cd (command)

cd / chdir
	The <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">cd</syntaxhighlight> command illustration (in a shell session in Debian GNU/Linux)
Developer(s)	AT&T Bell Laboratories, MetaComCo, Microsoft, IBM, DR, Novell, HP, JP Software, ReactOS Contributors
Operating system	Unix, Unix-like, V, DOS, MSX-DOS, FlexOS, OS/2, TRIPOS, Windows, MPE/iX, Plan 9, Inferno, ReactOS, KolibriOS, SymbOS
Platform	Cross-platform
Type	Command

The <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">cd</syntaxhighlight> command, also known as <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">chdir</syntaxhighlight> (change directory), is a command-line shell command used to change the current working directory in various operating systems. It can be used in shell scripts and batch files.

Implementations

The command has been implemented in operating systems such as Unix, DOS, IBM OS/2,^[1] MetaComCo TRIPOS,^[2] AmigaOS^[3] (where if a bare path is given, cd is implied), Microsoft Windows, ReactOS,^[4] and Linux. On MS-DOS, it is available in versions 2 and later.^[5] DR DOS 6.0 also includes an implementation of the <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">cd</syntaxhighlight> and <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">chdir</syntaxhighlight> commands.^[6] The command is also available in the open source MS-DOS emulator DOSBox and in the EFI shell.^[7] It is named <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">chdir</syntaxhighlight> in HP MPE/iX.^[8] The command is analogous to the Stratus OpenVOS <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">change_current_dir</syntaxhighlight> command.^[9]

<syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">cd</syntaxhighlight> is frequently included built directly into a command-line interpreter. This is the case in most of the Unix shells (Bourne shell, tcsh, bash, etc.), cmd.exe on Microsoft Windows NT/2000+ and Windows PowerShell on Windows 7+ and COMMAND.COM on DOS/ Microsoft Windows 3.x-9x/ME.

The system call that effects the command in most operating systems is <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">chdir</syntaxhighlight> that is defined by POSIX.

Command line shells on Windows usually use the Windows API to change the current working directory, whereas on Unix systems <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">cd</syntaxhighlight> calls the <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">chdir()</syntaxhighlight> POSIX C function. This means that when the command is executed, no new process is created to migrate to the other directory as is the case with other commands such as ls. Instead, the shell itself executes this command. This is because, when a new process is created, child process inherits the directory in which the parent process was created. If the <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">cd</syntaxhighlight> command inherits the parent process' directory, then the objective of the command cd will never be achieved.

Windows PowerShell, Microsoft's object-oriented command line shell and scripting language, executes the <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">cd</syntaxhighlight> command (cmdlet) within the shell's process. However, since PowerShell is based on the .NET Framework and has a different architecture than previous shells, all of PowerShell's cmdlets like <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">ls</syntaxhighlight>, <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">rm</syntaxhighlight> etc. run in the shell's process. Of course, this is not true for legacy commands which still run in a separate process.

Usage

A directory is a logical section of a file system used to hold files. Directories may also contain other directories. The <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">cd</syntaxhighlight> command can be used to change into a subdirectory, move back into the parent directory, move all the way back to the root directory or move to any given directory.

Consider the following subsection of a Unix filesystem, which shows a user's home directory (represented as <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">~</syntaxhighlight>) with a file, <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">text.txt</syntaxhighlight>, and three subdirectories.

A user's view of the file system in Unix-like systems begins with the home directory (often abbreviated to <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">~</syntaxhighlight>). From there, the tree can spread into more subdirectories and/or files.

If the user's current working directory is the home directory (<syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">~</syntaxhighlight>), then entering the command ls followed by <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">cd games</syntaxhighlight> might produce the following transcript:

<syntaxhighlight lang="console"> user@wikipedia:~$ ls workreports games encyclopedia text.txt user@wikipedia:~$ cd games user@wikipedia:~/games$ </syntaxhighlight>

The user is now in the "games" directory.

A similar session in DOS (though the concept of a "home directory" may not apply, depending on the specific version^[vague]) would look like this:

C:\> dir
workreports        <DIR>       Wed Oct 9th   9:01
games              <DIR>       Tue Oct 8th  14:32
encyclopedia       <DIR>       Mon Oct 1st  10:05
text        txt           1903 Thu Oct10th  12:43
C:\> cd games
C:\games>

DOS maintains separate working directories for each lettered drive, and also has the concept of a current working drive. The <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">cd</syntaxhighlight> command can be used to change the working directory of the working drive or another lettered drive. Typing the drive letter as a command on its own changes the working drive, e.g. <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">C:</syntaxhighlight>; alternatively, <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">cd</syntaxhighlight> with the <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">/d</syntaxhighlight> switch may be used to change the working drive and that drive's working directory in one step. Modern versions of Windows simulate this behaviour for backwards compatibility under CMD.EXE.^[10]

Note that executing <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">cd</syntaxhighlight> from the command line with no arguments has different effects in different operating systems. For example, if <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">cd</syntaxhighlight> is executed without arguments in DOS, OS/2, or Windows, the current working directory is displayed (equivalent to Unix pwd). If <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">cd</syntaxhighlight> is executed without arguments in Unix, the user is returned to the home directory.

Executing the <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">cd</syntaxhighlight> command within a script or batch file also has different effects in different operating systems. In DOS, the caller's current directory can be directly altered by the batch file's use of this command. In Unix, the caller's current directory is not altered by the script's invocation of the <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">cd</syntaxhighlight> command. This is because in Unix, the script is usually executed within a subshell.

