cd to the user's home dir

cd to the user's home dir

[Andrey Tykhonov]

I would like to be able to `cd' into the user's home directory in the same
way as I can `cd' in the shell:

cd ~admin

I try in Emacs:

M-x cd RET ~admin RET

but it doesn't work. Emacs seems doesn't provide such functionality. Am I
wrong?



Andrey

Re: cd to the user's home dir

[Emanuel Berg]

Andrey Tykhonov <atykhonov@gmail.com> writes:

> I would like to be able to `cd' into the user's home
> directory in the same way as I can `cd' in the shell:
>
> cd ~admin
>
> I try in Emacs:
>
> M-x cd RET ~admin RET
>
> but it doesn't work. Emacs seems doesn't provide such
> functionality. Am I wrong?

`cd' changes the "default directory" of the current
buffer - e.g., so when you `find-file' in that buffer,
the prompt will by default be pointed at that
directory, as the most likely place you would want to
look.

I don't really get what you want - with dired, to show
the home directory's files:

(dired "~")

or perhaps:

(dired (getenv "HOME"))

- is that what you look for?

-- 
underground experts united:
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573

Re: cd to the user's home dir

[Emanuel Berg]

Andrey Tykhonov <atykhonov@gmail.com> writes:

> I want to be able to change the "default directory"
> of the current buffer to the specific user's home
> directory.

Yeah, so then use (cd DIR) and replace DIR with "the
specific user's home directory"?

PS. Send replies to gnu.emacs.help, not my mail. DS.

-- 
underground experts united:
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573

Re: cd to the user's home dir

[Andrey Tykhonov]

Emanuel Berg <embe8573@student.uu.se> writes:

> Andrey Tykhonov <atykhonov@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> I would like to be able to `cd' into the user's home
>> directory in the same way as I can `cd' in the shell:
>>
>> cd ~admin
>>
>> I try in Emacs:
>>
>> M-x cd RET ~admin RET
>>
>> but it doesn't work. Emacs seems doesn't provide such
>> functionality. Am I wrong?
>
> `cd' changes the "default directory" of the current
> buffer - e.g., so when you `find-file' in that buffer,
> the prompt will by default be pointed at that
> directory, as the most likely place you would want to
> look.
>
> I don't really get what you want


Well, I have many projects which paths are long and it is very often
required to `cd' to one of them. Very often and time consuming. For a shell
I resolved such an issue by means of creating system user (I'm on Linux)
and now I can just (with auto completion and quite nice representation in
the PS1):

cd ~username

where username is a system user's home directory which is the project
root. Well, `username' in my case is just a project's name.

Such thing is quite good and handy for me and I would like the same but in
Emacs, thus I want to be able to change "default directory" of the current
buffer to the user's home directory.

I just wrote these simple functions which does allow to do described thing:

(defun system-users ()
  (split-string
   (shell-command-to-string "grep -o '^[^:]*' /etc/passwd | tr '\n' ' '") " "))

(defun cu (user)
  "cd to the USER's home directory."
  (interactive
   (list
    (completing-read "User: " (system-users))))
  (setq default-directory
	(replace-regexp-in-string "\n" "" (shell-command-to-string
					   (format "grep %s /etc/passwd | cut -f 6 -d :" user))))
  (call-interactively 'ido-find-file))

Well, it doesn't change default-directory but just calls ido-find-file with
the user's home directory which is good.

Now I just wonder: is there any similar functionality in Emacs? Is there
any way to cd to specific user's home directory?
  
P.S. I'm sorry for the previous mail personally sent to you before.

> - with dired, to show
> the home directory's files:
>
> (dired "~")
>
> or perhaps:
>
> (dired (getenv "HOME"))
>
> - is that what you look for?

Re: cd to the user's home dir

[Emanuel Berg]

Andrey Tykhonov <atykhonov@gmail.com> writes:

> Now I just wonder: is there any similar functionality
> in Emacs? Is there any way to cd to specific user's
> home directory?

Well, again - use cd. Or, if you like, put it in a
defun that accepts a username, use that username to
find out the home dir of that user, put it as the
argument to cd. Especially if you know Elisp I can't cd
- I mean see - the problem?

