from Hacker News

Quickly go back to a directory instead of typing cd ../../..

by vigneshwaran on 9/1/13, 9:22 AM with 49 comments

Description: Quickly go back to a specific parent directory in bash instead of typing "cd ../../.." redundantly.

How to use:

If you are in this path /home/user/project/src/org/main/site/utils/file/reader/whatever and you want to go to site directory quickly, then just type: 'bd site'

In fact, You can simply type 'bd <starting few letters>' like 'bd s' or 'bd si'

If there are more than one directories with same name up in the hierarchy, bd will take you to the closest. (Not considering the immediate parent.)

Using bd within backticks (`bd <letter(s)>`) prints out the path without changing the current directory.

You can take advantage of that by combining `bd <letter(s)>` with other commands such as ls, ln, echo, zip, tar etc..

Check out the screenshot.

  • by philfreo on 9/1/13, 2:47 PM

    Two other simple tips without requiring a script:

    "cd -" will jump back to the last directory you were at, regardless of where it is.

    Add this to your .bashrc / .zshrc / whatever:

    alias cdg='cd $(git rev-parse --show-cdup)'

    And then type "cdg" to keep going up directories until you reach whichever folder contains your git repo. Useful when going from "/Users/philfreo/Projects/myproject/myproject/src/assets/js/views/" back up to "/Users/philfreo/Projects/myproject/"

  • by tytso on 9/1/13, 12:31 PM

    Why not put something like this in your .bashrc or your .profile file instead?

    function bd () {

      OLDPWD=`pwd`
  NEWPWD=`echo $OLDPWD | sed 's|\(.*/'$1'[^/]*/\).*|\1|'`
  index=`echo $NEWPWD | awk '{ print index($1,"/'$1'"); }'`
  if [ $index -eq 0 ] ; then
    echo "No such occurrence."
  else
    echo $NEWPWD
    cd "$NEWPWD"
  fi
    }

    That way you don't have to execute a separate shell script and source its output. Also note that the "export OLDPWD" wasn't necessary in your script, either. Why pollute the environment of future processes spawned by your shell?

  • by logn on 9/1/13, 12:55 PM

    This article covers more advanced functionality than what's built in to shells but don't forget:

      cd -
    That goes to previous dir. A utility that follows this convention but adds some more features would be nice. For instance, maybe typing 'cd -2' could take me back two spots in history, like a web browser.

  • by cygni on 9/1/13, 2:36 PM

    I have these two aliases in my .zshrc file:

      alias ..="cd .."
  alias ...="cd ../.."
    For moving around to other directories I use autojump (https://github.com/joelthelion/autojump).

  • by B-Con on 9/1/13, 7:08 PM

    pushd and popd can be used maintain an easily rewindable history of places you have been. Use pushd to add the cwd to the stack and cd to another directory. Use popd to cd to the top dir on the stack and remove it.

        $ pwd
    /dir1
    $ pushd /some/other/dir
    /some/other/dir /dir1
    $ pwd
    /some/other/dir
    $ popd
    /dir1
    $ pwd
    /dir1

  • by nkuttler on 9/1/13, 7:06 PM

        wget -O /usr/bin/bd https:[snip]
    chmod +rx /usr/bin/bd
    Really? Run wget as root to get a random script, and put it into every user's PATH and a directory that should only be used by the system? :-|

  • by ck2 on 9/1/13, 12:07 PM

    You know when you are getting old by when you have to start using history a lot to try to remember what the heck you did.

  • by taeric on 9/1/13, 12:16 PM

    This has to be one of the first alternatives to a pushd/popd workflow that actually sounds compelling. Kudos.

  • by Skunkleton on 9/1/13, 3:58 PM

    I have tried stuff like this in the past, but I find it creates too much of a dependence on special configuration. My keymapping and vimrc are already enough. Instead, I usually just do a `cd ..` followed by up/enter/up/enter, which is very easy to type quickly.

  • by tobr on 9/1/13, 2:20 PM

    An interesting aside: I can't seem to right click that link in Safari (6.0.5). It seems to be the "../../.." in the tag content that does it, because it works if I edit it out in the inspector. Does anyone else run in to this?

  • by mtdewcmu on 9/1/13, 9:36 PM

    I implemented a fairly sophisticated system for navigating directories based on pushd and popd. I also set up a system based on CDPATH to hop quickly to directories I go to frequently. I fell out of the habit of using them once my usage patterns changed, though, and, since I gave "cd -" a new meaning, sometimes it confuses me. It's hard to come up with an interface that's intuitive enough to be future-proof.

  • by VaucGiaps on 9/1/13, 3:24 PM

    alias ..='cd ..'

    alias ..1='cd ..'

    alias ..2="cd ../.."

    alias ..3="cd ../../.."

    alias ..4="cd ../../../.."

    alias ..5="cd ../../../../.."

  • by jvehent on 9/1/13, 6:51 PM

    Simple bashrc function

        # go up X directories
    up_dir() {
        num_of_dirs=$1
        for i in $(seq 1 $num_of_dirs)
        do
            cd ..
        done
    }
    alias up=up_dir
    Usage:

        $ pwd
    /home/user/svn/automation/puppet/trunk/modules/ossec/templates
    $ up 4
    $ pwd
    /home/user/svn/automation/puppet

  • by typicalbender on 9/1/13, 1:40 PM

    I've also found this extremely useful. It lets you mark directories with a keyword and jump directly to them regardless of where you are. http://jeroenjanssens.com/2013/08/16/quickly-navigate-your-f...

  • by imurray on 9/1/13, 4:18 PM

    Here's my, yet another, alternative to the many nice shell hacks out there: a bash/zsh "up" command that does "cd ..", or "up <n>" does "cd .." n times.

        function up () { if test $# = 1 ; then s=$( printf "%$1s" ); s=${s// /..\/}; cd $s ; else cd .. ; fi; }

  • by DiabloD3 on 9/1/13, 11:53 AM

    So why don't you just use jump? A lot of people already use it and you're not limited to just directories parenting yours.

  • by jmulder on 9/1/13, 8:47 PM

    Very useful! Thank you ver much! Although I'd like to add one suggestion and that is to surpress an 'echo' on successful navigation. I'd see my path twice right underneath of eachother, which just clutters up the screen.

  • by wicknicks on 9/1/13, 7:50 PM

    Smart idea. Good job! Could you extend bd to jump to bookmarked directories. I often jump between /data... and ~/dir/containing/code/ -- would be useful to have one command help with both scenarios.

  • by helpermethod on 9/2/13, 7:13 AM

    Shameless plug: This works similar to a script called 'up' which I am the author of: https://github.com/helpermethod/up

  • by MetaCosm on 9/1/13, 10:12 AM

  • by Tarrasch on 9/3/13, 11:19 AM

    For zsh users, I created a similar command with auto-completion! No root access needed to install!

    https://github.com/Tarrasch/zsh-bd

  • by paulkroka on 9/1/13, 4:39 PM

    How about using

    bind -x '"\C-h":"cd ../;ls"'

    (putting it into .bashrc) and then using control-h as a command on the shell to move a directory upwards. very useful for me.

  • by ballard on 9/1/13, 1:53 PM

    zsh can be set to automagically track directories (like using `pushd` for you when using `cd`), so all that's needed is `popd`. No scripting required.

  • by D9u on 9/1/13, 3:37 PM

    In FreeBSD I use the following to change to an arbitrary directory when I'm unsure of the correct path:

    `whereis -sq <dirname>`

    No extra software necessary.

  • by jostmey on 9/1/13, 3:50 PM

    Why not "cd -" ?