Change directory to previous directory in Powershell

Question

I am a Linux guy, but am trying to be open-minded and learn some Powershell. I miss the ability to cd - back to a previous directory, like in *nix shells. Is there a similar command in Powershell—one that would allow me to return to my previous directory?

Answer 1

Not in exactly the same fashion that I am aware of. One option is to use pushd instead of cd. Then popd will take you back.

You could also change your profile so that whenever a new prompt comes up (basically whenever you hit enter). It would get the PWD and compare that to the previous one. If they are different, then put that value onto a stack. Then you would include another function in your profile called something like cdb that would pop the last item off the stack and cd to it.

This sounded like fun so I came up with a solution. Put all this code into your profile (about_Profiles).

[System.Collections.Stack]$GLOBAL:dirStack = @()
$GLOBAL:oldDir = ''
$GLOBAL:addToStack = $true
function prompt
{
    Write-Host "PS $(get-location)>"  -NoNewLine -foregroundcolor Magenta
    $GLOBAL:nowPath = (Get-Location).Path
    if(($nowPath -ne $oldDir) -AND $GLOBAL:addToStack){
        $GLOBAL:dirStack.Push($oldDir)
        $GLOBAL:oldDir = $nowPath
    }
    $GLOBAL:AddToStack = $true
    return ' '
}
function BackOneDir{
    $lastDir = $GLOBAL:dirStack.Pop()
    $GLOBAL:addToStack = $false
    cd $lastDir
}
Set-Alias bd BackOneDir

Now you can cd just like normal and bd will take you back on location in your location history.

Answer 2

Just tried cd - on Powershell Core 6.2.2 and it works :)

cd - takes you back through your location history

cd + takes you forward through your location history

Answer 3

Quick and dirty solution is to alias cd and bd to pushd and popd. A limitation is you can't do the equivalent of cd - over and over again.

Set-Alias -Name cd -Value pushd  -Option AllScope
Set-Alias -Name bd -Value popd  -Option AllScope

Answer 4

I've modified EBGreen's great script so that cd- will always take you to your previous directory instead of reversing through your history. This way, using cd- multiple times will toggle between two directories - which is what cd - does on unix shells.

$GLOBAL:previousDir = ''
$GLOBAL:currentDir = ''
function prompt
{
    Write-Host "PS $(get-location)>"  -NoNewLine -foregroundcolor Green
    $GLOBAL:nowPath = (Get-Location).Path
    if($nowPath -ne $GLOBAL:currentDir){
        $GLOBAL:previousDir = $GLOBAL:currentDir
        $GLOBAL:currentDir = $nowPath
    }
    return ' '
}
function BackOneDir{
    cd $GLOBAL:previousDir
}
Set-Alias cd- BackOneDir

Oh and I had to change the prompt-color to green :)

Answer 5

You can also search through your command history with control r, and find the previous time you entered the cd command.