Aliases

Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 will reach end of support on April 11, 2017. To stay supported, you will need to upgrade. For more information, see Resources to help you upgrade your Office 2007 servers and clients.

 

Applies to: Exchange Server 2007, Exchange Server 2007 SP1, Exchange Server 2007 SP2, Exchange Server 2007 SP3

In Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, you can assign an Exchange Management Shell cmdlet or Cmd.exe command to an administrator-defined and easy-to-remember alias. Such aliases can be useful when you frequently use certain cmdlets and want to reduce the typing that you must do.

When an alias is called from the command line, the rules that apply to the cmdlet that is represented by the alias are enforced exactly as when the cmdlet is called. You must supply any required parameters and their values exactly as if you had called the cmdlet name.

Built-in Aliases

Many cmdlets that are used regularly have default, or built-in, aliases assigned to them. These built-in aliases help reduce the typing that you have to do when you administer Exchange 2007 by using the Exchange Management Shell.

For example, the Get-ChildItem cmdlet resembles the MS-DOS Dir command. Because you are familiar with the Dir command, you might want to use the Dir alias when you use the Exchange Management Shell instead of typing Get-ChildItem every time that you want to view the contents of a directory. The output from the Get-ChildItem cmdlet and the Dir alias is the same and can be used interchangeably.

Table 1 shows the built-in aliases and their full names.

Table1   Built-in aliases

Alias	Command	Alias	Command	Alias	Command
Ac	Add-Content	Iex	Invoke-Expression	Write	Write-Output
Asnp	Add-PSSnapin	Ihy	Invoke-History	Cat	Get-Content
Clc	Clear-Content	Ii	Invoke-Item	Cd	Set-Location
Cli	Clear-Item	Ipal	Import-Alias	Clear	Clear-Host
Clp	Clear-ItemProperty	Ipcsv	Import-Csv	Cp	Copy-Item
Clv	Clear-Variable	Mi	Move-Item	H	Get-History
Cpi	Copy-Item	Mp	Move-ItemProperty	History	Get-History
Cpp	Copy-ItemProperty	Nal	New-Alias	Kill	Stop-Process
Cvpa	Convert-Path	Ndr	New-PSDrive	Lp	Out-Printer
Diff	Compare-Object	Ni	New-Item	Ls	Get-ChildItem
Epal	Export-Alias	Nv	New-Variable	Mount	New-PSDrive
Epcsv	Export-Csv	Oh	Out-Host	Mv	Move-Item
Fc	Format-Custom	Rdr	Remove-PSDrive	Popd	Pop-Location
Fl	Format-List	Ri	Remove-Item	Ps	Get-Process
Foreach	ForEach-Object	Rni	Rename-Item	Pushd	Push-Location
%	ForEach-Object	Rnp	Rename-ItemProperty	Pwd	Get-Location
Ft	Format-Table	Rp	Remove-ItemProperty	R	Invoke-History
Fw	Format-Wide	Rsnp	Remove-PSSnapin	Rm	Remove-Item
Gal	Get-Alias	Rv	Remove-Variable	Rmdir	Remove-Item
Gc	Get-Content	Rvpa	Resolve-Path	Echo	Write-Output
Gci	Get-ChildItem	Sal	Set-Alias	Cls	Clear-Host
Gcm	Get-Command	Sasv	Start-Service	Chdir	Set-Location
Gdr	Get-PSDrive	Sc	Set-Content	Copy	Copy-Item
Ghy	Get-History	Select	Select-Object	Del	Remove-Item
Gi	Get-Item	Si	Set-Item	Dir	Get-ChildItem
Gl	Get-Location	Sl	Set-Location	Erase	Remove-Item
Gm	Get-Member	Sleep	Start-Sleep	Move	Move-Item
Gp	Get-ItemProperty	Sort	Sort-Object	Rd	Remove-Item
Gps	Get-Process	Sp	Set-ItemProperty	Ren	Rename-Item
Group	Group-Object	Spps	Stop-Process	Set	Set-Variable
Gsv	Get-Service	Spsv	Stop-Service	Type	Get-Content
Gsnp	Get-PSSnapin	Sv	Set-Variable	List	Format-List
Gu	Get-Unique	Tee	Tee-Object	Table	Format-Table
Gv	Get-Variable	Where	Where-Object	Man	ExHelp
Gwmi	Get-WmiObject	?	Where-Object	Help	ExHelp

For more information about aliases, run the following command in the Exchange Management Shell:

Get-Help About_Alias

Creating Custom Aliases

In addition to the default, or built-in, aliases, you can define and use custom aliases instead of the names of cmdlets that you frequently use. You can use the Set-Alias cmdlet to associate cmdlets to familiar command names that have the equivalent functionality in Cmd.exe. You can assign multiple aliases to a single command. But each alias can only be assigned to a single command. For example, you can have three aliases Alias1, Alias2, and Alias3 that are assigned to the Move-Mailbox cmdlet. You could then use any of the three aliases to run the Move-Mailbox cmdlet. However, each alias that you create can only be assigned to the Move-Mailbox cmdlet. You can't, for example, assign Alias1 to both the Move-Mailbox cmdlet and the Get-Mailbox cmdlet.

To create a new alias-cmdlet pairing, run the Set-Alias cmdlet and supply the name of the alias, together with the name of the cmdlet that you want to call when the alias is entered.

Table 2 shows several examples of how to create a new alias.

Table 2   Examples of custom aliases

Alias description	Alias command
Retrieve the contents of a file.	Set-Alias Type Get-Content
Retrieve the listing of a directory.	Set-Alias Dir Get-ChildItem
Remove a file.	Set-Alias Erase Remove-Item
Set pad as an alias for Microsoft WordPad.	Set-Alias Pad "${env:programfiles}\Windows NT\Accessories\wordpad.exe"
Display the list of all defined aliases.	Set-Alias Aliases Get-Alias

Removing an Alias

To remove an alias, delete the alias from the alias drive. For example, an administrator creates the Ls alias by using the following command:

Set-Alias Ls Get-ChildItem

Later the administrator decides that the Ls alias is no longer needed and uses the following command to remove the Ls alias:

Remove-Item Alias Ls

Importing and Exporting Aliases

The Export-Alias cmdlet writes the current alias list to a file in comma-separated values (CSV) format. You can include the name of the file and its path in the command line. If the path doesn't exist, the cmdlet will create the path for you. You can create the file by using the .txt or .doc extensions.

The Import-Alias cmdlet reads a text file that has CSV values and brings the list into the Exchange Management Shell as an object. By using the Export-Alias cmdlet and Import-Alias cmdlet, you can export a list of aliases from the Exchange Management Shell on one computer and import them to the Exchange Management Shell on another computer. Because existing predefined aliases exist on both computers, all alias name conflicts will be ignored and not imported.

Alias Persistence

Aliases that are created from the command line by using the Set-Alias cmdlet during an Exchange Management Shell session can be used when the session is active. After the session is closed, the alias definition is lost. To make a user-defined alias persistent and available every time that a new Exchange Management Shell session is opened, you must add the alias definition to the Exchange Management Shell Microsoft.PowerShell_Profile.ps1 file that is located in the My Documents\PSConfiguration subfolder of your user profile directory.

Alias Limitations

Although aliases can be defined for cmdlets and used instead of cmdlet names, you can't include parameters in the definition of the aliases that you define. You must provide parameters as needed when the alias is called, exactly as you would if you called the cmdlet.