title	author	colorlinks
fcd	Stefan Wagner	true

fcd

fcd - fast cd - fast change directory - A bash-shellscript to make wide jumps in the directory tree fast and easy

Usage

fcd DIRNAME

Depending on the number of matching directories, there are 3 possible outcomes:

• no such directory
• one directory with this name
• multiple directories with such a name

In case one, you get a message like:

unknown directory: kamera

In case 2, exactly one match, the shell changes the directory to the matched one, after echoing the whole path:

fcd nager
1) match: /home/stefan/bilder/cliparts/tiere/nager
t201:~/bilder/cliparts/tiere/nager >

(your prompt will vary)

In case 3, more than one match, you get a list of candidates to select from, including an exit option as last entry on the list:

fcd Kamera
1) /home/stefan/Kamera
2) /home/stefan/bilder/Kamera
3) /exit/
#? 1
multi) /home/stefan/Kamera

Selecting one of them (except /exit/) will beam you into that directory. Selecting the number, associated with /exit/, ("3" in this example) will terminate without further notice.

Prerequisites

This script depends on locate (or a replacement like mlocate) and hence on updatedb and is aimed for the bash. On most linux systems, updatedb and locate are preinstalled and running.

Install

Put fcd and fcd.sh into a directory which is in your path, like ~/bin, depending on your distribution and personal taste. If you lack such a directory, you may either create it as new and include it into your PATH, or place the script in a directory which is already part of the PATH, like /usr/local/bin.

Source the fcd script, which contains the function definition, from your ~/.bashrc file.

Since you don't want to perform the action just in a subshell, which would drop you back into the starting dir, if performed as script, we need to perform it as function, not as script.

# in your $HOME/.bashrc, do:
. fcd
# or
source fcd

Tests

Test, for example with fcd wpasupplicant, which typically leads to multiple results, to select from:

fcd wpasupplicant
1) /etc/network/if-down.d/wpasupplicant	       5) /usr/share/doc/wpasupplicant
2) /etc/network/if-post-down.d/wpasupplicant   6) /usr/share/lintian/overrides/wpasupplicant
3) /etc/network/if-pre-up.d/wpasupplicant      7) /exit/
4) /etc/network/if-up.d/wpasupplicant
#? 5
multi) /usr/share/doc/wpasupplicant

This shall beam you to /usr/share/doc/wpasupplicant for example. You might have less or more matches and selected another one. If you selected an entry, you can switch back with cd - as usual.

Test which typically leads to just one match:

t201:~ >
t201:~ > fcd rc3.d
1) match: /etc/rc3.d
t201:/etc/rc3.d >

Test which typically leads to no match:

t201:~ >
t201:~ > fcd 1232131313131
unknown directory: 1232131313131
t201:~ >

Contributing

Authors

• Stefan Wagner - Initial work

License

This project is licensed under the GPLv3

Acknowledgments

Thanks to m_bostaurus for hints to a bug, missing results when fcd to "bin".

History

• Ver. 1.1 bugfix missing results when fcd bin
• Ver. 1.0 initial release