'cd' switch back and forth to previous and current directory

Question

I found cd - can switch back and forth between previous and current directory which is a very handy feature. Also found cd -- works too, but not sure what exactly that's for. Is there any reference covers this? Please advise, thanks.

Answer 1

Edit:

I'm not clear if you are talking about cd --, or cd -- -. So, I'll try to answer both questions.

cd -- (with no directory) will act the same as cd (with no directory). You will be returned to your home directory. cd -- will not switch you back to the previous working directory.

stefanl@host:~ $ cd tmp
stefanl@host:~/tmp $ cd --
stefanl@host:~ $ cd --
# Note that I do not go back to the directory ~/tmp
stefanl@host:~ $

See how that behavior is different from cd -. This is also true for cd -- -:

stefanl@host:~ $ cd tmp
stefanl@host:~/tmp $ cd -
/Users/stefanl
stefanl@host:~ $ cd -
/Users/stefanl/tmp

# `cd -- -` behaves the same as `cd -`
stefanl@host:~/tmp $ cd -- -
/Users/stefanl
stefanl@@host:~ $ cd -- -
/Users/stefanl/tmp
stefanl@host:~/tmp $

---

Regarding -- for most Unix commands:

The -- will tell cd to ignore any options after cd --. From the Bash Man Page:

Unless otherwise noted, each builtin command documented as accepting options preceded by ‘-’ accepts ‘--’ to signify the end of the options.

Pretend you had a directory called -h (Note that I need to use -- here as well):

$ ls -ld -- -h
drwxr-xr-x  2 stefanl  stefanl  68 Nov  8 16:41 -h

You can't cd to this normally, because the command tries to interpret the -h as an option:

$ cd -h
-bash: cd: -h: invalid option
cd: usage: cd [-L|-P] [dir]

So use the -- to tell cd not to process any more options after the --:

stefanl@host:~ $ cd -- -h
stefanl@host:~/-h $ pwd
/Users/stefanl/-h
stefanl@host:~/-h $

Answer 2

Previous directory is also cd ~-

Depends on your shell, but check out the dirs builtin (mine is zsh in this case):

[iluvatar]-[/srv/django]-[1126] % dirs -v
0       /srv/django
1       /srv/django/app
2       /srv/django/app2
3       ~

Then, you can use the cd ~N shortcut to change directories, as well as pushd and popd to change the stack.

Answer 3

I don't know the answer to this for sure, but from what I've deduced it seems that the -- is being interpreted as the precursor to an argument. As no argument is passed, it's being ignored and so defaults to cd, which takes you to your home directory.

It seems to happen for a few standard utils:
[james@aladdin blah]$ pwd
/home/james/blah
[james@aladdin blah]$ touch hello
[james@aladdin blah]$ ls -
ls: cannot access -: No such file or directory
[james@aladdin blah]$ ls --
hello
[james@aladdin blah]$ rm -
rm: cannot remove '-': No such file or directory
[james@aladdin blah]$ rm --
rm: missing operand
Try 'rm --help' for more information.