Change cd default directory (bash)
bash, cd, linux, terminal
Solution
Here's a simpler alternative using an alias:
alias cd='HOME=~/Documents/Github cd'
- While this redefines `$HOME`, it does so ONLY for the `cd` command, so should be safe(*).
- This also obviates the need for any custom parameter pre-parsing.
If you place this in `~/.bashrc`, you should get the desired behavior.
Note that, by default, this alias will NOT be in effect in scripts (non-interactive shells), as alias expansion is by default disabled there (use `shopt -s expand_aliases` to explicitly enable).
(*) @chepner points out one restriction: with the alias in place you won't be able to do `HOME=/somewhere/else cd`, i.e., you won't be able to redefine (override) `$HOME` again, ad-hoc. As he further states, though, it's hard to imagine why anyone would want to do that.
Problem
I'm looking for a way to change the default directory of cd, and I'm wondering if this is possible. I tried adding ``` alias "cd=cd ~/Documents/Github" ``` to .bashrc, but this obviously doesn't work because it breaks the cd command so that you cannot use cd for anything but going to that directory. Is there some export that I could put in .bashrc to do this? I do not want to change my home directory, just the default directory cd goes to. I ask because I regularly use cd to change to my default directory that I am programming in and would like to not have to type `cd ~/workspace` or `cd` and then `cd workspace` every time I want to change to the directory `~/workspace`.