Z(1) User Commands Z(1)
NAME
z - jump around
SYNOPSIS
z [-chlrtx] [regex1 regex2 ... regexn]
AVAILABILITY
bash, zsh
DESCRIPTION
Tracks your most used directories, based on 'frecency'.
After a short learning phase, z will take you to the most 'frecent'
directory that matches ALL of the regexes given on the command line, in
order.
For example, z foo bar would match /foo/bar but not /bar/foo.
If nothing in the jump-list matches, and a single argument was given
that names an existing directory, z acts as a cd alias and goes there.
See cd Fallback below.
OPTIONS
-c restrict matches to subdirectories of the current directory
-e echo the best match, don't cd
-h show a brief help message
-l list only
-r match by rank only
-t match by recent access only
-x remove the current directory from the datafile
EXAMPLES
z foo cd to most frecent dir matching foo
z foo bar cd to most frecent dir matching foo, then bar
z -r foo cd to highest ranked dir matching foo
z -t foo cd to most recently accessed dir matching foo
z -l foo list all dirs matching foo (by frecency)
z foo cd to ./foo, if nothing in the jump-list matches foo
z ... cd two directories up
NOTES
Installation:
Put something like this in your $HOME/.bashrc or $HOME/.zshrc:
. /path/to/z.sh
cd around for a while to build up the db.
PROFIT!!
Optionally:
Set $_Z_CMD to change the command name (default z).
Set $_Z_DATA to change the datafile (default $HOME/.z).
Set $_Z_MAX_SCORE lower to age entries out faster (default
9000).
Set $_Z_NO_RESOLVE_SYMLINKS to prevent symlink resolution.
Set $_Z_NO_CD_FALLBACK to not cd to unmatched but existing
directories.
Set $_Z_NO_FZF to complete without fzf even when it is in-
stalled.
Set $_Z_FZF_PRUNE_DIRS to an array of directory names fzf should-
n't offer.
Set $_Z_NO_PROMPT_COMMAND to handle PROMPT_COMMAND/precmd your-
self.
Set $_Z_EXCLUDE_DIRS to an array of directory trees to exclude.
Set $_Z_OWNER to allow usage when in 'sudo -s' mode.
(These settings should go in .bashrc/.zshrc before the line
added above.)
Install the provided man page z.1 somewhere in your $MANPATH,
with make install-man, or by hand into a directory such as
/usr/local/share/man/man1. Then man z works.
Aging:
The rank of directories maintained by z undergoes aging based on a sim-
ple formula. The rank of each entry is incremented every time it is
accessed. When the sum of ranks is over 9000, all ranks are multiplied
by 0.99. Entries with a rank lower than 1 are forgotten.
Frecency:
Frecency is a portmanteau of 'recent' and 'frequency'. It is a weighted
rank that depends on how often and how recently something occurred. As
far as I know, Mozilla came up with the term.
To z, a directory that has low ranking but has been accessed recently
will quickly have higher rank than a directory accessed frequently a
long time ago.
Frecency is determined at runtime.
Common:
When multiple directories match all queries, and they all have a common
prefix, z will cd to the shortest matching directory, without regard to
priority. This has been in effect, if undocumented, for quite some
time, but should probably be configurable or reconsidered.
Going Up:
An argument of nothing but dots walks up the tree, one directory per dot
past the first: z .. is the parent, z ... its parent, z .... the one
above that. Asking for more levels than there are stops at /. A single
. is left alone, since it is a perfectly good regex.
This is checked before the datafile, because as a regex .. matches almost
every path in it, and so used to jump somewhere arbitrary.
cd Fallback:
When no directory in the datafile matches the query, z falls back to be-
having like cd: if exactly one argument was given, and it is a path to an
existing directory, z cds to it. This makes z usable on directories
it has never seen, such as freshly created ones.
The datafile always takes priority, so a query that matches a known di-
rectory jumps there even if a directory of the same name exists in $PWD.
The fallback is also skipped for -l and -e, and can be disabled entirely
by setting $_Z_NO_CD_FALLBACK.
Tab Completion:
z supports tab completion. After any number of arguments, press TAB to
complete on directories that match each argument. Due to limitations of
the completion implementations, only the last argument will be com-
pleted in the shell.
