Ubuntu - Create a link to a specified directory so I can easily change to that directory

Question

Is it possible to create a symlink to a directory, like /var/lib/tomcat6/webapps/MyWar that I can access from everywhere? I want to be able to say cd myapp from anywhere in the directory tree and go to that directory. Is it only possible in the directory where I create the symlink?

Do I have to update my ~/.bashrc file to include an alias like: alias myapp="cd /var/lib/tomcat6/webapps/MyWar" and then just type myapp from anywhere? What is the best way to handle this situation so I don't always have to type in the long directory? I also want to be able to use that parameter in say a copy command, so the alias wouldn't help in that situation. Hopefully I can do something similar where ~ maps to the home directory in any command.

Answer 1

If you put a link in your home directory you can do

$ cd ~/myapp

It means typing two extra characters, but it'll work.

Or you could use environment variables and do

$ cd $MYAPP

Answer 2

Just set the CDPATH environment variable to .:/var/lib/tomcat6/webapps in your .[bash_]profile and you are set. Wherever you are, "cd myWar" will work as you expect it to do.

Answer 3

I keep a list of links in a folder in my home directory so that I can easily do:

cd ~/bm/myapp

Those "bookmarks" are generated and synchronized with the .gtk-bookmarks file (used by Nautilus and other GUI file managers) through the following shell script:

#!/bin/sh
sed 's/file:\/\/\(.*\)/\1/' $HOME/.gtk-bookmarks | while read dir name
do
 ln -s $dir $HOME/bm/$name
done

Answer 4

ln -s /var/lib/tomcat6/webapps/MyWar ~/myapp and then you can do cd ~/myapp etc. the simlink can be used for most purposes exactly as if it were the actual directory (ie. cd will work, cp or mv will put a file in the directory rather than replacing the symlink with the file etc.).