Heya,

I was exchanging Linux tricks with a friend and = thought I’d share a few here. Please feel free to reply with your own, if you like. = It’d be cool to see how other people are saving time and geeking out. :)

Thanks!

Steve

…BEGIN…

If you’re still using cd to change directories, for shame! Well, sorta. = :)

Let me show you = something…

Let’s say that you have a directory like /home/geoff/very/deeply/nested/stuff1 and let’s say you have = another: /home/geoff/very/deeply/nested/stuff2, = right?

And let’s say you run a new interactive bash = shell. How do you get to stuff1 or stuff2 without typing a = lot?

Put this in your .bash_profile:

CDPATH=3D/home/geoff/very/deeply/nested

export<= font size=3D2 face=3DArial> = CDPATH

Then, source the file ( . = .bash_profile ) so that it picks up = changes.

Then, no matter where you are, simply = type:

cd stuff1 or cd stuff2

and it takes you there. cd = always checks anything that you type against the base directories that you define in = CDPATH. Cool, hey? :)

Now, let’s say that you’re cd’ing all over the place. That’s very inefficient. Instead, use pushd and dirs. But first, add this to your .bash_profile:

alias pd=3D’pushd’

and source the file again.

Anyway, here’s what = happens:

pd = /etc

pd = /home

pd /usr

pd /var/log/httpd

pd = /proc

Now, type: dirs

That’s your stack of directories. The top of = the stack is near the top of the screen. You can also type dirs –v

Say you want to change to a particular directory. = Simply say: pd +N where N is 0 (/etc), 1 (/home), 2 = (/usr), etc.

Once you’ve done that, type dirs again. See how the directory you’ve pushed has now become the top = of the stack, and you’ve cd’d into it = automagically?

In case you ever want to remove a directory, you can = use popd +N. That will blow away that particular = directory from the stack.

You really should never use cd again, unless you’re using CDPATH.

Always use pd and bash = will remember where you’ve been. Much better than the stateless cd!

Note that pushd and popd can also take negative arguments, like -4. = The difference between +4 and -4 is that +4 starts counting from the top of = the stack (0), whereas -4 starts counting from the bottom (taken as 0). So = either way, it will target the fifth element either from the top or the bottom = of the stack.

3D"Noumenaut

= Steve Jovanovic

= Director of Engineering

http://dev.noumenaut.com

= 262.632.7755

"And the walls = shall have eyes, and the doors shall have ears." - = Bowie