ic

ic command [arguments] [options]

ic is a shortcut for ibmcloud, the IBM Cloud command line interface. Every argument is passed through unchanged, so `ic login`, `ic target`, and `ic ks cluster ls` behave exactly like the corresponding `ibmcloud` commands.The shortcut is not part of the stand-alone IBM Cloud CLI package, which installs only the `ibmcloud` binary plus the legacy `bluemix` and `bx` symlinks. It is created by the IBM Cloud Developer Tools installer, which appends `alias ic="ibmcloud"` to the first shell startup file it finds among `~/.bashrc`, `~/.bash_profile`, `~/.profile`, and `~/.zshrc`. On Windows the same installer writes a wrapper script at `C:\Program Files\IBM\Cloud\bin\ic.bat`.Because it is only an alias, nothing else has to be maintained: it follows whatever `ibmcloud` version is on `PATH`, and it can be recreated at any time with a single `alias` line.

On Linux and macOS ic is a shell alias, not an executable. It is unavailable in non-interactive shells, in scripts run with `sh -c`, and to anything that execs a program by name, such as `xargs`, `find -exec`, `sudo`, or a systemd unit. Use `ibmcloud` in those places.The alias is expanded before the program starts, so the CLI reports its own name in help text and error messages, for example `'not-found' is not a registered command. See 'ibmcloud help'.`A shell that was already running when the installer added the alias does not see it until the startup file is re-sourced or the shell is restarted.`ic` is also a plain English abbreviation, so a locally defined function or alias with the same name will shadow this one. Run `type ic` to see what it currently resolves to.

The ic shortcut was introduced by IBM Cloud Developer Tools as a convenience wrapper around the IBM Cloud CLI, which itself replaced the earlier `bluemix` (`bx`) CLI when Bluemix was rebranded to IBM Cloud around 2018. An open request asks for the alias to be replaced by a symlink so that `ic` shows up in the CLI's own messages.

ibmcloud(1), ibmcloud-login(1), ibmcloud-target(1), alias(1)

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