The eshell-z package is an Emacs port of z.
It keeps track of where you’ve been and how many commands you invoke there,
and provides a convenient way to jump to the directories you actually
use. eshell-z and z can work together by sharing the same data file.
After setting up MELPA as a repository, use M-x package-install eshell-z or
your preferred method.
Add eshell-z to your load-path. Something like
(add-to-list 'load-path "path/to/eshell-z")To use this package, add following code to your init.el or .emacs
(add-hook 'eshell-mode-hook
(defun my-eshell-mode-hook ()
(require 'eshell-z)))~ $ z -h
usage: z [-chlrtx] [regex1 regex2 ... regexn]
-c, --current estrict matches to subdirectories of the current directory
-h, --help show a brief help message
-l, --list list only
-r, --rank match by rank only
-t, --time match by recent access only
-x, --delete remove the current directory from the datafile
examples:
z foo cd to most frecent dir matching foo
z foo bar cd to most frecent dir matching foo, then 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)
NOTICE This section is copied from the manpage of z.
The rank of directories maintained by z 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.
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.
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.
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.
z supports basic tab completion, press TAB to complete on options and
directories. This is implemented with pcomplete.