FreeBSD Manual Pages
apparix(1) USER COMMANDS apparix(1)
NAME
apparix - augmenting cd with bookmarks
SYNOPSIS
Apparix allows you to bookmark directories and later jump to them using
the mark. By default apparix acts as a replacement for cd and can be
used in the same manner, including the special behaviour for cd without
argument and cd -. It is possible to directly jump to subdirectories of
a bookmarked directory. The contributed bash completion code facili-
tates completion both on bookmarks and directories, but can be adjusted
to accomodate other preferences.
This manual page suffers from an excess in verbosity due to the many ex-
amples, explanations of the bells and whistles, and comparisons with
other approaches to bookmarking. The fundamental idea is simply that
typing a string of your own choosing takes you to the directory associ-
ated with it. Apparix does little more than maintaining a list of keys
and values. It obtains directory names and listings, associates path
names (values) with bookmarks (keys), and has some facilities for manip-
ulating keys and values. The functions involving apparix (bm, to, and
portal) provide the user interface. Other functions, als (apparix ls)
and ae (apparix edit) are discussed on the main apparix page http://mi-
cans.org/apparix.
GETTING STARTED
Install apparix. This should be as easy as ./configure --pre-
fix=$HOME/local && make && make install, or perhaps a pre-packaged ap-
parix is available for your system. Then get hold of the to, bm and
portal shell handles. These are either aliases or functions depending on
your shell. Currently csh-style shells and bash are supported. Get the
ones you need preferably from http://micans.org/apparix/#shell. For a
more limited set of commands either visit the FILES section, or issue
apparix --shell-examples. Activate them by simply pasting them in a
shell or adding them to the appropriate resource file, e.g. $HOME/.cshrc
or $HOME/.bashrc (do not forget to source the resource file). The han-
dles to, bm and portal can of course be changed to any name desired.
With these preliminaries, the following is a mock-up shell navigation
session.
> pwd
/home/eez/cvs/xyz/tfa/faq/zut/bar/foo
> ls
src/ doc/ CVS/ bin/
> bm xkr # bookmark as xkr (funny name though)
> bm # bookmark as foo (trailing component is default)
(later)
> to xkr # cd to /home/eez/cvs/xyz/tfa/faq/zut/bar/foo
(alternatively)
> to xkr src # cd to /home/eez/cvs/xyz/tfa/faq/zut/bar/foo/src
(alternatively)
> to foo # cd to /home/eez/cvs/xyz/tfa/faq/zut/bar/foo
(later)
> ls
aap pyu/ qua tim/ zut/
> pwd
/home/eez/another/branch/deep/down/under
> portal # bookmark as portal, imports tim zut pyu bookmarks
added flock of 3 in portal /home/eez/another/branch/deep/down/under
(later)
> to zut # cd to /home/eez/another/branch/deep/down/under/zut
(later)
> apparix # show all bookmarks
--- portals
e /home/eez/another/branch/deep/down/under
--- expansions
j pyu /home/eez/another/branch/deep/down/under/pyu
j tim /home/eez/another/branch/deep/down/under/tim
j zut /home/eez/another/branch/deep/down/under/zut
--- bookmarks
j xkr /home/eez/cvs/xyz/tfa/faq/zut/bar/foo
j foo /home/eez/cvs/xyz/tfa/faq/zut/bar/foo
In the last example apparix simply shows all its bookmarks. The first
batch shows portals. The second batch shows secondary bookmarks expanded
from portals. The third batch shows all regular bookmarks.
In the default definitions of to it falls back to regular cd behaviour
in case a mark is not found. This is done by instructing apparix to
check whether the mark exists as the name of a directory. It is possible
to do this either before or after bookmark lookup, or not at all. By de-
fault the bash completion code takes into account both bookmarks and di-
rectories.
Apparix also allows subdirectory specification of bookmarked locations.
If this is combined with the bash completion code it yields a powerful
way of navigating container directories, i.e. directories that contain a
large number of subdirectories. Refer to the subdirectory specification
section.
