You can also use `cd -` to return to the previous directory.

git "borrowed" this idea too. You can use `git checkout -` to checkout the last thing you checked out; very handy when merging.

Python sort of did too, you can use _ to access the last-returned variable in the interpreter.

    [testfunc(x) for x in testlist]

    <successful result>

    success = _

    print _

    <successful result>

It's useful when using the interpreter as a calculator, or when you're bashing out some calculation you can never remember how to do properly.

The same thing also works in irb.

    >> "foo"
    => "foo"
    >> bar = _
    => "foo"
    >> bar
    => "foo"

in bash you can use $_ to access the last argument of the previous command. It lets you do things like this:

    $ pwd
    /home/foo
    $ mkdir -p bar/baz/qux && cd $_
    $ pwd
    /home/foo/bar/baz/qux

Yeah but only one directory in the history. With pushd/popd you can navigate as much as you want, an then popd to that directory you intended to bookmark.

yeah, I switched to cd - for a while but got bitten by this too many times.

$ pwd

/some/long/compli/cated/v1.0.7/path/to/_stuff

$ cd /simple/

$ do -stuff

$ cd ./foo

$ do -stuff

$ rem now let's get back to that complicated directory again

$ cd -

oh, wait, I cd'ed twice, shit

If you find yourself in this spot again, Ctrl-r `cd /som` helps.

  $ pushd .
  $ cd /

Why not just

  $ pushd /

?

Also, it's not linux-specific, but bash-specific.

It's not Linux or Bash specific, pushd and popd work on Windows too, and work on network shares, e.g.

  c:\> pushd \\server\share
  z:\>

It's still provided by your shell, not the OS. Windows' cmd.exe just happens to provide pushd/popd, same as bash, zshell, etc.

     $ pushd /

oh, neat. Thanks.

You can also use $CDPATH to jump easily between directories e.g. : Imagine you have this folder ~/dev/python/my_awesome_project

If you set CDPATH to '.:~/dev/python', you can easily jump to your project just by doing cd my_awesome_project, it doesn't matter where you actually are in your FS!

I use it heavily with cd -, you should give it a try!

I really like $CDPATH, but there are tons of sloppy scripts out there that assume "cd $FOO" has no output and break when $CDPATH is set. Drives me nuts.

It's really handy for scripts too. pushd/popd definitely live up to the word awesome.

For interactive use zsh has an option called autopushd that automatically pushes directories you `cd` to. I never remember to use pushd so it's a nice convenience.

It's not just handy for scripts, I think it's imperative in scripts where you want to go in and out of a lot of directories.

  for i in foo bar baz; do
     cd $i;
     #... do something
     cd ..;
  done;

if "bar" doesn't exist, your cd .. will throw you off your original directory, whereas

  for i in foo bar baz; do
     pushd $i;
     #... do something
     popd;
  done;

you'll be guaranteed that after "popd" you're back in the right place to start a new iteration.

You really, really should use 'set -e' which will exit if there are any errors. Otherwise if 'bar' doesn't exist, you'll 'do something' in a wrong directory and frobnicate something you didn't want frobnicated.

I never was comfortable using pushd/popd.

But a few months ago found this.

https://github.com/joelthelion/autojump/wiki