cd(1)                                                                 cd(1)




 NAME    [Toc]    [Back]
      cd - change working directory

 SYNOPSIS    [Toc]    [Back]
      cd [directory]

 DESCRIPTION    [Toc]    [Back]
      If directory is not specified, the value of shell parameter HOME is
      used as the new working directory.  If directory specifies a complete
      path starting with /, ., or .., directory becomes the new working
      directory.  If neither case applies, cd tries to find the designated
      directory relative to one of the paths specified by the CDPATH shell
      variable.  CDPATH has the same syntax as, and similar semantics to,
      the PATH shell variable.  cd must have execute (search) permission in
      directory.

      cd exists only as a shell built-in command because a new process is
      created whenever a command is executed, making cd useless if written
      and processed as a normal system command.  Moreover, different shells
      provide different implementations of cd as a built-in utility.
      Features of cd as described here may not be supported by all the
      shells.  Refer to individual shell manual entries for differences.

      If cd is called in a subshell or a separate utility execution
      environment such as:

           find . -type d -exec cd {}; -exec foo {};

      (which invokes foo on accessible directories) cd does not affect the
      current directory of the caller's environment.  Another usage of cd as
      a stand-alone command is to obtain the exit status of the command.

 EXTERNAL INFLUENCES    [Toc]    [Back]
    International Code Set Support
      Single- and multi-byte character code sets are supported.

    Environment Variables    [Toc]    [Back]
      The following environment variables affect the execution of cd:

      HOME                The name of the home directory, used when no
                          directory operand is specified.

      CDPATH              A colon-separated list of pathnames that refer to
                          directories.  If the directory operand does not
                          begin with a slash (/) character, and the first
                          component is not dot or dot-dot, cd searches for
                          directory relative to each directory named in the
                          CDPATH variable, in the order listed.  The new
                          working directory is set to the first matching
                          directory found.  An empty string in place of a
                          directory pathname represents the current



 Hewlett-Packard Company            - 1 -   HP-UX 11i Version 2: August 2003






 cd(1)                                                                 cd(1)




                          directory.  If CDPATH is not set, it is treated as
                          if it was an empty string.

 EXAMPLES    [Toc]    [Back]
      Change the current working directory to the HOME directory from any
      location in the file system:

           cd

      Change to new current working directory foo residing in the current
      directory:

           cd foo
      or
           cd ./foo

      Change to directory foobar residing in the current directory's parent
      directory:

           cd ../foobar

      Change to the directory whose absolute pathname is
      /usr/local/lib/work.files:

           cd /usr/local/lib/work.files

      Change to the directory proj1/schedule/staffing/proposals relative to
      home directory:

           cd $HOME/proj1/schedule/staffing/proposals

 RETURN VALUE    [Toc]    [Back]
      Upon completion, cd exits with one of the following values:

       0                  The directory was successfully changed.
      >0                  An error occurred.  The working directory remains
                          unchanged.

 SEE ALSO    [Toc]    [Back]
      csh(1), pwd(1), ksh(1), sh-posix(1), sh(1), chdir(2).

 STANDARDS CONFORMANCE    [Toc]    [Back]
      cd: SVID2, SVID3, XPG2, XPG3, XPG4, POSIX.2


 Hewlett-Packard Company            - 2 -   HP-UX 11i Version 2: August 2003