If fzf(1) is installed, TAB opens it instead of completing in place.
The candidates are the whole jump-list, most 'frecent' first, then the
subdirectories of $PWD, then its parent and your siblings, so the picker
can go up and across as well as down. $PWD itself is left out. Whatever
you had typed becomes the starting query, and a single match is taken
without drawing the picker at all, so TAB on an unambiguous query stays
instant.
TAB inside the picker looks inside the highlighted directory: the list
is replaced by what surrounds that directory, as though you had jumped
there and pressed TAB again, and the directory itself is offered first so
that return goes where you just looked. The query is cleared, since it has
already served its purpose. Press TAB repeatedly to walk down a tree a
level at a time.
In zsh the directory you choose is jumped to immediately: TAB is a
widget there, so the jump runs as ${_Z_CMD:-z} <dir>, which also puts it
in your history, and cancelling the picker discards the line the way ^C
does. bash's readline cannot run a command from a completion, so there
the choice is inserted on the command line for you to accept with return.
Only one level either side of the directory being looked at is of-
fered, so the list stays short and TAB stays instant; depth comes from the
jump-list, and from pressing TAB. .git, .hg, .svn and node_modules are
left out, as are any names in $_Z_FZF_PRUNE_DIRS. Appearance and keybind-
ings come from fzf's own $FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS. Set $_Z_NO_FZF to complete
in place instead.
Internally, z decides you've requested a completion if the last argu-
ment passed is an absolute path to an existing directory. This may
cause unexpected behavior if the last argument to z begins with /.
ENVIRONMENT
A function _z() is defined.
The contents of the variable $_Z_CMD is aliased to _z 2>&1. If not set,
$_Z_CMD defaults to z.
The environment variable $_Z_DATA can be used to control the datafile
location. If it is not defined, the location defaults to $HOME/.z.
The environment variable $_Z_NO_RESOLVE_SYMLINKS can be set to prevent
resolving of symlinks. If it is not set, symbolic links will be
resolved when added to the datafile.
The environment variable $_Z_NO_CD_FALLBACK can be set to prevent z
from falling back to cd when the query matches nothing in the datafile.
The environment variable $_Z_NO_FZF can be set to complete in place even
when fzf is installed. $_Z_FZF_PRUNE_DIRS can be set to an array of
directory names to leave out when listing subdirectories; it adds to the
always-omitted .git, .hg, .svn and node_modules.
In bash, z appends a command to the PROMPT_COMMAND environment variable
to maintain its database. In zsh, z appends a function _z_precmd to the
precmd_functions array.
In zsh with fzf installed, z binds TAB to a zle widget, _z_zsh_tab_wid-
get, so that picking a directory can run the jump instead of only typing
it out. The widget hands TAB straight to whatever it was bound to be-
fore for every line that isn't a z command, so other completions are un-
touched; with $_Z_NO_FZF set at the time z.sh is sourced, TAB is left
alone entirely.
In zsh, z registers its completion with compctl and, when the newer
completion system is loaded, with compdef as well. The latter is required:
compinit ignores compctl, and completes the alias by expanding it to _z,
which zsh's own _compadd claims for every _* command. If compinit has not
run by the time z.sh is sourced, the compdef call is retried once from
precmd_functions; with $_Z_NO_PROMPT_COMMAND set there is no retry, so
source z.sh after compinit.
The environment variable $_Z_NO_PROMPT_COMMAND can be set if you want
to handle PROMPT_COMMAND or precmd yourself.
The environment variable $_Z_EXCLUDE_DIRS can be set to an array of
directory trees to exclude from tracking. $HOME is always excluded.
Directories must be full paths without trailing slashes.
The environment variable $_Z_OWNER can be set to your username, to
allow usage of z when your sudo environment keeps $HOME set.
FILES
Data is stored in $HOME/.z. This can be overridden by setting the
$_Z_DATA environment variable. When initialized, z will raise an error
if this path is a directory, and not function correctly.
A man page (z.1) is provided.
SEE ALSO
regex(7), fzf(1), pushd, popd, autojump, cdargs
Please file bugs at https://github.com/rupa/z/
z January 2013 Z(1)