Is there an equivalent of ~ from Unix systems in Windows cmd.exe?

Question

The ~ character is a universal alias in the Unix word for referencing the home directory of the user. It is a special character that will be parsed and replaced by the full path of the current user's home directory. Is there an equivalent of this in cmd.exe ? (not Powershell)

Not really.. there is %UserProfile% which is similar to $HOME. — Señor CMasMas, Sep 23 '21 at 00:16
Does this answer your question? Change to user folder from the Command Prompt or PowerShell? — phuclv, Sep 23 '21 at 02:39
duplicates: What is the equivalent of Linux's "~" (tilde) in Windows?, Is there a shortcut command in Windows command prompt to get to the current user's home directory like there is in Linux?, Is there a windows equivalent to using ~/ as a shorthand symbolizing your home/user directory?, cmd equivalent to "cd ~" to change to C:\Users\<current user>\Documents — phuclv, Sep 23 '21 at 04:15
Does this answer your question? What is the equivalent of Linux's "~" (tilde) in Windows? — Herohtar, Sep 23 '21 at 19:32
all the duplicates show the equivalent in cmd. not powershell, did you even read them? — phuclv, Mar 05 '22 at 13:31

score 18 · Answer 1 · edited Mar 05 '22 at 13:30

18

No.

You can use commands like cd /D %homedrive%\%homepath% or cd /D %userprofile% but typing them is just not the same even if end result is. The closest to the simplicity of cd ~ I've ever seen is Señor CMasMas's elegant solution below.

Create a new bat file with one single line:

@cd /d %UserProfile% –

Save it with name cd~.bat into any folder in your %PATH%. After that you can get from anywhere in the system back to home directory by typing command

cd~

edited Mar 05 '22 at 13:30

phuclv

27,773

answered Sep 23 '21 at 00:18

Peregrino69

4,664

13

It is funny that you mention this. I have a cd~.bat file in my path that has one line in it.. @cd /d %UserProfile% – Señor CMasMas Sep 23 '21 at 02:18
1

That's the most elegant solution I've ever seen :D – Peregrino69 Sep 23 '21 at 09:35
6

Be aware that %homepath% does not include the drive, just the path relative to that drive. %homedrive% contains the drive letter. – Ross Presser Sep 23 '21 at 12:14
@RossPresser Good point, let's update the answer :-) – Peregrino69 Sep 23 '21 at 12:16
Batch file from batch file should be called via call command. – pbies Sep 23 '21 at 20:45
1

In Unix you wouldn't even type cd ~, just cd because $HOME is already the default destination. ~ is useful when you're cd'ed somewhere else and want to reference a file in your home dir, e.g. vim ~/notes.txt or cp -a foo ~/bin/. (Or in a script where you might be.) Anyway, isn't %homedrive%\%homepath% basically equivalent to $HOME, expanding an environment variable? When you say it's "not the same", do you mean it's too long to type? – Peter Cordes Sep 23 '21 at 22:30
@PeterCordes Yap, I generally drop the tilde except in scripts, cd ~ just has a bit of charming nostalgia :-) And of course written down cd and cd ~ don't mean the same thing. %homedrive%\%homepath% as concept is more /users/$USER, %UserProfile% is more $HOME, methinks. I updated the answer again. – Peregrino69 Sep 23 '21 at 23:07
In Unix, cd and cd ~ do mean the same thing. Tilde expansion happens after word splitting, so even if your $HOME contains spaces, it still works like cd "$HOME" instead of breaking. Maybe you meant in Windows? I don't know Windows cmd.exe very well. – Peter Cordes Sep 23 '21 at 23:15
They do, typed in shell, but "typed in shell" != "written down". Writing on a paper, forum etc. cd = "change directory", but cd ~ = "change directory to $HOME". That's what I meant :-) – Peregrino69 Sep 23 '21 at 23:25

Is there an equivalent of ~ from Unix systems in Windows cmd.exe?

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