Save current directory in variable using Bash?

Question

What I'm trying to do is find the current working directory and save it into a variable, so that I can run export PATH=$PATH:currentdir+somethingelse. I'm not entirely sure if they have a variable that contains cwd by default.

How do I save the current directory in variable using Bash?

yup just tested with mydir=. then ls $mydir -but it's relative so it will be the pwd from wherever you run it — mcalex, Nov 07 '12 at 17:34
Oh, I had some spaces. t.t ${PWD} should've worked. haha. ... whoops — Stupid.Fat.Cat, Nov 09 '12 at 14:20
Possible duplicate of [Getting current path in variable and using it](https://stackoverflow.com/q/1636363/608639), [How to get a variable to have the current dir path?](https://stackoverflow.com/q/35189157/608639), etc. — jww, Dec 22 '19 at 13:29

score 275 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 18 '13 at 00:24

275

This saves the absolute path of the current working directory to the variable cwd:

cwd=$(pwd)

In your case you can just do:

export PATH=$PATH:$(pwd)+somethingelse

edited Jul 18 '13 at 00:24

peakxu

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answered Nov 07 '12 at 17:34

sampson-chen

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1

for some reason if I change to another dir this updates the `cwd` variable too. Like if it's calling the `pwd` function each time... https://dpaste.de/Kn7F How can I avoid that? – tutuca Nov 28 '13 at 16:00
2

`$CWD` may be a special (reserved) environment variable in your shell. Try a different name instead, such as `$CWD_MY_VAR` – sampson-chen Nov 28 '13 at 16:43
Using backticks does the same. – tutuca Nov 28 '13 at 17:06
3

Why not just use `"$PWD"`? – leetbacoon Oct 21 '19 at 02:00

score 36 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 15 '14 at 14:12

36

I have the following in my .bash_profile:

function mark {
    export $1=`pwd`;
}

so anytime I want to remember a directory, I can just type, e.g. mark there .

Then when I want to go back to that location, I just type cd $there

answered Oct 15 '14 at 14:12

gerardw

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Works well but for paths with spaces, e.g. "Google Drive" you have to do ```cd "$foo"``` for the whole path to be read – mercergeoinfo Jun 10 '16 at 09:20
3

To get around the problem with spaces in the path change ```export $1=`pwd` ``` to ```export $1="`pwd`" ``` and then when calling such paths use ```cd "$foo"``` instead of just ```cd $foo``` – mercergeoinfo Jun 10 '16 at 09:39
mercergeoinfo: Strictly speaking, the quotes in `export $1="\`pwd\`"` are not needed, since word splitting does not happen at the right-hand side of an assignment, although quoting of expansions is good to get used to as a habit. – Larry Jun 06 '18 at 07:39
2

See also [`cdable_vars`](https://stackoverflow.com/a/39839346/1518546) to type just `cd there` – John Cummings Apr 24 '19 at 14:59

score 11 · Answer 3 · edited Oct 29 '18 at 14:56

11

current working directory variable ie full path /home/dev/other

dir=$PWD

print the full path

echo $dir

edited Oct 29 '18 at 14:56

Eric Aya

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answered Oct 29 '18 at 14:33

Piyush Sharma

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mcalex · Answer 4 · 2017-08-22T07:10:19.027

5

for a relative answer, use .

test with:

$ myDir=.
$ ls $myDir
$ cd /
$ ls $myDir

The first ls will show you everything in the current directory, the second will show you everything in the root directory (/).

edited Aug 22 '17 at 07:10

answered Nov 07 '12 at 17:37

mcalex

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score 5 · Answer 5 · answered Nov 07 '12 at 20:54

5

Your assignment has an extra $:

export PATH=$PATH:${PWD}:/foo/bar

answered Nov 07 '12 at 20:54

chepner

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score 3 · Answer 6 · answered Oct 08 '20 at 08:41

3

On a BASH shell, you can very simply run:

export PATH=$PATH:`pwd`/somethingelse

No need to save the current working directory into a variable...

answered Oct 08 '20 at 08:41

Julian - BrainAnnex.org

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score 0 · Answer 7 · edited Jun 30 '16 at 13:03

0

One more variant:

export PATH=$PATH:\`pwd`:/foo/bar

edited Jun 30 '16 at 13:03

Tony Hinkle

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answered Nov 08 '13 at 08:34

theme

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score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Feb 17 '17 at 07:47

0

You can use shell in-build variable PWD, like this:

export PATH=$PATH:$PWD+somethingelse

answered Feb 17 '17 at 07:47

simmerlee

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score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Oct 05 '20 at 14:04

Similar to solution of mark with some checking of variables. Also I prefer not to use $variable but rather the same string I saved it under

save your folder/directory using save dir sdir myproject and go back to that folder using goto dir gdir myproject

in addition checkout the workings of native pushd and popd they will save the current folder and this is handy for going back and forth. In this case you can also use popd after gdir myproject and go back again

# Save the current folder using sdir yourhandle to a variable you can later access the same folder fast using gdir yourhandle

function sdir {
    [[ ! -z "$1" ]] && export __d__$1="`pwd`";
}
function gdir {
    [[ ! -z "$1" ]] && cd "${!1}";
}

another handy trick is to combine the two pushd/popd and sdir and gdir wher you replace the cd in the goto dir function in pushd. This enables you to also fly back to your previous folder when making the jump to the saved folder.

# Save the current folder using sdir yourhandle to a variable you can later access the same folder fast using gdir yourhandle

function sdir {
    [[ ! -z "$1" ]] && export __d__$1="`pwd`";
}
function gdir {
    [[ ! -z "$1" ]] && pushd "${!1}";
}

Gagan · Answer 10 · 2023-07-19T04:53:30.480

With hint from @gerardw ans I added the following in .bashrc, this has persistence also:

function mark {
  cur=`pwd`;
  echo "export cur_project=$cur" > ~/.cur_project
  . ~/.cur_project
}
. ~/.cur_project

alias curp='cd $cur_project'

So cur_project variable is available in .bashrc or bash command any time.

This alias curp='cd $cur_project' is just in case someone wants to switch to current project any time.

Save current directory in variable using Bash?

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