How to add system alias?

Question

I have this alias in my .zshrc:

alias grim='gvim --remote'

But this is not seen from ranger file manager, I believe that ranger runs a 'generic' shell skipping my .zshrc. I want to make this alias visible in every shell.

I added it to ~/.profile and to /etc/zsh/zshrc but no effect. To be specific a got this message:

/bin/sh: grim: not found

Answer 1

Only interactive shells read a file that may contain alias definitions. If you want to use a nickname for a command in shell snippets executed by applications, an alias is not the right tool. Instead, write a wrapper script like this:

#!/bin/sh
gvim --remote "$@"

Call it ~/bin/grim and make it executable. Make sure you have ~/bin in your PATH (you can put the script in any other directory that's in your PATH).

Answer 2

You can create a file alias.sh in /etc/profile.d directory

Write the line

alias grim='gvim --remote'

inside that file alias.sh

This will create a system-wide customization.

Instead of alias.sh you can use any other filename ending with .sh

Answer 3

Did you do something like? :

source /path/to/.profile