Is there an equivalent of cd

Is there an equivalent of cd - for cp or mv

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In Bash and similar shells cd - changes the current directory to a previously visited one. It's often very handy. I wonder if there is similar shorthand for copying or moving files, like:

~/project-a/ $ cd ../project-b

~/project-b/ $ cp Makefile LICENSE - # this won't work, hence the question

I'd be also happy with zsh specific answers.

asked Mar 31 at 14:57

Tad Lispy

313310

5

With bash: Instead of - press Esc and then . to get from last command its last argument (here: ../project-b).

– Cyrus
Mar 31 at 15:06

That's true @Cyrus, but in the example the intention is to copy from project-b to project-a.

– Tad Lispy
Mar 31 at 15:19

@Cyrus, I was always aware that bash has some Emacs-like key bindings and am a heavy Emacs user myself. I was always happily using the general line movement keys of emacs on the shell (C-a etc.). But your comment prompted me to actually look for key bindings in man bash. Holy moly... it really is Emacs-like, complete with the kill ring, the mark semantics (C-space) etc. Thanks for bringing that up.

– AnoE
Apr 1 at 11:15

add a comment |

In Bash and similar shells cd - changes the current directory to a previously visited one. It's often very handy. I wonder if there is similar shorthand for copying or moving files, like:

~/project-a/ $ cd ../project-b

~/project-b/ $ cp Makefile LICENSE - # this won't work, hence the question

I'd be also happy with zsh specific answers.

asked Mar 31 at 14:57

Tad Lispy

313310

5

With bash: Instead of - press Esc and then . to get from last command its last argument (here: ../project-b).

– Cyrus
Mar 31 at 15:06

That's true @Cyrus, but in the example the intention is to copy from project-b to project-a.

– Tad Lispy
Mar 31 at 15:19

@Cyrus, I was always aware that bash has some Emacs-like key bindings and am a heavy Emacs user myself. I was always happily using the general line movement keys of emacs on the shell (C-a etc.). But your comment prompted me to actually look for key bindings in man bash. Holy moly... it really is Emacs-like, complete with the kill ring, the mark semantics (C-space) etc. Thanks for bringing that up.

– AnoE
Apr 1 at 11:15

add a comment |

In Bash and similar shells cd - changes the current directory to a previously visited one. It's often very handy. I wonder if there is similar shorthand for copying or moving files, like:

~/project-a/ $ cd ../project-b

~/project-b/ $ cp Makefile LICENSE - # this won't work, hence the question

I'd be also happy with zsh specific answers.

asked Mar 31 at 14:57

Tad Lispy

313310

In Bash and similar shells cd - changes the current directory to a previously visited one. It's often very handy. I wonder if there is similar shorthand for copying or moving files, like:

~/project-a/ $ cd ../project-b

~/project-b/ $ cp Makefile LICENSE - # this won't work, hence the question

I'd be also happy with zsh specific answers.

linux bash file-transfer zsh

asked Mar 31 at 14:57

Tad Lispy

313310

asked Mar 31 at 14:57

Tad Lispy

313310

asked Mar 31 at 14:57

Tad Lispy

313310

asked Mar 31 at 14:57

Tad Lispy

313310

asked Mar 31 at 14:57

Tad Lispy

313310

5

With bash: Instead of - press Esc and then . to get from last command its last argument (here: ../project-b).

– Cyrus
Mar 31 at 15:06

That's true @Cyrus, but in the example the intention is to copy from project-b to project-a.

– Tad Lispy
Mar 31 at 15:19

@Cyrus, I was always aware that bash has some Emacs-like key bindings and am a heavy Emacs user myself. I was always happily using the general line movement keys of emacs on the shell (C-a etc.). But your comment prompted me to actually look for key bindings in man bash. Holy moly... it really is Emacs-like, complete with the kill ring, the mark semantics (C-space) etc. Thanks for bringing that up.

– AnoE
Apr 1 at 11:15

add a comment |

5

With bash: Instead of - press Esc and then . to get from last command its last argument (here: ../project-b).

– Cyrus
Mar 31 at 15:06

That's true @Cyrus, but in the example the intention is to copy from project-b to project-a.

– Tad Lispy
Mar 31 at 15:19

@Cyrus, I was always aware that bash has some Emacs-like key bindings and am a heavy Emacs user myself. I was always happily using the general line movement keys of emacs on the shell (C-a etc.). But your comment prompted me to actually look for key bindings in man bash. Holy moly... it really is Emacs-like, complete with the kill ring, the mark semantics (C-space) etc. Thanks for bringing that up.

