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Say I got a folder with absolute location: /tmp/abc/def, and I created a symbolic link to this folder def, in my home directory. The symbolic link is also called def. Then after I get to the def from my home directory by calling:

cd ~/def

I then want to go to the folder "abc". What should I do then?

I've search for around 20 minutes but didn't find the answer. Thanks.

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3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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You can use pwd -P to get the "real" path, so something like this would work:

cd "$(pwd -P)/.."
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  • I didn't know this before. Thanks :)
    – songyy
    Commented Jun 6, 2012 at 16:38
  • Works great on macOS out-of-the-box, unlike the other answer with just cd ..
    – Eric Majerus
    Commented Oct 26, 2018 at 19:28
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Type in:

cd ..

That should bring you to the parent directory of whatever your current directory is.

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  • 2
    This solution has exactly the problem the OP wants to solve. When entering the directory via symlink, the cd .. will return to the directory that contains the symlink.
    – Nobody moving away from SE
    Commented Jun 6, 2012 at 15:34
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    This solution works, but only in certain settings. For example, in bash set -P will enable this, but set +P will cause it to fail. In either case, cd -P .. should work.
    – William Pursell
    Commented Jun 6, 2012 at 16:18
  • @WilliamPursell: thanks, this method is clean and cool :)
    – songyy
    Commented Jun 6, 2012 at 16:37
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    The cd -P .. in comments here worked great in macOS out-of-the-box.
    – Eric Majerus
    Commented Oct 26, 2018 at 19:29
  • Why isn't cd -P .. the answer? cd .. has obviously been tried by anyone who googled this.
    – Mateen Ulhaq
    Commented Oct 31, 2018 at 1:09
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You can also use th -P flag with cd:

cd -P ..

This was pointed out above in comments, just adding this answer to give more visibility to that solution.

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