z.1

.TH "Z" "1" "January 2013" "z" "User Commands"
.SH
NAME
z \- jump around
.SH
SYNOPSIS
z [\-chlrtx] [regex1 regex2 ... regexn]
.SH
AVAILABILITY
bash, zsh
.SH
DESCRIPTION
Tracks your most used directories, based on 'frecency'.
.P
After a short learning phase, \fBz\fR will take you to the most 'frecent'
directory that matches ALL of the regexes given on the command line, in order.

For example, \fBz foo bar\fR would match \fB/foo/bar\fR but not \fB/bar/foo\fR.
.SH
OPTIONS
.TP
\fB\-c\fR
restrict matches to subdirectories of the current directory
.TP
\fB\-e\fR
echo the best match, don't cd
.TP
\fB\-h\fR
show a brief help message
.TP
\fB\-l\fR
list only
.TP
\fB\-r\fR
match by rank only
.TP
\fB\-t\fR
match by recent access only
.TP
\fB\-x\fR
remove the current directory from the datafile
.SH EXAMPLES
.TP 14
\fBz foo\fR
cd to most frecent dir matching foo
.TP 14
\fBz foo bar\fR
cd to most frecent dir matching foo, then bar
.TP 14
\fBz -r foo\fR
cd to highest ranked dir matching foo
.TP 14
\fBz -t foo\fR
cd to most recently accessed dir matching foo
.TP 14
\fBz -l foo\fR
list all dirs matching foo (by frecency)
.SH
NOTES
.SS
Installation:
.P
Put something like this in your \fB$HOME/.bashrc\fR or \fB$HOME/.zshrc\fR:
.RS
.P
\fB. /path/to/z.sh\fR
.RE
.P
\fBcd\fR around for a while to build up the db.
.P
PROFIT!!
.P
Optionally:
.RS
Set \fB$_Z_CMD\fR to change the command name (default \fBz\fR).
.RE
.RS
Set \fB$_Z_DATA\fR to change the datafile (default \fB$HOME/.z\fR).
.RE
.RS
Set \fB$_Z_NO_RESOLVE_SYMLINKS\fR to prevent symlink resolution.
.RE
.RS
Set \fB$_Z_NO_PROMPT_COMMAND\fR to handle \fBPROMPT_COMMAND/precmd\fR yourself.
.RE
.RS
Set \fB$_Z_EXCLUDE_DIRS\fR to an array of directory trees to exclude.
.RE
.RS
Set \fB$_Z_OWNER\fR to allow usage when in 'sudo -s' mode.
.RE
.RS
(These settings should go in .bashrc/.zshrc before the line added above.)
.RE
.RS
Install the provided man page \fBz.1\fR somewhere in your \f$MANPATH, like
\fB/usr/local/man/man1\fR.
.RE
.SS
Aging:
The rank of directories maintained by \fBz\fR undergoes aging based on a simple
formula. The rank of each entry is incremented every time it is accessed. When
the sum of ranks is over 9000, all ranks are multiplied by 0.99. Entries with a
rank lower than 1 are forgotten.
.SS
Frecency:
Frecency is a portmanteau of 'recent' and 'frequency'. It is a weighted rank
that depends on how often and how recently something occurred. As far as I
know, Mozilla came up with the term.
.P
To \fBz\fR, 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.
.P
Frecency is determined at runtime.
.SS
Common:
When multiple directories match all queries, and they all have a common prefix,
\fBz\fR 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.
.SS
Tab Completion:
\fBz\fR 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 completed in the
shell.
.P
Internally, \fBz\fR decides you've requested a completion if the last argument
passed is an absolute path to an existing directory. This may cause unexpected
behavior if the last argument to \fBz\fR begins with \fB/\fR.
.SH
ENVIRONMENT
A function \fB_z()\fR is defined.
.P
The contents of the variable \fB$_Z_CMD\fR is aliased to \fB_z 2>&1\fR. If not
set, \fB$_Z_CMD\fR defaults to \fBz\fR.
.P
The environment variable \fB$_Z_DATA\fR can be used to control the datafile
location. If it is not defined, the location defaults to \fB$HOME/.z\fR.
.P
The environment variable \fB$_Z_NO_RESOLVE_SYMLINKS\fR can be set to prevent
resolving of symlinks. If it is not set, symbolic links will be resolved when
added to the datafile.
.P
In bash, \fBz\fR appends a command to the \fBPROMPT_COMMAND\fR environment
variable to maintain its database. In zsh, \fBz\fR appends a function
\fB_z_precmd\fR to the \fBprecmd_functions\fR array.
.P
The environment variable \fB$_Z_NO_PROMPT_COMMAND\fR can be set if you want to
handle \fBPROMPT_COMMAND\fR or \fBprecmd\fR yourself.
.P
The environment variable \fB$_Z_EXCLUDE_DIRS\fR can be set to an array of
directory trees to exclude from tracking. \fB$HOME\fR is always excluded.
Directories must be full paths without trailing slashes.
.P
The environment variable \fB$_Z_OWNER\fR can be set to your username, to
allow usage of \fBz\fR when your sudo environment keeps \fB$HOME\fR set.
.SH
FILES
Data is stored in \fB$HOME/.z\fR. This can be overridden by setting the
\fB$_Z_DATA\fR environment variable. When initialized, \fBz\fR will raise an
error if this path is a directory, and not function correctly.
.P
A man page (\fBz.1\fR) is provided.
.SH
SEE ALSO
regex(7), pushd, popd, autojump, cdargs
.P
Please file bugs at https://github.com/rupa/z/