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

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
}

3

11 Answers

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.

4

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.

5

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

Reference:

2

What about:

$ mkdir newdirname; cd $_

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

2

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.

1

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

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.

If you use zsh there is a cool shortcut:

take <Your_folder_name>

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

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
}

Usagemkcd some/path/to/my/dir

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`"
}

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`"
}

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