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Why typing sudo cd whatever won't change the directory?

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cd is a shell builtin. sudo only works with executables. You could do sudo sh -c 'cd dirname' but as soon as the shell exits, you're returned to the directory you started from. If you say what it is you're trying to accomplish then I can help you find a way to do that.

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But then sudo pwd wouldn't work either? (I always figured that sudo cd does work, but you're just not seeing the result after sudo returns. But that was just a wild guess. Maybe neither cd nor pwd are actually built-in in Bash on a Mac. Running which cd does indeed give me results. Running sudo cd / does not give me an error, but indeed does not result in a changed working directory.) – Arjan Feb 3 '11 at 9:00
@Arjan: pwd is also an external executable so it will work. Note that on some systems, there is a cd executable, but it's mostly useless. Try using type -a cd it's much more informative than which, by the way. – Dennis Williamson Feb 3 '11 at 9:06
Nice! type -a cd shows both cd is a shell builtin and cd is /usr/bin/cd on my Mac. And likewise for pwd and echo. And both sudo pwd and sudo echo "Hello world" do give me a result. However, type -a return only yields return is a shell builtin, and sudo return 3 shows me sudo: return: command not found. So, I guess the question is: does the OP get an error message, or does the OP not see the cd work without any error? (Or: what OS is the OP using.) – Arjan Feb 3 '11 at 9:12
sudo sh -c 'cd dirname' doesn't do anything for me. – Peter Niederwieser Aug 9 '11 at 14:43
@Peter: See the part of my answer which begins "but..." – Dennis Williamson Aug 11 '11 at 22:08
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up vote 2 down vote

Instead try using sudo -s to start a root shell and then simply cd into the directory.
When you're done as root, press CtrlD or type exit.

As Arjan hints at below, it is important to note that as root, one can easily do damage to essential system components. Use with care!

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But: be careful, once one is root... – Arjan Feb 3 '11 at 9:14
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