Avoiding Shell Hell: Aliases to the rescue

Aliases are a hack to developer productivity. Developers spend a couple of time typing long commands from Git to Docker and Kubernetes when these could be aliased saving us the time to achieve more. In this talk, I will expand on the tips and tricks developers can apply to achieve more in less time. Presented at forLoop Lagos Summit

Transcript

1. Avoiding Shell Hell:
   Aliases to the rescue
   Lagos Summit 2019 | Chiamaka Ikeanyi
   March 8, 2019 @ Zone Tech Park, Gbagada
   

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2. Chiamaka Ikeanyi
   chiamakaikeanyi.dev @chiamakaikeanyi
   Poet & Writer
   Software Engineer at
   

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3. @chiamakaikeanyi
   

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4. @chiamakaikeanyi
   

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5. gc?
   @chiamakaikeanyi
   

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6. An alias to git commit
   @chiamakaikeanyi
   

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7. Say hello to Aliases
   @chiamakaikeanyi
   

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8. What is an alias?
   @chiamakaikeanyi
   

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9. An alias is an alternate name for a
   command.
   Just a shortcut.
   @chiamakaikeanyi
   

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10. Why are aliases important?
    @chiamakaikeanyi
    ● Spend less time typing
    ● Reduce the chances of typos in a long command
    ● The secret to speeding up your terminal workflow
    

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11. docker ps | grep forloop
    Is this cool?
    @chiamakaikeanyi
    

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12. dgp forloop
    What of this?
    @chiamakaikeanyi
    

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13. @chiamakaikeanyi
    Consider this Scenario
    Client 1
    Website
    You
    $ kubectl get pods | grep $podName
    $ kubectl logs $podName
    $ kubectl exec -it $podName bash
    Client 2
    

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14. @chiamakaikeanyi
    

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15. Aliases instruct the shell to replace
    one string with another when
    executing commands.
    @chiamakaikeanyi
    

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16. ● Git
    ● Docker
    ● Kubernetes
    ● . . .
    Popular usage
    @chiamakaikeanyi
    

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17. isLong && repetitive ? alias : null
    Alias every command?
    @chiamakaikeanyi
    No, Not really
    

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18. Who needs to use aliases?
    @chiamakaikeanyi
    

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19. Lazy software engineers
    @chiamakaikeanyi
    

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20. gac "Fix filters"
    gpo patch/filters
    git add .
    git commit -m "Fix filters"
    git push origin patch/filters
    Works Smart
    Works Hard
    

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21. How can you add aliases?
    @chiamakaikeanyi
    

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22. Syntax
    alias name=command
    @chiamakaikeanyi
    

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23. Syntax
    alias name="command with space"
    @chiamakaikeanyi
    

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24. Store in the home directory
    @chiamakaikeanyi
    

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25. Bourne-again shell (Bash): ~/.bashrc
    or ~/.bash_profile
    Z Shell (ZSH): ~/.zshrc
    Default Files
    @chiamakaikeanyi
    

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26. echo $SHELL
    cd ~
    ls -la
    touch ~/.bash_profile
    Not Found?
    @chiamakaikeanyi
    

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27. alias workspace=
    "git config user.name 'your_name'
    && git config user.email
    'your_email'"
    @chiamakaikeanyi
    

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28. alias blog="open
    https://chiamakaikeanyi.dev"
    @chiamakaikeanyi
    

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29. alias nis='f(){ npm install
    --save "$@" }; f'
    @chiamakaikeanyi
    

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30. source ~/.zshrc
    or
    . ~/.zshrc
    Reload
    @chiamakaikeanyi
    

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31. nano ~/.zshrc
    open ~/.zshrc
    code ~/.zshrc
    alias
    @chiamakaikeanyi
    Accessing your Aliases
    NB: Substitute .zshrc with the shell you’re using - .bashrc or .bash_profile ...
    

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32. BASH
    @chiamakaikeanyi
    

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33. At the end…
    What matters is becoming more
    productive
    @chiamakaikeanyi
    

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34. Demo
    Let’s see an example
    @chiamakaikeanyi
    

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35. https://github.com/chiamakaikeanyi/dotfiles
    Resource
    @chiamakaikeanyi
    

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36. Tomorrow is mystery
    But you can save time
    By using Aliases
    - Chiamaka Ikeanyi
    @chiamakaikeanyi
    Yesterday is history
    

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37. Thank you
    chiamakaikeanyi.dev @chiamakaikeanyi
    

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