and .zprofile.
.profile
export PATH="/usr/local/opt/python/libexec/bin:$PATH"
# etc., etc.
.bash_profile and .zprofile
if [ -f ~/.profile ]; then
. ~/.profile;
fi
I found this helped bash scripts find the right PATH, etc., and helped me keep configuration in one place.

My Bash aliases don't work

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 '
Add this to the end of your .bashrc:
if [ -f $HOME/.bash_aliases ]
then
. $HOME/.bash_aliases
fi
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.
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
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.
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
Sometimes forgetting to source the bashrc also creates this problem. So after adding your aliases don't forget to source it.
source ~/.bashrc
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
don't forget to
chmod 600 ~/.bash_aliases
on kubuntu 22.04
;)
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.

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