The cd builtin command¶
Synopsis¶
cd [-L|-P] [DIRECTORY]
cd -
Description¶
The cd
builtin command is used to change the current working directory
- to the given directory (
cd DIRECTORY
) - to the previous working directory (
cd -
) as saved in the OLDPWD shell variable - to the user's home directory as specified in the HOME environment variable (when used without a
DIRECTORY
argument)
The cd
builtin command searches the directories listed in CDPATH for a matching directory.
The default behaviour is to follow symbolic links unless the -P
option is given or the shell is configured to do so (see the -P
option of the set builtin command).
Options¶
Option Description
-L
Follow symbolic links (default) -P
Do not follow symbolic links -@
Browse a file's extended attributed, if supported
Exit status¶
- true if the directory was changed successfully
- false if a change to the home directory was requested, but HOME is unset
- false if anything else goes wrong
Examples¶
Change the working directory to the user's home directory¶
cd
Change the working directory to the previous directory¶
cd -
Portability considerations¶
See also¶
- variable CDPATH
- variable HOME
- variable OLDPWD
- the
-P
option of the set builtin command