Environment variables and aliases

Environment variables were covered in Chapter2, Working with Variables. Here is a cool trick that I learned years ago that can really help when using the command line. Most Linux systems generally have several standard directories under $HOME such as Desktop, Downloads, Music, Pictures, and so on. I personally do not like typing the same things over and over again and so do this to help use the system more efficiently. Here are some of the lines that I have added to my /home/guest1/.bashrc file:

export BIN=$HOME/bin
alias bin="cd $BIN"

export DOWN=$HOME/Downloads
alias down="cd $DOWN"

export DESK=$HOME/Desktop
alias desk="cd $DESK"

export MUSIC=$HOME/Music
alias music="cd $MUSIC"

export PICTURES=$HOME/Pictures
alias pictures="cd $PICTURES"

export BOOKMARKS=$HOME/Bookmarks
alias bookmarks="cd $BOOKMARKS"

# Packt- Linux Scripting Bootcamp
export LB=$HOME/LinuxScriptingBook
alias lb="cd $LB"

# Source lbcur
. $LB/source.lbcur.txt

Using this approach you...