One command to create and change directory

Question

I'm searching for just one command — nothing with && or | — that creates a directory and then immediately changes your current directory to the newly-created directory. (This is a question someone got for his exams of "linux-usage", he made a new command that did that, but that didn't give him the points.) This is on a debian server if that matters.

Nightingale

I'm pretty sure the exam question was for you to understand why bash functions are necessary.... Making a script won't work (and is a bad answer). – Dellora

This isn't a good question for stackoverflow, either like @BasileStarynkevitch said he didn't get the marks because he used a script and not function or he made some other syntactical mistake or it was a mistake with the marking/question itself. The only way you'll find out is to speak to the exams markers/setters. – Onomasiology

Build a script for these two command. – Skiff

@user1929959: It cannot be a script. See my answer (it should be a function) – Dellora

Answer 1

I believe you are looking for this:

mkdir project1 && cd "$_"

Nf

Great answer, IMHO. I looked it up and $_ is a "Special variable set to final argument of previous command executed", source: tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/internalvariables.html – Halflight

@BartvanKuik, ...that said, the ABS isn't a particularly good reference to point people to -- it's the W3Schools of bash, frequently using bad practices in its examples and rarely refreshed for outdated content. Consider instead wiki.bash-hackers.org/syntax/shellvars, or the official manual at gnu.org/software/bash/manual/html_node/Special-Parameters.html, or the BashGuide at mywiki.wooledge.org/BashGuide/… – Siphon

Answer 2

define a bash function for that purpose in your $HOME/.bashrc e.g.

 function mkdcd () {
     mkdir "$1" && cd "$1"
 }

then type mkdcd foodir in your interactive shell

^{So stricto sensu, what you want to achieve is impossible without a shell function containing some && (or at least a ; ) ... In other words, the purpose of the exercise was to make you understand why functions (or aliases) are useful in a shell....}

PS it should be a function, not a script (if it was a script, the cd would affect only the [sub-] shell running the script, not the interactive parent shell); it is impossible to make a single command or executable (not a shell function) which would change the directory of the invoking interactive parent shell (because each process has its own current directory, and you can only change the current directory of your own process, not of the invoking shell process).

PPS. In Posix shells you should remove the functionkeyword, and have the first line be mkdcd() {

Dellora

Firstly -- $1 should be "$1". Secondly -- I think that counts as "making a new command". – Tipsy

no, this is not what i'm looking for (as ruakh said) that's making a new command/function/script or something like that – Nightingale

It cannot be done like you dream. The chdir syscall (cd bash builtin) should run in the interactive shell (not in a child process of that shell) – Dellora

@BasileStarynkevitch: The answer that you posted does not meet the OP's requirements. If your real answer is "it is impossible to meet these requirements", then you need to include that in the answer you post. – Tipsy

BTW, if you are going to keep the function keyword, you should remove the () -- that way your code is compatible with ksh (compatibility with code written with ksh extensions is why bash has a function keyword at all). Right now, it's compatible with neither. See also wiki.bash-hackers.org/scripting/obsolete – Siphon

Answer 3

For oh-my-zsh users: take 'directory_name'
Reference: Official oh-my-zsh github wiki

Hoskinson

Wow, thanks for this super trick! I use zsh for years but never heard of that – Metapsychology

Answer 4

Putting the following into your .bash_profile (or equivalent) will give you a mkcd command that'll do what you need:

# mkdir, cd into it
mkcd () {
    mkdir -p "$*"
    cd "$*"
}

This article explains it in more detail

Acord

"$*" is generally the Wrong Thing -- it takes all your arguments together and throws them together with the first character of $IFS as a separator. That means that while mkdir "Directory One" "Directory Two" will create two directories, mkcd "Directory One" "Directory Two" will try to create a single directory named Directory One Directory Two. – Siphon

Try "$@" instead of "$*", I've heard it works wonders to quote each argument separately, and it will silently omit "" if you have no arguments... – Ney

Answer 5

I don't think this is possible but to all people wondering what is the easiest way to do that (that I know of) which doesn't require you to create your own script is:

mkdir /myNewDir/
cd !$

This way you don't need to write the name of the new directory twice.

!$ retrieves the last ($) argument of the last command (!).

(There are more useful shortcuts like that, like !!, !* or !startOfACommandInHistory. Search on the net for more information)

Sadly mkdir /myNewDir/ && cd !$ doesn't work: it retrieves the last of argument of the previous command, not the last one of the mkdir command.

Ayo

"mkdir coffeescript && cd !$" worked for me, thanks! – Nf

Answer 6

Maybe I'm not fully understanding the question, but

>mkdir temp ; cd temp

makes the temp directory and then changes into that directory.

Skipper

Answer 7

mkdir temp ; cd temp ; mv ../temp ../myname

You can alias like this:

alias mkcd 'mkdir temp ; cd temp ; mv ../temp ../'

Doubles

Answer 8

You did not say if you want to name the directory yourself.

cd `mktemp -d`

Will create a temp directory and change into it.

Chihli

Is there a way to rename the current directory? Prolly.. Cause if so, we could maybe chain it. :D – Ayo

Answer 9

Maybe you can use some shell script.

First line in shell script will create the directory and second line will change to created directory.

Opheliaophelie