*** UNIX MANUAL PAGE BROWSER ***

cd(1) General Commands Manual cd(1) NAME cd - Changes the current working directory SYNOPSIS cd [directory] Note The C shell has a built-in version of the cd command. If you are using the C shell, and want to guarantee that you are using the command de- scribed here, you must specify the full path /usr/bin/cd. See the csh(1) reference page for a description of the built-in command. STANDARDS Interfaces documented on this reference page conform to industry stan- dards as follows: cd: XPG4, XPG4-UNIX Refer to the standards(5) reference page for more information about in- dustry standards and associated tags. OPTIONS None OPERANDS The pathname (either full or relative) to be used as the new working directory. If (hyphen) is specified as the directory, the cd command changes your current (working) directory to the directory name saved in the environment variable OLDPWD. DESCRIPTION The cd command moves you from your present directory to another direc- tory. You must have execute (search) permission in the specified di- rectory. If you do not specify a directory, cd moves you to your login directory ($HOME in ksh and sh environments, or $home in csh environment). If the specified directory name is a full pathname, it becomes the current working directory. A full pathname begins with a / (slash) for the root directory, with a . (dot) for the current working directory, or with a .. (dot dot) for the parent directory. If the directory name is not a full pathname, cd searches for it relative to one of the paths specified by the $CDPATH shell variable (or $cdpath csh variable). This variable has the same syntax as, and similar semantics to, the $PATH shell variable (or $path csh variable). EXIT STATUS The following exit values are returned: The directory was successfully changed. An error occurred. EXAMPLES To change to your home directory, enter: cd To change to a new direc- tory, enter: cd /usr/include This changes the current working directory to /usr/include. Now file pathnames that do not begin with / or ../ specify files lo- cated in /usr/include. To go down one level of the directory tree, enter: cd sys If the current working directory is /usr/include and if it con- tains a subdirectory named sys, then /usr/include/sys becomes the current working directory. To go up one level of the direc- tory tree, enter: cd .. The special filename ..(dotdot) always refers to the directory immediately above the current working directory. ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES The following environment variables affect the execution of cd: A colon-separated list of pathnames that refer to directories. If the directory operand does not begin with a / (slash) character, and the first component is not (dot) or cd command will search for directory relative to each directory named in the CDPATH variable, in the order listed. The new working directory will be set to the first matching di- rectory found. An empty string in place of a directory pathname repre- sents the current directory. If CDPATH is not set, it will be treated as if it were an empty string. The name of the home directory, used when no directory operand is specified. Provides a default value for the internationalization variables that are unset or null. If LANG is unset or null, the corresponding value from the default locale is used. If any of the internationalization variables contain an invalid set- ting, the utility behaves as if none of the variables had been defined. If set to a non-empty string value, overrides the values of all the other internationalization variables. Determines the locale for the interpretation of sequences of bytes of text data as characters (for example, single-byte as opposed to multibyte characters in arguments). Determines the locale for the format and contents of diagnostic mes- sages written to standard error. Determines the location of message catalogues for the processing of LC_MESSAGES. A pathname of the previ- ous working directory, used by the cd - form of the command. The cd command sets this variable to your current working directory before changing to a new current directory. A pathname of the current working directory, set by the cd command after it has changed to that direc- tory. SEE ALSO Commands: csh(1), ksh(1), pwd(1), Bourne shell sh(1b), POSIX shell sh(1p) Functions: chdir(2) Environment: environ(5) Standards: standards(5) cd(1)