– AnoE
Apr 1 at 11:15

With bash: Instead of - press Esc and then . to get from last command its last argument (here: ../project-b).

– Cyrus
Mar 31 at 15:06

That's true @Cyrus, but in the example the intention is to copy from project-b to project-a.

– Tad Lispy
Mar 31 at 15:19

@Cyrus, I was always aware that bash has some Emacs-like key bindings and am a heavy Emacs user myself. I was always happily using the general line movement keys of emacs on the shell (C-a etc.). But your comment prompted me to actually look for key bindings in man bash. Holy moly... it really is Emacs-like, complete with the kill ring, the mark semantics (C-space) etc. Thanks for bringing that up.

– AnoE
Apr 1 at 11:15

add a comment |

2 Answers
2

active

oldest

votes

If your shell has cd -, then it will likely have either the special variable $OLDPWD and/or the shortcut ~- for the directory you've been in previously.

cp Makefile LICENSE "$OLDPWD/"



cp Makefile LICENSE ~-



cat ~-/Makefile

Indeed the POSIX shell language (upon which ksh/bash/zsh are built) specifies that cd - should be equal to cd "$OLDPWD".

edited Mar 31 at 15:28

answered Mar 31 at 15:20

grawity

243k37512570

1

Tilde expansion has a lot more to it even than that. For an additional taste, unix.stackexchange.com/a/286628/135943 and that doesn’t even cover home directories.

– Wildcard
Mar 31 at 21:50

add a comment |

You can always use shell backquotes.

They act like a subshell : the command in the backquotes is executed first, and its output is placed as argument of the main command.

~/folderA$ cd ../folderB  

~/folderB$ cp Makefile `cd -`  

# gets expended to "cp Makefile ~/folderA"

answered Mar 31 at 21:34

Nathanael C.

511

New contributor

4

No, the command cd - outputs nothing, so `cd -` expands to the empty string. Try the command % echo `cd -` to verify. You would need to use something like % echo `cd -; pwd` ...

– Neal Young
Apr 1 at 0:21

2

@NealYoung: It seems that there’s something wrong with your shell. POSIX says “When a <hyphen-minus> is used as the operand [to cd], this shall be equivalent to the command: cd "$OLDPWD" && pwd, which changes to the previous working directory and then writes its name.” … (Cont’d)

– G-Man
Apr 1 at 2:36

1

(Cont’d) … And bash(1) says “An argument of - is converted to $OLDPWD before the directory change is attempted. If a non-empty directory name from CDPATH is used, or if - is the first argument, and the directory change is successful, the absolute pathname of the new working directory is written to the standard output.”

– G-Man
Apr 1 at 2:36

@Nathanael C.: But please use "$(cd -)".

– G-Man
Apr 1 at 2:40

There's only "something wrong" if the shell claims POSIX compliance, and I think it's perfectly normal for shells that weren't invoked as /bin/sh and aren't specifically trying to emulate a POSIX shell to implement their language in whatever way they want...

– grawity
Apr 1 at 3:55

|
show 1 more comment

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2 Answers
2

active

oldest

votes

2 Answers
2

active

oldest

votes

If your shell has cd -, then it will likely have either the special variable $OLDPWD and/or the shortcut ~- for the directory you've been in previously.

cp Makefile LICENSE "$OLDPWD/"



cp Makefile LICENSE ~-



cat ~-/Makefile

Indeed the POSIX shell language (upon which ksh/bash/zsh are built) specifies that cd - should be equal to cd "$OLDPWD".

edited Mar 31 at 15:28

answered Mar 31 at 15:20

grawity

243k37512570

1

Tilde expansion has a lot more to it even than that. For an additional taste, unix.stackexchange.com/a/286628/135943 and that doesn’t even cover home directories.

– Wildcard
Mar 31 at 21:50

add a comment |

If your shell has cd -, then it will likely have either the special variable $OLDPWD and/or the shortcut ~- for the directory you've been in previously.

cp Makefile LICENSE "$OLDPWD/"



cp Makefile LICENSE ~-



cat ~-/Makefile

Indeed the POSIX shell language (upon which ksh/bash/zsh are built) specifies that cd - should be equal to cd "$OLDPWD".

edited Mar 31 at 15:28

answered Mar 31 at 15:20

grawity

243k37512570

1

Tilde expansion has a lot more to it even than that. For an additional taste, unix.stackexchange.com/a/286628/135943 and that doesn’t even cover home directories.

