how to pipe results from LS to CD in ubuntu

Question

I'd like to ls for the latest created directory in a given directory (we create a new folder for each release) and then cd to that directory. I'd like to create an alias for this so I don't have to remember how to get to the latest directory every time I need to.

Here's what I've tried:

ls -ltr ~/workspace/docs/new-docs/Mapper/Documentation/ | tail -1 | cd
cd $(ls -ltr ~/workspace/docs/new-docs/Mapper/Documentation/ | tail -1)

the problem seems to be that if I order the results I end up with the permissions on the file as output. Any help is greatly appreciated!

UPDATE:

$cd `ls -dt ~/workspace/docs/new-docs/Mapper/Documentation/* | head -1`
-bash: cd: drwxr-xr-x: No such file or directory

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 11 '14 at 20:35

4

Well, you did specify the -l option to ls, which results in long output. Try dropping it.

ls -tr ~/workspace/docs/new-docs/Mapper/Documentation/

You'll also need to ensure that the path gets prepended to the directory name you want. Do this by adding * to the path and specifying the -d option to ls.

ls -dtr ~/workspace/docs/new-docs/Mapper/Documentation/*

To improve performance you should also pipe to head and not reverse the sort.

ls -dt ~/workspace/docs/new-docs/Mapper/Documentation/* | head -1

The final command is:

cd `ls -dt ~/workspace/docs/new-docs/Mapper/Documentation/* | head -1`

answered Mar 11 '14 at 20:35

Michael Hampton

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+1 for a thorough answer but it's not working for me. see my update. – Ramy Mar 12 '14 at 15:39
1

Did you do something silly like alias `ls` to something containing the `-l` option? If so, try using `/bin/ls` in your command instead. – Michael Hampton Mar 12 '14 at 15:40
well i don't know but that seems to have worked! – Ramy Mar 12 '14 at 15:42
actually looks like I had this: `alias ls='ls -n'` I'll remove it. Not even sure what -n does (i inherited a lot of my aliases). – Ramy Mar 12 '14 at 15:43
hmmm...i see: -n, --numeric-uid-gid like -l, but list numeric user and group IDs – Ramy Mar 12 '14 at 15:45

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 11 '14 at 23:41

A couple things to mention:

ls -dt [PATH]/* will also list files; that could be a problem if files are present in the directory.
you may want to use quotes, in case the directory name contains spaces.

So, a couple more quick options for you:

    cd "`ls -dt ~/workspace/docs/new-docs/Mapper/Documentation/*/ | head -1`"

or, if supported by your ls command,

    cd "`ls -t --group-directories-first ~/workspace/docs/new-docs/Mapper/Documentation | head -1`"

how to pipe results from LS to CD in ubuntu

2 Answers2