PoShAncestry

Quickly go back to a specific directory instead of typing cd ..\..\.. redundantly. Based on zsh-bd and bd.

Motivation

Traversing back through deeply nested directory structures is annoying.

C:\Dev\Projects\PowerShell\PoShAncestry> bd pro
C:\Dev\Projects>

PoShAncestry exports on a single command, Select-Ancestor, which will traverse up through the path to find the ancestor with the closest name. For convenience, the alias bd is also exported.

While Select-Ancestor does support tab completion, it will also match based on leading characters. As in the example above, pro will match the Projects folder. In the case of multiple potential matches, the closest ancestor will be used, unless the -First switch is specified, in which case the farthest ancestor will be selected.

Installation

If you have PsGet installed, you can execute:

Install-Module PoShAncestry

Otherwise, for a manual installation:

1. Create a PoShAncestry directory in your PowerShell modules folder. You can find this be examining $env:PSModulePath.
2. Download PoShAncestry.psm1 and place it in your PoShAncestry directory.
3. Add Import-Module PoShAncestry for your $profile.

Select-Ancestor

Select-Ancestor [[-Ancestor] <String>] [-First] [-PassThru] [<CommonParameters>]

Searches the current location string for the given ancestor, using this as the new location.

Description

Select-Ancestor will break the current location string up into a list of ancestor locations and change to the one requested. If multiple ancestors share the same name, the closest to the current location will be chosen. This behaviour can be changed by using -First.

Partial matches are always attempted, and an ancestor will be selected if it starts with the specified string; e.g. the ancestor 'Work' will be selected by the string 'wo'.

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
Ancestor	String	Ancestor location to search for. If there are multiple ancestor locations with the same name, the last will be selected. If no ancestor is given, then the parent directory will be selected.
First	Switch	Select the first occurrence of Ancestor instead of the last.
PassThru	Switch	Return the new directory object after changing into it.

Example 1

Select-Ancestor Parent

Executed in the directory C:\Folder1\Folder2\Parent\Child would change the current location to C:\Folder1\Folder2\Parent.

Example 2

Select-Ancestor fol -First

Executed in the directory C:\Folder1\Folder2\Parent\Child would change the current location to C:\Folder1.

Example 3

Select-Ancestor fol

Executed in the directory C:\Folder1\Folder2\Parent\Child would change the current location to C:\Folder1\Folder2.

Example 4

Select-Ancestor

Executed in the directory C:\Folder1\Folder2\Parent\Child would change the current location to C:\Folder1\Folder2\Parent.

Testing

A simple suite of Pester tests is included in PoShAncestry.Tests.ps1. Simply install Pester and execute Invoke-Pester in the PoShAncestry directory to run the tests.

Licence

The MIT License (MIT)

Copyright (c) 2015 Kier Dugan

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.