Q. Sometime I get confuges whether command is an alias or it is real command. How do I find out if shell command is aliased?
A: You need to use type command. It rells whether command is an alias, function, buitin command or executable command file.
For example:
$ type --all ls
Output:
ls is aliased to `ls --color=auto' ls is /bin/ls
OR
$ type alias
alias is a shell builtin
So for each command, it indicate how it would be interpreted if used as a command name. You can also try out following options:
- If the -t option is used, `type' outputs a single word which is one of alias, keyword, function, builtin, file etc
- If the -p flag is used, `type' either returns the name of the disk file that would be executed, or nothing if `type -t NAME' would not return `file'.
- If the -a flag is used, `type' displays all of the places that contain an executable named `file'. This includes aliases, builtins, and functions, if and only if the -p flag is not also used.
- The -f flag suppresses shell function lookup.
- The -P flag forces a PATH search for each NAME, even if it is an alias, builtin, or function, and returns the name of the disk file that that would be executed.
See also:
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