– Wildcard
Mar 31 at 21:50

add a comment |

If your shell has cd -, then it will likely have either the special variable $OLDPWD and/or the shortcut ~- for the directory you've been in previously.

cp Makefile LICENSE "$OLDPWD/"



cp Makefile LICENSE ~-



cat ~-/Makefile

Indeed the POSIX shell language (upon which ksh/bash/zsh are built) specifies that cd - should be equal to cd "$OLDPWD".

edited Mar 31 at 15:28

answered Mar 31 at 15:20

grawity

243k37512570

If your shell has cd -, then it will likely have either the special variable $OLDPWD and/or the shortcut ~- for the directory you've been in previously.

cp Makefile LICENSE "$OLDPWD/"



cp Makefile LICENSE ~-



cat ~-/Makefile

Indeed the POSIX shell language (upon which ksh/bash/zsh are built) specifies that cd - should be equal to cd "$OLDPWD".

edited Mar 31 at 15:28

answered Mar 31 at 15:20

grawity

243k37512570

edited Mar 31 at 15:28

answered Mar 31 at 15:20

grawity

243k37512570

answered Mar 31 at 15:20

grawity

243k37512570

answered Mar 31 at 15:20

grawity

243k37512570

1

Tilde expansion has a lot more to it even than that. For an additional taste, unix.stackexchange.com/a/286628/135943 and that doesn’t even cover home directories.

– Wildcard
Mar 31 at 21:50

add a comment |

1

Tilde expansion has a lot more to it even than that. For an additional taste, unix.stackexchange.com/a/286628/135943 and that doesn’t even cover home directories.

– Wildcard
Mar 31 at 21:50

Tilde expansion has a lot more to it even than that. For an additional taste, unix.stackexchange.com/a/286628/135943 and that doesn’t even cover home directories.

– Wildcard
Mar 31 at 21:50

add a comment |

You can always use shell backquotes.

They act like a subshell : the command in the backquotes is executed first, and its output is placed as argument of the main command.

~/folderA$ cd ../folderB  

~/folderB$ cp Makefile `cd -`  

# gets expended to "cp Makefile ~/folderA"

answered Mar 31 at 21:34

Nathanael C.

511

New contributor

4

No, the command cd - outputs nothing, so `cd -` expands to the empty string. Try the command % echo `cd -` to verify. You would need to use something like % echo `cd -; pwd` ...

– Neal Young
Apr 1 at 0:21

2

@NealYoung: It seems that there’s something wrong with your shell. POSIX says “When a <hyphen-minus> is used as the operand [to cd], this shall be equivalent to the command: cd "$OLDPWD" && pwd, which changes to the previous working directory and then writes its name.” … (Cont’d)

– G-Man
Apr 1 at 2:36

1

(Cont’d) … And bash(1) says “An argument of - is converted to $OLDPWD before the directory change is attempted. If a non-empty directory name from CDPATH is used, or if - is the first argument, and the directory change is successful, the absolute pathname of the new working directory is written to the standard output.”

– G-Man
Apr 1 at 2:36

@Nathanael C.: But please use "$(cd -)".

– G-Man
Apr 1 at 2:40

There's only "something wrong" if the shell claims POSIX compliance, and I think it's perfectly normal for shells that weren't invoked as /bin/sh and aren't specifically trying to emulate a POSIX shell to implement their language in whatever way they want...

– grawity
Apr 1 at 3:55

|
show 1 more comment

You can always use shell backquotes.

They act like a subshell : the command in the backquotes is executed first, and its output is placed as argument of the main command.

~/folderA$ cd ../folderB  

~/folderB$ cp Makefile `cd -`  

# gets expended to "cp Makefile ~/folderA"

answered Mar 31 at 21:34

Nathanael C.

511

New contributor

4

No, the command cd - outputs nothing, so `cd -` expands to the empty string. Try the command % echo `cd -` to verify. You would need to use something like % echo `cd -; pwd` ...

– Neal Young
Apr 1 at 0:21

2

@NealYoung: It seems that there’s something wrong with your shell. POSIX says “When a <hyphen-minus> is used as the operand [to cd], this shall be equivalent to the command: cd "$OLDPWD" && pwd, which changes to the previous working directory and then writes its name.” … (Cont’d)

– G-Man
Apr 1 at 2:36

1

(Cont’d) … And bash(1) says “An argument of - is converted to $OLDPWD before the directory change is attempted. If a non-empty directory name from CDPATH is used, or if - is the first argument, and the directory change is successful, the absolute pathname of the new working directory is written to the standard output.”

– G-Man
Apr 1 at 2:36

@Nathanael C.: But please use "$(cd -)".

– G-Man
Apr 1 at 2:40

There's only "something wrong" if the shell claims POSIX compliance, and I think it's perfectly normal for shells that weren't invoked as /bin/sh and aren't specifically trying to emulate a POSIX shell to implement their language in whatever way they want...

