Get directory of an executable using which

Question

I would like to use the which command to cd directly into a directory.

cd $(which python3.6)

Obviously this will not work, since which python3.6 will return an executable.

Now the question is: how can I cd into the location of this executable?

Answer 1

Use dirname:

cd `dirname $(which python3.6)`

From man(1) page:

Name:
dirname - strip non-directory suffix from file name

Synopsis:
dirname NAME
dirname OPTION

Description:
Print NAME with its trailing /component removed; if NAME contains no /'s, output '.' (meaning the current directory).