Can I add a shortcut to replace a path in Linux?

Question

For example, I always go to this path:

/user/something/somefolders/somewhere

but I don't want to type

cd /user/something/somefolders/somewhere

in the terminal all the time, can I have some short hand to do so? for example, can I do something like

cd commandPlace

to replace the path?

Answer 1

You can use the environment variable CDPATH for this. From the Bash man page:

CDPATH

The search path for the cd command. This is a colon-separated list of directories in which the shell looks for destination directories specified by the cd command. A sample value is ".:~:/usr".

In your case, you can set

export CDPATH=.:/user/something/somefolders

in ~/.bashrc, and then typing cd somewhere would take you to /user/something/somefolders/somewhere (assuming there's no directory named somewhere within the current directory).

Alternatively, if you don't want to refer to the folder somewhere by its real name, you could create a hidden directory that contains a symbolic link to /user/something/somefolders/somewhere with the name you want to use. It could also contain links to any other directories you frequently visit. Then set CDPATH to include the path to that hidden directory. Although note that with this method, if you cd somewhere and then cd .., you'll wind up in the hidden directory. That may or may not be an issue for you.

Answer 2

Two shortcuts I use all the time for things like this:

Aliases

alias somedir='cd /home/john/www/something/'

Then you can type somedir to go to that directory. Add these to your .bashrc.

Symbolic Links

ln -s /long/path/to/some/other/folder /shortcut

This will make a file at /shortcut which links to /long/path/to/some/other/folder. Then you can type cd /shortcut instead. The caveat of this is it fills up your root directory (or whichever directory you put the links in) pretty quick. I prefer aliases.

Answer 3

I tend to use the bash interactive search all the time. Try it. Invoke it with ctrl+r and start typing some part of your path, like somewhere. Probably your cd command will pop up. :)

Answer 4

Another thing you can do is to store the path in question in an environment variable. Add these lines to your ~/.profile file:

somedir=/user/something/somefolders/somewhere
export somedir

You can then access the directory with

cd "$somedir"

Answer 5

Look at the "alias" command.

In csh:

alias commandplace "cd /user/something/somefolders/somewhere"

In sh:

alias commandplace="cd /user/something/somefolders/somewhere"

But I like the symlink solution:

ln -s /user/something/somefolders/somewhere ~/commandplace 

Note: ln takes arguments in the same order as cp.

Answer 6

You can create an alias to execute that command:

1. Create a new file ~/.bash_aliases (if not already created)
2. Add this to that file: alias something='cd /user/something/somefolders/somewhere'. Save file.
3. In a new terminal window, type 'something' and it'll cd to that path.

It is recommended that all user added aliases should be added to ~/.bash_aliases. This file is directly read from ~/.bashrc.

Answer 7

The alias method described by other answers is the most direct route.

Another option is to try autojump, described as "A cd command that learns". More description in this LifeHacker post.

Answer 8

The following is taken from a ZSH (not bash or sh) book:

You can use a hash to give a particular directory an alias. This is particularly convenient for your workspace:

% echo $GOPATH
  /Users/gfestari/workspace/go

I don't want to type /Users/gfestari/workspace/go each time I want to reach the src folder in my $GOPATH directory. So how about putting hash to a good use?

% hash -d gosrc=$HOME/go/src

And now we can get there as quick as typing cd ~gosrc (pay attention to the leading ~ character). Here's another example, this time using the /var/www directory:

% hash -d www=/var/www
% cd ~www
  /var/www

You can go ahead and hash your most frequently visited directories. Just remember to add the required entries to your .zshrc, so you don't have to type the same thing over and over again.

For bonus points, set the AUTO_CD option, so you only need to input the directory's name whenever you want to change the working directories:

% setopt autocd
% ~www
  /var/www

Answer 9

Simple, use an alias.
1- Open the file bashrc which is hidden in the home directory with

nano ~/.bashrc

(you can see the bashrc file by typing 'll' into the terminal, it is located at the top with the files which begin with dots.That's where your aliases go.)

2-When nano opens .bashrc you wanna type the alias keyword followed by the name you wanna give to the alias example:

alias name_of_your_alias='cd ~/Documents/lectures/lecture1 file'

3- This is the last step and also a very important one most people skip this and their aliases do not work, this is the step where you use the source command to sort of update your .bashrc file so the commands are read from it.

source ~/.bashrc

(I said source sort of updates the .bashrc file but source doesn't really do that it just makes it so that commands are read and executed from this file.)

4- Enjoy using your aliases.
Happy hacking!!!