What is the bash shortcut to change to the previous directory?

Question

Sadly, I only learned about this last year by stumbling upon it randomly on the internet. I use it so infrequently that I always forget what it is by the time I need it again.

How do you change to your previous directory?

Answer 1

The shortcut is -

Try cd -

If you want to use this in your prompt, you have to refer to it with ~-.

See the example:

[echox@kaffeesatz ~]$ cd /tmp
[echox@kaffeesatz tmp]$ ls
cron.iddS32  serverauth.CfIgeXuvka
[echox@kaffeesatz tmp]$ cd -
/home/echox
[echox@kaffeesatz ~]$ ls ~-
cron.iddS32  serverauth.CfIgeXuvka

Answer 2

You might also want to look at pushd and popd, which create a stack of directories to remember where you were.