Re: ca - New bash command proposal

[Rolf Brudeseth]

Mike Frysinger wrote:
> On Thursday 12 February 2009 04:58:09 Andreas Schwab wrote:
>  
> > Mike Frysinger <vapier@gentoo.org> writes:
> >    
> > > On Wednesday 11 February 2009 23:38:10 Rolf Brudeseth wrote:
> > >      
> > > > I would like to propose a new command for bash:
> > > >
> > > > ca [path]
> > > >
> > > > It returns the canonical path based on the current working 
> > > > directory and
> > > > entered path.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > If the current working directory has been traversed through a symbolic
> > > > link, then listing a higher level path using dotdot's do not always 
> > > > show
> > > > I am looking for. Below is a trivial example:
> > > >         
> > > what's wrong with:
> > > ca() { cd "$(readlink -f -- "$@")"; }
> > >       
It doesn't work. See below.
> > ca() { (cd "$@" && pwd -P); }
> >     
Yes, that does the trick:

rolfb@otto:~/test/B/BB$ ca() { (cd "$@" && pwd -P); }

rolfb@otto:~/test/B/BB$ ca ..
/home/rolfb/test/B

~/test/B/BB$ ca ..|xargs ls -l
total 0
-rw-r--r-- 1 rolfb rolfb 0 2009-02-05 23:59 b
lrwxrwxrwx 1 rolfb rolfb 7 2009-02-06 00:09 BB -> ../A/AA
> yes, that would be correct ... i thought he wanted to change to the 
> canonical path, not look it up
> -mike
>   
Even if I wanted to change the path, it does not take me to '~/test/B':

rolfb@otto:~/test/B/BB$ ca() { cd "$(readlink -f -- "$@")"; }
rolfb@otto:~/test/B/BB$ ca ..
rolfb@otto:~/test/A$

rolfb@otto:~/test/B/BB$ readlink -f ..
/home/rolfb/test/A
rolfb@otto:~/test/B/BB$


I get exposed to this on a multitude of systems both at my place of 
employment as well as at my ISP, so I thought this would be seen often 
enough to where a separate command would be appropriate. Or maybe it 
belongs with coreutils instead?


If nothing else, it gave me an excuse to delve into the inner workings 
of bash.

Rolf