Set-Alias
Applies To: Windows PowerShell 2.0
Creates or changes an alias (alternate name) for a cmdlet or other command element in the current Windows PowerShell session.
Syntax
Set-Alias [-Name] <string> [-Value] <string> [-Description <string>] [-Force] [-Option {<None> | <ReadOnly> | <Constant> | <Private> | <AllScope>}] [-PassThru] [-Scope <string>] [-Confirm] [-WhatIf] [<CommonParameters>]
Description
The Set-Alias cmdlet creates or changes an alias (alternate name) for a cmdlet or for a command element, such as a function, a script, a file, or other executable. You can also use Set-Alias to reassign a current alias to a new command, or to change any of the properties of an alias, such as its description. Unless you add the alias to the Windows PowerShell profile, the changes to an alias are lost when you exit the session or close Windows PowerShell.
Parameters
-Description <string>
Specifies a description of the alias. You can type any string. If the description includes spaces, enclose it quotation marks.
Required? |
false |
Position? |
named |
Default Value |
|
Accept Pipeline Input? |
false |
Accept Wildcard Characters? |
false |
-Force
Allows the cmdlet to set a read-only alias. Use the Option parameter to create a read-only alias. The Force parameter cannot set a constant alias.
Required? |
false |
Position? |
named |
Default Value |
|
Accept Pipeline Input? |
false |
Accept Wildcard Characters? |
false |
-Name <string>
Specifies the new alias. You can use any alphanumeric characters in an alias, but the first character cannot be a number.
Required? |
true |
Position? |
1 |
Default Value |
|
Accept Pipeline Input? |
true (ByPropertyName) |
Accept Wildcard Characters? |
false |
-Option <ScopedItemOptions>
Sets the value of the Options property of the alias.
Valid values are:
-- None: Sets no options. ("None" is the default.)
-- ReadOnly: Can be deleted. Cannot be not changed, except by using the Force parameter.
-- Constant: Cannot be deleted or changed.
-- Private: The alias is available only in the current scope.
-- AllScope: The alias is copied to any new scopes that are created.
To see the Options property of all aliases in the session, type "Get-Alias | Format-Table -property name, options -autosize".
Required? |
false |
Position? |
named |
Default Value |
|
Accept Pipeline Input? |
false |
Accept Wildcard Characters? |
false |
-PassThru
Returns an object representing the alias. By default, this cmdlet does not generate any output.
Required? |
false |
Position? |
named |
Default Value |
|
Accept Pipeline Input? |
false |
Accept Wildcard Characters? |
false |
-Scope <string>
Specifies the scope in which this alias is valid. Valid values are "Global", "Local", or "Script", or a number relative to the current scope (0 through the number of scopes, where 0 is the current scope and 1 is its parent). "Local" is the default. For more information, see about_Scopes.
Required? |
false |
Position? |
named |
Default Value |
|
Accept Pipeline Input? |
false |
Accept Wildcard Characters? |
false |
-Value <string>
Specifies the name of the cmdlet or command element that is being aliased.
Required? |
true |
Position? |
2 |
Default Value |
|
Accept Pipeline Input? |
true (ByPropertyName) |
Accept Wildcard Characters? |
false |
-Confirm
Prompts you for confirmation before executing the command.
Required? |
false |
Position? |
named |
Default Value |
|
Accept Pipeline Input? |
false |
Accept Wildcard Characters? |
false |
-WhatIf
Describes what would happen if you executed the command without actually executing the command.
Required? |
false |
Position? |
named |
Default Value |
|
Accept Pipeline Input? |
false |
Accept Wildcard Characters? |
false |
<CommonParameters>
This command supports the common parameters: Verbose, Debug, ErrorAction, ErrorVariable, OutBuffer, OutVariable, WarningAction, and WarningVariable. For more information, see about_CommonParameters.
Inputs and Outputs
The input type is the type of the objects that you can pipe to the cmdlet. The return type is the type of the objects that the cmdlet returns.
