Quick Copy For The Current Directory Path
Copying the current command line directory path is a frequent task. On a Mac, this can be sped up using pbcopy
. A little command Apple included that takes whatever it's fed and copies it to the clipboard1. The basic command string to grab the current directory path with it is:
pwd | pbcopy
Unfortunately, pwd
sends a newline to pbcopy
which is dutifully included on the clipboard. Rarely useful. Often annoying. The tr
command comes to the rescue by removing the newline:
pwd | tr -d '\n' | pbcopy
That makes a nice little command string, but too long to be useful. The last step is to add an a alias to ~/.bash_profile
so it can be called with only a few keystrokes.
alias pwc="pwd | tr -d '\n' | pbcopy"
The old standard pwd
prints the current directory path, as always, and the newly created pwc
makes a copy of it that's ready to paste.
Footnotes
- Officially, Apple calls it the Pasteboard, but everyone I know, including myself, calls it the clipboard. So, I'm sticking with that.