– grawity
Apr 1 at 3:55

|
show 1 more comment

You can always use shell backquotes.

They act like a subshell : the command in the backquotes is executed first, and its output is placed as argument of the main command.

~/folderA$ cd ../folderB  

~/folderB$ cp Makefile `cd -`  

# gets expended to "cp Makefile ~/folderA"

answered Mar 31 at 21:34

Nathanael C.

511

New contributor

You can always use shell backquotes.

They act like a subshell : the command in the backquotes is executed first, and its output is placed as argument of the main command.

~/folderA$ cd ../folderB  

~/folderB$ cp Makefile `cd -`  

# gets expended to "cp Makefile ~/folderA"

answered Mar 31 at 21:34

Nathanael C.

511

New contributor

answered Mar 31 at 21:34

Nathanael C.

511

New contributor

answered Mar 31 at 21:34

Nathanael C.

511

answered Mar 31 at 21:34

Nathanael C.

511

New contributor

Nathanael C. is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

4

No, the command cd - outputs nothing, so `cd -` expands to the empty string. Try the command % echo `cd -` to verify. You would need to use something like % echo `cd -; pwd` ...

– Neal Young
Apr 1 at 0:21

2

@NealYoung: It seems that there’s something wrong with your shell. POSIX says “When a <hyphen-minus> is used as the operand [to cd], this shall be equivalent to the command: cd "$OLDPWD" && pwd, which changes to the previous working directory and then writes its name.” … (Cont’d)

– G-Man
Apr 1 at 2:36

1

(Cont’d) … And bash(1) says “An argument of - is converted to $OLDPWD before the directory change is attempted. If a non-empty directory name from CDPATH is used, or if - is the first argument, and the directory change is successful, the absolute pathname of the new working directory is written to the standard output.”

– G-Man
Apr 1 at 2:36

@Nathanael C.: But please use "$(cd -)".

– G-Man
Apr 1 at 2:40

There's only "something wrong" if the shell claims POSIX compliance, and I think it's perfectly normal for shells that weren't invoked as /bin/sh and aren't specifically trying to emulate a POSIX shell to implement their language in whatever way they want...

– grawity
Apr 1 at 3:55

|
show 1 more comment

4

No, the command cd - outputs nothing, so `cd -` expands to the empty string. Try the command % echo `cd -` to verify. You would need to use something like % echo `cd -; pwd` ...

– Neal Young
Apr 1 at 0:21

2

@NealYoung: It seems that there’s something wrong with your shell. POSIX says “When a <hyphen-minus> is used as the operand [to cd], this shall be equivalent to the command: cd "$OLDPWD" && pwd, which changes to the previous working directory and then writes its name.” … (Cont’d)

– G-Man
Apr 1 at 2:36

1

(Cont’d) … And bash(1) says “An argument of - is converted to $OLDPWD before the directory change is attempted. If a non-empty directory name from CDPATH is used, or if - is the first argument, and the directory change is successful, the absolute pathname of the new working directory is written to the standard output.”

– G-Man
Apr 1 at 2:36

@Nathanael C.: But please use "$(cd -)".

– G-Man
Apr 1 at 2:40

There's only "something wrong" if the shell claims POSIX compliance, and I think it's perfectly normal for shells that weren't invoked as /bin/sh and aren't specifically trying to emulate a POSIX shell to implement their language in whatever way they want...

– grawity
Apr 1 at 3:55

No, the command cd - outputs nothing, so `cd -` expands to the empty string. Try the command % echo `cd -` to verify. You would need to use something like % echo `cd -; pwd` ...

– Neal Young
Apr 1 at 0:21

@NealYoung: It seems that there’s something wrong with your shell. POSIX says “When a <hyphen-minus> is used as the operand [to cd], this shall be equivalent to the command: cd "$OLDPWD" && pwd, which changes to the previous working directory and then writes its name.” … (Cont’d)

– G-Man
Apr 1 at 2:36

(Cont’d) … And bash(1) says “An argument of - is converted to $OLDPWD before the directory change is attempted. If a non-empty directory name from CDPATH is used, or if - is the first argument, and the directory change is successful, the absolute pathname of the new working directory is written to the standard output.”

– G-Man
Apr 1 at 2:36

@Nathanael C.: But please use "$(cd -)".

– G-Man
Apr 1 at 2:40

There's only "something wrong" if the shell claims POSIX compliance, and I think it's perfectly normal for shells that weren't invoked as /bin/sh and aren't specifically trying to emulate a POSIX shell to implement their language in whatever way they want...

– grawity
Apr 1 at 3:55

|
show 1 more comment

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