Hey everyone! I've run into a bit of a conundrum with manipulating folder paths in my shell script. I have environment variables that hold paths, for example, `/var/log/somefolder/somefolder2`. What I need to do is set a new path that goes two directories up, ending up with `/var/log`.
The actual paths I'm working with are dynamic, but for now, let's say they look like the one above. I've tried appending `../` to the end of my path, which gives me something like `/var/log/somefolder/somefolder2/../../`. It works with some commands but not all.
Is there a straightforward way to programmatically get the parent folder a certain number of levels up? I know `dirname` can help get the base directory, but would running it multiple times be the best route, or is there a simpler solution?
4 Answers
You might find the `find` command useful! For instance:
```bash
$ export DIR=$(find "/var" -type d -iname "log" | head -1)
$ path="${DIR}/somefolder"
```
Also, if you know there’s a hidden file in the directory, you could touch it:
```bash
$ touch /var/.findmydir
$ export DIR=$(find "/var" -type f -iname ".findmydir")
```
If you're writing a script, a simple built-in might work too:
```bash
DIR=${0%/*} # This gets the path to the last /
```
And you can also use:
```bash
DIR="$(dirname "$(readlink -f "${0%/*}")")"
```
Hope one of these helps! It's really up to how you want to structure your commands.
You could also simplify by just navigating up two directories like this:
```bash
cd $VARPATH && cd .. && cd ..
```
Alternatively, you could set two variables:
```bash
PATH1="/var/log"
PATH2="dir1/dir2"
```
Then concatenate them when you need the full path, or just use the first variable when you need the partial path. Easy as pie!
I’ve actually used `realdir` or `realpath`, and it worked wonders for me. I would’ve shared earlier, but I thought my previous post got removed right after I posted it. Thanks for all the input, though!
You could try something like this:
```bash
nn=2
PATH="/var/log/a/b"
DIR=$(cut -d'/' -f-$((nn + 1)) <<< "$PATH")
```
This should give you the desired result of `/var/log`.
Usually, I pipe it through `dirname` with proper quoting—especially for paths that include spaces. There are also some IFS tricks you can use if required. I’ll need to check out `realpath`; never heard of that one!