Enhancing DX with Bash Aliases

You’re using the same commands often but they are long or you don’t remember their syntax? I have a solution for you!

Bash Aliases

It’s called bash aliases to do the same thing that you can perform with npm scripts, but with a better DX (Developer Experience):

• create a .bashrc at the repo root.
• define your aliases, for example:

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alias sp-init='supabase init'
alias sp-login='supabase login'
alias sp-link-env='source .env && echo "linking to $SUPABASE_PROJECT_ID ... using password=$SUPABASE_PROJECT_PASSWORD" && supabase link --project-ref $SUPABASE_PROJECT_ID'
alias sp-gen-types='source .env && supabase gen types --lang=typescript --project-id "$SUPABASE_PROJECT_ID" --schema public > src/types/database.types.ts'
alias sp-db-migrate-new='supabase migration new "$1"'
alias sp-dbreset='supabase db reset --linked'
alias sp-dbseed='node --env-file=.env database/sedding.js'
alias sp-dbrs='sp-dbreset && node --env-file=.env database/sedding.js'

Usage

Run source .bashrc from within the terminal in the repository’s root.

Then, run any alias with it name and use TAB to list them if you cannot remember one exactly.

To check the aliases are loaded, run alias in the terminal.

PS: you’ll also have many other predefined aliases in your environment.

To reload the aliases after a change, run source .bashrc each time.

I’ve tested that in Git bash for Windows. On MacOS or Linux, it works just as well.