Terminal Aliases That Save Me Hours

Every command you type repeatedly is time wasted. Shell aliases turn long commands into short shortcuts. Here are the ones I actually use.

How Aliases Work

Add them to ~/.bashrc (Bash) or ~/.zshrc (Zsh):

alias ll='ls -la'
alias gs='git status'

Apply changes:

source ~/.zshrc

Now ll runs ls -la and gs runs git status.

alias ..='cd ..'
alias ...='cd ../..'
alias home='cd ~'
alias c='clear'

Single characters for common operations.

Git

alias gs='git status'
alias ga='git add'
alias gc='git commit'
alias gp='git push'
alias gl='git log --oneline -10'
alias gd='git diff'
alias gco='git checkout'

I run gs dozens of times a day.

Network Diagnostics

These are the ones I reach for when troubleshooting:

# Show listening ports
alias ports='netstat -an | grep LISTEN'

# Local IP
alias myip='ipconfig getifaddr en0'  # macOS
# alias myip='hostname -I | awk "{print \$1}"'  # Linux

# Public IP
alias mypublicip='curl -s ifconfig.me'

# Quick ping (10 packets, fast)
alias p='ping -c 10 -i 0.2'

# DNS lookup
alias n='nslookup'

# ARP table
alias a='arp -a'

File Operations

# Create directory with parents
alias mkd='mkdir -p'

# Show disk usage for current directory
alias duh='du -h --max-depth=1 | sort -hr'

# Find large files
alias bigfiles='find . -type f -size +100M'

Quick Edits

# Edit and reload shell config
alias editz='vim ~/.zshrc && source ~/.zshrc'

# Show my aliases (assumes they're at end of file)
alias shortcuts='tail -30 ~/.zshrc'

Docker

alias d='docker'
alias dc='docker compose'
alias dps='docker ps'
alias dimg='docker images'
alias dlogs='docker logs -f'

Kubernetes

alias k='kubectl'
alias kgp='kubectl get pods'
alias kgs='kubectl get services'
alias kgd='kubectl get deployments'
alias klogs='kubectl logs -f'

Tips

Don't override system commands. Aliasing rm to rm -i seems safe until a script expects the original behavior.

Use descriptive names. gs for git status is easy to remember. x for something obscure isn't.

Chain with &&. alias editz='vim ~/.zshrc && source ~/.zshrc' ensures source only runs if editing succeeds.

Add comments. For complex aliases, add a comment above explaining what it does.

Key Takeaways

Store aliases at the end of .bashrc or .zshrc for easy editing
Two-letter aliases (gs, gp, ll) are fast and memorable
Network diagnostic aliases (ports, myip) get used constantly
Run source ~/.zshrc after editing to apply changes
Avoid overwriting system commands
Chain related commands with && for atomic operations