cd $idontexist/

[Skiddex]

is there a way to get something like:

cd $idontexist/

to not go to /
?

for the sake of simplicity, have users who keep doing:

cd $goheree/ instead of cd $gohere/ and end up in the root directory instead of where $gohere is defined. sometimes you can't fix stupid but you can at least make stupid harder to do.

 

[dinkumthinkum]

It's just text substitution, with the empty string in this case. It's not trying to spite you. If you type "cd /" then you go to /. Why are you putting a slash anyhow? It's not necessary. "cd $there" works fine. If write "cd $theree" you'll end up with "cd" which puts you in the home directory, not sure if that's better. I can't think of anything else which doesn't require typing more. Why are you requiring your users to cd to a certain directory that is kept in an environment variable anyhow? Maybe you can come up with something more convenient?

Perhaps use 'pushd/popd' instead, alias it to something smaller like 'pd'? Then it's easy to go back to where you were. Of course I have no idea if you can train your users to use that.

 

[Nothinman]

I don't think you can really fix that without making the script smarter, i.e. check to see if the variable is empty before performing the cd.