Is there a way to go to any directory from any other directory directly?

Question

Is there a way to go to any directory from any other directory directly? For example, lets say that I'm at root and I wanted to go directly to currentProject without doing:

cd dropbox/dev/currentProject



-root
  -dropbox
     -dev
        -currentProject

Is there way to do this?

Answer 1

You can use something like autojump. Autojump lets you quickly jump to frequently visited directories with the j command.

For instance, once you've cd'd into your currentProject directory a few times, you can jump to it like this:

j currentProject

You can even use just part of the directory name. So you could do:

j current

To cd into currentProject.

Answer 2

This doesn't answer your question directly, but if I'm inferring correctly that you're going to be jumping between directories a lot, you could use a terminal multiplexer like GNU Screen to keep the different directories open in different windows, and simply switch between them as needed. I personally use Byobu, which adds some functionality on top of screen.

Answer 3

You can also add some common directories to your $CDPATH

export CDPATH=$HOME

This for example will let you cd into any dir in your home folder from anywhere in your system.

more

Answer 4

You can set an alias in your bash profile. Basically that lets you abbreviate a command with a word. You could set currentProject actually point to /dropbox/dev/currentProject

Answer 5

You could create symlinks in your home directory to where you want to go.

ln -s /dropbox/dev/currentProject ~/currentProject

This way, you're still using cd, but you don't have to remember the full path. Just use:

cd ~/currentProject

When you stop using the link, just delete it.

rm ~/currentProject