131

I tried to make an "alias" for a path that I use often while shell scripting. I tried something, but it failed: 

myFold="~/Files/Scripts/Main"
cd myFold

bash: cd: myFold: No such file or directory

How do I make it work ?
However, cd ~/Files/Scripts/Mainworks.

Benjamin W.
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bashboy
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    I made a simple CLI for the same and it is proving to be very useful in overcoming this. Hope it helps you too :) https://github.com/nsrCodes/cdd – nsrCodes Mar 03 '21 at 06:37

10 Answers10

136

Since it's an environment variable (alias has a different definition in bash), you need to evaluate it with something like:

cd "${myFold}"

or:

cp "${myFold}/someFile" /somewhere/else

But I actually find it easier, if you just want the ease of switching into that directory, to create a real alias (in one of the bash startup files like .bashrc), so I can save keystrokes:

alias myfold='cd ~/Files/Scripts/Main'

Then you can just use (without the cd):

myfold

To get rid of the definition, you use unalias. The following transcript shows all of these in action:

pax> cd ; pwd ; ls -ald footy
/home/pax
drwxr-xr-x 2 pax pax 4096 Jul 28 11:00 footy

pax> footydir=/home/pax/footy ; cd "$footydir" ; pwd
/home/pax/footy

pax> cd ; pwd
/home/pax

pax> alias footy='cd /home/pax/footy' ; footy ; pwd
/home/pax/footy

pax> unalias footy ; footy
bash: footy: command not found
paxdiablo
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  • Thanks. That works. I tried only alias myfold='~/some/path' and cd myfold. I get an error - no such directory. Why ? Also, is it possible to "un-assign" an alias variable ? – bashboy Jul 30 '13 at 23:43
  • myfold='~/some/path' cd "$myfold" Fails. Why ? – bashboy Jul 30 '13 at 23:46
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    @bashboy, probably because you have no directory with that name. ~/some/path was an example, you should substitute the _actual_ path you want to use. I'll change it to use your example directory so it's clearer. As to how to unassign an alias, you use the unalias command. I've also updated the answer with a transcript, including the use of that command. – paxdiablo Jul 31 '13 at 01:02
  • How would you preserve this alias in different terminal sessions? When I open up a new tab and try to use this alias, it doesn't work. – goldisfine Aug 25 '15 at 23:53
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    @goldisfine, see my parenthetical `in one of the bash startup files like .bashrc`. Putting the alias into a suitable startup file will ensure it's available for *all* sessions. – paxdiablo Aug 26 '15 at 01:26
  • I don't think this answers the question; it's specific only to ```cd```. What if the user wants to do ```mv sourcedir/filename reallylongpath``` ? – Will Oct 24 '17 at 16:16
  • @Will, I think you'll find that's covered by the very first paragraph. I'll clarify. – paxdiablo Oct 24 '17 at 22:04
  • For permanently storing the aliases it's advisable to add them to `~/bash_aliases` in stead of `~/bashrc`. See https://askubuntu.com/a/5278/1045718 – Erik Joling Feb 19 '20 at 08:48
  • @Erik, keep in mind that's a convention, not something that `bash` itself does. It will only work if a "real" `bash` startup script calls it. – paxdiablo Feb 19 '20 at 08:55
  • do I need to re-enter `source ~/.bashrc` every time I'm using the alias? when opening a new terminal tab without running the command `source...` it says command not found – Dids Aug 27 '22 at 05:13
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    @Dids, you shouldn't need to. The rules for what startup files run under various circumstances are complex but, unless you've modified the scripts or are starting a terminal in some weird way, it should run. The bash man page has all this under `INVOCATION`. From memory, `.bashrc` is sourced for interactive non-login shells. Interactive login shells source the first reasable of `{~/.bash_profile, ~/.bash_login, ~/.profile}` and it's usual to have something like `source ~/.bashrc` at the end of one of them to ensure that setup is done as well. – paxdiablo Aug 27 '22 at 08:25
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    For example, my `.profile` has `if [ -n "$BASH_VERSION" ]; then if [ -f "$HOME/.bashrc" ]; then . "$HOME/.bashrc" ; fi ; fi`. The checks are because the `.profile` file may be executed bu non-Bash shells as well. – paxdiablo Aug 27 '22 at 08:27
  • @paxdiablo can you please take a look at my `.bashrc` https://goonlinetools.com/snapshot/code/#l5lhd0bmjwgts2d1wlsg1 am I doing it wrong? – Dids Aug 29 '22 at 13:36
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    @Dids, you would be better off asking a new question as to why it doesn't work (including the actual behaviour assuming it varies from what you expect). However, for a start, I probably wouldn't be using `test` as the alias name since that's already a `bash` builtin. I'd also start the path with `/` so as not to be relative. A relative path will depend on your current working directory. – paxdiablo Aug 29 '22 at 14:52
  • @Dids: but, again, keep in mind that `.bashrc` is not run for interactive login shells. I sometimes put a `echo XXX I'M RUNNING BASHRC` in there (and in other startup files as well) for debugging so I can see it's being run (or not). – paxdiablo Aug 29 '22 at 14:55
  • @paxdiablo I also think my terminal's messed up when I try to run `exit` command it does not close the terminal, instead, it shows `saving session...` – Dids Aug 31 '22 at 08:49
  • Just started working on a multi-module codebase with LONG folder names. Tried using the `alias` trick in my Bash config. Did not work regardless of the number of times I refreshed the config and even a system reboot. Recommend focusing on using environment variables, though that's not ideal. – jhill515 May 10 '23 at 15:54
  • @jhill515, that's almost certainly a totally *different* issue unrelated to the actual aliasing. If you can get environment variables set up in the bash startup files, you can get aliases set up as well. Suggest you search SO for "bash startup scripts" and go from there. – paxdiablo May 10 '23 at 15:58
104

