This is a newer version of my post How to make Ubuntu have a nice bash shell like OpenSuSE which should supersede it. I keep coming back to this topic, and think that the right way to do this is:
touch ~/.bash_aliases
vim ~/.bash_aliases
alias ll='ls -la'
alias ..='cd ..'
And then alter .bashrc to include this aliases file:
vim ~/.bashrc
At the end of the file, insert this:
if [ -f ~/.bash_aliases ]; then
. ~/.bash_aliases
fi
Finally, reload bash with this:
source ~/.bashrc
The other change I always make is to edit /etc/inputrc and make the history search keys the PgUp key.
sudo vim /etc/inputrc
Find # "\e[5~": history-search-backward and uncomment it