Options

Unix, Unix-like

<syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">cd</syntaxhighlight> by itself or <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">cd ~</syntaxhighlight> will always put the user in their home directory.
<syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">cd .</syntaxhighlight> will leave the user in the same directory they are currently in (i.e. the current directory won't change). This can be useful if the user's shell's internal code can't deal with the directory they are in being recreated; running <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">cd .</syntaxhighlight> will place their shell in the recreated directory.
cd ~username will put the user in the username's home directory.
<syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">cd dir</syntaxhighlight> (without a <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">/</syntaxhighlight>) will put the user in a subdirectory; for example, if they are in <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">/usr</syntaxhighlight>, typing <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">cd bin</syntaxhighlight> will put them in <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">/usr/bin</syntaxhighlight>, while <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">cd /bin</syntaxhighlight> puts them in <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">/bin</syntaxhighlight>.
<syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">cd ..</syntaxhighlight> will move the user up one directory. So, if they are <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">/usr/bin/tmp</syntaxhighlight>, <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">cd ..</syntaxhighlight> moves them to <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">/usr/bin</syntaxhighlight>, while <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">cd ../..</syntaxhighlight> moves them to <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">/usr</syntaxhighlight> (i.e. up two levels). The user can use this indirection to access subdirectories too. So, from <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">/usr/bin/tmp</syntaxhighlight>, they can use <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">cd ../../local</syntaxhighlight> to go to <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">/usr/local</syntaxhighlight>
<syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">cd -</syntaxhighlight> will switch the user to the previous directory. For example, if they are in <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">/usr/bin/tmp</syntaxhighlight>, and go to <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">/etc</syntaxhighlight>, they can type <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">cd -</syntaxhighlight> to go back to <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">/usr/bin/tmp</syntaxhighlight>. The user can use this to toggle back and forth between two directories without pushd and popd.

DOS, OS/2, Windows, ReactOS

no attributes print the full path of the current directory.
<syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">-p</syntaxhighlight> Print the final directory stack, just like dirs.
<syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">-n</syntaxhighlight> Entries are wrapped before they reach the edge of the screen.
<syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">-v</syntaxhighlight> entries are printed one per line, preceded by their stack positions.
<syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">cd\</syntaxhighlight> (DOS and Windows only) returns to the root dir. Consequently, command <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">cd\subdir</syntaxhighlight> always takes the user to the named subdirectory on the root directory, regardless of where they are located when the command is issued.

Interpreters other than an operating systems shell

In the File Transfer Protocol, the respective command is spelled <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">CWD</syntaxhighlight> in the control stream, but is available as <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">cd</syntaxhighlight> in most client command-line programs. Some clients also have the <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">lcd</syntaxhighlight> for changing the working directory locally.

The numerical computing environments MATLAB and GNU Octave include a cd function with similar functionality.^[11]^[12] The command also pertains to command-line interpreters of various other application software.

References

^ "JaTomes Help – OS/2 Commands". www.jatomes.com. Archived from the original on 2019-04-14. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
^ "Introduction to Tripos" (PDF). Retrieved 2020-05-01.
^ Rügheimer, Hannes; Spanik, Christian (May 1, 1988). AmigaDOS quick reference. Grand Rapids, Mi : Abacus. ISBN 9781557550491 – via Internet Archive.
^ "Reactos/reactos". GitHub. 3 January 2022.
^ Wolverton, Van (2003). Running MS-DOS Version 6.22 (20th Anniversary Edition), 6th Revised edition. Microsoft Press. ISBN 0-7356-1812-7.
^ "DR DOS 6.0 User Guide Optimisation and Configuration Tips" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-09-30. Retrieved 2019-08-13.
^ "EFI Shells and Scripting". Intel. Retrieved 2013-09-25.
^ "MPE/iX Command Reference Manual" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-10-21. Retrieved 2018-10-21.
^ "OpenVOS Commands Reference Manual" (PDF). stratadoc.stratus.com. Retrieved 2020-09-12.
^ "October 11, 2010". The Old New Thing.
^ "Change current folder – MATLAB cd". www.mathworks.com.
^ "Function Reference: cd". octave.sourceforge.io.

External links

Windows XP > Command-line reference A-Z > Chdir (Cd) from Microsoft TechNet
cd: change the working directory – Shell and Utilities Reference, The Single UNIX Specification, Version 4 from The Open Group

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[1] "JaTomes Help – OS/2 Commands". www.jatomes.com. Archived from the original on 2019-04-14. Retrieved 2019-08-11.

[2] "Introduction to Tripos" (PDF). Retrieved 2020-05-01.

[3] Rügheimer, Hannes; Spanik, Christian (May 1, 1988). AmigaDOS quick reference. Grand Rapids, Mi : Abacus. ISBN 9781557550491 – via Internet Archive.

[4] "Reactos/reactos". GitHub. 3 January 2022.

[RUNNINGMSDOS-5] Wolverton, Van (2003). Running MS-DOS Version 6.22 (20th Anniversary Edition), 6th Revised edition. Microsoft Press. ISBN 0-7356-1812-7.

[drdos6userguide-6] "DR DOS 6.0 User Guide Optimisation and Configuration Tips" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-09-30. Retrieved 2019-08-13.

[EFI-Shells-and-Scripting-7] "EFI Shells and Scripting". Intel. Retrieved 2013-09-25.

[8] "MPE/iX Command Reference Manual" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-10-21. Retrieved 2018-10-21.

[9] "OpenVOS Commands Reference Manual" (PDF). stratadoc.stratus.com. Retrieved 2020-09-12.

[10] "October 11, 2010". The Old New Thing.

[11] "Change current folder – MATLAB cd". www.mathworks.com.

[12] "Function Reference: cd". octave.sourceforge.io.

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