first bash script not working and no clue how to find out why?

[sandbagger]

Hi all
all I want to do is run a command from anywhere which takes me to a specific directory without typing it in. I read HOW to do it and for some reason it isn't working and I don't know why. The script looks like this

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#!/bin/bash
cd /home/dave/j_sandbox/j_raw/

I chmod +x it and then cp'd it to a directory on my search path

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dave@deepthought:~/.local/bin$ ls -l
-rwxrwxr-x 1 dave dave  45 Jan 20 09:54 gotoj_raw.sh

when I run it nothing happens

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dave@deepthought:~/.local/bin$ gotoj_raw.sh 
dave@deepthought:~/.local/bin$ pwd
/home/dave/.local/bin
dave@deepthought:~/.local/bin$ gotoj_raw.sh 
dave@deepthought:~/.local/bin$ pwd
/home/dave/.local/bin

but when I run the command from the bash it works???

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]
dave@deepthought:~/.local/bin$ cd /home/dave/j_sandbox/j_raw/
dave@deepthought:~/j_sandbox/j_raw$ 

[dave0808]

When you run the bash script, it's creating a new shell, running the commands and then exiting. So it is changing directory, but you don't see it. You could add the pwd command as the last line and you'll confirm this.

You can "source" the file, so that it executes within your existing shell. This is done by . <script> - note the 'space' after the period. Generally this isn't done because you can very easily mess up your login session. In your case, it would suffice though. Also, when the script is invoked like this, there's no need for the 'execute' permission on the file.

However, a much better option in this use case, would be to create an alias to invoke the command. Have a look in your .bashrc file and you'll see some examples. New ones should now go into $HOME/.bash_aliases, but the format is the same. Once added, open a new terminal session and just type in the alias that you created.

[sandbagger]

hey there thanks for helping me with this. I thought this was going to be easy but... I didn't see the bash prompt change to reflect the new directory. I did what you said

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 nano $HOME/.bash_aliases
 
dave@deepthought:~$ cat $HOME/.bash_aliases

alias go2j = "cd j_sandbox/j_raw"

and opened a new terminal and entered the alias and it didn't work. What did I miss please. Thank you

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dave@deepthought:~$ go2j
go2j: command not found
dave@deepthought:~$ 

[JoeFootball]

alias go2j = "cd j_sandbox/j_raw"

I think your formatting is off a bit. Try: alias go2j='cd ~/j_sandbox/j_raw'

Also try closing all other terminals before opening a new one, as I don't know if .bashrc and .bash_alias are re-read if terminal is already up.

[Flemur]

I messed around with this issue for a while and someone suggested this...trick? (I don't know what the HOME=. cd part means, but it works!)

Anyway, I go to the /mnt/DATA directory a lot, so...now I just type data to get there:

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$ alias data
data='cd /mnt/DATA;          HOME=. cd'

$ pwd
/home/username

$ data
$ pwd
/mnt/DATA

$ data down*/temp*
$ pwd
/mnt/DATA/download/temp

[sandbagger]

alias go2j = "cd j_sandbox/j_raw"

I think your formatting is off a bit. Try: alias go2j='cd ~/j_sandbox/j_raw'

Also try closing all other terminals before opening a new one, as I don't know if .bashrc and .bash_alias are re-read if terminal is already up.

hi there
no luck, thanks for taking another look. I must confess, being new to linux, that I thought this would be easy. Ho hum.
thanks again for trying

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dave@deepthought:~$ cat $HOME/.bash_aliases
alias go2j='cd ~/j_sandbox/j_raw'
dave@deepthought:~$ gotoj

Command 'gotoj' not found, did you mean:

  command 'gotox' from deb dvb-apps (1.1.1+rev1500-1.2)

Try: sudo apt install <deb name>

dave@deepthought:~$ 

[sandbagger]

I messed around with this issue for a while and someone suggested this...trick? (I don't know what the HOME=. cd part means, but it works!)

Anyway, I go to the /mnt/DATA directory a lot, so...now I just type data to get there:

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$ alias data
data='cd /mnt/DATA;          HOME=. cd'

$ pwd
/home/username

$ data
$ pwd
/mnt/DATA

$ data down*/temp*
$ pwd
/mnt/DATA/download/temp

it worked !!!!!

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dave@deepthought:~$ jraw_a
dave@deepthought:~/j_sandbox/j_raw$ cat $HOME/.bash_aliases
alias go2j='cd ~/j_sandbox/j_raw'
alias jraw_a='cd ~/j_sandbox/j_raw;          HOME=. cd'
dave@deepthought:~/j_sandbox/j_raw$ 

never in a million years would I have found that!! thanks so much. Also thanks to JoeFootball and dave0808 for helping me understand more of this world..

[JoeFootball]

dave@deepthought:~$ cat $HOME/.bash_aliases
alias go2j='cd ~/j_sandbox/j_raw'
dave@deepthought:~$ gotoj

Command 'gotoj' not found, did you mean:

You created the alias go2j, yet you executed gotoj, hence command not found.

[sandbagger]

dear zarquon
please make it stop I don't think I should be allowed to use linux any more .
thanks for the heads up
have an EXCELLENT and SAFE 2022 . Thanks for all your help