How can I install the `ll` command on Mac OS X?
MacOS:
alias ll='ls -lG'
Linux:
alias ll='ls -l --color=auto'
Stick that in ~/.bashrc
.
In OS X 10.9.5 since Mavericks (and at least up to El Capitan) you have to add an alias command to your .bash_profile file in your home folder:
~/.bash_profile
which is equivalent to your user path at
/Users/YOUR_USER_NAME/.bash_profile
To see that file in finder you have to activate the display of hidden files (e.g. using the app InVisible). Otherwise you can simply use your terminal to locate it and edit it with nano:
nano ~/.bash_profile
Then add an alias command to the end of that file. The standard ll alias would be
alias ll='ls -lG'
but I prefer
alias ll='ls -lGaf'
which also shows all hidden files (starting with a dot) and sorts the output case-insensitive.
Don't forget to restart your terminal app after the changes.
Run type ll
to see where the ll
command is coming from. ll
is not a standard command, but many distributions predefine it to an alias for ls
with some preset options. The output of type ll
gives you the definition of the alias, or you can look for it in your shell configuration file (~/.bashrc
if your shell is bash). Copy the definition to ~/.bashrc
on the other machine.
Bash handles its configuration file in a slightly odd way: it loads ~/.bashrc
in all interactive shells except the ones that are also login shells. Bash only loads ~/.bash_profile
(if it exists, otherwise ~/.profile
) in a login shell. To make sure that your .bashrc
is read when it should be, put this line in your ~/.bash_profile
:
case $- in *i*) . ~/.bashrc;; esac