Further options
[--add-mark (add jump bookmark)] [--add-portal (add portal bookmark)]
[-sm <mark> (squash repeated marks)] [-sd <mark> (squash repeated desti-
nations)] [-lm <mark> (list bookmarks with this mark)] [-ld <mark> (list
destinations with mark indirection)] [-favour <list> (duplicate resolu-
tion policy)] [-pick <num> (immediate duplicate resolution)] [-purge pat
(delete bookmarks)] [-purge-mark (pat)] [-d (dump resource file to STD-
OUT)] [-l (list available jumps)] [-u <num> (remove last <num> addi-
tions)] [--rehash (re-expand portal bookmarks)] [--bu (create backup of
resource file)] [-bu <fname> (create backup in <fname>)] [--cwd (use
getcwd(3), not pwd(1))] [--shell-examples (output example macros)]
DESCRIPTION
Apparix combines the properties of the cdargs utility and the CDPATH
shell mechanism for fast navigation through the file system. It can ad-
ditionally act as the regular cd command. It is especially useful for
visiting and documenting both often- and rarely-used locations. Apparix
enables you to attach marks to locations and jump to those locations by
loading the mark. Marking, unmarking and jumping are simple operations
that are performed in the shell. All actions take effect immediately in
all shells running. By setting up convenient aliases for marking and
jumping the file system can be navigated in a fast and intuitive manner.
The FILES section lists aliases for csh-type shells and functions for
bash, including the setup to equip the to function with argument comple-
tion in bash.
This section contains some examples of the most common uses of apparix.
OPTIONS contains a list of additional options available for listing,
pruning, and squashing bookmarks.
NOTES features a brief discussion of the advantages of apparix over
other approaches such as setting up aliases for often visited directo-
ries, using symlinks, CDPATH, or a combination of these. HISTORY ex-
plains the difference between cdargs and apparix. The sections dupli-
cate resolution, subdirectory specification, tab completion, copying and
moving files, listing bookmarks, and replacing cd further below are also
recommended reading.
Apparix works in a manner similar to cdargs. One usually invokes apparix
by using pre-defined aliases. Here they will be called bm for bookmark,
portal for a CDPATH-style bookmark and to for initiating an apparition
(aka jump). These aliases are found below in the FILES section and can
also be obtained by issuing
apparix --shell-examples
Suppose your user name is eez and your home directory is /home/eez. You
often visit a directory called /home/eez/cvs/xyz/tfa/faq/zut/bar/foo.
This is how to create and use a bookmark for foo
/home/eez/cvs/xyz/tfa/faq/zut/bar/foo> bm foo
added: foo -> /home/eez/cvs/xyz/tfa/faq/zut/bar/foo
/home/eez/cvs/xyz/tfa/faq/zut/bar/foo> cd
/home/eez> to foo
/home/eez/cvs/xyz/tfa/faq/zut/bar/foo>
If one bookmarks a directory by its trailing component as happened in
this case, it is not necessary to specify the mark. By default apparix
will use the trailing component as the mark. So
/home/eez/cvs/xyz/tfa/faq/zut/bar/foo> bm
added: foo -> /home/eez/cvs/xyz/tfa/faq/zut/bar/foo
gives the same result.
Another scenario is where you have some directory that contains a lar-
gish number of subdirectories, all of which you would like to have book-
marked. If the subdirectories have distinctive names this can be
achieved in one fell swoop by marking the parent directory as a portal.
This is similar to adding the parent directory to the CDPATH environment
variable, except that apparix bookmarks are not part of the cd name-
space. It is argued in NOTES that this is a good thing. Consider this:
/home/cvs/bagger/boemel/mcl/mcl/src> ls
alien/ CVS/ impala/ Makefile.am README shmcx/
attic/ giraffe/ lib/ Makefile.in shcl/ shmx/
contrib/ gmon.out Makefile mcl/ shmcl/ taurus/
Some of the subdirectories have not-so-distinct names such as contrib
and attic, but they happen to be the directories least visited. Issu-
ing:
/home/cvs/bagger/boemel/mcl/mcl/src> portal
[apparix] expanded 1 portal to 12 destinations
yields all of the subdirectories as destinations bookmarked by the last
component of their path name. Incidentally, directory names such as CVS
can be explicitly excluded from expansion by setting the environment
variable APPARIXEXCLUDE appropriately - refer to section ENVIRONMENT.
