Go back to default directory in terminal

Question

I'm using Kubuntu 22.04, with "Konsole" and "Terminator".

I have set a default starting directory for each of them (let's call it /my/quite/complex/default/destination/directory).

After working a lot, traveling between many different directories, I want to go back to that default, without having to type all that... Is there a simple cd command to do it?

Note: that directory IS NOT /home/myUser, therefore cd ~ won't solve the problem, and cd - only goes back to the last one, not the very first.

Thank you all.

If you are using the bash shell, you may find pushd and popd useful - refer to the bash manual under The Directory Stack. See also Short-cut for switching to a given directory — steeldriver, Oct 15 '22 at 23:34

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 16 '22 at 09:11

1

Edit your ~/.bashrc to store the starting directory somewhere, usually in a shell variable, whenever the shell is launched. For example:

startdir=$PWD

Once you have that, you can either use it directly as cd "$startdir" (for this you could choose a shorter variable name such as $h), or make aliases / functions:

alias ret='cd "$startdir"'

ret() { cd "$startdir"; }

answered Oct 16 '22 at 09:11

user1686

615

Simple, direct, succinct, and just works. – Borjovsky Oct 16 '22 at 20:33

vanadium · Answer 2 · 2022-10-16T10:09:25.783

Some options:

An alias, added to your ~/.bashrc, can already cut it:
```
  alias mcd='cd /my/quite/complex/default/destination/directory'
```
Now, the command mcdwill bring you to that directory.
In ~/.bashrc, you may define your directory in a variable as
```
export MD=/my/quite/complex/default/destination/directory
```
Then, cd $MD will take you to that directory.
In a slightly more sophisticated approach, you can override your cd command using a function that, without arguments, brings you to your desired directory, and with arguments works as usual. This can be done with a bash function as follows. Include it in ~/.bashrc.
```
cd () {
   if [ -z $1 ] ;  then
      command cd /my/quite/complex/default/destination/directory 
   else
      command cd $@
   fi
}
```
Changing the $HOME variable in ~./bashrc will fundamentally achieve what you want. This would not affect the desktop environment, because the changed variable is only in effect in your interactive terminals and subshells, but there is still a chance that specific graphical (system) tools may malfunction with the wrong HOME set.

Temporarily changing HOME in the function, however, should be safe:
```
cd () {
   OLDHOME=$HOME
   HOME=/my/quite/complex/default/destination/directory
   command cd $@
   HOME=$OLDHOME ; unset OLDHOME
}
```

Great explanation. But I'll stick with user1686's answer, for simplicity and using the $PWD variable (more flexible: if I change the default terminal starting directory, it will just follow naturally). — Borjovsky, Oct 16 '22 at 20:36

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 16 '22 at 00:02

0

Look at CDPATH from the bash man pages.
export CDPATH=".:~:/my/quite/complex/default/destination"

Then cd directory will take you to /my/quite/complex/default/destination/directory. Provided you don't have "directory" any earlier in the CDPATH.

answered Oct 16 '22 at 00:02

ubfan1

17,838

Go back to default directory in terminal

3 Answers3