dirlog 1.2.1

keep a log of directories you visit to get back fast

Contents

• Ramblings

• Installation

• Usage

  • c function

  • dlog command wrapper

dirlog is a wrapper for cd that keeps a database of all the directories you visit, so you only have to type the first few letters of the basename to get back to them the next time.

Ramblings

The tradition of our unix forefathers teaches us that the command line is the most efficient way to do any task on a unix system. This is frequently the case. However, there are a few tasks which are more difficult. For example, editing video. dirlog will not fix that. dirlog does something else useful however; It makes it so you have to type long directory names less frequently, or cd+ls your way around the filesystem until you get where you’re going. The primary function of dirlog is to replace the cd command.

Now, you can’t actually replace the cd command. It’s a shell builtin, and it must be a shell builtin. Each process has its own working directory, inherited from its parent. There is no (sane) way for a child process to change the directory of its parent. This is why cd must run as part of the shell’s process itself. This is why dirlog is used as part of a shell function to wrap the cd command. There is no other way.

Installation

You can install dirlog from PyPI with pip3 or by cloning this repo and using pip3. e.g. (you can use pip2 as well, but you may encounter some bugs.

$ git clone https://github.com/ninjaaron/dirlog.git
$ sudo pip3 install dirlog

Or, perhaps you’ll prefer to install in your user directory (in which case you must have ~/.local/bin/ in your path, or wherever your user’s python stuff is).

$ pip3 install --user dirlog

Alternatively, There is an AUR Arch Linux and derived distros.

After that, run the the dirlog command, which will give you the function you need to get dirlog and cd to work together.

c() {
  dir="$(dirlog-cd "$@")"
  if [ "$dir" != "" ]; then
    cd "$dir" && ls
  fi
}

If you run a non-POSIX shell (huge mistake), like fish or tcsh, you’ll need something else. Here’s the fish version:

function c
  set dir (dirlog-cd $argv)
  if [ "$dir" != "" ]
    cd "$dir"; and ls
  end
end

In fish, you can just enter this at the command line and then use funcsave c to make it permanent.

I don’t know tcsh, so I leave it to you to figure it out.

Naturally, you may omit the ls command, if you wish. I find it handy.

Tip:

I tweak the above POSIX script slightly for quickly switching back and forth betweeen two directories:

c() {
  local dir=$(dirlog-cd "$@")
  if [ "$dir" != "" ]; then
    LAST="$PWD"
    cd "$dir"&& ls
  fi
}

b() {
  c "$LAST"
}

local is not strictly POSIX, but it works in many shells, and then I stick the previous directory in a global variable so I can get back to it quickly. If you want some more sophisticated directory history, I suppose it would be easy enough to use pushd and popd in a dirlog wrapper.

Usage

c function

To start off with, you can do almost everything with the c function that you can with cd. (Some version of cd have some extra flags. c has none.) However, whenever you use c, it will remember the complete path of the directory you move to. To return to that directory, you can simply type the first part of the name of the directory, and it will take you back to the last directory where the beginning of the name of matches the hint you give.

~$ c src/stupid-project
setup.py  stupid.py
~/src/stupid-project$ c
Downloads  Documents  Music  Pictures  pr0n  src
~$ # now watch close
~$ c st
setup.py stupid.py
~/src/stupid-project$

The more directories you visit, the more will be stored in your history. Makes it quick to get around.

Now, what if you have to directories with the same name, or similar for the first few characters? It takes you to the matching directory that was most recently visited. If you want to go back to an earlier directory that match, you may use numbers to indicate how far back it is on the list. 2 is the match before last, 3 the one before that, etc.

~/src/stupid-project$ c ~/Documents/stupid-lists
amimals-that-smell  people-who-smell  goverment-agencies-that-smell
~/Documents/stupid-lists$ c stu
amimals-that-smell  people-who-smell  goverment-agencies-that-smell
~/Documents/stupid-lists$ # takes us back to this directory
~/Documents/stupid-lists$ # because it is most recent match
~/Documents/stupid-lists$ c stu 2
setup.py  stupid.py
~/src/stupid-project$

This is really fairly trivial, but I have found it to be extremely handy, if I do say so myself. I use it much more frequently that any other, eh, “software,” I’ve written. The history is stored in an independent sqlite database, so it is updated across all shell sessions simultaneously.

You may also from dirlog import c in a python shell to get a native implementation. The syntax is a bit “magical” for convenience in the shell. It’s use is documented in the docstring. However, because it is rather magical, it breaks help(). (“oops”), so I’ll copy it here.

>>> c # goes to home dir
Documents  Downloads  Movies (etc...)

>>> # prints and extra newline because this is a trick with __repr__
>>> c.Mo # assuming you have been there in the past...
'Lord of The Rings Trilogy' (etc...)
>>> # if you need to type a full path, use `/` operator and a string.
>>> c/'/etc/sshd'
(sshd config files...)
>>> # if you don't like all the magic, call with normal syntax:
>>> c('/etc/sshd')

Don’t use this object in a script. Its __repr__ is a lie.. If you need dirlog functionality in a script (which you shouldn’t…), use the getpath() function, or get_and_update() These functions are non-magicall.

dlog command wrapper

It recently occurred to me that it might be useful the have this directory history mechanism available to other commands. dlog is a simple way to do this. Put the dlog command in front of the command you wish to run, and it will expand the last argument to the last matching directory you visited.

~/Documents/boring-work$ dlog ln -sr data.csv stu
ln -sr data.cvs /home/luser/src/stupid-project
~/Documents/boring-work$ c
Downloads  Documents  Music  Pictures  junk.txt  pr0n  src
~$ dlog mv junk.txt bo
mv junk.txt /home/luser/Documents/boring-work
~$

You may add a subpath, if you wish. No globbing yet :(

~$ dlog cp -R src bo/boring-code
cp -R src /home/luser/Documents/boring-work/boring-code
~$

As you see, dlog will echo back the command it executes to stderr.

You may also access directories further back in the history, using the @ symbol (this symbol was chosen because it is not used by any of the popular shells for globbing, as far as I know).

~$ dlog ls st@2
ls /home/luser/Documents/stupid-lists
amimals-that-smell  people-who-smell  goverment-agencies-that-smell
~$

History and subpaths can be combined, like this: st@2/animals-that-smell.

If you wish to use any other argument than the last one for directory expansion, it must be prefixed with @.

~$ dlog cp @Mr@2/egg.mp3 .
cp '/home/luser/Music/Mr. Bungle/Mr. Bungle/egg.mp3' .
~$

If you have any arguments prefixed in this way, the final argument will no longer automatically be expanded. However, you can prefix as many arguments as you like with @ in a single command

~$ dlog true @st @bor
true /home/luser/src/stupid-project /home/luser/Documents/boring-work
~$

If dlog is given only one argument, it will simply print the name of all matching directories to stdout, and not try to execute a command.

~$ dlog Mr
/home/luser/Music/Mr. Bungle
~$