I’m often posting advanced tips, today I will talk about something very simple, but that I noticed even experienced terminal users are not aware of: the cd – command.
Quick intro about cd
The cd command, short for “change directory” is used in both Windows Command Prompt and Linux terminals to navigate through the file system.
The following command will
bring you to a folder /var/log
~$ cd /var/log
This is basic, OK.
Navigation
Let’s go further.
~$ cd src/foo/bar
src/foo/bar$ #do something, but you have to move to another folder
src/foo/bar$ cd /var/log
/var/log$ # do something, but you have to move back to src/foo/bar
/var/log$ cd ~/src/foo/bar
src/foo/bar: $ # do something, but you have to move to log folder
src/foo/bar$ cd /var/log
/var/log$ # whatever
src/foo/bar$ #do something, but you have to move to another folder
src/foo/bar$ cd /var/log
/var/log$ # do something, but you have to move back to src/foo/bar
/var/log$ cd ~/src/foo/bar
src/foo/bar: $ # do something, but you have to move to log folder
src/foo/bar$ cd /var/log
/var/log$ # whatever
OK these are basic moves.
You all know cd .., cd ~, or cd, but do you know about cd – ?
cd – command
cd – will bring you back to previous folder.
Let’s try the same navigation example
~$ cd src/foo/bar
src/foo/bar$ #do something, but you have to move to another folder
src/foo/bar$ cd /var/log
/var/log$ #do something, but you have to move back to src/foo/bar, we could use cd ~/src/foo/bar, but let’s try cd –
/var/log$ cd –
src/foo/bar$ #do something, but you have to move to log folder, cd – will bring you back to
src/foo/bar$ cd –
/var/log$ # whatever
src/foo/bar$ #do something, but you have to move to another folder
src/foo/bar$ cd /var/log
/var/log$ #do something, but you have to move back to src/foo/bar, we could use cd ~/src/foo/bar, but let’s try cd –
/var/log$ cd –
src/foo/bar$ #do something, but you have to move to log folder, cd – will bring you back to
src/foo/bar$ cd –
/var/log$ # whatever
This something I’m using multiple times a day