How to define an alias in fish shell?

Question

I would like to define some aliases in fish. Apparently it should be possible to define them in

~/.config/fish/functions

but they don't get auto loaded when I restart the shell. Any ideas?

Answer 1

Just use alias. Here's a basic example:

# Define alias in shell
alias rmi "rm -i"

# Define alias in config file
alias rmi="rm -i"

# This is equivalent to entering the following function:
function rmi
    rm -i $argv
end

# Then, to save it across terminal sessions:
funcsave rmi

This last command creates the file ~/.config/fish/functions/rmi.fish.

Interested people might like to find out more about fish aliases in the official manual.

Answer 2

This is how I define a new function foo, run it, and save it persistently.

sthorne@pearl~> function foo
                    echo 'foo was here'
                end
sthorne@pearl~> foo
foo was here
sthorne@pearl~> funcsave foo

Answer 3

For posterity, fish aliases are just functions:

$ alias foo="echo bar"
$ type foo
foo is a function with definition
function foo
    echo bar $argv; 
end

To remove it

$ unalias foo
/usr/bin/unalias: line 2: unalias: foo: not found
$ functions -e foo
$ type foo
type: Could not find “foo”

Answer 4

1. if there is not config.fish in ~/.config/fish/, make it.
2. there you can write your function .function name command end

Answer 5

Save your files as ~/.config/fish/functions/{some_function_name}.fish and they should get autoloaded when you start fish.

Answer 6

To properly load functions from ~/.config/fish/functions

You may set only ONE function inside file and name file the same as function name + add .fish extension.

This way changing file contents reload functions in opened terminals (note some delay may occur ~1-5s)

That way if you edit either by commandline

function name; function_content; end

then

funcsave name

you have user defined functions in console and custom made in the same order.

Answer 7

fish starts by executing commands in ~/.config/fish/config.fish. You can create it if it does not exist.

step1. make configuration file (like .bashrc)

config.fish

step2. just write your alias like this;

alias rm="rm -i"

Answer 8

If you add an abbr instead of an alias you'll get better auto-complete. In fish abbr more closely matches the behavior of a bash alias.

abbr -a gco git checkout

Will -add a new abbreviation gco that expands to git checkout.

Here's a video demo of the resulting auto-complete features

Answer 9

make a function in ~/.config/fish/functions called mkalias.fish and put this in

function mkalias --argument key value
  echo alias $key=$value
  alias $key=$value
  funcsave $key
end

and this will create aliases automatically.