alias - create a function — fish-shell 4.2.1 documentation

# alias - create a function

## Synopsis

    alias
    alias [--save] NAME DEFINITION
    alias [--save] NAME=DEFINITION

## Description

`alias` is a simple wrapper for the `function` builtin, which creates a function wrapping a command. It has similar syntax to POSIX shell `alias`. For other uses, it is recommended to define a function.

If you want to ease your interactive use, to save typing, consider using an abbreviation instead.

`fish` marks functions that have been created by `alias` by including the command used to create them in the function description. You can list `alias`-created functions by running `alias` without arguments. They must be erased using `functions -e`.

- `NAME` is the name of the alias

- `DEFINITION` is the actual command to execute. `alias` automatically appends `$argv`, so that all parameters used with the alias are passed to the actual command.

You cannot create an alias to a function with the same name. Note that spaces need to be escaped in the call to `alias` just like at the command line, even inside quoted parts.

The following options are available:

-h or --help

  Displays help about using this command.

-s or --save

  Saves the function created by the alias into your fish configuration directory using funcsave.

## Example

The following code will create `rmi`, which runs `rm` with additional arguments on every invocation.

    alias rmi="rm -i"

    # This is equivalent to entering the following function:
    function rmi --wraps rm --description 'alias rmi=rm -i'
        rm -i $argv
    end

`alias` sometimes requires escaping, as you can see here:

    # This needs to have the spaces escaped or "Chrome.app..."
    # will be seen as an argument to "/Applications/Google":
    alias chrome='/Applications/Google\ Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google\ Chrome'

## See more

1. The function command this builds on.

2. Functions.

3. Defining aliases.