How can I change the startup directory of my Terminal on OS X?

Question

I want my terminal to always start at a certain directory instead of home. How can I do this?

Solution 1

I'm not sure if theres a cleaner way, but adding cd path/to/directory in your .bash_profile in your home directory should automatically change your directory to what you specify.

Solution 2

In Terminal.app's preferences, in the "Settings" tab, select the style of your terminal (probably Basic: the default), then go to the "Shell" pane and put cd /any/directory/you/want in the run command box. This will automatically change directory when you open a new terminal.

Comments

[cregox]

As Randolph pointed out, there a cleaner way to change the home directory: stackoverflow.com/questions/145321/… difference of doing it so is that it also changes what ~ points to, as anything else pointing to "home" and not just the startup place. So, your answer is the most appropriate one for this question with this choice of words.

[Shinoy jose]

If you have "New Windows Open With: Same Working Directory" this will not work. Learned that the hard way.

[Shinoy jose]

This does work, but since it changes my HOME, using cd will bring it back there and my prompt shows ~ for when I'm in the new HOME. Just letting others know.

[Matej Randík]

This is highly likely to cause problems. It's common for other scripts and applications to put documents and config files in the user's home folder, which you've just reassigned. If you just want to save yourself some typing when you open the terminal, this isn't the way to do it.

[Volatil3]

@MichaelOzeryansky What do you suggest then?

[Volatil3]

on opening new tab it will not retain the last opening directory

[Shinoy jose]

@Volatil3 It's been a while, but since answers like these didn't work for me I came up with my own solution: stackoverflow.com/questions/5696757/…