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(oh-my-)zsh behaviour: `$ command_name` at home directory results in `cd command_name` effect

I'm currently using zsh with oh-my-zsh, and I've run into an annoying shell behaviour.

I must have done a subtle yet breaking change in the $PATH export while editing my .zshrc, because the following thing happens:

At the shell prompt while in ~/, issuing, for example, the flutter command...

$ flutter

...results in:

$ ~/flutter/ (as if calling $ flutter had been interpreted as $ cd flutter)

However, issuing $ flutter in any other directory, including $ ~/flutter results in the correct execution of the flutter command. Same thing for go and others.

Line 2 on my .zshrc exports $PATH in the following fashion:

export PATH=$HOME/bin:$HOME/.emacs.d:$HOME/flutter/bin/cache/dart-sdk:$HOME/flutter/bin/cache/dart-sdk/bin:$HOME/.pub-cache/bin:$HOME/.composer/vendor/bin:$HOME/.cargo/env:$HOME/.platformio/penv/bin:$HOME/flutter/bin:$PATH

I've been comparing .zshrc versions with other backups, and I may be missing something, but no differences were found.

What seems off, in your opinion?

If you've encountered this annoyance before, how did you correct it?

Solution

  • Explanation

    It'a feature called AUTO_CD.

    AUTO_CD (-J)

    If a command is issued that can’t be executed as a normal command, and the command is the name of a directory, perform the cd command to that directory.

    http://zsh.sourceforge.net/Doc/Release/Options.html#Changing-Directories

    AUTO_CD is enabled by oh-my-zsh in file oh-my-zsh/lib/theme-and-appearance.zsh.

    ...

setopt auto_cd
setopt multios
setopt prompt_subst

[[ -n "$WINDOW" ]] && SCREEN_NO="%B$WINDOW%b " || SCREEN_NO=""
...

    Solution

    Append the following command in ~/.zshrc after oh-my-zsh is loaded to disable this feature.

    unsetopt AUTO_CD