I don't know if there is a standard way of doing it or
if someone else did it before. But it should be so easy
to do so just do it and don't doubt yourself.

> P.S. I'm sorry for the previous mail personally sent
> to you before.

Ha ha, no problem.

-- 
underground experts united:
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573

Re: cd to the user's home dir

[Bob Proulx]

Andrey Tykhonov wrote:
> Emanuel Berg writes:
> > Andrey Tykhonov writes:
> >> I would like to be able to `cd' into the user's home
> >> directory in the same way as I can `cd' in the shell:
> >>
> >> cd ~admin
> >>
> >> I try in Emacs:
> >>
> >> M-x cd RET ~admin RET
> >>
> >> but it doesn't work. Emacs seems doesn't provide such
> >> functionality. Am I wrong?
> >
> > `cd' changes the "default directory" of the current
> > buffer - e.g., so when you `find-file' in that buffer,
> > the prompt will by default be pointed at that
> > directory, as the most likely place you would want to
> > look.
> >
> > I don't really get what you want

I don't think I understand either.  Because the above works fine for
me.  If you use the emacs interactive cd function it will prompt in
the minibuffer with this:

  Change default directory: ~/

If I type in ~someuser/somepath that is expanded appropriately and
everything works fine.  When you say it does not work for you what is
it about it that does not work?

> Well, I have many projects which paths are long and it is very often
> required to `cd' to one of them. Very often and time consuming. For a shell
> I resolved such an issue by means of creating system user (I'm on Linux)
> and now I can just (with auto completion and quite nice representation in
> the PS1):
> 
> cd ~username
> 
> where username is a system user's home directory which is the project
> root. Well, `username' in my case is just a project's name.

That is fine.  But instead of creating a full user account in the
system it would be more typical to create variables and cd there.  Or
to create aliases.  In the shell, there is even variable name completion:

  cd $somelocation

> Such thing is quite good and handy for me and I would like the same but in
> Emacs, thus I want to be able to change "default directory" of the current
> buffer to the user's home directory.
> 
> I just wrote these simple functions which does allow to do described thing:
> 
> (defun system-users ()
>   (split-string
>    (shell-command-to-string "grep -o '^[^:]*' /etc/passwd | tr '\n' ' '") " "))
> 
> (defun cu (user)
>   "cd to the USER's home directory."
>   (interactive
>    (list
>     (completing-read "User: " (system-users))))
>   (setq default-directory
> 	(replace-regexp-in-string "\n" "" (shell-command-to-string

Look into using the (expand-file-name) function.  Use it like this:

  (expand-file-name "~/emacs")

It returns the expanded file name.  That would be a lot more portable
and easier to use than your brute force grep of the /etc/passwd file.
(Which is fine too but won't catch users in NIS/yp or LDAP or other
type of account database.

> Now I just wonder: is there any similar functionality in Emacs? Is there
> any way to cd to specific user's home directory?

Of course this is where I get a confused look on my face and say, yes,
simply use the emacs 'cd' function.

    cd is an interactive compiled Lisp function in `files.el'.

    (cd DIR)

    Make DIR become the current buffer's default directory.
    If your environment includes a `CDPATH' variable, try each one of
    that list of directories (separated by occurrences of
    `path-separator') when resolving a relative directory name.
    The path separator is colon in GNU and GNU-like systems.

Bob

Re: cd to the user's home dir

[Andrey Tykhonov]

Bob Proulx <bob@proulx.com> writes:

> Andrey Tykhonov wrote:
>> Emanuel Berg writes:
>> > Andrey Tykhonov writes:
>> >> I would like to be able to `cd' into the user's home
>> >> directory in the same way as I can `cd' in the shell:
>> >>
>> >> cd ~admin
>> >>
>> >> I try in Emacs:
>> >>
>> >> M-x cd RET ~admin RET
>> >>
>> >> but it doesn't work. Emacs seems doesn't provide such
>> >> functionality. Am I wrong?
>> >
>> > `cd' changes the "default directory" of the current
>> > buffer - e.g., so when you `find-file' in that buffer,
>> > the prompt will by default be pointed at that
>> > directory, as the most likely place you would want to
>> > look.
>> >
>> > I don't really get what you want
>
> I don't think I understand either.  Because the above works fine for
> me.  If you use the emacs interactive cd function it will prompt in
> the minibuffer with this:
>
>   Change default directory: ~/
>
> If I type in ~someuser/somepath that is expanded appropriately and
> everything works fine.