Bookmarks resulting from portal expansion are kept in a separate re-
source file (see FILES). Portal expansions can be recreated by issuing
apparix --rehash
This is useful to reflect a change in the directory naming structure un-
derneath a portal.
duplicate resolution
Apparix allows identical bookmarks to point to different locations.
When asked to visit such a bookmark it will by default present a list of
options.
The -favour <list> option can be used to automate resolution. <list> is
a sequence of single characters, described further below. The order in
which they are given denote the order in which resolution rules are ap-
plied. This option is typically used in the definition of the to func-
tion/alias or in the bash completion code.
The -pick <num> option is used to resolve to a particular directory di-
rectly. This is useful when you already know where you want to go, and
typically used for the now bookmark in conjunction with the bash whence
function. Use whence now to see an indexed list of now bookmarks. It is
possible to go to the desired directory by entering the bookmark index.
It is possible to bypass the selection step by specifying whence now N.
Duplicates are allowed because it can be useful to overwrite a bookmark
with a new location. The old bookmark is kept as a matter of policy. Use
-sm to explicitly squash duplicates.
l level; prefer paths with fewer components.
L reverse of the above.
o bookmark order; prefer older entries. Entries appearing earlier in
the file are considered older, but the actual date of creating the
bookmark is not stored. Refer to editing bookmarks for more informa-
tion.
O reverse of the above.
r regular first; prefer regular bookmarks over portal expansion.
R reverse of the above.
If there are still ties after the specified rules have been applied ap-
parix will simply take the first matching option. This behaviour cannot
be further specified as the program uses a non-stable ordering routine.
It is an absolute prerequisite that -favour is used in the bash comple-
tion code. Otherwise completion will fail (for a duplicated bookmark)
while apparix is waiting for input. Refer to the tab completion descrip-
tion below.
subdirectory specification
When jumping (apparating) you can specify an additional subdirectory af-
ter the bookmark. Apparix will append the subdirectory to the destina-
tion.
This is useful for projects with directory nodes corresponding with ver-
sions. Assume you have a directory structure such as this:
/x/y/z/OpusMagnum/v1/
/x/y/z/OpusMagnum/v2/
/x/y/z/OpusMagnum/v3/
It is probably easiest to simply bookmark the OpusMagnum directory in
some way (say with bookmark om). You can then issue 'to om v2' to jump
to OpusMagnum/v2. This is more flexible and maintainable than creating
bookmarks om1, om2, om3. One could add OpusMagnum as a portal, but with
generic names such as v1 this is not a very extendible approach.
See also the tab completion description below - it is possible to tab-
complete on subdirectories of the apparix jump directory.
tab completion
The bash tab completion code does two things. First, it is possible to
tab-complete on apparix bookmarks themselves, showing a listing of all
available bookmarks (or iterating through them in cyclic mode, depending
on your bash settings). Second, once a bookmark has been given tab com-
pletion will list or iterate over all the subdirectories of the direc-
tory associated with that bookmark. Specifying a string after the book-
mark will limit tab-completion to directories matching the shell-pattern
in string. Very useful.
Be careful to not remove the -favour list option from the bash comple-
tion code. It is necessary to resolve duplicate bookmarks.
editing bookmarks
Apparix appends new bookmarks to the end of the .apparixrc file. Nothing
stops you from editing the file, and this is in fact recommended if for
example you need to get rid of a bookmark and neither of -purge, -purge-
mark, -sd, -sm fulfills your needs. It was an easy design choice not to
equip apparix with editor capabilities.
copying and moving files
It is straightforward to copy or move files to locations known by ap-
parix. Examples:
BASH and variants
cp FOO $(apparix zoem)
mv BAR $(apparix zoem doc)
mv BAR $(apparix zoem doc)/test
CSH and variants
cp FOO `apparix zoem`
mv BAR `apparix zoem doc`/test
listing bookmarks
Simply issuing apparix gives you a list of bookmarks grouped into three
categories, portals, expansions, and bookmarks. Use the -d option to
dump the resource file to STDOUT exactly as it is. This can be useful
when you intend to use the -u num option to remove bookmarks or portals
that were most recently added.
