Enhancing Your macOS Terminal Workflow: Creating an Alias for ‘ll’ to ‘ls -als’

To list files and directories with detailed information using the ll command in the macOS terminal, you can create an alias for ls -als. Here’s how you can do it:

1. Open your terminal.

2. Run the following command to open your shell profile configuration file in a text editor. This file is usually .bashrc or .bash_profile.

nano ~/.bashrc

3. Add the following line to create an alias for ll to execute ls -als.

alias ll='ls -als'

4. Save and exit the text editor by pressing Ctrl + O to write the changes and then Enter, followed by Ctrl + X to exit.

5. Source your profile to apply the changes without having to restart the terminal.

source ~/.bashrc

Now you can use the ll command to list files and directories with detailed information, just like you would with ls -als. The alias will make your terminal experience more efficient and convenient.

If you’re using the zsh shell, the steps to create an alias for ll will be slightly different than for the bash shell. Here’s what you should do:

1. Open Configuration File: Open your zsh configuration file, which is usually ~/.zshrc, in a text editor. You can do this using the following command:

   nano ~/.zshrc
   

2. Add Alias: Add the alias for ll by including the following line in your ~/.zshrc file:

   alias ll='ls -als'
   

3. Save and Exit: Save the changes and exit the text editor (Nano) by pressing Ctrl + O to write changes, then Enter, and Ctrl + X to exit.

4. Apply Changes: To apply the changes to your current terminal session, run:

   source ~/.zshrc
   

Now, whenever you open a new terminal session, the ll command should automatically be aliased to ls -als without needing to run source ~/.zshrc each time.