Your Grandpa's cd Command

cdbuff is a simple command-line tool designed to enhance the functionality of the cd command in Bash. It is particularly useful if you work on multiple projects, allowing you to store and recall paths by name or index.

cdbuff is intended for interactive use, enabling you to quickly switch between frequently used directories.

Named Registers

With cdbuff you can save and restore paths to registers by assigning arbitrary names to them.

Rolling Indexed Registers

cdbuff features a circular buffer/register system with indexed registers [0-9], similar to Vim. Every path stored using the -s option is pushed into the indexed registers, with the most recent path assigned to register 0. The previous path in register 0 is then shifted to register 1, and so on, with older paths cascading through the remaining registers.

Getting started

1. clone the repo

git clone https://github.com/akoerner/cdbuff.git

2. In your .bashrc or .zshrc source cdbuff:

source path/to/cdbuff/cdbuff
alias cb=cdbuff

3. Set the primary register:

cd to/some/interesting/path
cb -s
Setting cd register: (primary): /home/cdbuff/to/some/interesting/path

Later you can recall and change back to that directory stored in the primary register by invoking cdbuff with no flags:

cb
Changing directory to: primary@/home/cdbuff/to/some/interesting/path
/home/cdbuff/to/some/interesting/path

List available registers

The following command will return a list of all defined cdbuff registers:

cb -l

Setting a named register

1. cd to a path you want to store
2. invoke cdbuff with -s:

cd some/path
cb -s special_path
Setting cd register: (special_path): /home/cdbuff/some/path

Returning to a named register

You have two options to return to a previously named register. The first is to simply use the register name:

cb special_path
Changing directory to: special_path@/home/cdbuff/some/path
/home/cdbuff/some/path

The second option is to use the register index: 1.

cb -l

Numerical register:
    9:
    8:
    7:
    6:
    5:
    4:
    3:
    2: 
    1:
    0: /home/cdbuff/some/path

Named register:
   (special_path): /home/cdbuff/some/path

    register file: /home/cdbuff/.cdbuff

ℹ️INFO: The register index will automatically advance with each invocation of cb -s

2. Once you know the index you can always use it to refer to the register:

cb 0 
Changing directory to: 0/home/cdbuff/some/path
/home/cdbuff/some/path

Deleting a named register

Using the '-d' flag will delete a register. The following command will delete numerical register #0:

cb -d 0
Deleted: 0@/home/cdbuff/some/path

You can also delete named register:

cb -d special_path 
Deleted: special_path@/home/cdbuff/some/path

cdbuff register file

The cdbuff register file is: $home/.cdbuff by default