Z(1)                             User Commands                            Z(1)



NAME
       z - jump around


SYNOPSIS
       z [-h] [-l] [-r] [-t] [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.


OPTIONS
       -h show a brief help message
       -l list only
       -r match by rank only
       -t match by recent access only


EXAMPLES
       z foo     cd to most frecent dir matching foo
       z foo bar cd to most frecent dir matching foo and 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)


NOTES
       Installation:

       Put something like this in your $HOME/.bashrc:

        . /path/to/z.sh

       Put something like this in your $HOME/.zshrc:

        . /path/to/z.sh
        function precmd () {
          _z --add "$(pwd -P)"
        }

       cd around for a while to build up the db.

       PROFIT!!

       Optionally:
        Set $_Z_CMD in .bashrc/.zshrc to change the command (default z).
        Set $_Z_DATA to change the datafile (default $HOME/.z).
        Set $_Z_NO_RESOLVE_SYMLINKS to prevent symlink resolution.
        Set $_Z_NO_PROMPT_COMMAND if you're handling PROMPT_COMMAND yourself.
        (These settings should go before the lines added above.)
        Install the provided man page z.1 somewhere like /usr/local/man/man1.

       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 greater than  1000,  all  ranks  are
       multiplied by 0.9. Entries with a rank lower than 1 are forgotten.

       Frecency:

       Frecency is a portmantaeu of 'recent' and 'frequency'. It is a weighted
       rank that depends on how often and how recently something  occured.  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.

       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.

       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.

       An  alias $_Z_CMD='_z 2>&1' is defined. 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.

       In bash, z uses the PROMPT_COMMAND environment variable to maintain its
       database. Specifically it prepends:

        _z --add "$(pwd -P 2>/dev/null)" 2>/dev/null;

       to any existing PROMPT_COMMAND. zsh users need to manually set precmd()
       as described in the installation instructions.

       The  environment  variable $_Z_NO_PROMPT_COMMAND can be set if you want
       to handle PROMPT_COMMAND yourself.


FILES
       Data is stored in $HOME/.z. This  can  be  overridden  by  setting  the
       $_Z_DATA environment variable.

       A man page (z.1) is provided.


SEE ALSO
       regex(7), cdargs, pushd, popd, autojump, cdargs

       Please file bugs at https://github.com/rupa/z/



z                                February 2011                            Z(1)