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 argu-
ment and cd -. It is possible to directly jump to subdirectories of a
bookmarked directory. The contributed bash completion code facilitates
completion both on bookmarks and directories, but can be adjusted to acco-
modate other preferences.
This manual page suffers from an excess in verbosity due to the many exam-
ples, 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 associated 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 manipulating keys and val-
ues. 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://micans.org/apparix.
GETTING STARTED
Install apparix. This should be as easy as ./configure --prefix=$HOME/lo-
cal && make && make install, or perhaps a pre-packaged apparix is avail-
able for your system. Then get hold of the to, bm and portal shell han-
dles. These are either aliases or functions depending on your shell. Cur-
rently 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-exam-
ples. 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 handles to, bm and portal can of
course be changed to any name desired. With these preliminaries, the fol-
lowing 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 default the
bash completion code takes into account both bookmarks and directories.
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 destina-
tions)] [-lm <mark> (list bookmarks with this mark)] [-ld <mark> (list
destinations with mark indirection)] [-favour <list> (duplicate resolution
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> additions)]
[--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 additionally
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 completion in bash.
This section contains some examples of the most common uses of apparix.
OPTIONS contains a list of additional options available for listing, prun-
ing, and squashing bookmarks.
NOTES features a brief discussion of the advantages of apparix over other
approaches such as setting up aliases for often visited directories, using
symlinks, CDPATH, or a combination of these. HISTORY explains the differ-
ence between cdargs and apparix. The sections duplicate resolution, sub-
directory 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 largish
number of subdirectories, all of which you would like to have bookmarked.
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 namespace. 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. Issuing:
/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 vari-
able APPARIXEXCLUDE appropriately - refer to section ENVIRONMENT.
Bookmarks resulting from portal expansion are kept in a separate resource
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 op-
tions.
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 information.
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 completion
code. Otherwise completion will fail (for a duplicated bookmark) while ap-
parix is waiting for input. Refer to the tab completion description below.
subdirectory specification
When jumping (apparating) you can specify an additional subdirectory after
the bookmark. Apparix will append the subdirectory to the destination.
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 Opus-
Magnum/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-com-
plete 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 comple-
tion will list or iterate over all the subdirectories of the directory as-
sociated with that bookmark. Specifying a string after the bookmark 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 completion
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 apparix.
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 directory. 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 inverted 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 directory.
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 bookmarks.
These are best issued by invoking apparix directly.
If you are interested in marks or destinations matching a certain pattern,
simply issue apparix without arguments and pipe it through your program of
choice.
Unary options (those without arguments) usually start with two hyphens ex-
cept for standardized options such as -h. Options that take an argument
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 interpreted
as a bookmark name to be mapped to the current directory. If two argu-
ments are given the last argument is taken as the target directory. If
no argument is given apparix will enlist the current directory as a tar-
get bookmarked by the trailing component of the directory path.
--add-portal (add portal bookmark)
This option enlists a directory as a portal and adds all subdirectories
as bookmarks. The name of the bookmark is simply the name of the subdi-
rectory. By default the current directory is added as a portal. An op-
tional trailing argument will override this behaviour and instead be in-
terpreted 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 sub-
directory in the current directory. If it does, the mark is simply ex-
panded to itself.
--notify-current (notify if current directory is used)
This option is useful in the definition of the bf wrapper in conjunction
with either --try-current-first or --try-current-last. If the mark is
found as a subdirectory in the current directory, apparix notifies 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 external 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 bookmarks
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 lo-
cations).
-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 predict
the effect of issuing apparix -sd <mark>.
-purge pat (delete bookmarks)
This deletes bookmarks where destination matches pat. All deleted book-
marks are printed to STDOUT. Thus if you regret deleting a bookmark it
is easy to add it back. Portal specifications are never affected.
-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 APPAR-
IXEXCLUDE 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 directory names
for which the trailing component is identical to <string>. A comma in-
dicates 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 disable
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 re-
source files. By default these are .apparixrc and .apparixexpand. When
APPARIXTAG is set to <tag> they become .<tag>apparixrc and .<tag>appar-
ixexpand. 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 bookmarks
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 navigation.
HISTORY explains the difference between the venerable cdargs program and
apparix.
CDPATH is only useful in cases where a given directory has subdirectories
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 cumber-
some 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 lo-
cation, especially when one has a lot of source code locations. 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 factor.
It is also possible to create symlinks to often visited files. Again, cre-
ation and removal of these are cumbersome. One could of course create
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-sym-
links 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 parent direc-
tory and 'cd ..' mostly does the unexpected. Sometimes '..' has a differ-
ent meaning to cd than it has to another application, as one will trace
back symlinks and the other will not. Finally, a minor objection 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 invoke them by a differ-
ent 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 directory. 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 cate-
gory.
Apparix (and cdargs) have another use besides jumping, namely annotation.
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 simplic-
ity. I am not sure whether csh-style shells could offer an equivalent.
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 resource
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 submit
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 directories
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, de-
rived subdirectory specification, and transparent treatment of bookmarks
and directories, all integrated with bash tab completion. In other re-
spects 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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