using xargs to cd to a directory

Question

Feeling like an idiot right now. Why does this not work?

echo "/some/directory/path" | xargs -n1 cd

score 39 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 03 '10 at 19:16

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The pipe runs xargs in a subprocess, and xargs runs cd in a subprocess. Changes in a subprocess do not get propagated to the parent process.

answered Nov 03 '10 at 19:16

Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams

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That makes complete sense. Thanks for helping a Unix noob. – Ian Lotinsky Nov 03 '10 at 19:36
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You can get the effect you want by using back-quotes: `cd \`echo "/some/directory/path" | cut -d\ -f1\`` (Note that I added 'cut' to split on spaces and grab the first item the way xargs does) – Slartibartfast Nov 03 '10 at 20:27
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Actually, `xargs` can't run `cd` since it's, of necessity, a shell builtin and `xargs` can only run free-standing executables. What you said is true about subprocesses, however. – Dennis Williamson Nov 03 '10 at 20:36
/usr/bin/cd is definitely a Unix free standing documented command, at least on Solaris. – jlliagre Nov 03 '10 at 23:31
Using @Slartibartfast for auto-generated paths: ``cd `port file libcudd | sed -e 's/\/Portfile//'` `` (usually long ones you don't want to handle manually, like this MacPorts Portfile location). – 0 _ Dec 05 '13 at 10:22
I got here because I wanted to change the path before cd-ing into it in the current shell, and found that I can do that using a bash function: https://stackoverflow.com/a/7131683/1386750 – AstroFloyd Dec 11 '21 at 07:26

score 33 · Answer 2 · edited Jan 14 '14 at 10:16

33

The command cd is a built-in because the information about the current directory is tied to a process and only shell built-in can change current directory of the running shell.

There are two problems with your code:

xargs cannot run cd because cd is a built-in command and xargs can run only executable files.
Even if you run cd in a sub-process called from xargs, it will not have any effect on the parent process as explained above.

The solution is to run a sub-shell, inside it run cd and then you can execute commands in the new current directory.

ls | xargs -L 1 bash -c 'cd "$0" && pwd && ls'

edited Jan 14 '14 at 10:16

pabouk - Ukraine stay strong

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answered Jan 14 '14 at 07:55

parpa

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It doesn't make sense to do `ls | xargs ...` in this example. It should be passing in the value for `$0`, like `echo "/some/directory/path" | xargs -L 1 bash -c 'cd "$0" && pwd && ls'` – wisbucky Nov 06 '18 at 23:36
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IMO a better solution would be : ls | xargs -L 1 -I @@ bash -c 'cd @@ && pwd && ls' – Roman M Jun 16 '19 at 14:43
This should be the accepted answer – Dmitry Avtonomov Mar 04 '22 at 06:36

using xargs to cd to a directory

2 Answers2