Temporarily change current working directory in bash to run a command

Question

I know I can use cd command to change my working directory in bash.

But if I do this command:

cd SOME_PATH && run_some_command

Then the working directory will be changed permanently. Is there some way to change the working directory just temporarily like this?

PWD=SOME_PATH run_some_command

Answer 1

You can run the cd and the executable in a subshell by enclosing the command line in a pair of parentheses:

(cd SOME_PATH && exec_some_command)

Demo:

$ pwd
/home/abhijit
$ (cd /tmp && pwd)  # directory changed in the subshell
/tmp 
$ pwd               # parent shell's pwd is still the same
/home/abhijit