cd into another dir to run a one-liner, but implicitly drop back to your $OLD_PWD after

( cd $DIR; command; )

Obviously the example given is necessarily simple, but this command not only saves time on the command line (saves you using "cd -" or, worse, having to type a fully qualified path if your command cd's more than once), but is vital in scripts, where I've found the behaviour of "cd -" to be a little broken at times.

Sample Output

[/space/braklet/] $ ( cd test; touch test.file )
[/space/braklet/] $ ls -R
.:
test
./test:
test.file

By: sanmiguel

2011-03-29 13:16:00

cd bash cd

2 Alternatives + Submit Alt

Jump to a directory, execute a command and jump back to current dir
This is sample output - yours may be different.
3

pushd /path/to/dir ; command_to_execute; popd

strictlystudious · 2012-10-31 06:19:01 6
Jump to a directory, execute a command and jump back to current dir
This is sample output - yours may be different.
1

cd /path/to/dir && command_or_script; cd -;

yubuylov · 2012-01-27 03:50:07 3

What Others Think

For more complicated tasks you can use $SHELL You can then do whatever you like (this includes changing directories as often as you like) and if you are done, you simply use Control-D or exit to leave the shell. This not only brings you back into the original directory but also discards settings made by the 'set' command. While $SHELL is supposed to contain the shell you are currently using, you could as well use an alternative shell.

penpen · 681 weeks and 2 days ago

Sorry man but that's a dup of http://www.commandlinefu.com/commands/view/25/jump-to-a-directory-execute-a-command-and-jump-back-to-current-dir so a not a hero anymore (because you didn't use search?) 2penpen new shell instance is not elegant solution ever. there is no any magic in it

zolden · 681 weeks and 1 day ago

@zolden: good point. I did search but since that command is so generic, and wasn't tagged, I didn't find it. Apologies for the dupe. Oddly it doesn't show up in the dynamic results dropdown when searching for "(cd", but is the first result if you actually go to the full results list... @penpen: using $SHELL does pretty much the same thing, except it's a full interactive shell, not a simpler one-liner to immediately drop you back with no extra input...

sanmiguel · 679 weeks and 3 days ago

rahimhh21 · 85 weeks and 5 days ago

Perfecthomepugs · 76 weeks and 3 days ago

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kimadward · 59 weeks ago

pugpuppies95 · 38 weeks and 4 days ago

What do you think?

Any thoughts on this command? Does it work on your machine? Can you do the same thing with only 14 characters?

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