Inputs |
None You cannot pipe input to this cmdlet. |
Outputs |
None or System.Management.Automation.AliasInfo When you use the PassThru parameter, Set-Alias generates a System.Management.Automation.AliasInfo object representing the alias. Otherwise, this cmdlet does not generate any output. |
Notes
An alias is an alternate name or nickname for a cmdlet or command element. To run the cmdlet, you can use its full name or any valid alias. For more information, see about_Aliases.
To create a new alias, use Set-Alias or New-Alias. To delete an alias, use Remove-Item.
A cmdlet can have multiple aliases, but an alias can only be associated with one cmdlet at a time. If you use set-alias to associate the alias with a different cmdlet, it is no longer associated with the original cmdlet.
You can create an alias for a cmdlet, but you cannot create an alias for a command with parameters and values. For example, you can create an alias for Set-Location, but you cannot create an alias for "Set-Location C:\Windows\System32". To create an alias for a command, create a function that includes the command, and then create an alias to the function.
To save the aliases from a session and use them in a different session, add the set-alias command to your Windows PowerShell profile. Profiles do not exist by default. To create a profile in the path stored in the $profile variable, type "New-Item -type file -force $profile". To see the value of the $profile variable, type "$profile".
You can also save your aliases by using Export-Alias to copy the aliases from the session to a file, and then use Import-Alias to add them to the alias list for a new session.
You can also refer to Set-Alias by its built-in alias, "sal". For more information, see about_Aliases.
Example 1
C:\PS>set-alias -name list -value get-childitem
Description
-----------
This command creates the alias "list" for the Get-ChildItem cmdlet. After you create the alias, you can use "list" in place of "Get-ChildItem" at the command line and in scripts.
Example 2
C:\PS>set-alias list get-location
Description
-----------
This command associates the alias "list" with the Get-Location cmdlet. If "list" is an alias for another cmdlet, this command changes its association so that it now is the alias only for Get-Location.
This command uses the same format as the command in the previous example, but it omits the optional parameter names, -Name and -Value. When you omit parameter names, the values of those parameters must appear in the specified order in the command. In this case, the value of -Name ("list") must be the first parameter and the value of -Value ("get-location") must be the second parameter.
Example 3
C:\PS>set-alias scrub remove-item -option readonly -passthru | format-list
Description
-----------
This command associates the alias "scrub" with the Remove-Item cmdlet. It uses the "ReadOnly" option to prevent the alias from being deleted or assigned to another cmdlet.
The PassThru parameter directs Windows PowerShell to pass an object that represents the new alias through the pipeline to the Format-List cmdlet. If the PassThru parameter were omitted, there would be no output from this cmdlet to display (in a list or otherwise).
Example 4
C:\PS>Set-Alias np c:\windows\notepad.exe
Description
-----------
This command associates the alias, "np", with the executable file for Notepad. After the command completes, to open Notepad from the Windows PowerShell command line, just type "np".
This example demonstrates that you can create aliases for executable files and elements other than cmdlets.
To make the command more generic, you can use the "Windir" environment variable (${env:windir}) to represent the C\Windows directory. The generic version of the command is "set-alias np ${env:windir}\notepad.exe".
Example 5
C:\PS>function CD32 {set-location c:\windows\system32}
C:\PS>set-alias go cd32
Description
-----------
These commands show how to assign an alias to a command with parameters, or even to a pipeline of many commands.
You can create an alias for a cmdlet, but you cannot create an alias for a command that consists of a cmdlet and its parameters. However, if you place the command in a function or a script, then you can create a useful function or script name and you can create one or more aliases for the function or script.
In this example, the user wants to create an alias for the command "set-location c:\windows\system32", where "set-location" is a cmdlet and "C:\Windows\System32" is the value of the Path parameter.
To do this, the first command creates a function called "CD32" that contains the Set-Location command.
The second command creates the alias "go" for the CD32 function. Then, to run the Set-Location command, the user can type either "CD32" or "go".