climb up the directory tree faster

You could write a function like this:

up() {
    local path i
    for (( i=0; i < $1; i++ )); do
        path+=../
    done
    cd "$path"
}

Put that in your ~/.bashrc, then you can run e.g. up 7 to go up 7 directories. You could override cd to allow cd up 7 too, but just making a new command is shorter and less hassle.

If you are toggling between 2 directories, you can use cd - to switch between both.

If you want to bookmark a few directories that you would probably cd to often, use pushd and popd -> google for more information.

Or, if you know you have to cd to 7th grand parent very often, you could create an alias, like:

alias cd7up='cd ../../../../../../../'

Creating an alias would work as a temporary solution, however if you want something more permanent that doesn't confine you to your presets I suggest writing a function to do this and including it in your .bashrc file.

source

# Go up directory tree X number of directories
function up() {
        COUNTER="$@";
    # default $COUNTER to 1 if it isn't already set
if [[ -z $COUNTER ]]; then
    COUNTER=1
fi
# make sure $COUNTER is a number
if [ $COUNTER -eq $COUNTER 2> /dev/null ]; then
    nwd=`pwd` # Set new working directory (nwd) to current directory
    # Loop $nwd up directory tree one at a time
    until [[ $COUNTER -lt 1 ]]; do
        nwd=`dirname $nwd`
        let COUNTER-=1
    done
    cd $nwd # change directories to the new working directory
else
    # print usage and return error
    echo "usage: up [NUMBER]"
    return 1
fi
}

Be concise.

alias c1='cd ../'
alias c2='c1; c1'
alias c3='c2; c1'
alias c4='c3; c1'
alias c5='c4; c1'

You can create aliases to do the work:

alias cd..2="cd ../.."
alias cd..3="cd ../../.."
alias cd..4="cd ../../../.."
alias cd..5="cd ../../../../.."

And then you can just type cd..5 to go up 5 levels.

To make those aliases available in future logins, you can add the above to the .bash_profile file in your home directory.

Coming from the Windows world, Alt + Up Arrow navigates to the parent directory in Windows Explorer. So I made something like this in ~/.inputrc:

"\33\33[A": "cd ..\n"

then pressing Alt + Up Arrow moves to the parent directory in the terminal. You have to press multiple times of course to move higher, but I have found it to be very fast. Also you can change the shortcut to your liking.

function cdl() {

        local arguments;
        local level_string;
        local counter=1;
        # first argument is how many levels you wish to traverse
        local level=$1; 

        # grab any argument after the initial levels you wish to traverse
        for var in "$@"; do
                if [ $counter -gt 1 ]; then
                        arguments="$arguments/$var";
                fi

                counter+=1;
        done

        # build string based on how many levels you want to go up
        if [ $level -gt 1 ]; then
                counter=1;

                while [ $counter -le $level ]; do
                        level_string="../$level_string";
                        let counter+=1;
                done
        fi

        # execute command
        cd $level_string$arguments
}

# Example:
#-----------------
# /usr/local/src/test/directory/blah> cdl 3 i want to be here

or

# /usr/local/src/test/directory/blah> cdl 3 i/want/to/be/here 

result:

# /usr/local/src/i/want/to/be/here> 
#-----------------

Of course I also add aliases in my .bashrc file using the above function

alias cd2='cdl 2'
alias cd3='cdl 3'
alias cd4='cdl 4'
alias cd5='cdl 5'

Using aliases with dots as names:

alias ..='cd ../'
alias ...='cd ../../'
alias ....='cd ../../../'
alias .....='cd ../../../../'
alias ......='cd ../../../../../'