I'm working a script that reads back the input of a full path to a directory (e.g. ~/test) but when I run the shell script it come back with this:

test-script.sh: line 34: cd: ~/test: No such file or directory

I'm running the test-script.sh file in a different directory, so I was assuming that a simple:

cd ~/test in the script would do it, but I guess not.

I know that this is probably a redundant question, but most of the other issues/examples have been with loops and other cases outside of just doing a simple cd ~/test in a script.

And for reference this is all I'm doing in my script:

echo What directory do you want to change to?
read directory_name
cd $directory_name

Again, new to bash/shell scripting so if there are any other ideas or suggestions, I'm all for it. Thanks!

2

1 Answer

solution 1)

if you want to use ~ , you need to use eval .

#!/bin/bash
pwd
echo What directory do you want to change to?
read directory_name
eval "cd $directory_name"
pwd

But this solution is weak , because someone can enter some maliciuois command instead of a directory name and this script will execute .

solution 2) check if the first character of directory_name is a ~ and replace it by the appropriate value , it can the current user home dir or another user home dir .

you can do cd ~ or cd ~usera to change to usera homedir

1

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Sign up using Google Sign up using Facebook Sign up using Email and Password Submit

Post as a guest

Post Your Answer Discard

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy