Editing Linux 101 hacks (section)

=='''Hack 1. Use CDPATH to define the base directory for cd command'''==


If you are frequently performing cd to subdirectories of a specific parent directory, you can set the CDPATH to the parent directory and perform cd to the subdirectories without giving the parent directory path as explained below.


<nowiki>[ramesh@dev-db ~]# </nowiki>'''pwd''' /home/ramesh

<nowiki>[ramesh@dev-db </nowiki>~]# '''cd mail'''


-bash: cd: mail: No such file or directory


<nowiki>[</nowiki>'''Note:''' This is looking for mail directory under current directory]


<nowiki>[ramesh@dev-db ~]# </nowiki>'''export CDPATH=/etc'''<nowiki> [ramesh@dev-db ~]# </nowiki>'''cd mail'''

/etc/mail


<nowiki>[</nowiki>'''Note:''' This is looking for mail under /etc and not under current directory]


<nowiki>[ramesh@dev-db /etc/mail]# </nowiki>'''pwd''' /etc/mail


To make this change permanent, add export CDPATH=/etc to your ~/.bash_profile


Similar to the PATH variable, you can add more than one directory entry in the CDPATH variable, separating them with : , as shown below.


export CDPATH=.:~:/etc:/var


This hack can be very helpful under the following situations:


# Oracle DBAs frequently working under $ORACLE_HOME, can set the CDPATH variable to the oracle home 

# Unix sysadmins frequently working under /etc, can set the CDPATH variable to /etc 

# Developers frequently working under project directory /home/projects, can set the CDPATH variable to /home/projects 

# End-users frequently accessing the subdirectories under their home directory, can set the CDPATH variable to ~ (home directory)