Can I add a command to my bash profile whenever I create a new folder? - bash

Question

I've been creating commands that jet me to my folder I want to work within, and it's great, but...
Could there be a way to add the command automatically whenever I create a new folder?
E.g., I make a folder on my comp, and this gets added to my bash profile:
alias foldername='cd /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/foldername/wp-content/themes/foldername'
I'm on a mac; el capitan.

Answer 1

You can create a function in your .bashrc:
# Changes directory to project in htdocs
function project () {
cd "/Applications/MAMP/htdocs/$1"
}
Once you've sourced the bashrc or started a new shell you can navigate through to sub folders of htdocs using
project FOLDER_NAME

Answer 2

If you are willing to install a newer version of bash (via Homebrew, for instance), you can set the autocd option.
$ shopt -s autocd
$ pwd
/Users/me
$ mkdir foo
$ foo
cd foo
$ pwd
/Users/me/foo
The version of zsh that ships with Mac OS X has an identically named option, if you are willing to change shells.
% setopt autocd
% pwd
/Users/me
% mkdir foo
% foo
% pwd
/Users/me/foo

Answer 3

You could also use CDPATH environment variable for this sort of thing (assuming your target directories live under a common directory (or three).
From the POSIX specification for cd:
CDPATH
A <colon>-separated list of pathnames that refer to directories. The cd utility shall use this list in its attempt to change the directory, as described in the DESCRIPTION. An empty string in place of a directory pathname represents the current directory. If CDPATH is not set, it shall be treated as if it were an empty string.
So if you set CDPATH=.:/Applications/MAMP/htdocs/foldername/wp-content/themes you could then just use cd foldername from anywhere to go to /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/foldername/wp-content/themes/foldername... assuming of course that there wasn't a directory foldername in your current directory (if you wanted it to work for that too you would need to invert the order of the items in CDPATH).

Answer 4

Another approach referenced in the comment is the create a simple function that creates and changes to a directory. Aliased to mdcd it does just that creates and on successful creation changes to the directory. I use it in my ~/.bashrc:
mkdircd ()
{
[ -z "$1" ] && {
printf "usage: mdcd <dir>\n";
return 1
}
mkdir -p "$1" && cd "$1" || {
printf "error: unable to create directory '%s'\n" "$1";
return 1
}
return 0
}
...
alias mdcd='mkdircd'
You can give it a try and see if it fits your needs.