cd

Change the shell working directory.

Synopsis

cd [-L|[-P [-e]]] [dir]

Main Purpose

• Change the current working directory to dir. The dir can be an absolute or relative path.
• If the dir argument is omitted, it defaults to the value of the HOME shell variable.
• If dir is specified as ~, it represents the user's HOME directory; . represents the current directory, and .. represents the parent directory.
• The CDPATH environment variable is a colon-separated list of directories. You can add the parent directories of frequently visited locations to CDPATH for easier access; if dir starts with /, CDPATH is not used.
• When the shopt option cdable_vars is enabled, if dir does not exist in CDPATH or the current directory, it will be treated as a variable, and its value will be used as the destination directory.

Parameters

dir (optional): Specify the directory to switch to.

Options

-L (default) If the target directory is a symbolic link, follow the link.
-P If the target directory is a symbolic link, use the physical directory structure instead of following symbolic links.
-  Switch the current working directory to the directory represented by the OLDPWD environment variable, which is the previous working directory.

Return Value

Returns success unless the specified directory cannot be entered.

Examples

cd    # Enter the user's home directory.
cd /  # Enter the root directory.
cd ~  # Enter the user's home directory.
cd ..  # Return to the parent directory (if the current directory is "/", it remains at "/").
cd ../..  # Return two levels up.
cd !$  # Use the argument of the last command as the argument for cd.

Note on switching to the previous working directory:

cd -
# This command first displays the target directory before entering it.
cd ${OLDPWD}
# This command switches directly to the previous working directory.

About CDPATH:

# Set the Desktop folder as the value for CDPATH.
CDPATH='~/Desktop'
# Assume there is no test3 folder in ~ or ~/Desktop for this demonstration; create them now.
mkdir ~/test3
mkdir ~/Desktop/test3
# Enter the ~ directory.
cd ~
# Enter the test3 directory.
cd test3
# After execution, ~/Desktop/test3 is displayed and entered, rather than the test3 directory under ~.
# If CDPATH has a value, it prioritizes searching CDPATH and enters the first successful match. If all fail, it finally tries the current directory.

About cdable_vars:

# Enable the option.
shopt -s cdable_vars
# Assume there is no directory named new_var in the current path or CDPATH.
new_var='~/Desktop'
# Attempt to enter.
cd new_var
# Disable the option.
shopt -u cdable_vars

Notes

1. This command is a bash built-in; for related help information, please use the help command.
2. It is recommended to add necessary comments when using the cd command in scripts to remind readers of the current working directory and avoid issues like "file not found."