Smarter Navigation

Zoxide, a modern version of cd, lets you navigate long directory paths with less typing.

- Bruce Byfield

In most shells, the main navigation utility is cd (change directory). Generally, cd is built into the shell, which is why it does not have its own man page like other commands. The lack of a man page is usually not noticed, because the bare cd is all that most users need. However, when directories have multiple levels, cd can require tedious typing, especially when you have to travel up the directory structure and down another branch. A modern version of cd, zoxide, changes all that by using a database that, once set up, requires the typing of only the last directory in the path.

To get its results, zoxide relies on an algorithm based on how often a directory is accessed. When first added to the database, a directory is given a score of 1. Each time it is accessed, its score rises by one. When a query is made, a directory adds 4 if accessed in the last hour and 2 if accessed in the last day or last week. The higher the value, the most likely a directory is to be the one sought. When the database reaches the maximum number of entries, it reassigns the frequency of access and deletes any directory that falls below 1.

Installation and Configuration

Zoxide is available in many distributions, as well as on multiple platforms and in multiple package formats. However, installing the package is just the beginning. To be functional, zoxide requires at least some configuration.