How can I install the `ll` command on Mac OS X?

MacOS:

alias ll='ls -lG'

Linux:

alias ll='ls -l --color=auto'

Stick that in ~/.bashrc.

In OS X 10.9.5 since Mavericks (and at least up to El Capitan) you have to add an alias command to your .bash_profile file in your home folder:

~/.bash_profile

which is equivalent to your user path at

/Users/YOUR_USER_NAME/.bash_profile

To see that file in finder you have to activate the display of hidden files (e.g. using the app InVisible). Otherwise you can simply use your terminal to locate it and edit it with nano:

nano ~/.bash_profile

Then add an alias command to the end of that file. The standard ll alias would be

alias ll='ls -lG'

but I prefer

alias ll='ls -lGaf'

which also shows all hidden files (starting with a dot) and sorts the output case-insensitive.

Don't forget to restart your terminal app after the changes.

Run type ll to see where the ll command is coming from. ll is not a standard command, but many distributions predefine it to an alias for ls with some preset options. The output of type ll gives you the definition of the alias, or you can look for it in your shell configuration file (~/.bashrc if your shell is bash). Copy the definition to ~/.bashrc on the other machine.

Bash handles its configuration file in a slightly odd way: it loads ~/.bashrc in all interactive shells except the ones that are also login shells. Bash only loads ~/.bash_profile (if it exists, otherwise ~/.profile) in a login shell. To make sure that your .bashrc is read when it should be, put this line in your ~/.bash_profile:

case $- in *i*) . ~/.bashrc;; esac