(Linux help) alias an ip address

[shahzadqu]

Hi Linux gurus,

I am trying to set an alias to an ip address so that i dont' have to type the damn ip address everytime i want to ftp to it, but im having trouble in it. this is wut i do

$ set alias foo='123.45.678.90'

and then i do

$ telnet foo

it does different things. sometimes it would tell me that foo is not a hostname, other times it would try to connect to some other ip, and then othertimes it would login into my machine and ask me for the password and even though thats not where i wanna go, if i enter my password, it reports "bad password"

then i tried

$ set alias foo='telnet 123.45.678.90'

i get the error

bash: foo:command not found

any help guys??

thanks

[Lucid Chaotic]

tell me why you wouldn't use foo as an alternate hostname, i.e. use the /etc/hosts file for designating another name for that client ??

[soft_friend]

If you use a bash shell ,set a alias in your "~/.bashrc " file.
or /etc/bashrc or /etc/profile in case of some hard distributions like slackware.
just write
alias foo="blah blah"

no need to write "set"


or introduce a variable
write the line in your ~/.bashrc

export foo="blah blah"

[shahzadqu]

thanks for the replies Umar Talib and soft_friend

the problem with editing /etc/hosts file is that i dont' have permissions to do so. im a user on the system, not root. by the way, i didnt' even know i could do that, thanks

and wut u suggested soft_friend, that doesn't work. I tried both (alias in .bashrc and introduce a variable) and they both didn't work. i get an error
telnet: foo: Temporary failure in name resolution
foo: Host name lookup failure

thanks though guys,

any other suggestions?

[schahzad]

host :bind

means
System first try to resolve the name to ip from host file and if it didnt found it lll tyr bind (DNS) to find the ip address of foo.

If you dont any any entery in both places it wont let you do that.
if problem is only "every time".Then better to use script

shell$ vi footelnet
(it ll open a new file press i to insert)

telnet ur.ip.address

(press escape key and then wq! to write and quite from file)

this ll creat a file with name footelnet whicl ll have a line

telnet ur.ip.address

jnow u need to make this file executeable.

shell$ chmod 755 footelnet

you are done, now every time u just need to

shell$ ./footelnet
it ll do what u want.Also u can copy this file to /usr/bin/ to access from any where if this script is in /usr/bin/ you can type any where

shell$ footelnet

and it ll do same thing.

Please let us know if u doesnt understand any thing in up procedure.hopes its what u need

[Najim]

well follow what Schahzad mentioned by creating a small script & then
type "cd" (you will not see any output, & it will give u the prompt again)& then type "pwd". Keep note of the output of pwd command, it should be

/home/UR-USER-ID
/export/UR-USER-ID

lets say its

/home/shahzadqu

open ur .profile file or .bash_profile (depending upon the shell u use).

Add these lines

PATH=$PATH:/home/shahzadqu
export PATH

press : & type wq! after that.

Relogin, & u dont have to force start ur script. Just type the script name.