Package: moreutils
Version: 0.31
Severity: wishlist
Tags: patch
I have often wanted a command combining mkdir and cd. I looked around and
found several blog and forum posts showing quick and dirty implementations,
but none that were complete enough to include in a distribution, so I wrote
this one.
Do you think this would fit in the Moreutils collection? It is admittedly
somewhat different from most of the other tools in that it can't be used in
a pipeline.
I was originally going to call it "mkcd", but that's apparently a CD making
program in Solaris and Mandriva. "mcd" is taken by Mtools, to I decided on
"mkcdir".
The command is implemented as a shell function, as a child process can't
change the working directory of its parent. I don't expect it to work in a
plain Bourne shell, but I have tested it in Bash, Kornshell and the Z Shell.
I don't have an implementation for the C Shell. That would have to be quite
different.
-- System Information:
Debian Release: 5.0.9
APT prefers oldstable
APT policy: (500, 'oldstable')
Architecture: i386 (i586)
Kernel: Linux 2.6.26-2-486
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash
Versions of packages moreutils depends on:
ii libc6 2.7-18lenny7 GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii perl 5.10.0-19lenny5 Larry Wall's Practical Extraction
moreutils recommends no packages.
Versions of packages moreutils suggests:
pn libtime-duration-perl <none> (no description available)
ii libtimedate-perl 1.1600-9 Time and date functions for Perl
-- no debconf information
function mkcdir {
# Declare local variables.
typeset parameter=
typeset name=
typeset name_count=0
typeset print_version=
typeset print_help=
# Analyze the command line.
for parameter in "$@" ; do
case "${parameter}" in
--version)
print_version=on
;;
--help)
print_help=on
;;
-*)
# It's an option for mkdir.
;;
*)
# It's a directory name.
name="${parameter}"
name_count=$(($name_count + 1))
;;
esac
done
# Print the version and/or help if requested. (This is implemented mostly to
# catch those parameters and avoid passing them to mkdir.)
if [ "${print_version}" ] ; then
echo 'mkcdir 1'
echo
fi
if [ "${print_help}" ] ; then
echo 'mkcdir combines mkdir and cd; it makes a directory and goes into
it.'
echo 'Any options are passed along to mkdir.'
echo 'Only the directory name is passed to cd.'
echo
fi
if [ "${print_version}" -o "${print_help}" ] ; then
return 0
fi
# Check that exactly one directory name was passed.
if [ $name_count -ne 1 ] ; then
echo 'mkcdir requires one directory name.' >&2
return 2
fi
# Do the work.
mkdir "$@" && cd "${name}"
}
