Why sudo Ignores Your Aliases and How to Fix It

Generally, sudo ignores aliases defined in .bashrc, .bash_aliases, or via the alias command.

For example, alias ll='ls -lh' works normally, but sudo ll returns “sudo: ll: command not found”.

Solution

Create an alias for sudo that ends with a space, for example: alias sudo='sudo ' The trailing space tells bash to check the next command word for alias expansion, as described in the bash manual:

If the last character of the alias value is a blank, then the next command word following the alias is also checked for alias expansion.

Example .bash_aliases content:

# Shortcuts
alias ll='ls -lh'
alias la='ls -lhA'
alias l='ls'
alias c='clear'
alias x='exit'
alias q='exit'

# Don't run shutdown if rtorrent is running... (as long as there's a screen with "tor" in its name, shutdown won't run unless you call /sbin/shutdown, or unalias it)
alias shutdown='/home/james/scripts/safe.shutdown.sh'

# When using sudo, use alias expansion (otherwise sudo ignores your aliases)
alias sudo='sudo '