Bash – How to open a new terminal in the same directory of the last used one from a window manager keybind

bashcd-commandrxvtterminal

I'm using a tiling window manager and I switched from gnome-terminal with multiple tabs to multiple urxvt instances managed by the window manager. One of the features I miss is the ability to open a new terminal that defaults to the working directory of the last one.

In short: I need a way to open a new urxvt (bash) that defaults to $PWD of the last used one.

The only solution that comes to my mind is to save the current path on every cd with something like this:

echo $PWD > ~/.last_dir

and restore the path on the new terminal in this way:

cd `cat ~/.last_dir`

I can source the second command in .bashrc but I don't know how to execute the first one on every directory change 🙂

Any simpler solution that does not involve screen or tmux usage is welcome.

Best Answer

I see three solutions using .last_dir. You can place the echo $PWD > ~/.last_dir either:

In a special function that would be a wrapper for cd:
```
function cd_
{
  [[ -d "$@" ]] || return 1
  echo "$@" > ~/.last_dir
  cd "$@"
}
```
Place this in your ~/.bashrc and then use cd_ instead of cd every time you want your new working directory to be stored.
In your $PROMPT_COMMAND (not recommended):
```
PROMPT_COMMAND="$PROMPT_COMMAND; pwd > ~/.last_dir"
```
You can test this directly from the terminal or place it in ~/.bashrc. This solution, however, triggers a disk write each time the prompt appears, which might cause trouble - but on the other hand, .last_dir would contain the current directory no matter how you got there.
In a custom perl extension script for rxvt. I've never created one myself, but you can find quite a few examples on the web.

Related Solutions

Shell – spawn a new terminal that is a clone of the current terminal

Cloning the path is easy if you can run your terminal program from the command line. Assuming you're using xterm, just run xterm & from the prompt of the terminal you want to clone. The new xterm will start in the same directory, unless you have it configured to start as a login shell. Any exported environment variables will also carry over, but un-exported variables will not.

A quick and dirty way to clone the whole environment (including un-exported variables) is as follows:

# from the old shell:
set >~/environment.tmp

# from the new shell:
. ~/environment.tmp
rm ~/environment.tmp

If you've set any custom shell options, you'll have to reapply those as well.

You could wrap this whole process into an easily-runnable script. Have the script save the environment to a known file, then run xterm. Have your .bashrc check for that file, and source it and delete it if found.

Alternately, if you don't want to start one terminal from another, or just want more control, you could use a pair of functions that you define in .bashrc:

putstate () {
    declare +x >~/environment.tmp
    declare -x >>~/environment.tmp
    echo cd "$PWD" >>~/environment.tmp
}

getstate () {
    . ~/environment.tmp
}

EDIT: Changed putstate so that it copies the "exported" state of the shell variables, so as to match the other method. There are other things that could be copied over as well, such as shell options (see help set) -- so there is room for improvement in this script.

Bash – Creating an alias to Change Directory and have that directory be the current working directory in new terminal tabs

You have to go another way. Add a line at the end of your .bashrc that changes directory in the last directory the previous bash instance had as CWD (current working directory).

A line like this worked for me:

cd $(readlink  "/proc/$(echo -n $(ps -u $(whoami) -eo stat,pid,cmd | awk '$3 == "'$(which bash)'" && $1 ~ /\+/{print $2}' | sort | head -1))/cwd")

Explanation:

cd $(...): changes directory to whatever is determined below
readlink /proc/$(...)/cwd: reads the link where /proc/pid/cwd points to (current working directory)
echo -n $(...): removes the trailing newline
ps -u $(whoami) -eo stat,pid,cmd: shows my process in a simple format
awk '$3 == "'$(which bash)'" && $1 ~ /\+/{print $2}' if it's a bash and bash is in the foreground process group (indicated by the + in the stat field), then print the pid
sort | head -1 we want only the lowest pid

Edit:

In your case this might be a better solution:

cd $(readlink /proc/$(pgrep -n meteor)/cwd)

It determines the pid of the newest instance of meteor and changes to this current working directory.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Shell – spawn a new terminal that is a clone of the current terminal

Bash – Creating an alias to Change Directory and have that directory be the current working directory in new terminal tabs

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