Change directory without typing cd?

Question

Is it possible to make bash change directory in command line simply by typing that directory without any commands like cd?

For example is it possible instead of writing this:

$ cd /tmp

I just want to write only this:

$ /tmp

In other words if I call directory as an application then I want to set that directory as a working one.

Solution

In bash there is also autocd option. You can enable it by using shopt -s autocd:

pbm@tauri ~ $ shopt -s autocd
pbm@tauri ~ $ django # Now just type this
cd ./django    <- it's done automatically
pbm@tauri ~/django $

Comments

[Thomas Themel]

Yes, that's what one would naïvely expect - however, bash is smarter than us and doesn't even call command_not_found_handle for directories :(

[Vladimir]

After some research I've found a small patch ( mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg06761.html ) that could fix it. Unfortunately this patch is unofficial so it could not be used with a stock version of bash provided with ubuntu.

[Gilles 'SO- stop being evil']

My favorite new feature in bash 4 for interactive use. (For scripting, it's **.) Unfortunately, it's not in older versions.