[SOLVED] where does cd command comes from?

pix9 · 04-06-2010, 06:25 AM

hello,
friends I have little weird doubt, well my doubt is that where does cd command came from, in linux, is it any binary like cat which is found in /bin direcotry, well I have tried searchig location for binary named cd but nothing came out. I have also tryed checking if it is alias to any other binary but was clueless.
can anyone please tell me when I execute cd command, which binary is executed?

thank you
regards

devnull10 · 04-06-2010, 06:31 AM

Usually it will be a command however some shells may have it as a builtin. Try executing "which cd" and "whereis cd" for more info.

colucix · 04-06-2010, 06:44 AM

I'd tell that usually it is a shell built-in. In any case, if we assume the existence of a cd binary executable, the command

Code:

$ type cd

should tell which one the shell actually uses.

catkin · 04-06-2010, 07:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by devnull10

Usually it will be a command however some shells may have it as a builtin. Try executing "which cd" and "whereis cd" for more info.

It cannot be an external command (well, it could but it would be useless).

Bash starts a new process to run external commands so any change of directory would no longer apply after running an external cd command. Here's simulating how an external cd command would not work.

Code:

c@CW8:~$ pwd
/home/c
c@CW8:~$ (
    cd /tmp
    pwd
)
/tmp
c@CW8:~$ pwd
/home/c

pix9 · 04-16-2010, 03:26 AM

thank you for all your replies [

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