[trainee@easterton ~]$ man ls
Manual page displayed here
[trainee@easterton ~]$ woman ls
-bash: woman: command not found
[trainee@easterton ~]$ alias woman=man
[trainee@easterton ~]$ woman ls
Manual page displayed here
[trainee@easterton ~]$

OK - I'll admit that this is quite a trivial use of the "alias" command which (if your running the default 'bash' shell) lets you rename commands - replacing longer names with shorter ones, and adding in some default options too. Here's an example of that, where I am adding the -F option to all my ls commands, as I would like a trailing @ * or / to indicate a link, executable or directory on my listing:

Dorothy-2:nov09 grahamellis$ ls
LinuxAdmin.book.pdf
LinuxBasicsAdmin.book.pdf
chamber.org.uk.tgz
no_50.rtf
notes
phpvna
pics
try
Dorothy-2:nov09 grahamellis$ alias ls='ls -F'
Dorothy-2:nov09 grahamellis$ ls
LinuxAdmin.book.pdf
LinuxBasicsAdmin.book.pdf
chamber.org.uk.tgz
no_50.rtf
notes
phpvna
pics/
try/
Dorothy-2:nov09 grahamellis$

alias commands remain active only for the life of the current shell - type them in at the command line, and they'll not be transferred to any new windows. And you'll loose them completely when you log out or close the window in which you have set them. If you want to make them permanent, edit them into your .bashrc file - that's the file that's read every time you start a new shell.

oh .. ".bashrc" => "Bourne Again Shell Runtime Commands" if you wondered!
(written 2009-11-06, updated 2009-11-07)

 A101 - Web Application Deployment - Linux -An Introduction For Users
  [3256] Displaying a directory or file system tree - Linux - (2011-04-22)
  [3179] Oops - I typed ci not vi, and have lost my file ... - (2011-02-21)
  [2831] Recording (a macro) in vi - (2010-06-27)
  [2636] Linux - useful tips including history and file name completion - (2010-02-15)
  [2479] Accidentally typed ci rather than vi? - (2009-10-27)
  [2300] What does x on a linux directory mean? - (2009-07-21)
  [2299] How much space does my directory take - Linux - (2009-07-20)
  [2203] Always use su with minus. And where do programs come from? - (2009-05-27)
  [2201] Running straight from the jar, but not from a tar - (2009-05-26)
  [1904] Ruby, Perl, Linux, MySQL - some training notes - (2008-11-23)
  [1902] sstrwxrwxrwx - Unix and Linux file permissions - (2008-11-23)
  [1897] Keeping on an even keel - (2008-11-21)
  [1893] Some Linux and Unix tips - (2008-11-18)
  [1803] FTP passive mode - a sometimes cure for upload hangs - (2008-09-20)
  [1764] Yank and Push - copy and move in vi - (2008-08-21)
  [1651] ls command - favourite options - (2008-05-23)
  [1527] Selecting file names in a shell - one word or another - (2008-02-02)
  [1438] Copy and paste / cut and paste and other vi techniques - (2007-11-20)
  [1408] Wireless hotel tips - FTP and Skype connections failing - (2007-10-26)
  [1366] awk - a powerful data extraction and manipulation tool - (2007-09-25)
  [1288] Linux run states, shell special commands, and directory structures - (2007-08-03)
  [1287] Work and play at Well House Manor - Football and Shell Shortcuts - (2007-08-02)
  [1259] Where am I and how did I get here? - (2007-07-05)
  [1068] ls -l report, Linux / Unix - types and permssions - (2007-02-06)
  [1013] Copy multiple files - confusing error message from cp - (2006-12-30)
  [1012] Moving files between Windows / DOS and Linux / Unix - (2006-12-30)
  [984] Cardinal numbers and magic numbers - (2006-12-14)
  [749] Cottage industry or production line data handling methods - (2006-06-07)
  [711] THE home directory or MY home directory - (2006-05-06)
  [710] Linux training Glasgow, Python programming course Dundee - (2006-05-05)
  [703] Copying files and preserving ownership - (2006-04-28)
  [679] More or less on the edge of the page - (2006-04-11)
  [659] Web Application Components - (2006-03-28)
  [593] Finding where the disc space has gone - (2006-02-06)
  [431] File permissions of Linux and Unix systems - (2005-08-31)
  [430] Linux commands - some basics - (2005-08-31)
  [249] An easy way out - (2005-03-17)
  [152] Aladdin, or careful what you wish. - (2004-12-15)
  [74] pushd and popd - (2004-10-05)
  [73] vi - full circle - (2004-10-04)

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A better design of mouth
Planning the future of Wiltshire
Making Linux Politically correct
Melksham buses to/from Chippenham, Trowbridge, Bath, Devizes, London
Lua Classes - open enrolement
Root is root for a reason!
Friendly Hotel in Melksham, near Bath
Parallel Pinging, using Python Threads or Expect spawn lists