How can I tell what command an alias stands for?

Question

ll is a common alias in many Linux distros.
How can I tell what it aliases to?

I've tried checking my .bashrc, but I am not able tell what ll is equivalent to.

Solution 1

You can use the alias command.

$ alias ll
ll='ls --color=auto -Flh'

Solution 2

You can find a list of aliases on the system with the following command

type -a ll

ll is aliased to `ls -alF'

As a side note, you can see a list of all aliases on the system with

compgen -a

Solution 3

Typing in the command also lists all the aliases in the shell

alias

Solution 4

From the manual page for command:

If either the '-V' or '-v' option is supplied, a description of command is printed.

So, command -v ll might produce this output: alias ll='ls -l'.

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Comments

[ILMostro_7]

you can also type which ll to find out

[Admin]

Also, if you're sure it's an alias, alias ll will tell you.

[Tony Anderson]

which ll returns nothing on my ubuntu machine. alias ll does show what I'm looking for, thanks!

[Hauke Laging]

@EvanTeitelman Please make that an answer. I just wanted to but that would feel strange with you having said just that as a comment.

[Admin]

@HaukeLaging: Thanks, I have posted that as an answer.

[Elder Geek]

One might go so far as to say " a description or the location of the command is printed" as evidenced by command -v dd which produces /bin/dd