Change directory and list files in one go

I am using the terminal a lot, both at work and at home. I would even go so far to say that I’m a terminal power user. When you use the terminal for a while there are two commands that will constantly pop up: cd (change directory) and ls (list files in directory). 9 out of 10 times when I change into a directory with cd I follow that command with ls to see what I have in this directory. After a while it becomes annoying to type both commands in sequence, and since programmers like to save on keystrokes: let’s make a new command that gives us 2in1. I call it cs as a mnemonic of cd and ls.

To have this command available all you have to do is add the following to your shell’s .rc file (.zshrc in my case):

cs = function()
{
    cd $1
    ls
}

From that point on every new shell will have this command (function) available. In the current shell you have to source the config file once more:

$ cs

Command 'cs' not found, but can be installed with:

sudo apt install csound

# You have to adapt the file path to your system's
$ source ~/.zshrc
$ cs ~
bin        Downloads  Pictures  Templates
Desktop    Github     Public    Videos
Documents  Gitlab     Music

Trivia

Initially I used cl as the command’s name, but I found cs to be easier to type and it is also the closest to cd on the keyboard.