Oh, I'm sorry! I just tried ~someuser/ and it does really works! Before
I've tried just ~som and hit TAB after that. I expected appropriate
completion but didn't get it and decided that that doesn't work at all,
also I tried cd ~someuser RET (without ending slash)...

Does completion work for you if you type ~someu TAB ?

> When you say it does not work for you what is
> it about it that does not work?
>
>> Well, I have many projects which paths are long and it is very often
>> required to `cd' to one of them. Very often and time consuming. For a shell
>> I resolved such an issue by means of creating system user (I'm on Linux)
>> and now I can just (with auto completion and quite nice representation in
>> the PS1):
>> 
>> cd ~username
>> 
>> where username is a system user's home directory which is the project
>> root. Well, `username' in my case is just a project's name.
>
> That is fine.  But instead of creating a full user account in the
> system it would be more typical to create variables and cd there.  Or
> to create aliases.  In the shell, there is even variable name completion:
>
>   cd $somelocation
>
>> Such thing is quite good and handy for me and I would like the same but in
>> Emacs, thus I want to be able to change "default directory" of the current
>> buffer to the user's home directory.
>> 
>> I just wrote these simple functions which does allow to do described thing:
>> 
>> (defun system-users ()
>>   (split-string
>>    (shell-command-to-string "grep -o '^[^:]*' /etc/passwd | tr '\n' ' '") " "))
>> 
>> (defun cu (user)
>>   "cd to the USER's home directory."
>>   (interactive
>>    (list
>>     (completing-read "User: " (system-users))))
>>   (setq default-directory
>> 	(replace-regexp-in-string "\n" "" (shell-command-to-string
>
> Look into using the (expand-file-name) function.  Use it like this:
>
>   (expand-file-name "~/emacs")
>
> It returns the expanded file name.  That would be a lot more portable
> and easier to use than your brute force grep of the /etc/passwd file.
> (Which is fine too but won't catch users in NIS/yp or LDAP or other
> type of account database.
>
>> Now I just wonder: is there any similar functionality in Emacs? Is there
>> any way to cd to specific user's home directory?
>
> Of course this is where I get a confused look on my face and say, yes,
> simply use the emacs 'cd' function.
>
>     cd is an interactive compiled Lisp function in `files.el'.
>
>     (cd DIR)
>
>     Make DIR become the current buffer's default directory.
>     If your environment includes a `CDPATH' variable, try each one of
>     that list of directories (separated by occurrences of
>     `path-separator') when resolving a relative directory name.
>     The path separator is colon in GNU and GNU-like systems.
>
> Bob

RE: cd to the user's home dir

[Drew Adams]

> Oh, I'm sorry! I just tried ~someuser/ and it does really works! Before
> I've tried just ~som and hit TAB after that. I expected appropriate
> completion but didn't get it and decided that that doesn't work at all,
> also I tried cd ~someuser RET (without ending slash)...
> 
> Does completion work for you if you type ~someu TAB ?

Yes, for me it does, on MS Windows, with Emacs 24.3 or 24.4, but
not with prior releases (e.g. 24.2).

Re: cd to the user's home dir

[Bob Proulx]

Andrey Tykhonov wrote:
> Bob Proulx writes:
> >   Change default directory: ~/
> >
> > If I type in ~someuser/somepath that is expanded appropriately and
> > everything works fine.
> 
> Oh, I'm sorry! I just tried ~someuser/ and it does really works! Before
> I've tried just ~som and hit TAB after that. I expected appropriate
> completion but didn't get it and decided that that doesn't work at all,
> also I tried cd ~someuser RET (without ending slash)...
> 
> Does completion work for you if you type ~someu TAB ?

Yes.  Name completion with TAB works for me.  I am running on a Debian
system.

But playing with it I find that it doesn't work exactly the same as
find-file completion.  If I have "~/" and I try "~/~rooTAB" it will
not complete to ~root/.  I must backup first.  "~rooTAB" works.  This
is slightly different than find-file.  In find-file a slash or tilde
immediately starts a new path.  In the graphical client it greys out
the preceding path.  I think cd is enough different from find-file
that it would classify as a bug against cd because of the
inconsistency.

