The other day I was looking something up for PowerShell and realized that cat command for the classic ‘Windows Command Shell’1 is an alias of Get-Content PowerShell cmdlet. I wondered what other aliases does PowerShell have. There is an extensive collection of about 138 default aliases on PowerShell going to 109 PowerShell cmdlets on Windows. PowerShell was designed to work with other operating systems too, like Linux and MacOs. If you are new to PowerShell, then these aliases are a good place to learn commands that are often used.

What is an alias?

In PowerShell, an alias is an alternative name for a cmdlet or command element (e.g., function, script, file, executable).

Alias Good Practices

As good practice, I like to write out the entire cmdlet rather than the alias. There are good reasons not to use the aliases in scripts too:

  • Easier to read and understand the command, e.g., Export-Csv vs epcsv.
  • Aliases can be deleted/redefined in the profile script (more on this)
  • Custom aliases may not be available where the script is running (e.g., another system, another OS)

Useful Aliases

List your Aliases

To list your aliases on your system, use Get-Alias or simply the alias gal.

Output:

CommandType     Name                                               Version    Source
-----------     ----                                               -------    ------
Alias           ? -> Where-Object
Alias           % -> ForEach-Object
Alias           ac -> Add-Content
Alias           cat -> Get-Content
Alias           cd -> Set-Location
Alias           chdir -> Set-Location

Additionally can list all alias type but these include ones that don’t have an alias defined:

Get-Command -CommandType Alias

Output:

CommandType     Name                                               Version    Source
-----------     ----                                               -------    ------
Alias           % -> ForEach-Object
Alias           ? -> Where-Object
Alias           ac -> Add-Content
Alias           Add-AppPackage                                     2.0.1.0    Appx
Alias           Add-AppPackageVolume                               2.0.1.0    Appx
...

Alias to Cmdlet

If you see an alias you can get its cmdlet by calling the following:

Get-Alias -Name ls

Output:

CommandType     Name
-----------     ----
Alias           ls -> Get-ChildItem

Cmdlet to Aliases

If you want to get all the aliases for a cmdlet:

Get-Alias -Definition Get-ChildItem

CommandType     Name
-----------     ----
Alias           dir -> Get-ChildItem
Alias           gci -> Get-ChildItem
Alias           ls -> Get-ChildItem

Other Operating Systems

I also noticed that a lot of these aliases are also Linux friendly naming (e.g., clear, ls, pwd). There is a good chance that the command you find for Linux could work for Windows. Good news for developers jumping between operating systems – less to learn. Which makes sense, as PowerShell tries to be cross-platform compatible. As the different shells coalesce into a singular naming convention. #singularity 😄

PowerShell cmdlet Windows Command Shell1 UNIX command
Clear-Host cls clear
Copy-Item copy cp
Remove-Item del, erase, rd, rmdir rm
Get-ChildItem dir ls
Write-Output echo echo
New-Item md mkdir
Move-Item move mv
Pop-Location popd popd
Get-Location - pwd
Push-Location pushd pushd
Rename-Item ren mv
Get-Content type cat

Default PowerShell Aliases on Windows

I think the default PowerShell aliases on Windows are important because it shows which cmdlets are common enough across different shells to have an alias (e.g., ls on Linux/MacOS) in Windows, or, used enough that typing out the whole cmdlet is tedious (e.g., Get-History and h).

PowerShell Cmdlet PowerShell Alias on Windows
Clear-Content clc
Clear-History clhy
Clear-Host clear, cls
Clear-Item cli
Clear-ItemProperty clp
Clear-Variable clv
Compare-Object compare, diff
Connect-PSSession cnsn
Convert-Path cvpa
Copy-Item copy, cp, cpi
Copy-ItemProperty cpp
Disable-PSBreakpoint dbp
Disconnect-PSSession dnsn
Enable-PSBreakpoint ebp
Enter-PSSession etsn
Exit-PSSession exsn
Export-Alias epal
Export-Csv epcsv
ForEach-Object foreach, %
Format-Custom fc
Format-Hex fhx
Format-List fl
Format-Table ft
Format-Wide fw
Get-Alias gal
Get-ChildItem dir, gci, ls
Get-Clipboard gcb
Get-Command gcm
Get-ComputerInfo gin
Get-Content cat, gc, type
Get-Error gerr
Get-History ghy, h, history
Get-Item gi
Get-ItemProperty gp
Get-ItemPropertyValue gpv
Get-Job gjb
Get-Location gl, pwd
Get-Member gm
Get-Module gmo
Get-Process gps, ps
Get-PSBreakpoint gbp
Get-PSCallStack gcs
Get-PSDrive gdr
Get-PSSession gsn
Get-Service gsv
Get-TimeZone gtz
Get-Unique gu
Get-Variable gv
Group-Object group
help man
Import-Alias ipal
Import-Csv ipcsv
Import-Module ipmo
Invoke-Command icm
Invoke-Expression iex
Invoke-History ihy, r
Invoke-Item ii
Invoke-RestMethod irm
Invoke-WebRequest iwr
Measure-Object measure
mkdir md
Move-Item mi, move, mv
Move-ItemProperty mp
New-Alias nal
New-Item ni
New-Module nmo
New-PSDrive mount, ndr
New-PSSession nsn
New-Variable nv
Out-GridView ogv
Out-Host oh
Pop-Location popd
Push-Location pushd
Receive-Job rcjb
Receive-PSSession rcsn
Remove-Item del, erase, rd, ri, rm, rmdir
Remove-ItemProperty rp
Remove-Job rjb
Remove-Module rmo
Remove-PSBreakpoint rbp
Remove-PSDrive rdr
Remove-PSSession rsn
Remove-Variable rv
Rename-Item ren, rni
Rename-ItemProperty rnp
Resolve-Path rvpa
Select-Object select
Select-String sls
Set-Alias sal
Set-Clipboard scb
Set-Item si
Set-ItemProperty sp
Set-Location cd, chdir, sl
Set-PSBreakpoint sbp
Set-TimeZone stz
Set-Variable set, sv
Show-Command shcm
Sort-Object sort
Start-Job sajb
Start-Process saps, start
Start-Service sasv
Start-Sleep sleep
Stop-Job spjb
Stop-Process kill, spps
Stop-Service spsv
Tee-Object tee
Wait-Job wjb
Where-Object where
Write-Output echo, write

  1. Windows Command Shell also known as cmd.exe and Command Prompt ↩︎ ↩︎