Can't cd into a specific directory

• Describe the current behavior:

%%bash
date_dir=`date +"%y-%m-%d"` # Use linux date command to get today's date and initialize to the `date_dir` variable
mkdir -p $date_dir          # Make a new directory (if it doesn't already exist) and assign the name as the value of the `date_dir` variable
cd "`ls -t | head -1`"      # This is supposed to list all elements in the current directory, sorted newest first, 
                            # only take the newest element and change directory into the newest element

• Describe the expected behavior:

The cd command isn’t working on Google Colab, but this command works on my local linux machine.

• The web browser you are using (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc.):

This behavior has been seen on Google Chrome and Firefox.

• Link to self-contained notebook that reproduces this issue (click the Share button, then Get Shareable Link):

Copy/Paste the aforementioned Jupyter code in a notebook to reproduce this issue

[craigcitro]

No, there’s no reasonable way for the child (bash) process to affect the state of the parent process.

[CSP197]

So I’m currently using the following:

date_dir = datetime.date.today().strftime("%y-%m-%d")
os.makedirs(date_dir, exist_ok=True)
os.chdir(date_dir)

and wanted to implement the same concept using the % cell magic, but am unable to do so as of writing…

Any advice?