Is there a shortcut to mkdir foo and immediately cd into it?

Question

This is something I do frequently

$ mkdir foo
$ cd foo

This works as a single command, but it's more keystrokes and saves no time.

$ mkdir foo && cd foo

Is there a shortcut for this?

Edit

With the use of help below, this seems to be the most elegant answer.

# ~/.bashrc
function mkcd {
  if [ ! -n "$1" ]; then
    echo "Enter a directory name"
  elif [ -d $1 ]; then
    echo "\`$1' already exists"
  else
    mkdir $1 && cd $1
  fi
}

You can rename the function to mkdir if you use command mkdir $1 instead of just mkdir $1 in the function body. — Andy, Jun 15 '10 at 14:50
(1) why not simply "mkdir $1 ; cd $1" instead of "&&"? that way the "cd" succeeds even if the "mkdir" fails, and you don't need the does-it-already-exist scaffolding. (2) as written your function won't work (to prompt you for a directory name). you need to put that in a separate "if" clause from the existence test (currently in "elif"). — quack quixote, Jun 15 '10 at 16:25
Or even mkdir -p $1; cd $1 so you can make nested directories and move into them. @quackquixote — yomotherboard, Oct 06 '21 at 03:58

kzh · Answer 1 · 2017-11-10T14:10:52.047

118

The `bash`, `zsh` Shells

If you don't want another function to remember and don't mind bashisms:

$ mkdir /home/foo/doc/bar && cd $_

The $_ (dollar underscore) bash command variable contains the most recent parameter. So if a user were to type the following at the command line: echo foo bar && echo $_ baz, then the output would be as follows:

foo bar
bar baz

The `fish` Shell

In the fish shell, I would type the following:

> mkdir /home/foo/doc/bar
> cd alt + ↑

The alt key combined with either the up or the down arrow key will cycle through command parameter history.

edited Nov 10 '17 at 14:10

answered Aug 12 '11 at 11:26

kzh

4,333

4

This works in zsh too. – Nabil Kadimi Feb 16 '14 at 10:01
3

Can you explain what $_ is? Newbie here. – arg20 Jun 25 '14 at 15:16
@NabilKadimi Did you mean that Alt+⬆ works well in Zsh? Actually, with zsh 5.4.2 and on-my-zsh, Alt+⬆ gives me character 'A'. – Weekend Apr 09 '19 at 05:58
Put $_ in quotes as in "$_". – Asclepius Oct 19 '20 at 13:39
Yeah, that's why I don't use Bourne derived shells. Too many foot guns. – kzh Oct 19 '20 at 17:22
I have decided to call $_ as the 'dollar short' variable, colloquially. – Chiramisu Sep 17 '23 at 08:52
Does this need a -p option? For zsh in OSX I needed it. – Dave Newton Feb 07 '24 at 21:33

Andy · Accepted Answer · 2010-06-15T15:29:34.423

49

I'm no Linux/bash expert, but try putting this in your .bashrc.

function mkdir
{
  command mkdir $1 && cd $1
}

PS Thanks to Dennis for using command mkdir.

edited Jun 15 '10 at 15:29

answered Jun 15 '10 at 14:29

Andy

3,107

3

Instead of \which mkdir``, just use command mkdir. – Dennis Williamson Jun 15 '10 at 14:33
1

Thanks Dennis. There's nothing under man command - could you direct me to a reference? (I can work out what it does, but it pays to be thorough;) – Andy Jun 15 '10 at 14:49
2

command is described in the manual of bash (which it is a built-in of; it's not a separate command). You could also try help command. – u1686_grawity Jun 15 '10 at 18:39
That also works for zsh btw – Florian Loch Dec 23 '14 at 11:37
1

Bad idea to overload the usual mkdir and to change its behavior. A lot of scripts use it and assume there is no change of the current directory. Better is to define a command with a different name. – Olivier Pirson Jan 19 '24 at 09:05

Avijit Gupta · Answer 3 · 2015-12-09T16:22:56.203

48

For oh-my-zsh users:
$ take 'directory_name'

