 <p>I think you are confusing assigning variables with aliases. assigning a variable means you store the result of the command in a variable what this command does</p> <pre><code>b=`pwd` </code></pre> <p>is running <code>pwd</code> and stores the answer in a variable b.</p> <p>and alias means giving some command a different name. so running <code>alias b pwd</code> will make it so whenever you run b, you will actually run <code>pwd</code></p>