Bash script get one directory back

user_3525290 0
Viewed 2816

I can get my current working directory with 

my_dir=$(pwd)
echo $my_dir
/files/work/test

How do I get /files/work I don't want to change directories. I just need to get the /files/work directory.

shell bash
3 Answers

Try one of these (assuming you didn't manually change $PWD):

  1. echo "${PWD%/*}"

  2. dirname "$PWD"    

  3. (cd .. && pwd)
user_91365410 
echo `dirname \`pwd\``

It ll result the parent directory of present working directory

user_97750050

You can ascend one directory above:

$ cd ..

or you can dirname to print the one directory above:

$ dirname "/files/work/test"
/files/work
user_90727530
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