Git Bash (Windows) not using PATH

Question

I'm trying to set up python as an alias on my git bash and I've edited both my .bashrc and .bash_profile to have the alias. I've edited both files and I am still getting a command not found prompt within Git Bash: bash-screenshot

.bashrc and .bash_profile:

if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then . ~/.bashrc; fi
# Enable tab completion
source ~/git-completion.bash
alias python="~\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python35\python.exe"

Anybody have any ideas?

• Wheatley: Are you sure of the python path? C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python35\python.exe
• Lanice Sims: yup when I open file explorer and right click and go to properties that's the path
• janos: What if you use forward slashes? alias python=~/AppData/Local/Programs/Python/Python35/python.exe
• Wheatley: The problem is definitely with your slashes as @janos said.
• Jean-François Fabre: I wouldn't set an alias but rather a path to the python command. python.exe is found when typing python on Windows bash/mingw/whatever (or it would be very unpractical)

Answer 1

Unlike python, backslashes not escaping anything are removed in bash.

So

alias python="~\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python35\python.exe"

creates an alias to ~AppDataLocalProgramsPythonPython35python.exe

Fix:

alias python="~/AppData/Local/Programs/Python/Python35/python.exe"

or just set the path (.exe suffix is supported on Windows flavours of bash)

export PATH=$PATH:~/AppData/Local/Programs/Python/Python35

(so programs not having access to aliases/shell built-ins can still run python using subprocess or exec)