NAME

autojump - a faster way to navigate your filesystem

SYNOPSIS

Jump to a previously visited directory that contains 'foo':

j foo

Jump to a previously visited subdirectory of the current working directory:

jc bar

Show all database entries and their respective key weights:

j --stat

DESCRIPTION

autojump is a faster way to navigate your filesystem. It works by maintaining a database of the directories you use the most from the command line. The j --stat command shows you the current contents of the database. Directories must be visited first before they can be jumped to.

INSTALLATION

REQUIREMENTS

• Python v2.6+
• Bash v4.0 for tab completion (or zsh)

If you are unable to update Python to a supported version, older versions of autojump can be downloaded and installed manually.

• Python v2.4 is supported by release v12.

AUTOMATIC INSTALLATION

Linux

autojump is included in the following distro repositories, please use relevant package management utilities to install (e.g. yum, apt-get, etc):

• Debian* testing/unstable, Ubuntu, Linux Mint
• RedHat, Fedora, CentOS
• ArchLinux
• Gentoo
• Frugalware
• Slackware

* Requires manual activation for policy reasons, please see /usr/share/doc/autojump/README.Debian.

Mac

Homebrew is the recommended installation method for Mac OS X:

brew install autojump

MacPorts also available:

port install autojump

Other

Please check the Wiki for an up to date listing of installation methods.

MANUAL INSTALLATION

Grab a copy of autojump:

git clone git://github.com/joelthelion/autojump.git

Run the installation script:

cd autojump
./install.sh [ --local ]

and follow on screen instructions.

MANUAL UNINSTALLATION

It is recommended to use your distribution's relevant package management utilities, unless you installed manually or ran into uninstallation issues.

Grab a copy of autojump:

git clone git://github.com/joelthelion/autojump.git

Run the uninstallation script:

cd autojump
./uninstall.sh

and follow on screen instructions.

If you keep getting autojump: command not found at the prompt, do:unset PROMPT_COMMAND. You can also restart your shell.

DEVELOPMENT

The source code is primarily in ./bin/autojump. Various shell wrapper scripts are also available in ./bin/.

Documentation is in various files under ./docs/. Build documentation with the command:

make docs

Unit tests are available in ./tests/. Run unit tests with the command:

make test

OPTIONS

Options must be passed to 'autojump' and not the 'j' wrapper function.

-a, --add DIR       manually add path to database

--purge             deletes database entries that no longer exist on system

-s, --stat          show database entries and their key weights

--version           show version information and exit

ADVANCED USAGE

• Using Multiple Arguments

  Let's assume the following database:

  30   /home/user/mail/inbox
  10   /home/user/work/inbox
  

  j in would jump into /home/user/mail/inbox as the higher weighted entry. However you can pass multiple arguments to autojump to prefer a different entry. In the above example, j w in would then jump you into /home/user/work/inbox.

• Jump to a Child Directory.

  Sometimes it's convenient to jump to a child directory (sub-directory of current directory) rather than typing out the full name.

  jc images
  

• Open File Manager To Directories (instead of jumping)

  Instead of jumping to a directory, you can open a file explorer window (Mac Finder, Windows Explorer, GNOME Nautilus, etc) to the directory instead.

  jo music
  

  Opening a file manager to a child directory is also supported.

  jco images
  

• ZSH Tab Completion

  Tab completion requires two tabs before autojump will display the completion menu. However if setopt nolistambiguous is enabled, then only one tab is required.

ADDITIONAL CONFIGURATION

• Enable ZSH Tab Completion

  ZSH tab completion requires the compinit module to be loaded. Please add the following line to your ~/.zshrc after loading autojump:

  autoload -U compinit && compinit
  

  For security compinit checks completion system if files will be owned by root or the current user. This check can be ignored by using the -u flag:

  autoload -U compinit && compinit -u
  

• Always Ignore Case

  Default behavior is to prioritize exact matches over all else. For example, j foo will prefer /foobar over /FooBar even if the latter has a higher weight. To change this behavior and ignore case, add the following environmental variable in your ~/.bashrc:

  export AUTOJUMP_IGNORE_CASE=1
  

• Prevent Database Entries' Decay

  Default behavior is to decay unused database entries slowly over time. Eventually when database limits are hit and maintenance is run, autojump will purge older less used entries. To prevent decay, add the following variable in your ~/.bashrc:

  export AUTOJUMP_KEEP_ALL_ENTRIES=1
  

• Prefer Symbolic Links

  Default behavior is to evaluate symbolic links into full paths as to reduce duplicate entries in the database. However, some users prefer a shorter working directory path in their shell prompt. To switch behavior to prefer symbolic links, add the following environmental variable in your ~/.bashrc:

  export AUTOJUMP_KEEP_SYMLINKS=1
  

• Autocomplete Additional Commands (Bash only)

  Autojump can be used to autocomplete other commands (e.g. cp or vim). To use this feature, add the following environmental variable in your ~/.bashrc:

  export AUTOJUMP_AUTOCOMPLETE_CMDS='cp vim'
  

  Changes require reloading autojump to take into effect.

• Change Directory Weight

  To manually change a directory's key weight, you can edit the file $XDG_DATA_HOME/autojump/autojump.txt. Each entry has two columns. The first is the key weight and the second is the path:

  29.3383211216   /home/user/downloads
  

  All negative key weights are purged automatically.

KNOWN ISSUES

• For bash users, autojump keeps track of directories as a pre-command hook by modifying $PROMPT_COMMAND. If you overwrite $PROMPT_COMMAND in ~/.bashrc you can cause problems. Don't do this:

  export PROMPT_COMMAND="history -a"
  

  Do this:

  export PROMPT_COMMAND="${PROMPT_COMMAND:+$PROMPT_COMMAND ;} history -a"
  

• The jump function j does not support directories that begin with -. If you want to jump a directory called --music, try using j music instead of j --music.

FILES

If installed locally, autojump is self-contained in ~/.autojump/.

The database is stored in $XDG_DATA_HOME/autojump/autojump.txt.

REPORTING BUGS

For any usage related issues or feature requests please visit:

https://github.com/joelthelion/autojump/issues

THANKS

Special thanks goes out to: Pierre Gueth, Simon Marache-Francisco, Daniel Jackoway, and many others.

AUTHORS

autojump was originally written by Joël Schaerer, and currently maintained by William Ting.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html. This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.