Essential UNIX Configuration Tips

This was a test post I made with Claude as I was debugging the Svelte shit. Decided screw it, I’ll keep it. LOL

Shell Aliases

Add these to your .bashrc or .zshrc:

# Better defaults
alias ll='ls -lah'
alias grep='grep --color=auto'
alias df='df -h'

# Quick navigation
alias ..='cd ..'
alias ...='cd ../..'
alias ....='cd ../../..'

SSH Configuration

Create ~/.ssh/config to simplify SSH connections:

Host myserver
    HostName 192.168.1.100
    User admin
    Port 22
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa
    ServerAliveInterval 60

Host *.internal
    ProxyJump bastion.example.com
    User deploy

Now you can simply run ssh myserver instead of typing the full connection string.

tmux Configuration

A minimal ~/.tmux.conf that improves the default experience:

# Use Ctrl-A as prefix (more ergonomic than Ctrl-B)
unbind C-b
set -g prefix C-a
bind C-a send-prefix

# Start windows and panes at 1, not 0
set -g base-index 1
setw -g pane-base-index 1

# Enable mouse support
set -g mouse on

# Increase scrollback buffer size
set -g history-limit 10000

# Vi mode for copy mode
setw -g mode-keys vi

Git Configuration

Some useful Git aliases in ~/.gitconfig:

[alias]
    st = status
    co = checkout
    br = branch
    ci = commit
    unstage = reset HEAD --
    last = log -1 HEAD
    visual = log --graph --oneline --all --decorate

[core]
    editor = vim
    autocrlf = input

[pull]
    rebase = false

Wrapping Up

The beauty of UNIX is that you can customize everything to match your workflow. Start small, add configurations as you discover what slows you down, and before long you’ll have a finely-tuned environment.