How to step back

[fusionman]

Hello again,

I was wondering how to take a step back in the ruby console. When the console boots up it shows

c:\instantRails\InstantRails-2.0-win\rails_apps>

I usually type cd shovell when following in the book and end up with

c:\instantRails\InstantRails-2.0-win\rails_apps>shovell>

How do i get it back to

c:\instantRails\InstantRails-2.0-win\rails_apps>


Thanks so much for all the support!

[Mittineague]

Although I like the way
"cd shovell"
works as a "short-cut" for
"cd c:\instantRails\InstantRails-2.0-win\rails_apps\shovell"
the only way I know how to go "back" is to "cd" the entire path. ie.
"cd c:\instantRails\InstantRails-2.0-win\rails_apps"

[fusionman]

Thanks! You have been so helpful and I really truly appreciate it. You must remember what it's like to be a beginner :-).

[Mittineague]

Being into development, I'm always a beginner at something in some area or level.

[ReggieB]

cd ..

Takes you back up to the immediate parent folder without having to re-enter the whole path.

c:>cd a_folder
c:\a_folder\>cd another_folder
c:\a_folder\another_folder\>cd ..
c:\a_folder\>cd ..
c:\>

[fusionman]

Thanks ReggieB!

[Mittineague]

Same here. That's good to know. Some of my paths can be quite a mess, and one wrong typo means typing the whole thing again. Much easier

[ReggieB]

If you found that useful you may be interested in this too:

You can use .. at the start of a path to step back and then forward. So

C:\folder_1>cd ..\folder_2
C:\folder_2

You can use wildcards too. Very useful when folder names are long or have spaces.

C:\>cd pro*
C:\Program Files>

This only works if the folder name up to the wildcard is unique within the current folder. If there was a folder "Projects" in the root of C: this would not have worked. You would have to have entered cd prog* before it would work.

And you can combine the two.

C:\WINDOWS>cd ..\pro*
C:\Program Files>

You can also chain multiple backward steps together as long as you separate them with a backslash (or forward slash within Ruby code).

C:\WINDOWS\System32>cd ..\..
C:>

[XtrEM3]

for anyone wondering, none of reggie's shell tricks are Windows-specific, except for maybe the star syntax, for which i cannot comment on. so feel free to use them in linux.

[ReggieB]

for anyone wondering, none of reggie's shell tricks are Windows-specific, except for maybe the star syntax, for which i cannot comment on. so feel free to use them in linux.

The * suffix works in Linux too. cd in Windows and Linux are very similar.