I’ve been working in Git Bash a decent amount of my time recently, and I’ve found myself becoming used to using the cd command to return to my home directory (/c/Users/tommymaynard). Did you know you could do that? In that shell, as well as my Cygwin shell, it’s possible. I even fired up my Ubuntu Linux VM and tried it in the Terminal there, as well, and as expected, it works there too.

The cd alias in Windows PowerShell (that’s 5.1), which resolves to the Set-Location cmdlet, doesn’t do the same thing. Therefore, I made a quick modification to the Set-Location function I keep in my $PROFILE script. I’ll include it below, and then discuss it.

# Set-Location runs Push-Location, creates cd <blank> to $HOME (~).
Function Set-Location {
    Param (
        [string]$Path
    )

    If ($Path) {
        Push-Location -Path $Path
    } Else {
        Push-Location -Path ~
    }
}

My Set-Location function, just like the original cmdlet, accepts a path in order to know where in the file system to move the user. If the function is invoked without a path, however, it’ll now move the user to their $HOME directory (C:\Users\<username>\). So you’re aware, Push-Location puts the current location on the stack and then changes location to that which was specified. Again, it’ll move to $HOME, or ~, or C:\Users\<username>, which are all the same, if nothing is specified for the path parameter.

Here’s the a small portion of the help notes from the Push-Location cmdlet: “The Push-Location cmdlet adds, or pushes, the current location onto a location stack. If you specify a path, this cmdlet pushes the current location onto a location stack and then changes the current location to the location specified by the path.” Using my Set-Location function allows me to always use Pop-Location, or the popd alias, to return to my previous location in the file system.

In closing, I do want to mention that using cd by itself in PowerShell 6.0.2 on Windows, and PowerShell 6.0.0-alpha on Linux, works just like it does in Git Bash, Cygwin, and the Terminal on Ubuntu. Without an argument, it’ll automatically move you to your home directory, just like it does now, in my, Windows PowerShell 5.1.

Someone was paying attention.