Bob

RE: cd to the user's home dir

[Drew Adams]

> But playing with it I find that it doesn't work exactly the same as
> find-file completion.  If I have "~/" and I try "~/~rooTAB" it will
> not complete to ~root/.  I must backup first.  "~rooTAB" works.  This
> is slightly different than find-file.  In find-file a slash or tilde
> immediately starts a new path.  In the graphical client it greys out
> the preceding path.  I think cd is enough different from find-file
> that it would classify as a bug against cd because of the
> inconsistency.

Emacs command `cd' tries to act like UNIX/Linux command `cd'.
In particular, it uses environment var `CDPATH' to look things up.

The `find-file' (and related commands) behavior you refer to
is something different. What it does is recognize `~/' as your
home directory (env var `HOME').  And it does so also when it
comes immediately after a slash (`/`) - Emacs then ignores that
slash and whatever precedes it.  (And in recent Emacs versions
it dims that ignored text.)

Re: cd to the user's home dir

[Andreas Röhler]

On 19.05.2014 00:58, Andrey Tykhonov wrote:
> Emanuel Berg <embe8573@student.uu.se> writes:
>
>> Andrey Tykhonov <atykhonov@gmail.com> writes:
>>
>>> I would like to be able to `cd' into the user's home
>>> directory in the same way as I can `cd' in the shell:
>>>
>>> cd ~admin
>>>
>>> I try in Emacs:
>>>
>>> M-x cd RET ~admin RET
>>>
>>> but it doesn't work. Emacs seems doesn't provide such
>>> functionality. Am I wrong?
>>
>> `cd' changes the "default directory" of the current
>> buffer - e.g., so when you `find-file' in that buffer,
>> the prompt will by default be pointed at that
>> directory, as the most likely place you would want to
>> look.
>>
>> I don't really get what you want
>
>
> Well, I have many projects which paths are long and it is very often
> required to `cd' to one of them. Very often and time consuming. For a shell
> I resolved such an issue by means of creating system user (I'm on Linux)
> and now I can just (with auto completion and quite nice representation in
> the PS1):
>
> cd ~username
>
> where username is a system user's home directory which is the project
> root. Well, `username' in my case is just a project's name.
>
> Such thing is quite good and handy for me and I would like the same but in
> Emacs, thus I want to be able to change "default directory" of the current
> buffer to the user's home directory.
>
> I just wrote these simple functions which does allow to do described thing:
>
> (defun system-users ()
>    (split-string
>     (shell-command-to-string "grep -o '^[^:]*' /etc/passwd | tr '\n' ' '") " "))
>
> (defun cu (user)
>    "cd to the USER's home directory."
>    (interactive
>     (list
>      (completing-read "User: " (system-users))))
>    (setq default-directory
> 	(replace-regexp-in-string "\n" "" (shell-command-to-string
> 					   (format "grep %s /etc/passwd | cut -f 6 -d :" user))))
>    (call-interactively 'ido-find-file))
>
> Well, it doesn't change default-directory but just calls ido-find-file with
> the user's home directory which is good.
>
> Now I just wonder: is there any similar functionality in Emacs? Is there
> any way to cd to specific user's home directory?
>
> P.S. I'm sorry for the previous mail personally sent to you before.
>
>> - with dired, to show
>> the home directory's files:
>>
>> (dired "~")
>>
>> or perhaps:
>>
>> (dired (getenv "HOME"))
>>
>> - is that what you look for?
>
>

BTW at windows "expand-file-name" might be needed.

(defun cd ()
   (interactive)
   (dired (expand-file-name "~"))

Re: cd to the user's home dir

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Mon, 19 May 2014 08:07:55 +0200
> From: Andreas Röhler <andreas.roehler@easy-emacs.de>
> 
> BTW at windows "expand-file-name" might be needed.
> 
> (defun cd ()
>    (interactive)
>    (dired (expand-file-name "~"))

No, it isn't.  Emacs always calls expand-file-name internally before
passing any file names to C file-related interfaces.