Windows command line aliases

As a former part time Ubuntu user I used a lot of alias definitions for often used shell commands. I missed the alias utility on windows but found that the windows doskey utility is a fair enough alternative for me.

I most often use doskey in the form

doskey <MacroName>=[<Text>]

"Creates a macro that carries out the commands specified by Text. MacroName specifies the name you want to assign to the macro. Text specifies the commands you want to record." (from Windows doskey reference as linked above)

The [<Text>] parameter supports some useful special characters like

$T     separates commands
$1-$9  batch parameter placeholder

I put all my doskey definitions in a batch file (myCmd.bat) which I use to start a new command line window.

This works pretty well for me - and maybe also for you. You will find a myCmd.bat example shown below.

---

	@echo off
	rem +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
	rem quick directory access aliases
	rem +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
	doskey ..=cd ..
	doskey ...=cd ..\..
	doskey cdprogs=c:$Tcd c:\progs
	doskey cdjetty=c:$Tcd C:\progs\jetty-6.1.21
	doskey cdtomcat=c:$Tcd c:\progs\apache-tomcat-7.0.32
	doskey cdeclipse=c:$Tcd C:\progs\eclipse
	doskey cdhome=cd %HOMEPATH%
	rem +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
	rem start & stop glassfish which hosts wiki
	rem +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
	doskey startwiki=C:\progs\glassfishv3\bin\asadmin start-domain
	doskey stopwiki=C:\progs\glassfishv3\bin\asadmin stop-domain
	rem +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
	rem start & stop other server that I just
	rem unzipped instead of installed
	rem +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
	doskey starttomcat=c:\progs\apache-tomcat-7.0.32\bin\startup.bat
	doskey startsonar=c:\progs\sonar-2.10\bin\windows-x86-32\StartSonar.bat
	rem +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
	rem Maven aliases
	rem +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
	doskey mvnci=mvn -DskipTests clean install
	doskey mvncd=mvn clean deploy
	doskey mvnddu=mvn versions:display-dependency-updates
	rem +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
	rem alias related aliases ;-)
	rem +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
	doskey editconfig=notepad c:\progs\myCmd.bat
	doskey alias=doskey /macros
	rem keep the command line tool open
	cmd /K
	@echo on

view raw myCmd.bat hosted with ❤ by GitHub