Home / ubuntu / Questions / 409244
Accepted
Timur Fayzrakhmanov
Asked: 2014-01-23 08:02:21 +0800 CST

How can I run command in a folder without changing my current directory to it?

  • 772

may be it seems strange for you, but I want to run command in a specific folder without changing the current folder in the shell. Example - this is what I usually do:

~$ cd .folder
~/.folder$ command --key
~/.folder$ cd ..
~$ another_command --key

Though I want something like this:

~$ .folder command --key
~$ another_command --key

Is it possible?

bash

4 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    If you want to avoid the second cd you can use

    (cd .folder && command --key)
another_command --key
    • 74

  2. Without cd... Not even once. I found two ways:

    # Save where you are and cd to other dir
pushd .folder
command --key
# Get back where you were at the beginning.
popd
another_command --key

    and second:

    find . -maxdepth 1 -type d -name ".folder" -execdir command --key \;
another_command --key
    • 12

  3. I had a need to do this in a bash-free way, and was surprised there's no utility (similar to env(1) or sudo(1) which runs a command in a modified working directory. So, I wrote a simple C program that does it:

    #include <unistd.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

char ENV_PATH[8192] = "PWD=";

int main(int argc, char** argv) {
    if(argc < 3) {
        fprintf(stderr, "Usage: in <dir> <cmd> [<args>...]\n");
        return 1;
    }

    if(chdir(argv[1])) {
        fprintf(stderr, "Error setting working directory to \"%s\"\n", argv[1]);
        return 2;
    }

    if(!getcwd(ENV_PATH + 4, 8192-4)) {
        fprintf(stderr, "Error getting the full path to the working directory \"%s\"\n", argv[1]);
        return 3;
    }

    if(putenv(ENV_PATH)) {
        fprintf(stderr, "Error setting the environment variable \"%s\"\n", ENV_PATH);
        return 4;
    }

    execvp(argv[2], argv+2);
}

    The usage is like this:

    $ in /path/to/directory command --key
    • 1

  4. A simple bash function for running a command in specific directory:

    # Run a command in specific directory
run_within_dir() {
    target_dir="$1"
    previous_dir=$(pwd)
    shift
    cd $target_dir && "$@"
    cd $previous_dir
}

    Usage:

    $ cd ~
$ run_within_dir /tmp ls -l  # change into `/tmp` dir before running `ls -al`
$ pwd  # still at home dir
    • 1