Use -l to list all available jumps without their destinations. The
jumps are grouped into expansions resulting from portals and regular
bookmarks.
replacing cd
With the supplied definition(s) of to, apparix will first see whether
the mark is the name of a directory, accessible from the current direc-
tory. A directory is accessible if it would be a valid argument to cd,
so it need not necessarily be a subdirectory of the current directory.
If the mark is not an accessible directory, apparix will then try to do
a lookup of the mark in the bookmark files. This behaviour can be in-
verted to do the lookup first and the current directory thereafter. Both
modes can be used to make to a drop-in replacement for cd. Additionally
and again similar to cd, 'to -' will take you to the previous directory,
and specifying to without arguments will take you to your home direc-
tory.
The bash completion code acts accordingly, and should transparently com-
plete on both marks and directories.
OPTIONS
For bookmarking and jumping apparix is best invoked by using the aliases
(tcsh-variants) or functions (sh/bash) listed in FILES. Apparix has a
few options that are useful for pruning, squashing and rehasing book-
marks. These are best issued by invoking apparix directly.
If you are interested in marks or destinations matching a certain pat-
tern, simply issue apparix without arguments and pipe it through your
program of choice.
Unary options (those without arguments) usually start with two hyphens
except for standardized options such as -h. Options that take an argu-
ment can be converted to a unary key=value notation, e.g. -purge-
mark foo is equivalent to --purge-mark=foo.
When invoked without arguments apparix will simply dump its bookmarks.
--add-mark (add jump bookmark)
This options expects trailing [mark [destination]] argument(s). Both
arguments are optional. If a single argument is given it is inter-
preted as a bookmark name to be mapped to the current directory. If
two arguments are given the last argument is taken as the target di-
rectory. If no argument is given apparix will enlist the current di-
rectory as a target bookmarked by the trailing component of the direc-
tory path.
--add-portal (add portal bookmark)
This option enlists a directory as a portal and adds all subdirecto-
ries as bookmarks. The name of the bookmark is simply the name of the
subdirectory. By default the current directory is added as a portal.
An optional trailing argument will override this behaviour and instead
be interpreted as the portal location.
--try-current-first (try current directory before lookup)
This option is useful in the definition of the to wrapper. Before at-
tempting any lookup of the mark, apparix tests whether the supplied
mark exists as a subdirectory in the current directory. If it does,
the mark is simply expanded to itself.
--try-current-last (try current directory if lookup fails)
This option is useful in the definition of the to wrapper. If lookup
of the mark fails, apparix tests whether the supplied mark exists as a
subdirectory in the current directory. If it does, the mark is simply
expanded to itself.
--notify-current (notify if current directory is used)
This option is useful in the definition of the bf wrapper in conjunc-
tion with either --try-current-first or --try-current-last. If the
mark is found as a subdirectory in the current directory, apparix no-
tifies the user of this fact (on the diagnostic stream).
-sm <mar> (squash repeated marks)
Apparix will squash bookmarks with mark <mark>. This is useful when a
mark points to a versioned project, and the project is updated to a
new version and a new directory.
Apparix will by default keep the last one occurring in the resource
file (corresponding with -favour O). This option respects the -favour
option if given. Duplicating an already existing mark can be useful
when it identifies a project for which the underlying directory
changes every once in a while (e.g. the project is downloaded from ex-
ternal sources and comes with version information). It is not strictly
necessary to squash bookmarks since to functions/macros that are
equipped with the -favour option will generally resolve duplicate
matches.
