This is probably a very simple thing but I can’t find an answer, possibly because I don’t know what terms to use in search.

How do I use an alias of a path with mv or cp? Or even cd?

In /etc/bash.bashrc I have: alias docs=‘/media/docs

cd docs Gives “No such file or directory”

Yet: docs Gives “Is directory”

With alias docs=‘cd /media/docs’ and by typing docs I get into the directory. Obviously I can’t use that alias with mv or cp though.

Maybe this isn’t even an intended use of alias but still. Why doesn’t it work?

  • MolochHorridus@piefed.socialOP
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    18 hours ago

    Thanks, but the problem with this is that I’ll type /media/docs/whatever much faster than hunt the ~ from my keyboard because I have to move my whole hand to do so.

    It’s altGr + ^ on my keyboard.

    • teawrecks@sopuli.xyz
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      16 hours ago

      Highly recommend remapping common characters to easy-to-access hand movements. The keyboard is a tool to make things easier. I never use caps-lock, but I use esc all the time, so I regularly swap them (or just have a second esc bind).

    • False@lemmy.world
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      17 hours ago

      That sounds inconvenient. I use ~ all the time. $HOME should point to the same dir in most cases though