That's a helpful one! I also add a function that creates a tmp directory, and cds to it which I frequently use to open a scratch space. I use it a lot for unpacking tar files, but for other stuff too.

(These are nushell functions)

# Create a directory, and immediately cd into it.
# The --env flag propagates the PWD environment variable to the caller, which is
# necessary to make the directory change stick.
def --env dir [dirname: string] {
  mkdir $dirname
  cd $dirname
}

# Create a temporary directory, and cd into it.
def --env tmp [
  dirname?: string # the name of the directory - if omitted the directory is named randomly
] {
  if ($dirname != null) {
    dir $"/tmp/($dirname)"
  } else {
    cd (mktemp -d)
  }
}

Here's a script I use a lot that creates a temporary directory, cds you into it, then cleans up after you exit. Ctrl-D to exit, and it takes you back to the directory you were in before.

Similar to what another user shared replying to this comment but mine is in bash + does these extra stuff.

#!/bin/bash

function make_temp_dir {
    # create a temporary directory and cd into it.
    TMP_CURR="$PWD";
    TMP_TMPDIR="$(mktemp -d)";
    cd "$TMP_TMPDIR";
}

function del_temp_dir {
    # delete the temporary directory once done using it.
    cd "$TMP_CURR";
    rm -r "$TMP_TMPDIR";
}

function temp {
    # create an empty temp directory and cd into it. Ctr-D to exit, which will
    # delete the temp directory
    make_temp_dir;
    bash -i;
    del_temp_dir;
}

temp