Shunpo: Minimalist bash tool to make directory navigation a little bit faster

I have a utility called ZSH Autosuggestions, and it's probably one of the most useful things on my computer. It shows you a sort of preview of the most recent command you typed that matches the prefix of the current command you are typing. It's basically an automatic tool that bookmarks commands based on usage. I think the best bookmark systems are ones which simply track your entire history and suggest relevant pages based on it. That way the process of bookmark creation is automatic and you don't have to predict what you will need to access frequently.

https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions?tab=readme-...

Seems like as good a time as any to show off this cursed thing I keep in my dotfiles:

    # Allow .. through ........... (yup!) to cd up some number of directories.
    for i in {1..10}; do
        spaces=$(printf "%${i}s")
        alias "${spaces// /.}."="cd ${spaces// /../}"
    done

Interesting approach. Since I've converted entirely to nushell, I'm using zoxide to solve this navigation friction. https://github.com/ajeetdsouza/zoxide

The only thing I'm missing from zsh is path aware auto completion... supposedly this works if you enable the sqlite history for nushell but iirc it was buggy.

I guess I'll share what I built for myself.

https://gist.github.com/chanux/1119556 (bash) https://gist.github.com/chanux/9411092 (fish)

That's `za <n>` to go back n directories up. It's a decade old and I still use this everyday.

I experimented with jumping up directory path by name with `xs`. But I don't use it that often (at all).

https://gist.github.com/chanux/08c6f53472190a02b33bd49100163...

I’ve used “bashmarks” for this for years: https://github.com/huyng/bashmarks

Super handy. This looks like it might be more polished version.

I never used pushd and popd. Did not even know about them. But I use autojump it give directories a prioroty numbers and then you just have to type "j pro" and you cd into your projects folder for example.

https://github.com/wting/autojump

just looked at it again it also has a jc command for child directories and commands to open file explorer that I never used.

I made this helper function to navigate my projects, recursively, it will list them if there are more than one, but defaults to the first one unless you give it a number.

syntax:

  projects <project-name> <match index>

  function projects() {
    if [ -z "$1" ]; then
      echo "please provide a project name"
      return
    fi

    local allMatches=$(find ~/Documents/projects -maxdepth 2 -type d -name "*$1*" -print)
    local firstMatch=$(echo "$allMatches" | head -n ${2:-1} | tail -n 1)

    if [ -z "$firstMatch" ]; then
      echo "no matches found"
      return
    else
      if [ $(echo "$allMatches" | wc -l) -gt 1 ]; then
        echo "matches found:"
        echo "$allMatches" | awk '{print NR ") " $0}'
      fi
      cd "$firstMatch"
    fi
  }

I really like "jump" which I have aliased to "j". It auto learns and you can also pin shortcut names so I don't have to fuss configuring it but also can control certain ones. Great trade off between usability and configurability. Can't find the repo but "brew install jump" works :)

An alternative is to use CDPATH [0], and possibly a directory containing symlinks as bookmarks. That way you can also switch between different sets of bookmarks by changing CDPATH. Add some shell aliases for managing that setup.

[0] https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/html_node/Variable-...

A project-specific zsh[0] function I find quite handy is:

  devhome () {
   cd $DEV_HOME/${~1}(/)
  }

  devhome mod*/foo/src/**/some-dir

It’s kind of funny (in a good way) how there’s already been about 10 other ways mentioned in the comments! We do seem to love our directory navigation tools :)

You can use `ranger` to interactively navigate to and select a directory:

  cdranger() {
      local tmpfile="$(mktemp)"
      local cdto
      ranger --show-only-dirs --choosedir="$tmpfile" "$@"
      cdto="$(cat $tmpfile)"
      rm -f "$tmpfile"
      if [ "$cdto" ]; then
          cd "$cdto"
      fi
  }

This is great!

I wrote a very similar tool for myself a long time ago: “wd” or Working Directory. Uses similar numeric slots but also has named “schemes” and sets environment variables for your slots for you.

https://github.com/karlin/working-directory

Nice. While I prefer a combination of these tools

  fzf
  zoxide
  fd

There's a glaring issue with this... one of its commands conflicts with the absolutely crucial system administration tool `sl`. :-)

Jump around! https://github.com/rupa/z

I use an Array + Sed to go backwards in path to an exact directory without having to spam cd ..:

https://gist.github.com/GNOMES/6bf65926648e260d8023aebb9ede9...

Looks great, thanks!

Would also be nice to be able create bookmarks to regularly used commands as part of the "Shunpo package". That way one wouldn't need to use another tool for these type of cases. Thoughts?

I use https://github.com/jarun/nnn/ with `cd` on quit if I need to scan around manually. Otherwise, zoxide.

I end up using $CDPATH a lot for initial movement. While it's probably not as comprehensive as this, I find it and something like zoxide can cover a lot of ground.

I've been pretty happy with Ranger (https://github.com/ranger/ranger)

In DOS I used to something like this, using ctrl or alt and an f key to set or go to a bookmarked directory.

Love the Bleach reference in the name.

cdbuff: Your Grandpa's cd Command https://github.com/akoerner/cdbuff

oh man, i had no idea stuff like this (or pushd/popd existed). i’ve been writing so much ugly bash to do this myself… whoops

Emacs + projectile + eshell

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