cd, but better

A replacement for the default bash/zsh cd command. It can mount FUSE filesystems on-demand, jump down multiple levels of directories, etc. cd always prefers real directories to special commands; so if you had a directory called foo:, cd foo: would just cd into foo:, not try to mount foo: with sshfs.

$ cd machine-name:[path]    # automounts machine-name:path with sshfs
$ cd /dev/sdb1              # create a mountpoint, then sudo-mount it
$ cd **x                    # cd's to the first descendant dir matching /x/
$ cd ..5                    # cd's up five directories
$ cd ..foo                  # cd's up to the nearest dir matching /foo/
$ cd x.tar                  # mounts x.tar with archivemount
$ cd hdfs://namenode:9000   # mounts namenode with hadoop-fuse-dfs
$ cd ^                      # history: go back one directory
$ cd ^^                     # history: go back two directories
$ cd ^10                    # history: go back ten directories
$ cd -10                    # history: go back ten directories
$ cd ^foo                   # history: go back to last dir matching /foo/
$ cd git:/path/to/repo      # mounts git commits as directories
$ cd enc:/path/to/encrypted # mounts an encfs directory
$ cd loop:image.iso         # mounts a loopback image

Fuse-mounted directories are unmounted automatically when you cd out of them.

cd also supports symlinks to virtual directories. For example:

$ ln -s machine-name:/foo/bar my-symlink
$ cd my-symlink             # same as cd machine-name:/foo/bar

If you want cd to virtualize the destination of a symlink, the symlink must not point to a real directory.

Using with zsh

cd works just fine with zsh, but you'll need to make sure of a few things. First, make sure KSH_ARRAYS is unset when you load the script; otherwise cd will be in bash-compatible mode and will break under zsh. Second, cd will set BASH_REMATCH and assumes that you'll leave it set (sorry). So if you unset it, cd will start having problems.

Also, cd will nuke any existing zsh_exit you have defined. If you care about this, ping me and I'll make it non-clobbering.

Interactive options

$ cd --history              # prints $PWD history, most recent first
$ cd --mounts               # lists probably-active FUSE mount points
$ cd --patterns             # all patterns that 'cd' is looking for
$ cd --clean                # attempts to unmount and remove all mounts
$ cd --which enc:x          # indicates which delegate is used for enc:x

The --clean option is good for cases where FUSE mountpoints are left in an inconsistent state; for instance, when you suspend a machine with an open SSHFS connection. It will unmount and remove all mountpoints that aren't in use.

Setup

To enable it (this can also be done from .bashrc):

$ . cd                      # enables extensible cd
$ . cd-traverse             # enables descendant/ancestor traversal
$ . cd-history              # ^, ^^, ^n, -n, ^regexp
$ . cd-ssh                  # does nothing unless you have sshfs
$ . cd-archive              # does nothing unless you have archivemount
$ . cd-hdfs                 # does nothing unless you have hadoop-fuse-dfs
$ . cd-git                  # does nothing unless you have yagfs
$ . cd-encfs                # does nothing unless you have encfs
$ . cd-dev                  # enables automounting for /dev/ entries
$ . cd-loop                 # enables mounting for loopback files

Alternatively:

$ CD_EXTENSIONS=(traverse history ssh archive hdfs git encfs dev loop)
$ . cd

Alternatively:

$ CD_EXTENSIONS=all
$ . cd

You can see the patterns that are handled by running cd --patterns. (This can be useful if you want to find out which ones are ignored due to unmet dependencies.) Anything that isn't a pattern is treated like a regular directory change.

Be sure to initialize this script after RVM. RVM redefines cd, clobbering any existing redefinitions. This script, on the other hand, preserves RVM's cd redefinition while adding behavior of its own.

Some of cd's extensions store state and/or create temporary mountpoints in ~/.cd, which it automatically creates.

Experimental extensions

Create missing directories

$ . cd-missing-mkdir

Sourcing this script causes cd to create directories that don't exist. Any leaf directory created by cd will be removed upon leaving if it is empty and no process is using it. So, for example:

$ ls
foo  bar
$ cd BOOYAH
$ cd ..
$ ls
foo  bar
$

At this point cd will create but not delete parent directories:

$ ls
foo  bar
$ cd bif/baz/bok
$ cd ../../..
$ ls
foo  bar  bif
$ ls bif
baz
$ ls bif/baz
$

YaGFS

YaGFS doesn't have an Ubuntu package, but it should be easy to install from its source repository. You'll need to symlink the yagfs script into your $PATH for cd to know to use it.

Authors

• Spencer Tipping spencertipping
• Vivien Didelot vivien