How can I set the current working directory to the directory of the script in Bash?
#!/bin/bash
cd "$(dirname "$0")"
The following also works:
cd "${0%/*}"
The syntax is thoroughly described in this StackOverflow answer.
Try the following simple one-liners:
For all UNIX/OSX/Linux
dir=$(cd -P -- "$(dirname -- "$0")" && pwd -P)
Bash
dir=$(cd -P -- "$(dirname -- "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")" && pwd -P)
Note: A double dash (--) is used in commands to signify the end of command options, so files containing dashes or other special characters won't break the command.
Note: In Bash, use ${BASH_SOURCE[0]}
in favor of $0
, otherwise the path can break when sourcing it (source
/.
).
For Linux, Mac and other *BSD:
cd "$(dirname "$(realpath "$0")")";
Note: realpath
should be installed in the most popular Linux distribution by default (like Ubuntu), but in some it can be missing, so you have to install it.
Note: If you're using Bash, use ${BASH_SOURCE[0]}
in favor of $0
, otherwise the path can break when sourcing it (source
/.
).
Otherwise you could try something like that (it will use the first existing tool):
cd "$(dirname "$(readlink -f "$0" || realpath "$0")")"
For Linux specific:
cd "$(dirname "$(readlink -f "$0")")"
Using GNU readlink on *BSD/Mac:
cd "$(dirname "$(greadlink -f "$0")")"
Note: You need to have coreutils
installed
(e.g. 1. Install Homebrew, 2. brew install coreutils
).
In bash
In bash you can use Parameter Expansions to achieve that, like:
cd "${0%/*}"
but it doesn't work if the script is run from the same directory.
Alternatively you can define the following function in bash:
realpath () {
[[ $1 = /* ]] && echo "$1" || echo "$PWD/${1#./}"
}
This function takes 1 argument. If argument has already absolute path, print it as it is, otherwise print $PWD
variable + filename argument (without ./
prefix).
or here is the version taken from Debian .bashrc
file:
function realpath()
{
f=$@
if [ -d "$f" ]; then
base=""
dir="$f"
else
base="/$(basename "$f")"
dir=$(dirname "$f")
fi
dir=$(cd "$dir" && /bin/pwd)
echo "$dir$base"
}
Related:
How to detect the current directory in which I run my shell script?
Get the source directory of a Bash script from within the script itself
Bash script absolute path with OS X
Reliable way for a Bash script to get the full path to itself
See also:
How can I get the behavior of GNU's readlink -f on a Mac?