Question

I have a Bash function named “inDir” which abstracts the “go to a directory, do something, and come back to the starting directory” pattern. It is defined as:

inDir() {
    if [ $# -gt 1 ]; then
        local dir="$1"
        local cwd=`pwd`
        shift

        if [ -d "$dir" ]; then
            cd "$dir" && "$@"
            cd "$cwd"
        fi
    fi
}

I am trying to create a function whose semantics don’t matter much, but will essentially run:

inDir /tmp { [ -e testFile ] && touch testFile }

I hope the “implied” semantics are clear. I want to go into a directory, check if $somefile exists, and if it does, delete it. This is not working as intended. If I run:

cd
inDir /tmp [ -e testFile ] && touch testFile

it checks if testFile exists in /tmp, and then tries to touch it in ~. Can anybody think of a good way to invoke inDir so that it accepts “compound” commands?

Answer 1

indir() {
 if [ -d "$1" ]; then
  local dir="$1"
  shift
  (cd "$dir" && eval "$@")
 fi
}

indir /tmp touch testFile
indir /tmp "[ -e testFile ] && rm testFile"