Question

15

Going to the parent directory of a file with cd?

rated 0 times [ 15] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 19591 / 1 Year ago, tue, january 17, 2023, 10:17:17

I am writing a .sh to do some work for me, but I am now at the point where I have to cd to the directory the file /path/to/file.end is in.
terminal doesn't allow

cd /path/to/file.end

bash: cd: /path/to/file.end: Not a directory

there is sadly no workaround I know of, so it would be nice if you could help!

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heathree

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3 Years ago

answered 1 Year ago edgehogight · Accepted Answer

Type cd $( dirname /path/to/file.end). That will take you into /path/to.

Explanation:

dirname returns the complete path for a file (without the filename, which you would get with basename) - i.e. dirname /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/99update-notifier returns /etc/apt/apt.conf.d

the expression $(anything) is replaced by the result of the command in the parentheses. So cd $( dirname /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/99update-notifier) is executed as cd /etc/apt/apt.conf.d

Another (but old and discouraged) notation for the same was

cd `dirname /path/to/file.end`