Is there a command for going back a number of steps in a directory, without using cd?

Question

I'm constantly going 'cd ../../../../'. Is there a command/alias that could let me go 'cmd 4' and I'd be taken back 4 directories?

Solution 1

Put this in your ~/.bashrc:

cdup() {
  levels=${1-1}
  while ((levels--)); do
    cd ..
  done
}

(The name cdup comes from the corresponding FTP command, just FYI.)

Solution 2

I was taught to use 'pushd' and 'popd' for such circumstances.

For example, type 'pushd .' and then 'cd /home'. Now type 'popd' and you will be back to where you started.

'pushd'/'popd' is a stack, you can push as many directories on there as you like, but it is last on, first off when you popd.

Solution 3

Sure, why not:

up() {
    [ $# = 0 ] && cd .. && return
    [ $1 = 0 ] && return
    cd .. && up $(($1 - 1))
}

Solution 4

Quick and dirty:

cmd () { dir=.; for i in $(seq 1 $1); do dir=$dir/..; done; pushd $dir; }

Formulated to only change directory once.

Solution 5

Here is an alternative way:

function cdup
{
    cd $(for ((i=0 ; i<$1 ;i++)); do printf "../" ; done)
}

View more solutions

Comments

[Chris Jester-Young]

ls? Surely you mean cd?

[Admin]

Yeah I do, I just wrote this in a rush ;) Editing it now.

[ypercubeᵀᴹ]

Wiil this do?: alias cmd5 = "cd ../../../../../"

[Chris Jester-Young]

Bash isn't tail-recursive, right? You might stack overflow if you do up 500. :-)

[Josh Lee]

If your directories are nested that deeply, you have my sympathies.

[Admin]

Hm, nice. Not heard of that. Doesn't quite fit what I was looking for, but will use that too. Thanks.

[Chris Jester-Young]

@Muu: I didn't know this question was a code golf! ;-) BTW, come join us! codegolf.stackexchange.com

[Admin]

Thanks for the response, went with the jleedev's answer due to it being 1 line shorter and I couldn't make up my mind who's to choose! Thanks anyway!

[Chris Jester-Young]

@Muu: Both answers will work, but mine will work for many, many levels, and @jleedev's will only work for a small handful (whatever the stack limit is). ;-) (I'm sure you'll never hit the limit either way, but mine is more general, is what I'm trying to get at. :-))

[Admin]

Wasn't planning it to be, but when presented with two bits of code that seem to work as well as each other - you need some kind of criteria! :)

[Josh Lee]

@Muu Please remember that recursion is not the proper way to write shell scripts in general.

[Admin]

Fair point, I've awarded you the answer then. Sorry jleedev - though most likely I'll continue using your solution as I'll forget to change it :)