Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!uwm.edu!linac!convex!usenet
From: tchrist@convex.COM (Tom Christiansen)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: using cd command in a file
Message-ID: <1991May20.223923.25963@convex.com>
Date: 20 May 91 22:39:23 GMT
References: <1991May20.155136.25162@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Sender: usenet@convex.com (news access account)
Reply-To: tchrist@convex.COM (Tom Christiansen)
Organization: CONVEX Software Development, Richardson, TX
Lines: 19
Nntp-Posting-Host: pixel.convex.com

From the keyboard of ceblair@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Charles Blair):
:
:   I would like to get to a directory /me/A/B/C/D by just typing j.  I tried
:creating a file j with cd /me/etc in it, then chmod +x j.  It didn't work.
:Thanks in advance.  I'm sure I'm overlooking something well-known.

Like your nice value, uid, and umask, your current working directory 
is an attribute associated with a given process.  They are all inherited
by child processes, but changes in children are not propagated back up 
to the calling parent process.  That means a cd in a child is
not reflected in the parent.  You need to coerce the parent into
doing this itself, as in:

    alias j='cd /me/A/B/C/D'

--tom
--
Tom Christiansen		tchrist@convex.com	convex!tchrist
		"So much mail, so little time."