How can I change the startup directory of my Terminal on OS X?

I want my terminal to always start at a certain directory instead of home. How can I do this?

Sheehan Alam

Posted 2010-09-28T03:34:16.017

Reputation: 487

I've answered this on SO: http://stackoverflow.com/a/39255856/359532

– Michael Ozeryansky – 2016-08-31T17:41:29.253

Answers

I'm not sure if theres a cleaner way, but adding cd path/to/directory in your .bash_profile in your home directory should automatically change your directory to what you specify.

Nick

Posted 2010-09-28T03:34:16.017

Reputation: 626

1If you have "New Windows Open With: Same Working Directory" this will not work. Learned that the hard way. – Michael Ozeryansky – 2016-08-31T17:20:10.160

As Randolph pointed out, there a cleaner way to change the home directory: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/145321/how-to-set-os-x-terminals-default-home/145330#145330 difference of doing it so is that it also changes what ~ points to, as anything else pointing to "home" and not just the startup place. So, your answer is the most appropriate one for this question with this choice of words.

– cregox – 2010-10-05T16:04:07.913

@MichaelOzeryansky What do you suggest then? – Volatil3 – 2019-10-09T14:45:59.297

@Volatil3 It's been a while, but since answers like these didn't work for me I came up with my own solution: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5696757/set-the-default-directory-in-mac-terminal/39255856#39255856

– Michael Ozeryansky – 2019-10-09T14:54:47.677

In Terminal.app's preferences, in the "Settings" tab, select the style of your terminal (probably Basic: the default), then go to the "Shell" pane and put cd /any/directory/you/want in the run command box. This will automatically change directory when you open a new terminal.

Scott

Posted 2010-09-28T03:34:16.017

Reputation: 5 323

on opening new tab it will not retain the last opening directory – Volatil3 – 2019-10-09T14:49:40.853

See this StackOverflow question.

user3463

Posted 2010-09-28T03:34:16.017

Reputation:

-1

Try this:

export HOME=DESTINATION_DIRECTORY

without any double quotation marks. To verify, type env and look out for HOME in the list.

vishnu

Posted 2010-09-28T03:34:16.017

Reputation: 1

This does work, but since it changes my HOME, using cd will bring it back there and my prompt shows ~ for when I'm in the new HOME. Just letting others know. – Michael Ozeryansky – 2016-08-31T17:26:44.920

This is highly likely to cause problems. It's common for other scripts and applications to put documents and config files in the user's home folder, which you've just reassigned. If you just want to save yourself some typing when you open the terminal, this isn't the way to do it. – Justin Morgan – 2019-07-29T21:39:58.843