Becoming tired of typing paths repeatedly in the terminal, I realized that I should be using pushd and popd to be navigating directory structures. For those uninitiated, pushd changes your current directory in a similar fashion to cd but additionally adds the former directory to a stack. You can later return to the former directory by executing popd, popping it from the directory history. Unfortunately, the commands pushd and popd both require at least twice as many characters to type as cd and additionally come with the overhead of having to learnt o use a new command instead of something that is nearly instinctual. Then it came to me: pushd all the time.

Overriding cd with a muted pushd operates exactly like the standard cd command, with the added benefity that the path history is saved. Furthermore, adding an alias of p to popd allows the previous directory to be popped with minimal effort.

Additionally, when exploring the idea, I came across this StackExchange post illustrating a back function, allowing you to switch back and forth between your current and previous directory with removing either from the stack. In the end, this is what I put in my bash profile:

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# CD is now silent pushd
cd()
{
  if [ $# -eq 0 ]; then
    DIR="${HOME}"
  else
    DIR="$1"
  fi

  builtin pushd "${DIR}" > /dev/null
}

# Take you back without popd
back()
{
  builtin pushd > /dev/null
  dirs
}

alias p='popd'
alias b='back'