Get back to original directory

faizlo · 12-14-2009, 02:57 PM

Hi,

Sometimes I cd to a linked directory, and when I issue cd .., it takes me one level back, but not to the parent directory in which the link was there, but the true parent directory of the linked directory (I hope I could spell it clearly!).

How to get back to the parent directory (the one which has the link) from within the linked directory?

PS:
even cd - does not help

~hatim

worm5252 · 12-14-2009, 03:02 PM

The easiest way is to always know where you are at. Another way is instead of doing 'ls' for find the directories, do 'ls -l' so you can find the links and see where they go. Then you can do an 'ls' on the link location. i.e. 'ls <linklocation>'

markush · 12-14-2009, 03:03 PM

Hello faizlo,

in bash the variable OLDPWD is the "old working directory". So

Code:

cd $OLDPWD

will bring you back to there.

Markus

pixellany · 12-14-2009, 03:06 PM

On my system, "cd -" and "cd .." both take me back to where I was. If I drill down, cd ../.. also takes me to the original starting point. So......maybe this means there is a config file somewhere???

markush · 12-14-2009, 03:10 PM

Hello together,

many Linuxdistributions come with the aliases

Code:

alias ..='cd ..' and
alias ...='cd ../..'

Markus

pixellany · 12-14-2009, 03:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by markush

Hello together,

many Linuxdistributions come with the aliases

Code:

alias ..='cd ..' and
alias ...='cd ../..'

.

Markus

If "cd .." does not work as desired, then how would this alias help?

faizlo · 12-14-2009, 03:13 PM

Thank you all for the quick response (which make feel guilty of not posting before

)
Markush, your trick worked. I will create an alias "back, or orig" and insert it in my .bashrc file.

Thank you all again,

~faizlo

faizlo · 12-14-2009, 03:16 PM

cd $OLDPWD worked with bash, but not with tcsh

It say, OLDPWD: undefined variable.
Any hints!?

~faizlo

markush · 12-14-2009, 03:23 PM

Hi,

in tcsh "cd -" should work (refering to the manpage). I'd recommend to read the manpage and search for "working"

Code:

man tcsh

and in the manpage execute

Code:

/working

Markus

faizlo · 12-14-2009, 04:50 PM

On tcsh shells, the command is: cd $owd (small letters)

~faizlo