# Julia's shell mode can't recognize user-defined aliases of system commands on Linux
**URL:** https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julias-shell-mode-cant-recognize-user-defined-aliases-of-system-commands-on-linux/109724
**Category:** General Usage
**Tags:** question, shell, repl, linux
**Created:** [February 5, 2024, 5:55am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julias-shell-mode-cant-recognize-user-defined-aliases-of-system-commands-on-linux/109724 "2024-02-05T05:55:43Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@WuSiren](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/WuSiren)
#### Post date: [February 5, 2024, 5:55am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julias-shell-mode-cant-recognize-user-defined-aliases-of-system-commands-on-linux/109724/1 "2024-02-05T05:55:43Z")
Why can’t Julia’s shell mode recognize user-defined aliases of system commands on Linux?
I defined some aliases in the `~/.bashrc` file such as
```shell
alias mydir="cd ~/path/to/my/directory/"
```
so that I can conveniently `cd` to my directory.
But in the Julia REPL when I typed `;` to enter the shell mode I found all the aliases I defined in the system `.bashrc` file no longer work.
What’s the reason? And how to make them work?
Thanks!
---
### Author:  [@oxinabox](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/oxinabox)
#### Post date: [February 5, 2024, 6:26am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julias-shell-mode-cant-recognize-user-defined-aliases-of-system-commands-on-linux/109724/2 "2024-02-05T06:26:42Z")
they don’t work because julia’s shell mode (just like it’s `run` command) doesn’t execute inside `bash`,
It doesn’t execute in a shell at all.
---
### Author:  [@oxinabox](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/oxinabox)
#### Post date: [February 5, 2024, 6:29am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julias-shell-mode-cant-recognize-user-defined-aliases-of-system-commands-on-linux/109724/3 "2024-02-05T06:29:32Z")
I don’t think there is any easy way to make them work.
Especially for something which changes global state like `cd`.
But I could be wrong there.
For some things you can get them to work by doing `bash -e mycommand` etc.
This doesn’t work for `cd` since it runs in a seperate process with its own current directory.
Instead I suggest using a julia function
`mydir() = cd(expanduser("~/path/to/my/directory/"))`
which you can define in your `.juliarc`
which you can just call in julia mode
---
### Author:  [@WuSiren](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/WuSiren)
#### Post date: [February 5, 2024, 7:26am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julias-shell-mode-cant-recognize-user-defined-aliases-of-system-commands-on-linux/109724/4 "2024-02-05T07:26:30Z")
Thanks! But how can I know which commands can work within Julia’s shell mode? I found I can even run `julia` again and again within an opened Julia’s shell mode if I have added its installation path to the environment variable in `.bashrc`. What is this feature and Julia’s shell mode designed for?
---
### Author:  [@gdalle](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/gdalle)
#### Post date: [February 5, 2024, 9:00am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julias-shell-mode-cant-recognize-user-defined-aliases-of-system-commands-on-linux/109724/5 "2024-02-05T09:00:09Z")
I think I had the same issue and fixed it by putting the following line in `.bash_profile`:
```julia
source .bashrc
```
Not sure it’s very elegant but it worked for me.
My problem was getting Julia to see my global `mamba` installation for Python.
---
### Author:  [@WuSiren](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/WuSiren)
#### Post date: [February 5, 2024, 9:18am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julias-shell-mode-cant-recognize-user-defined-aliases-of-system-commands-on-linux/109724/6 "2024-02-05T09:18:07Z")
Thanks. Don’t know why it still didn’t work for me. 🫤
Do you mean I should define the aliases in `.bashrc` first and then add `source .bashrc` to `.bash_profile`? If so it didn’t work for me.
---
### Author:  [@Sukera](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Sukera)
#### Post date: [February 5, 2024, 9:33am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julias-shell-mode-cant-recognize-user-defined-aliases-of-system-commands-on-linux/109724/7 "2024-02-05T09:33:25Z")
> [@WuSiren](#):
>
> I found I can even run `julia` again and again within an opened Julia’s shell mode if I have added its installation path to the environment variable in `.bashrc`.
That’s because `julia` is an actual binary program that can be invoked, and the `julia` process you start from your shell inherits the environment variables currently set in your shell.
> [@WuSiren](#):
>
> What is this feature and Julia’s shell mode designed for?
Julias `shell>` prompt can only spawn processes - things like shell aliases are features of your particular shell (`bash`, `zsh`, etc), not of “spawning a process” in general. The same is true for other shell-builtins like `ulimit` or `export` in `bash`; they are not accessible to the `shell>` prompt because they’re not actual programs that can be invoked.
You can think of your shell as a sort-of mini programming language that’s interpreting space-separated commands as “spawn a process” or similar, so just like you can’t use `zsh` builtins in `bash`, you can’t use `bash` builtins (or aliases) in `shell>`.
---
### Author:  [@WuSiren](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/WuSiren)
#### Post date: [February 5, 2024, 10:02am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julias-shell-mode-cant-recognize-user-defined-aliases-of-system-commands-on-linux/109724/8 "2024-02-05T10:02:11Z")
Thanks for your explanation about its underlying mechanism. I seemed to understand. When I first learnt of the shell mode of Julia I thought I could do anything under Julia’s framework without having to exit it and now it seems I wanted too much.
---
### Author:  [@piechologist](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/piechologist)
#### Post date: [February 5, 2024, 8:11pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julias-shell-mode-cant-recognize-user-defined-aliases-of-system-commands-on-linux/109724/9 "2024-02-05T20:11:14Z")
You could start any shell though. Occasionally, I run `shell> fish` to have access to my aliases, functions etc. without leaving the Julia REPL.
This starts a subshell (check `env` and you see SHLVL set to 2). You can exit that subshell with ^D to go back to the `shell>` mode.
Just be aware that any shell variables you set will be lost after exiting i.e., if you start `shell> bash`, set something like `important_var=42`, exit, and start `shell> bash` again, the variable will be gone.
---
### Author:  [@WuSiren](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/WuSiren)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2024, 3:19am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julias-shell-mode-cant-recognize-user-defined-aliases-of-system-commands-on-linux/109724/10 "2024-02-06T03:19:54Z")
Nice! 👍
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### Author:  [@gdalle](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/gdalle)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2024, 6:41am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julias-shell-mode-cant-recognize-user-defined-aliases-of-system-commands-on-linux/109724/11 "2024-02-06T06:41:15Z")
For completeness, the thing I tested in the Julia REPL is access to environment variables (`$PATH`) defined in `.bash_profile`, and that worked. So it’s another issue than aliases
---
### Author:  [@WuSiren](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/WuSiren)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2024, 6:47am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julias-shell-mode-cant-recognize-user-defined-aliases-of-system-commands-on-linux/109724/12 "2024-02-06T06:47:32Z")
🤝 🤝