-sd <mark> (squash repeated destinations)
All other bookmarks with the same destination as <mark> are removed.
This is useful when a given destination has acquired multiple book-
marks and you decide to settle on a favourite.
-lm <mark> (list bookmarks with this mark)
It lists all bookmarks <mark> (noting that it may point to multiple
locations).
-ld <mark> (list repeated destinations)
This lists all bookmarks <mark> (noting that it may point to multiple
locations) and additionally lists all other bookmarks that share the
destination with any of the first bookmarks. This allows one to pre-
dict the effect of issuing apparix -sd <mark>.
-purge pat (delete bookmarks)
This deletes bookmarks where destination matches pat. All deleted
bookmarks are printed to STDOUT. Thus if you regret deleting a book-
mark it is easy to add it back. Portal specifications are never af-
fected.
-purge-mark (pat)
This deletes bookmarks where mark matches pat. Portal specifications
are never affected.
-d (dump resource file to STDOUT)
Dump resource file to STDOUT.
-l (list available jumps)
List available jumps paragraph-style. Portal specifications themselves
are excluded, and regular jumps and jumps resulting from portal expan-
sions are listed under different headers.
-u <num> (remove last <num> additions)
Remove last <num> additions. Portal specifications and regular jumps
are treated alike.
--rehash (re-expand portal bookmarks)
Apparix will reread the resource file and reexpand portal locations.
Useful if directories have been added, renamed, or removed. Refer to
section ENVIRONMENT for the effect that the environment variable AP-
PARIXEXCLUDE has on portal expansion.
-favour <list> (set duplicate resolution policy)
-pick <num> (immediate duplicate resolution)
These options have a section to themselves. Refer to duplicate resolu-
tion.
--cwd (use getcwd(3), not pwd(1))
By default aparix uses the program pwd(1) rather than the system call
getcwd(3). On some systems it was found that the latter results in
paths that contain machine-specific mount components. Appparix will
use getcwd(3) when --cwd is used.
--shell-examples (output example macros)
This outputs example macros. They are also listed in the FILES section
though.
--bu (create backup of the resource file)
This creates the backup file in .apparixrc.bu.
-bu fname (create backup of the resource file)
This creates the backup file in fname. Use -d or -bu - to dump to STD-
OUT.
-h (show synopsis)
--apropos (show synopsis)
print synopsis of all options
ENVIRONMENT
APPARIXEXCLUDE
This variable specifies exclusion behaviour when portals are expanded
with the --rehash option. It has the following syntax:
<[:,][<string>]>+
That is, a list of names with each name preceded by a colon or a
comma. A colon indicates that <string> triggers exclusion of direc-
tory names for which the trailing component is identical to <string>.
A comma indicates that <string> triggers exclusion of directory names
for which the trailing component contains <string> as a substring.
Consider:
export APPARIXEXCLUDE=:CVS:lib,tmp # A - example
export APPARIXEXCLUDE=, # B - curiosity
The first excludes directory names CVS and lib and any directory name
having tmp as a substring. The second example will effectively dis-
able portals, as it speficies the empty string which is a substring of
all strings.
APPARIXTAG
This variable, if set, is incorporated into the names of the apparix
resource files. By default these are .apparixrc and .apparixexpand.
When APPARIXTAG is set to <tag> they become .<tag>apparixrc and
.<tag>apparixexpand. This can be used e.g. to maintain different sets
of bookmarks on different host machines.
APPARIXLOG
This variable, if set, is interpreted as the name of a log file. The
log file keeps track of all newly added bookmarks and portals without
ever deleting anything, in the same format as the .apparixrc file. If
this variable is not set nothing is tracked.
APPARIXPURGE
This changes the way apparix dumps purged bookmarks to STDOUT. By de-
fault they are dumped as command lines that will reimport the book-
marks if issued (i.e. cut and pasted). By setting this variable to 1
purged bookmarks are dumped in the format used in the .apparixrc file.
FILES
You should use aliases or functions to make apparix really useful. Get
them from apparix by giving it the --shell-examples option, or from fur-
ther below. Note the fragment that provides to argument completion in
bash.
