I have a shell function `.` that goes up one: .() { if [ $# -eq 0 ]; then cd ..; else source $\*; fi; } then alias ..='cd ../..' alias ...='cd ..

I have a shell function `.` that goes up one: .() { if [ $# -eq 0 ]; then cd ..; else source $\*; fi; } then alias ..='cd ../..' alias ...='cd ../../..' . . So that "however many periods" goes up however many directory levels. Seems a coherent shorthand to me, though I guess uuuu also works.