1) A method of customizing debugger commands; aliasing provides a shorthand method for entering often-used command strings.

2) A method of accessing a single data object in more than one way, as when a pointer points to a named object. The optimizer has logic to detect aliasing, but aliasing can cause problems for the optimizer.

3) Aliasing occurs when a single object can be accessed in more than one way, such as when two pointers point to a single object. It can disrupt optimization, because any indirect reference could refer to any other object.