.bash_aliases setup

[GI_Mike - Herman von Mandel <gi_mike2002@yahoo.com>]

Greetings to the list!

Apparently I am missing something which is frustrating me a bit. I have a user account on a Debian Etch system which is needing some additional aliases and rather than muck around with .bashrc, I would rather the aliases be placed in ~/.bash_aliases.

The user created aliases within a ~/.bash_aliases file having a permission setting of 600. I then removed the comments from ~/.bashrc allowing for this file to be read.

After a source .bashrc, . ~/.bash_aliases, the user logging out and logging back in, and a complete reboot - this file is still not being read as aliases are coming back as unknown commands.

This should be a fairly straight forward and easy task to accomplish. Below are the snippets:

~/.bashrc
# Alias definitions.
# You may want to put all your additions into a separate file like
# ~/.bash_aliases, instead of adding them here directly.
# See /usr/share/doc/bash-doc/examples in the bash-doc package.

if [ -f ~/.bash_aliases ]; then
    . ~/.bash_aliases
fi

~/.bash_aliases
########################
# VNC Server aliases
########################

# create vnc server connection
vncsmall="vncserver -depth 24 -geometry 800x600 :1"
vncbig="vncserver -depth 24 -geometry 1024x768 :1"

# end vnc server connection
killvnc="vncserver -kill :1"

# check if vnc server is already running
runvnc="ps -A | grep vnc"

(Note: it is ok if he uses :1 - vncserver runs off a non-standard port and my iptables ensures he's the person using it via MAC)

Any ideas what I'm missing here?

Thanks!

Michael