If ``DIRECTORY`` is supplied, it will become the new directory. If no parameter is given, the contents of the ``HOME`` environment variable will be used.
Note that the shell will attempt to change directory without requiring ``cd`` if the name of a directory is provided (starting with ``.``, ``/`` or ``~``, or ending with ``/``).
Fish also ships a wrapper function around the builtin ``cd`` that understands ``cd -`` as changing to the previous directory. See also :ref:`prevd <cmd-prevd>`. This wrapper function maintains a history of the 25 most recently visited directories in the ``$dirprev`` and ``$dirnext`` global variables. If you make those universal variables your ``cd`` history is shared among all fish instances.
As a special case, ``cd .`` is equivalent to ``cd $PWD``, which is useful in cases where a mountpoint has been recycled or a directory has been removed and recreated.
