Temporarily change current working directory in bash to run a command [duplicate]

StackOverflow https://stackoverflow.com/questions/10382141

Question

I know I can use cd command to change my working directory in bash.

But if I do this command:

cd SOME_PATH && run_some_command

Then the working directory will be changed permanently. Is there some way to change the working directory just temporarily like this?

PWD=SOME_PATH run_some_command
Was it helpful?

Solution

You can run the cd and the executable in a subshell by enclosing the command line in a pair of parentheses:

(cd SOME_PATH && exec_some_command)

Demo:

$ pwd
/home/abhijit
$ (cd /tmp && pwd)  # directory changed in the subshell
/tmp 
$ pwd               # parent shell's pwd is still the same
/home/abhijit

OTHER TIPS

bash has a builtin

pushd SOME_PATH
run_stuff
...
...
popd

Something like this should work:

sh -c 'cd /tmp && exec pwd'
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