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I have searched around but could not find anything conclusive. Is there a difference between the alias command in zsh and the alias command in bash? If not, does it mean I can share a set of aliases between the two shells and expect them to work as I intended?

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  • One difference is that in bash, alias alone will list your aliases in sourcable command form, while in zsh you need to use the -L option to get that.
    – Joachim Lous
    Commented Jan 14, 2021 at 8:21

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The syntax of the alias command is the same in all Bourne-style shells. So you can share them across ~/.zshrc, ~/.bashrc, ~/.kshrc, ~/.shrc, as long as they make sense in all the shells.

The same holds for variable definitions and function definitions, as long as you use the subset of syntax that's supported in all shells.

If you don't use versions of zsh older than 4.0, you can put all your shell-agnostic definitions in a file called (say) ~/.common.rc.sh, where the first line is

emulate -LR sh 2>/dev/null

This tells zsh to expect sh compatible syntax in this file only. Then source that file near the beginning of ~/.bashrc, ~/.bashrc, ~/.kshrc and so on.

This is basically what I do. For example, I have somewhat complex code that generates an alias for ls with my favorite options depending on what's available (--color, -G, -F, etc.); it's shell-agnostic, so goes in .common.rc.sh. I also have shell-dependent aliases, like alias zcp='zmv -C' that goes in .zshrc.

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    If I put a /bin/sh shebang at the top of my aliases file will it work as I intend for all shells?
    – Zameer Manji
    Commented Nov 25, 2011 at 13:08
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    @ZameerManji No, don't put a #! line: this is not a standalone script, it can only be sourced in another script. #! doesn't change the shell's behavior anyway.
    – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
    Commented Nov 25, 2011 at 13:33
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    A tiny difference I found is that zsh's alias treats an argument beginning with + as introducing an option like - would, so alias +=something must be written as alias -- +=something in zsh. Don't think emulate changes that.
    – Mikel
    Commented May 11, 2012 at 1:09
  • Be careful with ~/.shrc since the Bourne Shell has the most powerful alias implementation but zsh uses incompatible option names. alias -g creates a persistent alias in $HOME/.globals with the Bourne Shell. Sharing alias definitions is only safe as long as you use no more than the POSIX features.
    – schily
    Commented Jul 2, 2018 at 8:01
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According to the Zsh Workshop Aliases they seem to have the same syntax, so they should work.

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  • I can attest to that. The do for me.
    – frogstarr78
    Commented Nov 24, 2011 at 5:17
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zsh's alias allows global aliases, whereas bashs are only expanded at the beginning of the line.

In zsh:

alias -g L="| less -FRX"

You can then do:

verbose-command L

See here for a list of helpful global aliases.

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  • Calling all expand aliases "global" aliases is a really bad idea since there is a concept of local aliases that are restricted to a specific directory while global aliases since 38 years apply to aliases that are diectory independent. This concept is from 1980 from UNOS and implemented in the Bourne Shell since 6 years. UNOS introduced all expand aliases in 1980 as well, zsh could have done some research for avoiding this type of clash. See schillix.sourceforge.net/man/man1/bosh.1.html
    – schily
    Commented Jul 2, 2018 at 7:52

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