How to make .bashrc aliases available within a Vim shell command (:.!bash)

Zettel#17

zettelkasten
Published

2022-11-19

If you want non-interactive shell (as default) but expansion of bash aliases, put your alias definitions in a file, e.g. .bash_aliases and explicitly enable alias expansion in this file:

shopt -s expand_aliases  
alias la='ls -la'

Then add this to your .vimrc so the aliases file is actually read each time you run a shell command from within Vim:

let $BASH_ENV = "~/.bash_aliases"

source: https://stackoverflow.com/a/18901595

My opinion

Using scripts should be the preferred method though, as they are reliable and shareable. It’s generally a good idea to follow the principles of the Unix philosophy.