---
name: "bd"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "bd"
version: "1.03-5"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/bd"
---

# bd(1)

quickly go back to a specific parent directory in bash

## NAME

**bd** - quickly go back to a specific parent directory in bash

## SYNOPSIS

```

```

## DESCRIPTION

*bd* **allows you to go to . parent** *directory* **in bash instead of typing "cd ../../.." redundantly.**

**You can simply type** *bd* **with starting few letters and it will auto complete the** *directory* **name.**

**It can be used with other commands such as ls, ln, echo, zip, tar, etc.**

## OPTIONS

- **-si**

  **It is not necessary type the full** *directory* **name (meaning starts with) and just give the**  **starting few characters.**

- **-.**

  **Enable case-sensitive** *directory* **name matching.**

## NOTES

**To avoid to have to use "." and "-si/-." every time, you can add the line below in your .bashrc file:**

```
        echo 'alias bd=". bd -si"' >> ~/.bashrc
```

**And then, do:**

```
        source ~/.bashrc
```

## OTHER USES

**Using** *bd* **within backticks (\`***bd* **\<letter(.)\>\`) prints out the path without changing the current** *directory***.**

**You can take advantage of that by combining \`***bd* **\<letter(.)\>\` with other commands such as ls, ln, echo, zip, tar etc.**

**Examples:**

```
        If you just want to list the contents of a parent directory, without going there, then you can use:
        ls `bd p` in the given example, it will list the contents of /home/user/project/
        If you want to execute a file somewhere in a parent directory, `bd p`/build.sh will execute
        /home/user/project/build.sh while not changing the current directory.
        If you reside in /home/user/project/src/org/main/site/utils/file/reader/whatever and want to change to
        /home/user/project/test, then try cd `bd p`/test
```

## AUTHOR

**The BD was written by Vigneshwaran Raveendran \<vigneshwaran2007@gmail.com\>.**

**This manual page was written by Paulo Henrique de Lima Santana (phls) \<phls@debian.org\> for the** **Debian project (but may be used by others).**