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.TH "CD" "1" "Oct 10, 2026" "4.9" "fish-shell"
.SH NAME
cd \- change directory
.SH SYNOPSIS
.nf
\fBcd\fP [( \fB\-L\fP | \fB\-\-no\-dereference\fP ) | ( \fB\-P\fP | \fB\-\-dereference\fP )] [\fIDIRECTORY\fP]
.fi
.sp
.SH DESCRIPTION
.sp
NOTE: This page documents the fish builtin \fBcd\fP\&.
To see the documentation on any non\-fish versions, use \fBcommand man cd\fP\&.
.sp
\fBcd\fP changes the current working directory.
.sp
The \fBPWD\fP \%<#\:envvar-PWD> environment variable is updated with the new working directory, and the previous directory
is added to the directory history \%<#\:directory-history>\&.
.sp
If \fIDIRECTORY\fP is given, it will become the new directory. If no parameter is given, the \fBHOME\fP \%<#\:envvar-HOME> environment variable will be used.
.sp
If \fIDIRECTORY\fP is a relative path, all the paths in the \fBCDPATH\fP \%<#\:envvar-CDPATH> will be tried as prefixes for it, in addition to \fBPWD\fP \%<#\:envvar-PWD>\&.
It is recommended to keep \fB\&.\fP as the first element of \fBCDPATH\fP \%<#\:envvar-CDPATH>, or \fBPWD\fP \%<#\:envvar-PWD> will be tried last.
.sp
The new directory name is partially resolved to remove redundant segments (\fB\&.\fP or \fB\&..\fP).
.sp
\fBcd\fP defaults to treating symbolic links as real directories, and not resolving them to their underlying
targets. The \fB$PWD\fP special variable \%<#\:variables-special> variable will contain the path that was
supplied. This default behaviour can be enforced with the \fB\-L\fP or \fB\-\-no\-dereference\fP option.
.sp
The \fB\-P\fP or \fB\-\-dereference\fP option resolves all symbolic links first. This was the default in fish versions before 3.0.0.
.sp
fish will also try to change directory if given a command that looks like a directory (starting with \fB\&.\fP, \fB/\fP or \fB~\fP, or ending with \fB/\fP), without explicitly requiring \fBcd\fP\&.
.sp
fish also ships a wrapper function around the builtin \fBcd\fP that understands \fBcd \-\fP as changing to the previous directory.
See also prevd \%<>\&.
This wrapper function maintains a history of the 25 most recently visited directories in the \fB$dirprev\fP and \fB$dirnext\fP global variables.
If you make those universal variables your \fBcd\fP history is shared among all fish instances.
.sp
As a special case, \fBcd .\fP is equivalent to \fBcd $PWD\fP, which is useful in cases where a mountpoint has been recycled or a directory has been removed and recreated.
.sp
The \fB\-\-help\fP or \fB\-h\fP option displays help about using this command, and does not change the directory.
.SH EXAMPLES
.INDENT 0.0
.INDENT 3.5
.sp
.EX
cd
# changes the working directory to your home directory.

cd /usr/src/fish\-shell
# changes the working directory to /usr/src/fish\-shell

cd \-P /tmp/link
# resolves /tmp/link to its target before recording the directory
.EE
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.SH SEE ALSO
.sp
Navigate directories using the directory history \%<#\:directory-history> or the directory stack \%<#\:directory-stack>
.SH Copyright
fish-shell developers
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