rd

rd is a tool for quickly navigating between recently used directories across different apps.

rd continuously monitors the current directories of active processes and maintains a database of those which are frequently used. This allows it to automatically learn which dirs you have used frequently/recently in different apps - a little like the awesomebar / omnibox in Firefox/Chrome.

The 'cdr' shell command can be used to jump to a recently used dir matching a given pattern. The database can also be queried or edited directly using the 'rd' command.

Installation

First, install Go. Binary packages are available from http://golang.org On Linux, you can also use:

	sudo apt-get install golang-go

Mac users who have Homebrew installed can use:

	brew update
	brew install go

Then download and build rd and setup shell integration using:

	git clone http://github.com/robertknight/rd
	cd rd
	./setup.sh

This will:

1. Build the 'rd' tool
2. Add an entry to your shell's init file (~/.bashrc for Bash, ~/.config/fish/fish.config for fish)
3. Setup autostart of the daemon on login

• On Linux this adds an entry to ~/.config/autostart
• On Mac this adds an entry to ~/Library/LaunchAgents

You'll need to open a new shell to make the 'cdr' command available.

Usage

Once rd is installed, it will monitor the current directories of processes on your system. You can then use the 'cdr' command to jump to a recently used dir.

  cdr <pattern> (<pattern>...)

Will jump to the recently used dir containing pattern, if there are multiple matches a numbered list will be printed and you'll be prompted to choose a match.

If multiple patterns are given, they are AND-ed together so cdr will jump to the recently used dir which matches all of the patterns.

The 'rd' command

The 'rd' command can also be invoked directly to query the database and add new entries. This can be used to integrate rd into other apps besides the shell.

  rd query <pattern>|<id>
     push <path>
     list
     stop

Specifying a sends a query to the daemon to search for recently used dirs which match the pattern. If there is a single match the directory path is printed. If there are multiple matches, an ID is printed for each match followed by the path.

Specifying an id prints the path output by the previous query.

The 'push' command can be used to explicitly add a dir to rd's history rather than waiting for it to discover the dir when it becomes a process's current dir.

The 'stop' command stops the daemon if it is running. It will be automatically started if necessary when 'rd' is next invoked.

'rd' maintains its history in the ~/.rd-history file.

Design

rd is a client/server app consisting of a daemon which monitors usage of recently accessed dirs by different processes and a client which communicates with the daemon.

The client/server are built into the same binary and communicate with each other using go's built-in RPC support.

See Also

• autojump is a cd replacement that learns frequently used dirs
• This Unix StackExchange thread has a collection of tips for faster directory navigation