Quote:

Originally Posted by usfish There is an interview question about UNIX bash: Some shells like bash try to make '..' always work propery, namely, cd ../$USER will place you in your home directory. Does bash always get this behavior correct? Anyway can provide any example that bash doesnt work well?

"cd ../$USER" will not place you in your home directory unless you are in a directory on the same level as your home directory.

You may be thinking of:

Code:

cd ~user

That will not work with a variable unless you use eval:

Code:

eval "cd ~$USER"

To go to your home directory, use cd with no directory.