Don't waste your time bookmarking directories, jump right to them ;) https://github.com/rupa/z

`z` tracks your most used directories. After a short learning phase, it will take you to the directory, based on its usage frequency and a hint you give it on the command line. Say I am often cd'ing into /var/www - then after a while I can just type `z ww`.

I like this workflow better:

1. Go to the directory in question

2. Type "save nm" where "nm" is any short name for the directory, like "blog" or "blg"

3. From now on, type "cd nm" whenever you want to go there.

No session restart required, even.

I copied the code that enables this workflow from http://dotfiles.org/~jacqui/.bashrc (or was it https://gist.github.com/117528)

The idea is discussed here: http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=2002071600512379...

    setopt cdablevars
    nm=/path/to/whatever
    cd nm

  touch ~/.zshmarks && source ~/.zshmarks
  function b() {
    echo "hash -d $1=\"`pwd`\"" >> ~/.zshmarks && source ~/.zshmarks
  }

    shopt -s cdable_vars

    foo=/etc/
    cd $foo

    echo "export nm=`pwd`/blog"' >> ~/.profile
    . ~/.profile
    cd $nm

    shopt -s cdable_vars
    nm=`pwd`/blog
    cd nm

    $ cd /
    $ nm=/foo
    $ ls | grep nm
    $ cd nm
    $ pwd
    /foo
    $ cd ~
    $ ls | grep nm
    nm
    $ cd nm
    $ pwd
    ~/nm
    $ echo FFFFFUUUUUUUUU

    $ cd nm/jan/img
    cd: No such director nm/jan/img
    $ echo SHIT
    SHIT
    $ cd $nm/jan/img

Hey Guys,

This is my blog.

FWIW, I've actually switched away from using the script mentioned in the link posted by OP and have moved towards using an improved version below.

http://www.huyng.com/bashmarks-directory-bookmarks-for-the-s...

This new version has 3 commands:

    - "s" for save current directory as a bookmark
    - "g" for jump to bookmark's directory
    - "l" for list all bookmarks.

I first was excited by title "Don't waste your time by cd-ing in the terminal", but then it just turned out to be a blog post about making cd'ing quicker. If you want to boost your productivity, my advice is to stop cd'ing altogether.

I see a lot of people -- particularly vi users -- cd'ing back and forth through a large directory tree. I usually tell them to get a terminal emulator that lets you easily manage many terminals open. Open one per directory you want to operate in, for instance. Learn how to switch back and forth between the different shells.

But most importantly, don't quit the program to switch back and forth between directories and files. Learn to use your editor of choice properly: how to view directory listings, how to switch back and forth, etc. Vim can do this just fine btw. The choice of tool here doesn't matter so much. Just pick one and learn it. This applies to your choice of terminal emulator, shell, editor, etc.

Why is a home-rolled cd script interesting when there are many more mature, feature-rich cd-tools out there?

* http://www.skamphausen.de/cgi-bin/ska/CDargs

* http://micans.org/apparix/

* http://github.com/joelthelion/autojump

* http://github.com/rupa/z

* http://github.com/flavio/jump

Also, the title is misleading. I thought it was actually a commandline tool that removed the need to cd most of the time, like lightning: http://tagaholic.me/2010/04/08/lightning-speed-for-your-shel...

Yet another time saver: if you need to execute only a single command in another directory, use:

  (cd /path; command)

This will cd to /path, run command, but return you to your original working directory. This works because the parens create a sub-process, and the cd command only affects that sub-process.

There's also the pushd and popd commands which are part of bash already.

And there's a wikipedia entry for this even: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pushd_and_popd

    help <command>

No mention of ZSH directory stacks yet? http://www.acm.uiuc.edu/workshops/zsh/dir_stack.html

Some helpful aliases to manage them:

alias 1='cd -1'

alias 2='cd -2'

alias 3='cd -3'

alias 4='cd -4'

alias 5='cd -5'

alias 6='cd -6'

alias 7='cd -7'

alias d='dirs -v'

alias h='history'

alias j='jobs'

Just one of the many reasons to use ZSH.

    function directory_up { 
      pushd -1
      zle reset-prompt 
    }
    zle -N directory-up directory_up
    bindkey "\e[5~" directory-up

    setopt cdablevars
    proj=$HOME/Projects
    cd proj
    pwd # => /Users/sjs/Projects

Try autojump, I love it - https://github.com/joelthelion/autojump/wiki

I've also wondered to myself why there isn't a terminal program with a directory tree by the side so you could just click on the directory that you want to be in, instead of ls -cd-tab-blah-^H-tab-^M. It would also a have a list of favorite and most-recently-used directories.

A weekend project, perhaps...

Maybe not as quick .. but `ctrl+r cd` gets me there quick enough and I don't have to remember what numeric shortcut is assigned to which directory.

Will give it a shot however, good effort.

Another time saver is to have a function that calls ls after cd'ing:

  c(){ cd "$@" && ls;}

This has probably saved me days over the years, as I almost always want to list a directory after I change into.

