Change the current directory from a Bash script

Question

Is it possible to change current directory from a script   I want to create a utility for directory navigation in Bash  I have created a test script that looks like the following      bin bash cd  home artemb   When I execute the script from the Bash shell the current directory doesn t change  Is it possible at all to change the current shell directory from a script

User · Answer

I like to do the same thing for different projects without firing up a new shell.

In your case:

cd /home/artemb

Save the_script as:

echo cd /home/artemb

Then fire it up with:

\`./the_script\`

Then you get to the directory using the same shell.

User · Answer

When you start your script  a new process is created that only inherits your environment  When it ends  it ends  Your current environment stays as it is   Instead  you can start your script like this     myscript sh   The   will evaluate the script in the current environment  so it might be altered

User · Answer

This is my current way of doing it for bash  tested on Debian   Maybe there s a better way   Don t do it with exec bash  for example like this      bin bash cd  1 exec bash   because while it appears to work  after you run it and your script finishes  yes you ll be in the correct directory  but you ll be in it in a subshell  which you can confirm by pressing Ctrl D afterwards  and you ll see it exits the subshell  putting you back in your original directory  This is usually not a state you want a script user to be left in after the script they run returns  because it s non-obvious that they re in a subshell and now they basically have two shells open when they thought they only had one  They might continue using this subshell and not realize it  and it could have unintended consequences  If you really want the script to exit and leave open a subshell in the new directory  it s better if you change the PS1 variable so the script user has a visual indicator that they still have a subshell open  Here s an example I came up with  It is two files  an outer sh which you call directly  and an inner sh which is sourced inside the outer sh script  The outer script sets two variables  then sources the inner script  and afterwards it echoes the two variables  the second one has just been modified by the inner script   Afterwards it makes a temp copy of the current user s    bashrc file  adds an override for the PS1 variable in it  as well as a cleanup routine  and finally it runs exec bash --rcfile pointing at the  bashrc tmp file to initialize bash with a modified environment  including the modified prompt and the cleanup routine  After outer sh exits  you ll be left inside a subshell in the desired directory  in this case testdir  which was entered into by the inner sh script  with a visual indicator making it clear to you  and if you exit out of the subshell  the  bashrc tmp file will be deleted by the cleanup routine  and you ll be back in the directory you started in  Maybe there s a smarter way to do it  but that s the best way I could figure out in about 40 minutes of experimenting   file 1  outer sh    bin bash  var1  quot hello quot  var2  quot world quot   source inner sh  echo  var1 echo  var2  cp    bashrc  bashrc tmp  echo  export PS1  quot  subshell   PS1 quot    gt  gt   bashrc tmp  cat  lt  lt EOS  gt  gt   bashrc tmp cleanup         echo  quot cleaning up    quot      rm  bashrc tmp    trap  cleanup  0 EOS  exec bash --rcfile  bashrc tmp   file 2  inner sh cd testdir var2  quot bird quot     then run     mkdir testdir   chmod 755 outer sh      outer sh   it should output   hello bird   and then drop you into your subshell using exec bash  but with a modified prompt which makes that obvious  something like    subshell  user computername   testdir    and if you Ctrl-D out of the subshell  it should clean up by deleting a temporary  bashrc tmp file in the testdir  directory I wonder if there s a better way than having to copy the  bashrc file like that though to change the PS1 var properly in the subshell

User · Answer

If you are using bash you can try alias   into the  bashrc file add this line   alias p  cd  home serdar my new folder path     when you write  p  on the command line  it will change the directory

User · Answer

Add below cd line in your shellscript this   exec  SHELL

User · Answer

If you run a bash script then it will operates on its current environment or on those of its children  never on the parent   If goal is to run your command   goto sh  home test Then work interactively in  home test one way is to run a bash interactive subshell within your script       bin bash cd  1 exec bash   This way you will be in  home test until you exit   exit or Ctrl C   of this shell

User · Answer

Putting the above together  you can make an alias  alias your cmd    your cmd    if you don t want to write the leading     each time you want to source your script to the shell environment  or if you simply don t want to remember that must be done for the script to work correctly

User · Answer

I ve also created a utility called goat that you can use for easier navigation   You can view the source code on GitHub   As of v2 3 1 the usage overview looks like this     Create a link  h4xdir  to a directory  goat h4xdir   Documents dev    Follow a link to change a directory  cd h4xdir    Follow a link  and don t stop there    cd h4xdir awesome-project    Go up the filesystem tree with        same as  cd           cd        List all your links  goat list    Delete a link  or more   goat delete h4xdir lojban    Delete all the links which point to directories with the given prefix  goat deleteprefix  HOME Documents    Delete all saved links  goat nuke    Delete broken links  goat fix

User · Answer

I ve made a script to change directory  take a look  https   github com ygpark dj

User · Answer

Basically we use cd   to come back from every directory  I thought to make it more easy by giving the number of directories with which you need to come back at a time  You can implement this using a separate script file using the alias command   For example   code sh     bin sh   backfunc     if     1  -eq 1    then   cd     elif     1  -eq 2    then   cd        elif     1  -eq 3    then   cd           elif     1  -eq 4    then   cd              elif    1  -eq 10   then   cd  home arun Documents work  fi    alias back   backfunc       After using source code sh in the current shell you can use     back 2    to come two steps back from the current directory  Explained in detail over here  It is also explained over there how to put the code in    bashrc so that every new shell opened will automatically have this new alias command  You can add new command to go to specific directories by modifying the code by adding more if conditions and different arguments  You can also pull the code from git over here

User · Answer

This approach is easier for me   Suppose on a personal iMac where you are an admin  under the default directory when a command window is opened   Users jdoe  this will be the directory to go to    Users jdoe Desktop Mongo db 3 2 1 bin   These are the steps that can have the job done    vi mongobin  in which I entered  cd  Users jdoe Desktop Mongo db 3 2 1 bin as the first line  chmod 755 mongobin source mongobin pwd   Voila

User · Answer

You need to convert your script to a shell function      bin bash     this script should not be run directly    instead you need to source it from your  bashrc    by adding this line          bin myprog sh    function myprog       A  1   B  2   echo  aaa   A  bbb   B  ccc    cd  proc     The reason is that each process has its own current directory  and when you execute a program from the shell it is run in a new process  The standard  cd    pushd  and  popd  are builtin to the shell interpreter so that they affect the shell process   By making your program a shell function  you are adding your own in-process command and then any directory change gets reflected in the shell process

User · Answer

With pushd the current directory is pushed on the directory stack and it is changed to the given directory  popd get the directory on top of the stack and changes then to it   pushd    new dir  gt   dev null   do something in    new dir popd  gt   dev null

User · Answer

In light of the unreadability and overcomplication of answers  i believe this is what the requestor should do    add that script to the PATH run the script as   scriptname   The    dot  will make sure the script is not run in a child shell

User · Answer

Declare your path   PATH   home artemb       cd   PATH

User · Answer

Simply go to   yourusername  bashrc  or yourusername  bash profile on MAC  by an editor   and add this code next to the last line    alias yourcommand  cd  the path you wish    Then quit editor   Then type    source    bashrc or source    bash profile on MAC    now you can use  yourcommand in terminal

[bash] Change the current directory from a Bash script

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