There is a shell option cdable_vars:

cdable_vars
If this is set, an argument to the cd builtin command that is not a directory is assumed to be the name of a variable whose value is the directory to change to.

You could add this to your .bashrc:

shopt -s cdable_vars
export myFold=$HOME/Files/Scripts/Main

Notice that I've replaced the tilde with $HOME; quotes prevent tilde expansion and Bash would complain that there is no directory ~/Files/Scripts/Main.

Now you can use this as follows:

cd myFold

No $ required. That's the whole point, actually – as shown in other answers, cd "$myFold" works without the shell option. cd myFold also works if the path in myFold contains spaces, no quoting required.

This usually even works with tab autocompletion as the _cd function in bash_completion checks if cdable_vars is set – but not every implementation does it in the same manner, so you might have to source bash_completion again in your .bashrc (or edit /etc/profile to set the shell option).

Other shells have similar options, for example Zsh (cdablevars).

Benjamin W.
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    Is there an equivalent of this for ZSH? – Ryan Stull Jul 12 '18 at 20:06
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    @RyanStull `setopt cdablevars` looks like it might be, but I don't know zsh at all. – Benjamin W. Jul 12 '18 at 20:12
  • @JohnMee I'll roll your edit back, as a) the option is called differently in zsh (no underscore) b) the question tagged just Bash and c) I link to the Bash manual. I'll add a paragraph to mention the other shells, though. – Benjamin W. Nov 19 '18 at 02:35
  • @JohnMee And I can't find the option for csh or tcsh, what is it called? – Benjamin W. Nov 19 '18 at 02:45
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    Such a great answer! Thank you very much for the `cdable_vars` – Lucas P. Nov 29 '18 at 14:06
  • But cdable_vars doesn't give me the ability to do other commands such that *ls* for example – Muhammad Yusuf Dec 12 '18 at 14:11
  • @MuhammadYusuf How do you mean? What are you trying to do? – Benjamin W. Dec 12 '18 at 15:04
  • @BenjaminW. I want to have an alias for a directory, so that I can `cd`, `ls`, `mkdir`, ... and all needed operations on a directoy but *cdable_vars* only gives me the ability to cd into the aliased directory – Muhammad Yusuf Dec 13 '18 at 11:14
  • @MuhammadYusuf Yes, it's only aliasing for `cd`. I'm not sure if the kind of global alias you're looking for is possible in Bash. – Benjamin W. Dec 13 '18 at 16:02
  • I used to use alias such as `alias project='cd /path/to/project'` and you just gave me a much better solution, thanks! – Dorin Brage Sep 17 '19 at 06:23
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    @Vladislav Notice that that breaks the completion for `cd` provided by bash-completion, which uses the `_cd` function (`complete -o nospace -F _cd cd`). Adding `-v` to that (to complete on variables) works, but can have undesired side effects – for me, it shows my complete environment when I tab complete. – Benjamin W. Oct 01 '20 at 13:14
  • @BenjaminW., yes, you are right - I did not notice that it breaks regular autocompletion for `cd` command ‍♂️. – Vladislav Oct 02 '20 at 10:20
  • @Vladislav You can still try `complete -o nospace -F _cd -v cd` if your environment doesn't contain too many variables. – Benjamin W. Oct 02 '20 at 12:39
  • @BenjaminW., unfortunately, it raises `bash: completion: function '_cd' not found` on Git for Windows. Maybe I have to declare this function in `\Program Files\Git\mingw64\share\git\completion\git-completion.bash`? There is an example of `_cp` in https://stackoverflow.com/q/26550327/155687 – Vladislav Oct 05 '20 at 15:10
  • @Vladislav It's part of the bash-completion package, see [here](https://github.com/scop/bash-completion/blob/a7b13a3e60dbc48e749c1719d6443fab1766020e/bash_completion#L1810-L1856); if you don't have bash-completion, there is an example for `cd` completion in the [Bash manual](https://www.gnu.org/savannah-checkouts/gnu/bash/manual/bash.html#A-Programmable-Completion-Example). – Benjamin W. Oct 05 '20 at 16:32
21

