So ... if you do a lot of command line work, you know that it is a drag to mkdir (create) a new folder and then have to separately cd into it. Especially if you do this a lot.

Here's a 3 letter command to do both.

First, let's get this up and working; and then we'll go over some of the parts for anyone that is new to this.

Enter the below mcd (make a folder and then cd into it) function into your .bashrc file.

mcd ()
{
  if [[ $# -eq 0 ]] ; then
      echo "Enter the (path)directory to create!"
      echo "usage: "
      echo "  mcd files" 
      echo "  mcd work/files" 
      echo "  ...or for folders with spaces, add quotes:"
      echo "  mcd 'work/new files'"
      echo "  mcd "work/new files""
      # exit 0
  fi;

  # -n checks if the folder is already there.
  # If not, the directory (with parents) is created.
  # Either way it then cds into the desired folder.
  [ -n "$1" ] && mkdir -p "$*" && cd "$1"; 

  echo "current directory: " $(pwd)
}

Then $ source .bashrc to implement it (or just open another terminal).

Now you can type $ mcd your-desired-foldername and it will create the folder your-desired-foldername, after first checking if it needs to do so. That's what this part [ -n "$1" ] && does.

It continues on to cd into the folder. Finally it will show you the path that you are in; just to confirm that it all worked. That's this part echo "current directory: " $(pwd).

By adding the -p parameter to mkdir, mcd handles creating all folders in the path provided; building any required parent folders along the way.

The if [[ $# -eq 0 ]] ; portion of code near the top of mcd is checking to make sure a folder name was given as a mcd parameter. It will print out usage instructions if nothing was provided.

If no parameter is passed in, this will be the result:

One usage note. Like mkdir, mcd wants to have quotes ( ' or " ) around folder names containing spaces. Otherwise they'll try to create separate folders for each portion of the space-separated name.

So use: $ mcd "my work files" rather than $ mcd my work files if your folder names contain spaces.