Bash aliases I use every day

A short list of bash aliases I've kept across multiple machines for years. Nothing fancy — just things I type often enough that the abbreviation saves real time.

# Navigation
alias ..='cd ..'
alias ...='cd ../..'
alias ll='ls -lah'

# Git
alias gs='git status'
alias ga='git add'
alias gc='git commit -m'
alias gd='git diff'
alias gl='git log --oneline --graph --decorate -20'
alias gco='git checkout'

# Activate Python venv
alias va='source .venv/bin/activate'

# Show local IP
alias myip='ipconfig getifaddr en0'

# Quick HTTP server in current dir
alias serve='python3 -m http.server 8000'

# Safer rm
alias rm='rm -i'

# Open current dir in editor
alias e='code .'

The git ones save me probably 30+ keystrokes a day. gl in particular — I run it constantly to remember what I was doing yesterday.

A couple I tried and removed

alias cl='clear' — too short, kept hitting it accidentally when I meant cd.

alias gp='git push' — caused too many oopsies. I'd rather type the full word and think about it.

Where to put them

~/.bashrc on most Linux systems. ~/.zshrc on macOS Catalina and later. After saving, either restart your shell or run source ~/.zshrc.

The rule I follow: only alias commands you run more than 10 times a day. Otherwise the cost of remembering the alias outweighs the typing saved — and you'll be that person who can't use anyone else's terminal.