Overwrite ls in .bash_profile

Question

I'm new to bash and unix. I'm trying to create an alias for ls. In my .bash_profile I have the following:

alias ls="ls -lhHG"

This doesn't work at all. If I change it to:

alias la="ls -lhHG"

then everything but G (showing pretty colors) works.

Right now my $Path is

/opt/local/bin:/Users/clang/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/X11/bin

The only other stuff in my .bash_profile is

1 export EDITOR=/usr/bin/vim
2 export PATH=/opt/local/bin:~/bin:$PATH

Again, I'm totally new to this so please go easy on me.

I'm not sure what you mean by 'doesn't work'. what are you seeing, and what do you want to happen. Also, what platform? Linux, OSX? It is significant what flags to pass to ls to 'work'
By doesn't work I mean when I try to run the command ls it just runs the ls command with no additional options. The platform is OSX.

Stefan Lasiewski · Accepted Answer · 2010-10-05 23:13:39Z

up vote 2 down vote accepted

After you edit .bash_profile, make sure you source it into your current environment with:

source ~/.bash_profile

Or:

. .bash_profile

Then, your new modified commands should be available to you.

edited Oct 5 '10 at 23:13

answered Oct 5 '10 at 23:05

Stefan Lasiewski
1,1691923

	Thanks! I'm away from my mac atm but when I get in tomorrow I'll try this first thing – clang1234 Oct 6 '10 at 4:10
	That did it. Thanks so much. Now I'm off to learn vim... I have a feeling I'll be back soon – clang1234 Oct 6 '10 at 14:54
	@clang : That's why we're here ;) – Stefan Lasiewski Oct 6 '10 at 17:13

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