Using cd to go up multiple directory levels

Question

I'm dealing with java projects which often result in deeply nested folders (/path/to/project/com/java/lang/whatever, etc) and sometimes want to be able to jump, say, 4 directory levels upwards. Typing cd ../../../.. is a pain, and I don't want to symlink. Is there some flag to cd that lets you go up multiple directory levels (in my head, it would be something like cd -u 4)? Unfortunately I can't find any man page for cd specifically, instead just getting the useless "builtins" page.

Answer 1

Or... try this: (yay Google)

Navigate up the directory using ..n :

In the example below, ..4 is used to go up 4 directory level, ..3 to go up 3 directory level, ..2 to go up 2 directory level.

Add the following alias to the .bash_profile and re-login.

alias ..="cd .."

alias ..2="cd ../.."

alias ..3="cd ../../.."

(etc)

See Hack #2

Answer 2

Turns out the correct answer is 'cd +n', where n is the number of levels you want to go up. Too bad this isn't documented anywhere!

Answer 3

Not exactly what you're asking for but you should look into pushd and popd. I find them much more useful for folder navigation than some cd... alias

If you're going back and forth from a couple fixed areas, the usual thing is to have aliases.

alias proj1='cd /some/dir/containing/proj1'
alias proj2='cd /some/deeper/dir/structure/containing/proj2'

Answer 4

Do you know about autojump? It's a third party hack, but can be useful in your scenario.