Is it possible to execute a command in the directory just has been invoked in?

[koehlma]

By default, commands are executed in the directory the justfile is located in (which makes sense most of the time). Is it possible to prevent this behavior and have a command execute in the directory just has been invoked in instead?

[casey]

Good question!

You could do this:

foo:
  cd {{invocation_directory()}} && bar

So just foo would run bar in the invocation directory

[koehlma]

Amazing! Thank you so much for answering the question and developing just. 👍

[casey]

Glad that helps! And you are most welcome!

[davised]

Hi Casey,

How difficult would it be to implement a flag to start all recipes in the invocation directory? Sometimes I forget that justfiles don't work like bash scripts that start in the working directory.

I'll typically do this when necessary:

#!/usr/bin/env just
wd := invocation_directory()

foo:
  #!/usr/bin/env bash
  cd {{wd}}
  ...

which isn't too bad, but I will say that sometimes it would be nice to have that option. And certainly some folks who are used to bash scripting will more easily convert to justfiles for convenience if there's a way to force it to work the same.

I'll typically just make a symlink in the working directory so I don't have to deal with the perceived limitation of the software.

At any rate, I understand if there isn't a desire or if it's too difficult, but I figured I'd put it out there.

[casey]

I wouldn't be opposed to something like that. Definitely comment on #762!

[runeimp]

I like --invokedir as a command line flag for such a facility. 👼

[mahiki]

This is really key, otherwise I'm putting [no-cd] over every single recipe. its that or symlink the justfile into every subproject folder.

I'd really like to have a justfile level attribute like set no-cd := true