Maybe it's better to use links

Soft Link

Symbolic or soft link (files or directories, more flexible and self documenting)

#      Source                            Link
ln -s /home/jake/doc/test/2000/something /home/jake/xxx

Hard Link

Hard link (files only, less flexible and not self documenting)

#    Source                            Link
ln /home/jake/doc/test/2000/something /home/jake/xxx

How to create a link to a directory

Hint: If you need not to see the link in your home you can start it with a dot . ; then it will be hidden by default then you can access it like

cd ~/.myHiddelLongDirLink
Muhammad Yusuf
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Mahmoud Bahnasy
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13

First off, you need to remove the quotes:

bashboy@host:~$ myFolder=~/Files/Scripts/Main

The quotes prevent the shell from expanding the tilde to its special meaning of being your $HOME directory.

You could then use $myFolder an environment a shell variable:

bashboy@host:~$ cd $myFolder
bashboy@host:~/Files/Scripts/Main$

To make an alias, you need to define the alias:

alias myfolder="cd $myFolder"

You can then treat this sort of like a command:

bashboy@host:~$ myFolder
bashboy@host:~/Files/Scripts/Main$
CharlesB
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David W.
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  • It's not actually an *environment* variable unless you `export` it. – Keith Thompson Jul 31 '13 at 03:18
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    @KeithThompson Okay, it's just a _shell variable_. But, you don't want to export it because you don't want it to possibly affect child processes. You define it this way it in your `.bashrc` or whatever resource file you use, and it will be defined in the immediate shell, but not in shell scripts. – David W. Jul 31 '13 at 14:04
  • I prefer this solutions because it works with auto completition – Vassilis Jun 05 '17 at 12:54
13

You can add any paths you want to the hashtable of your bash:

hash -d <CustomName>=<RealPath>

Now you will be able to cd ~<CustomName>. To make it permanent add it to your bashrc script.

Notice that this hashtable is meant to provide a cache for bash not to need to search for content everytime a command is executed, therefore this table will be cleared on events that invalidate the cache, e.g. modifying $PATH.

Rodrigo Oliveira
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5

First, you need the $ to access "myFold"'s value to make the code in the question work:

cd "$myFold"

To simplify this you create an alias in ~/.bashrc:

alias cdmain='cd ~/Files/Scripts/Main'

Don't forget to source the .bashrc once to make the alias become available in the current bash session:

source ~/.bashrc

Now you can change to the folder using:

cdmain
hek2mgl
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5

Another option would be to use a symbolic link. ie:

ln -s ~/Files/Scripts/Main ~/myFold

After that you can perform operations to ~/myFold, such as:

cp some_file.txt ~/myFold

which will put the file in ~/Files/Scripts/Main. You can remove the symbolic link at any time with rm ~/myFold, which will keep the original directory.

dvj
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  • One downside: If you `cd myFold` then `pwd`, it will show you're in myFold. This is a deal breaker for me because relative commands with p4 source control depend on the current directory. – User5910 Mar 15 '18 at 17:46
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    @User5910 - use `pwd -P` – dvj Jun 22 '18 at 00:42
4

The preceding answers that I tried do not allow for automatic expansion (autocompletion) of subdirectories of the aliased directory.

However, if you push the directory that you want to alias onto the dirs stack...

$ pushd ~/my/aliased/dir

...you can then type dirs -v to see its numeric position in the stack:

 0  ~/my/aliased/dir
 1  ~/Downloads
 2  /media/usbdrive

and refer to it using that number for most if not all commands that expect a directory parameter:

 $ mv foo.txt ~0

You can even use Tab to show the immediate subdirectories of the "aliased" directory:

 $ cd ~0/<Tab>
 child_dir1    child_dir2
chb
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3

but an actual alias for a dir is also possible, try

 myScripts="~/Files/Scripts/Main"
 alias myScripts="cd $myScripts"

This way you have a common naming convention (for each dir/alias pair), and if you need to copy something from the current dir to myScripts, you don't have to think about it.

IHTH

shellter
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-1

Put the following line in your myscript

set myFold = '~/Files/Scripts/Main'

In the terminal use 

source myscript
cd $myFold
Chayan Pathak
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