$HOME/.apparixrc
This is the primary resource file. There is usually no need to edit it
by hand. Sometimes it can be useful to edit by hand to remove an un-
wanted bookmark; refer to editing bookmarks.
$HOME/.apparixrc.bu
Apparix creates a back-up file whenever it is asked to remove entries
from it. Refer to editing bookmarks for options inducing removal. You
can explicitly require a backup to be made by either of --bu or
-bu fname.
$HOME/.apparixexpand
This contains bookmarks that are expanded from portals. A portal is
simply some directory. The names of all subdirectories are taken as
bookmarks that point to those subdirectories. This file can be recre-
ated by issuing
apparix --rehash
$HOME/.bashrc
$HOME/.tcshrc
$HOME/.cshrc
Add the code you need to the appropriate rc file. The macros and func-
tions below point cd(1) in the right direction.
BASH-style functions
---
function to () {
if test "$2"; then
cd "$(apparix --try-current-first -favour rOl "$1" "$2" || echo .)"
elif test "$1"; then
if test "$1" == '-'; then
cd -
else
cd "$(apparix --try-current-first -favour rOl "$1" || echo .)"
fi
else
cd $HOME
fi
}
function bm () {
if test "$2"; then
apparix --add-mark "$1" "$2";
elif test "$1"; then
apparix --add-mark "$1";
else
apparix --add-mark;
fi
}
function portal () {
if test "$1"; then
apparix --add-portal "$1";
else
apparix --add-portal;
fi
}
# function to generate list of completions from .apparixrc
function _apparix_aliases ()
{ cur=$2
dir=$3
COMPREPLY=()
nullglobsa=$(shopt -p nullglob)
shopt -s nullglob
if let $(($COMP_CWORD == 1)); then
# now cur=<apparix mark> (completing on this) and dir='to'
# Below will not complete on subdirectories. swap if so desired.
# COMPREPLY=( $( cat $HOME/.apparix{rc,expand} | grep "j,.*$cur.*," | cut -f2 -d, ) )
COMPREPLY=( $( (cat $HOME/.apparix{rc,expand} | grep "\<j," | cut -f2 -d, ; ls -1p | grep '/$' | tr -d /) | grep "\<$cur.*" ) )
else
# now dir=<apparix mark> and cur=<subdirectory-of-mark> (completing on this)
dir=`apparix --try-current-first -favour rOl $dir 2>/dev/null` || return 0
eval_compreply="COMPREPLY=( $(
cd "$dir"
\ls -d $cur* | while read r
do
[[ -d "$r" ]] &&
[[ $r == *$cur* ]] &&
echo \"${r// /\\ }\"
done
) )"
eval $eval_compreply
fi
$nullglobsa
return 0
}
# command to register the above to expand when the 'to' command's args are
# being expanded
complete -F _apparix_aliases to
---
CSH-style aliases
---
# The outcommented alias does not supplant cd, the other one does.
# alias to 'cd `(apparix -favour rOl \!* || echo -n .)`'
alias to '(test "x-" = "x\!*") && cd - || (test "x" != "x\!*") && cd `(apparix --try-current-first -favour rOl \!* || echo -n .)` || cd'
alias bm 'apparix --add-mark \!*'
alias portal 'apparix --add-portal \!*'
---
More elaborate setups are possible. This CSH-style alias:
alias to '(test "x" != "x\!*") && cd `(apparix -favour rOl \!* || echo -n .)` || apparix -l'
lists all available jumps if invoked without arguments.
NOTES
Below follow some comments on other approaches to file system naviga-
tion. HISTORY explains the difference between the venerable cdargs pro-
gram and apparix.
CDPATH is only useful in cases where a given directory has subdirecto-
ries with distinctive names. It does not usually scale well when there
are more than a few paths in CDPATH.
Some people use aliases to jump to often visited directories. I was one
of them for a period of ten years. The fact is, those aliases are cum-
bersome to create and remove and they clutter up the alias namespace.
