Updated on August 24, 2021 in #linux

Temporarily Ignore a Shell Alias by Using a Backslash

If you've aliased a command with extra flags, once in a while it might be useful to run the raw command. Here's 5 ways to do that.

For example, chances are you have a color flag added to your ls command in the form of an alias. You can check by running type ls. You can run the raw non-aliased version by running \ls -la. This works to bypass any alias, not just ls.

# Demo Video

Commands

5 different ways to bypass running an alias:

# My preferred way of doing it.
\ls -la

'ls' -la
"ls" -la
/bin/ls -la
command ls -la

Timestamps

• 0:07 – Using a fairly standard ls alias with color support
• 0:38 – Using a backslash, quotes or the full path to bypass a Shell alias
• 1:45 – Applying this to the diff command if you have a custom alias
• 3:19 – Which aliases do you skip once in a while?

Reference Links

• https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/diff-selections-files-directories-and-git-history-with-vim

How often do you do this in your day to day? Let me know below.