Set-Alias

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	none
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	none
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	none
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. (default)

-- ReadOnly: The properties of the alias cannot be changed, except by using the Force parameter. You can use Remove-Item to delete the alias.

-- Constant: The alias cannot be deleted and its properties cannot be changed. Constant is available only when you are creating an alias. You cannot change the option of an existing alias to Constant.

-- Private: The alias is available only within the scope specified by the Scope parameter. It is invisible in all other scopes.

-- AllScope: The alias is copied to any new scopes that are created.

To see the Options property of the aliases, type "Get-Alias | Format-Table -property Name, Definition, Options -autosize".

Required?	false
Position?	named
Default Value	none
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	none
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	none
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	none
Accept Pipeline Input?	true (ByPropertyName)
Accept Wildcard Characters?	false

-Confirm

Prompts you for confirmation before executing the command.

Required?	false
Position?	named
Default Value	none
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	none
Accept Pipeline Input?	false
Accept Wildcard Characters?	false

<CommonParameters>

This cmdlet supports the common parameters: -Verbose, -Debug, -ErrorAction, -ErrorVariable, -OutBuffer, and -OutVariable. 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

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

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

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

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

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

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".