PowerShell Aliases
Remarks
Powershell naming system has quite strict rules of naming cmdlets (Verb-Noun template; see [topic not yet created] for more information). But it is not really convenient to write Get-ChildItems every time you want to list files in directory interactively.
Therefore Powershell enables using shortcuts - aliases - instead of cmdlet names.
You can write ls, dir or gci instead of Get-ChildItem and get the same result. Alias is equivalent to its cmdlet.
Some of the common aliases are:
| alias | cmdlet |
|---|---|
| %, foreach | For-EachObject |
| ?, where | Where-Object |
| cat, gc, type | Get-Content |
| cd, chdir, sl | Set-Location |
| cls, clear | Clear-Host |
| cp, copy, cpi | Copy-Item |
| dir/ls/gci | Get-ChildItem |
| echo, write | Write-Output |
| fl | Format-List |
| ft | Format-Table |
| fw | Format-Wide |
| gc, pwd | Get-Location |
| gm | Get-Member |
| iex | Invoke-Expression |
| ii | Invoke-Item |
| mv, move | Move-Item |
| rm, rmdir, del, erase, rd, ri | Remove-Item |
| sleep | Start-Sleep |
| start, saps | Start-Process |
In the table above, you can see how aliases enabled simulating commands known from other environments (cmd, bash), hence increased discoverability.
