You might want to replace cd command with Zoxide — a smarter and trainable cd alternative

Have you ever encountered a problem where you kept changing directories, costing you a lot of time? I certainly have.

But guess what? I found something called Zoxide, and it has revolutionized the way I navigate through my directories. It saves me time, helps me stay focused, and boosts my productivity.

How does it work?

Essentially, it’s no different from the cd command. However, after using it for a while, you’ll come to appreciate its efficiency.

Let’s say you want to open your project directory. This is how you’d do it with the cd command:

$ cd creuserr/projects/my_project

With Zoxide, it’s just as simple:

$ z creuserr/projects/my_project

As I mentioned earlier, it’s essentially the same as cd.

$ cd -
$ z -

$ cd ..
$ z ..

$ cd /
$ z /

However, after navigating through these directories, Zoxide will remember them all.

For example, after navigating to the my_project directory and closing the terminal, you can return to it using just keywords:

$ z my_project
creuserr/projects/my_project $

Pretty cool, right? Give it a try!

Installation

Head over to ajeetdsouza/zoxide and install it now! It’s innovative, free, and flexible!

How to use it?

You can only use shortcuts if Zoxide recognizes the directory.

$ z blah blah
zoxide: no match found

You can also navigate with multiple keywords.

$ z creuserr my_project
creuserr/projects/my_project $

Moreover, there are some algorithms you should know about:

Algorithms

1. Case Insensitivity

Zoxide is case insensitive when searching for directories by keywords.

$ z My_PROJECT
creuserr/projects/my_project $

2. Two or More Keywords Do Not Recognize Sub-directories

It’s a bit tricky, but here’s an example:

$ z foo/bar/baz/lorem/ipsum
foo/bar/baz/lorem/ipsum $

$ z bar
foo/bar $

$ z baz ipsum
foo/bar/baz/lorem/ipsum $

$ z foo baz
zoxide: no match found

Basically, you can only navigate with two or more keywords if the last keyword corresponds to a recognized directory.

3. Unordered Keyword Stacks Are Not Supported

$ z foo/bar/baz/lorem/ipsum
foo/bar/baz/lorem/ipsum $

$ z baz foo
zoxide: no match found

$ z lorem foo
zoxide: no match found

Navigation with keywords must follow a left-to-right order.

How It Works Under the Hood

Recognized directories are stored with a frecency score, which determines their priority level when the user searches for something.

Frecency: Frequency + Recency

Frecency is a term coined from frequency and recency. Frecency scores are determined by how frequently the user navigates to a directory and how long ago the last visit was.

When a user navigates to a directory, its frecency score increases by 1, and the recency is determined by the last time it was accessed.

$ z foo/bar/baz
$ z lorem/ipsum/baz

Imagine foo/bar/baz has a higher frecency score than lorem/ipsum/baz.

$ z baz
foo/bar/baz $

Thank you for reading this blog! I hope you find it helpful! Please consider leaving a react or a comment; I would really appreciate it!