How do you manage/store/arrange your alias in *nix?

Question

I have a million of alias stored in my .cshrs file. I wonder if it is preferred way or people use other files to do it and then loaded into the environment.

How do you do it?

Answer 1

I keep a separate file for aliases called ".aliases" in my home directory. Then, at the beginning of my .cshrc file I include the following

if ( -e ~/.aliases ) then
   source ~/.aliases
endif

I do the same with a ".env" file for changing settings in my shell, and a ".path" file for setting up my path. My .cshrc simply sources each of these if they exist.

This is using tcsh.

Answer 2

I prefer to use scripts in my private bin directory over aliases. This avoids a start-up cost; it arguably costs a little when searching for commands later.