In the context of a C-shell, an alias is somewhat like a link, except that an alias can take the place of a command, or set of commands. An alias is a short name you assign to an instruction or set of instructions. It allows you to give a convenient and short name to a complicated command set. In the C-shell, an alias created by a user exists only for the benefit of the user who created it. One user's aliases will not interfere with another user's operations.
Users can create their own aliases in one of two ways.
First, a user can issue the alias command. When using the alias command, the alias will function for the duration of the session. Once a user's shell session has ended, the alias will no longer function. A second way of creating an alias is to place it in the .cshrc file. This way, the alias will be initialized each time a shell session is started.