Another built-in worth knowing about is CDPATH.[1] I find that setting a sane CDPATH and bash-completion makes cd-ing anywhere I go regularly pretty trivial - just a few letters and a few TABs and I'm good to go.

[1] http://caliban.org/bash/#bashtips

  cd foo
  rm -f *

I use this function in my bash profile to navigate to my projects from anywhere on the file system.

  function to {
    cd ~/Sites/$1/
  }

eg. cd ~/Sites/coenhyde.com

$ to coenhyde.com

    alias ba='vim ~/.bash_aliases; source ~/.bash_aliases'

Just make aliases for all the directories you go to a lot. I have twenty-something different aliases that start with 'cd'.

A bookmarking system seems like overkill to solve this problem.

Thank you for this awesome little script. However I found out that bashmarks doesn't work with folders which have whitespaces in the name.

For example:

  cd /Users/username/Library/Application\ Support
  s app_support

works great but if you do this it won't work:

  g app_support

I opened an issue on GitHub and after that I tried to fix it on my own. I never wrote a bash script and I'm really proud to have fixed this problem on my own.

Here are changes I made:

  # save current directory to bookmarks
  touch ~/.sdirs
  function s {
     cat ~/.sdirs | grep -v "export DIR_$1=" > ~/.sdirs1
     mv ~/.sdirs1 ~/.sdirs

     escaped_path=${PWD/ /\\ }
     echo "export DIR_$1=$escaped_path" >> ~/.sdirs
  }

  # jump to bookmark
  function g {
     source ~/.sdirs
     path=$(eval $(echo echo $(echo \$DIR_$1)))
  
     # replace whitespaces with "\ " for escaping
     escaped_path=${path/ /\\ }
     cd_eval="cd $escaped_path"
    
     eval $cd_eval
  }

Hope this helps you guys like it helped me. And if there is a way to do this in an more elegant way, please let me know. This would help me to improve my none existing bash skills :D

Edit: I opened up a fork and commited all my changes to this repo. I also opened a pull request and I hope my fix will get accepted.

GitHub fork: https://github.com/Oemera/bashmarks

Thanks

Ömer

I was just at the point of making a bunch of aliases for some long paths, to save my tab key from daily abuse. This is way more elegant. Thanks.

Maybe it's just because I run a lot of the same commands and don't do a lot of development from the terminal, but I avoid cding at all usually and just type the full path. It svaes time over multiple sessions thanks to ctrl+r, and the commands in my history work no matter what dir I'm in.

A nice idea... I may end up using it, though a lot of my folders are the same name and I do like deterministic behavior.

In the meantime, this kicks the pants off separate Finder + Terminal action: http://decimus.net/DTerm/

Interesting reading this because this is exactly why I love emacs, especially when I came across this tip a while ago: "Emacs: TRAMP + bookmarks = awesome", http://marc-abramowitz.com/archives/2006/03/12/emacs-tramp-b...

I'm always plugged in to my server with tramp and I've got multiple projects all bookmarked. It makes hopping around real easy, makes it feel like a browser more than an editor.

I use the following scripts, both by Petar Marinov, they've saved me an enormous amount of keystrokes. One replaces CTRL-R history search, the other makes a much friendlier replacement for pushd and popd.

http://geocities.com/h2428/petar/bash_acd.htm

http://geocities.com/h2428/petar/bash_hist.htm

highly recommended.

1. How about we just learning to type fast(-er) and use file name completion

2. Use real shell like ksh, where history search actually works

3. cd $OLDPWD is occasionally helpful. Occasionally.

Kids...

I have usually a few dirs that i go back and forth frequently when coding, and I simply set them to my env. I add the following line to ~/.bashrc export lib='/path/to/my/lib' And 'cd $lib' will take me there. Very simple, and caters for most of my cd needs. Don't over-complicate things

Back in 2009 I described another version of this here: http://www.commandlinefu.com/commands/view/117/fast-access-t...

I use "m1=`pwd`" and then "cd $m1" for example. No setup required, although admittedly slightly more typing and the need to quote directories with spaces in them (rare for Unix sysadmin tasks for which I'm using a shell in the first place).

I manage with a combination of pushd/popd, cd - and terminal tabs most of the time.

If you're a programmer, you may find Qwandry useful: github.com/adamsanderson/qwandry

Instead of trying to remember where all your libraries are located, it will just open them up for you. Great for trying to debug misbehaving code.

Additionally, try typing fewer characters when you cd in the general case: https://github.com/philc/fuzzycd

I've been using this for a few years and it's been a joy.

I use textexpander to keep from cd'ing everywhere... Just stick in a text expander snippet for directories I use a lot...

ie: hwst - cd /usr/Brad/Desktop/Dropbox/Brad/howas.it/repos/howasit_alpha/ etc...

The suggestion about putting "mdump" in .bash_logout, to automatically save all your bookmarks on exiting shell, is really useful.

I like this: https://github.com/MarcWeber/path-selector

I cant remember my bookmarks so CTRL + R, then searching in history most of a time

Why not just use symlinks for your bookmarks? pushd and popd are also useful.

  cd /home/nick
  ln -s /var/www www
  cd www
  echo $PWD --->  /home/nick/www

i wont