Z shell function for visiting any directory in a unix shell, Vim or IPython.
scd
is a Z shell (Zsh) script for changing to any directory with a few
keystrokes. scd keeps history of the visited directories, which
serves as an index of the known paths. The directory index is updated after
every cd
command in the shell and can be also filled manually by running
scd -a
. To switch to some directory, scd needs few fragments of the
desired path to match with the index. A selection menu is displayed in case
of several matches, with a preference given to recently visited paths. scd
can create permanent directory aliases, which directly map to the target path.
scd [options] [pattern1 pattern2 ...]
- -a, --add
- add current or specified directories to the directory index.
-
--unindex
- remove current or specified directories from the index.
-
-r, --recursive
- apply options --add or --unindex recursively.
-
--alias=ALIAS
- create alias for the current or specified directory and save it to ~/.scdalias.zsh.
-
--unalias
- remove ALIAS definition for the current or specified directory from ~/.scdalias.zsh.
-
-A, --all
- display all directories even those excluded by patterns in ~/.scdignore. Disregard the unique matching for a directory alias and filtering of less likely paths.
-
--list
- show matching directories and exit.
-
-v, --verbose
- display directory rank in the selection menu.
-
-h, --help
- display this options summary and exit.
-
Make sure that Z shell is installed. On Linux it is usually the
zsh
package. -
Copy or symlink the bin/scd script to some directory in the PATH.
-
Find out what shell is active for your account by running
ps -p $$
. -
Edit the startup file for your shell and have it source the corresponding scd setup file from shellrcfiles as follows:
-
zsh
# ~/.zshrc source ~/.vim/bundle/scd.vim/scd_tools/shellrcfiles/zshrc_scd
Note that scd aliases are named directories in Zsh and can be thus expanded as
~NAME
in the shell. If you use the oh-my-zsh framework you may just activate thescd
plugin instead. If you have zsh 4.2 or older sourcezshrc_scd_42
. -
bash
# ~/.bashrc source ~/.vim/bundle/scd.vim/scd_tools/shellrcfiles/bashrc_scd
-
tcsh
# ~/.cshrc source ~/.vim/bundle/scd.vim/scd_tools/shellrcfiles/tcshrc_scd
-
dash
# add to ~/.profile or to the ${ENV} file . ~/.vim/bundle/scd.vim/scd_tools/shellrcfiles/dashrc_scd
-
# Index recursively some paths for the very first run
scd -ar ~/Documents/
# Change to a directory path matching "doc"
scd doc
# Change to a path matching all of "a", "b" and "c"
scd a b c
# Change to a directory path that ends with "ts"
scd "ts$"
# Show selection menu and ranking of 20 most likely directories
scd -v
# Alias current directory as "xray"
scd --alias=xray
# Jump to a previously defined aliased directory
scd xray
-
Copy or symlink ipython/ipy_scd.py to some directory in Python module path.
-
In IPython terminal session do
%load_ext ipy_scd
to define the%scd
magic command. This also modifies the%cd
,%pushd
,%popd
magics to add directories to the scd index. To loadipy_scd
for every IPython session, modify.../profile_default/ipython_config.py
so that it containsc.TerminalIPythonApp.extensions = ['ipy_scd']
-
If
scd
is not in the PATH, its location can be defined withimport ipy_scd ipy_scd.scd_executable = '/path/to/scd'
# recursively index ~/.local/ and its subdirectories
%scd -ar ~/.local
# jump to the site-packages directory (if exists in ~/.local)
%scd site pack
- ~/.scdhistory
- time-stamped index of visited directories.
-
~/.scdalias.zsh
- scd-generated definitions of directory aliases.
-
~/.scdignore
-
glob patterns for paths to be ignored in the scd search, for example,
/mnt/backup/*
. The patterns are specified one per line and are matched assuming the extendedglob zsh option. Lines starting with "#" are skipped as comments. The .scdignore patterns are not applied in the --all mode.
- SCD_HISTFILE
- path to the scd index file (by default ~/.scdhistory).
-
SCD_HISTSIZE
- maximum number of entries in the index (5000). Index is trimmed when it exceeds SCD_HISTSIZE by more than 20%.
-
SCD_MENUSIZE
- maximum number of items for directory selection menu (20).
-
SCD_MEANLIFE
- mean lifetime in seconds for exponential decay of directory likelihood (86400).
-
SCD_THRESHOLD
- threshold for cumulative directory likelihood. Directories with a lower likelihood compared to the best match are excluded (0.005).
-
SCD_SCRIPT
-
command script file where scd writes the final
cd
command. This variable must be defined when scd runs in its own process rather than as a shell function. It is up to the scd caller to use the output in SCD_SCRIPT.