Reference: https://github.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh/wiki/Cheatsheet

edited Dec 09 '15 at 16:22

answered Jul 12 '15 at 15:39

Avijit Gupta

581

1

Can you explain this in more detail? – bwDraco Jul 13 '15 at 05:47
1

@bwDraco type take, then you will get take is a shell function from /home/username/.oh-my-zsh/lib/functions.zsh. vi the file then you get function take() { mkdir -p $@ && cd ${@:$#} } – Weekend Apr 09 '19 at 08:59

score 12 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 14 '12 at 02:09

12

What about:

$ mkdir newdirname; cd $_

It's a bit easier than using &&, combining quack quixote's and kzh's answers.

answered Mar 14 '12 at 02:09

Alex

129

29

The point of && is that cd will not be executed if the mkdir command fails – slhck Mar 14 '12 at 09:29
1

@slhck actually that was the point of quixote: cd even if mkdir fails (for instance if it already exists, forcing the user to write a second command to actually cd to the path). However contrarily to what this answers says, that's not for easiness: && is not more complicated than ;. – moala Feb 02 '13 at 09:13

score 8 · Answer 5 · answered Jun 15 '10 at 14:30

8

You can try something like this:

#!/bin/sh
mkdir $1 && cd $1

Save this script to some place that is in your path, for example, /usr/local/bin or ~/bin (you have to put this last one into your path in your ~/.profile file). Then you can simply call it.

answered Jun 15 '10 at 14:30

petersohn

2,672

6

how can this work? it seems to only cd inside the context of the execution of the ~/bin/mkcd script, not the caller of the script. – Erik Kaplun Oct 13 '13 at 16:15

score 6 · Answer 6 · answered Sep 19 '13 at 06:01

6

$echo 'mkcd() { mkdir -p "$@" && cd "$_"; }' >> ~/.bashrc
$mkcd < pathtofolder/foldername >

answered Sep 19 '13 at 06:01

mshameers

161
1
1

Alex Fenwood Hughes · Answer 7 · 2018-07-25T16:23:56.390

5

Here is a simple function I put in my ~/.config/fish/config.fish file which accomplishes this task:

function mkcd
    mkdir -pv $argv;
    cd $argv;
end

The -pv tag allows for the creation of directories with sub-directories.

edited Jul 25 '18 at 16:23

answered Jul 23 '18 at 12:30

Alex Fenwood Hughes

51

score 1 · Answer 8 · answered Jun 17 '20 at 12:27

1

If you use zsh there is a cool shortcut:

take <Your_folder_name>

and it will create a folder and change to it ;)

answered Jun 17 '20 at 12:27

Taher Hoseini

11

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Dec 20 '17 at 05:32

I found that the function below can only make one directory, if I want to make subdirectories at the same time, it doesn't work :

function mkdir
{
  command mkdir $1 && cd $1
}

So I changed it and now its working great!

function mkcd
{
  command mkdir -pv $1 && cd $1 && echo "Now in `pwd`"
}

score 0 · Answer 10 · edited Jul 16 '20 at 01:29

0

For bash macos this is the only way it worked for me

function md
{
  command mkdir -vp $1 && command cd $1 && echo "Now in `pwd`"
}

edited Jul 16 '20 at 01:29

Io-oI

8,193

answered Jul 07 '20 at 05:41

dreday13

1

score 0 · Answer 11 · edited Nov 19 '16 at 17:34

0

Depending on the desired outcome if the directory already exists.

Fail if directory already exists

mkcd() {
    mkdir $1 && cd $1
}

Change directory regardless

mkcd() {
    mkdir $1 ; cd $1
}

Usage mkcd some/path/to/my/dir

edited Nov 19 '16 at 17:34

Olaf

103

answered Oct 13 '15 at 11:51

bingles

121
1
4

Is there a shortcut to mkdir foo and immediately cd into it?

Edit

11 Answers11

The bash, zsh Shells

The fish Shell

The `bash`, `zsh` Shells

The `fish` Shell