They can clash with executable names when the alias includes the cd
part. This sometimes prohibits one from assigning the logical bookmark
to a given location, especially when one has a lot of source code loca-
tions. They can clash with directory names when the aliases just expand
to the location. This again means that sometimes a location cannot be
assigned its logical bookmark. I have found that setting cd jumps aside
in their own namespace improves file system navigation by a large fac-
tor.
It is also possible to create symlinks to often visited files. Again,
creation and removal of these are cumbersome. One could of course cre-
ate shell functions with a similar interface to apparix or cdargs to
handle the symlink lifecycle. On Linux Weekly News nix suggested to put
these symlinks in a single directory and add that directory to CDPATH.
This is quite a neat trick and effectively creates a bookmark navigation
system.
Still there are problems with the above approach. One problem with the
symlink approach is that they are a bit awkward to edit. One could make
a utility to wrap around the problem, but in the end the directory-with-
symlinks would functionally be the same as apparix's .apparixrc resource
file, only more of a kludge. Another problem is that symlinks are
awkard when traversing the file system. They confuse the notion of par-
ent directory and 'cd ..' mostly does the unexpected. Sometimes '..' has
a different meaning to cd than it has to another application, as one
will trace back symlinks and the other will not. Finally, a minor ob-
jection is that I find it convenient to have bookmarks in a separate
namespace than that of cd(1). Jumps are magical and it is natural to in-
voke them by a different method. This is in fact how apparix acquired
its CDPATH behaviour. I used CDPATH to jump to a few particular source
directories with distinct names that lay deeply hidden in some CVS di-
rectory. Once I started using apparix however, I would mistakenly issue
to rather than cd to jump to those locations. My brain classified both
types of jump in the same category.
Apparix (and cdargs) have another use besides jumping, namely annota-
tion. Whenever I end up in an esoteric part of the file system and need
to make a quick note of the location, I simply bookmark it.
On SlashDot, that eternal source of wisdom or alternatively the geek
wheel of suffering, Clueless Moron offered the following gems.
mk() { eval ${1:-MKPWD}=\"`pwd`\"; }
rt() { eval cd \"\$${1:-MKPWD}\";pwd; }
# type "mk" (as in "mark") and "rt" (as in "return") to mark
# a directory and later go back to it.
# Or give it a name: do "mk foo", and later on "rt foo"
This of course is a per-session mechanism, but noteworthy for its sim-
plicity. I am not sure whether csh-style shells could offer an equiva-
lent.
A feature shared by apparix and cdargs is that adding a bookmark immedi-
ately takes effect in all shells. There is no need to source some re-
source file, as the applications do this everytime they are invoked. It
is fast, do not worry.
BUGS
The resource file parsing code thinks that parentheses are special.
Also records are currently separated by commas. Accordingly, apparix
will hitch if a path name contains a parenthesis or a comma.
AUTHOR
Stijn van Dongen.
THANKS
Stefan Kamphausen wrote cdargs, the inspiration for apparix.
Sitaram Chamarty fixed up some of the existing bash code, and added the
tab completion part (basing this on similar code in cdargs). He does not
garantuee predictable or even pretty results if there are spaces in the
directory names which you attempt to complete. AUTHOR would like to sub-
mit that spaces in path names are evil, and that the completion code
seems to work in their evil presence anyway. Just don't put commas in
path names.
The autotooled build environment was modified from a template written by
Joost van Baal.
Several people suggested to enable apparix to merge accessible directo-
ries and marks, but Matias Piipari phrased it the most convincingly.
HISTORY
Apparix was created to optimize a scenario that cdargs does not support
very well, namely where the mark (called needle in cdargs) is always
known. As additional features apparix supports CDPATH-style behaviour,
derived subdirectory specification, and transparent treatment of book-
marks and directories, all integrated with bash tab completion. In other
respects apparix is a much simpler application. cdargs offers menu-based
navigation of the file system and the bookmark list, which apparix does
not.
apparix 1.004, 11-062 3 Mar 2011 apparix(1)
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