Use CDPATH to define the base directory for cd command

If you are frequently performing cd to subdirectories of a specific parent 

directory, you can set the CDPATH to the parent directory and perform cd to 

the subdirectories without giving the parent directory path as explained 

below. 

 

[ramesh@dev-db ~]# pwd 

/home/ramesh 

 

[ramesh@dev-db ~]# cd mail 

-bash: cd: mail: No such file or directory 

 

[Note: This is looking for mail directory under current 

directory] 

 

[ramesh@dev-db ~]# export CDPATH=/etc 

[ramesh@dev-db ~]# cd mail 

/etc/mail 

 

[Note: This is looking for mail under /etc and not 

under current directory] 

 

[ramesh@dev-db /etc/mail]# pwd 

/etc/mail 

 

To make this change permanent, add export CDPATH=/etc to your 

~/.bash_profile 

Similar to the PATH variable, you can add more than one directory entry in 

the CDPATH variable, separating them with : , as shown below. 

 

export CDPATH=.:~:/etc:/var 

 

This hack can be very helpful under the following situations: 

o    Oracle DBAs frequently working under $ORACLE_HOME, can set 

the CDPATH variable to the oracle home 

o    Unix sysadmins frequently working under /etc, can set the 

CDPATH variable to /etc 

o    Developers frequently working under project directory 

/home/projects, can set the CDPATH variable to /home/projects 

o    End-users frequently accessing the subdirectories under their 

home directory, can set the CDPATH variable to ~ (home 

directory)