Common Utilities for Linux Terminal

Navigation

Autojump

Navigation in terminals using command cd is a real hassle when we have to switch back and forth between multiple directories. Autojump is a convenient tool to jump to a visited directory. While cd is handy to jump to a near relative location, i.e. a children or the parent, autojump complements cd when users jumps to farly different locations. It is not necessarily meant to be a complete replacement of cd.

Autojump takes advantage of the history of visits, ranks the list of visited sites. Users need to cd for a while before the database is collected. The next time, the long typed cd can be shortened to

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j <directory-component>

Where directory-component can be e constituent part in the expected directory, i.e. /home/udev/workspace/project-<directory-component>.

HyperJump

HyperJump is another navigation gadget for terminal. Unlike autojump, HyperJump uses manually bookmarked locations. Users have to tag location with custom names before using. It also provides a user interface based on the package dialog, allows choosing the locations visually. It features three commands for bookmarking and jumping.

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# Bookmark current directory
jr
jr TagName

# Unbookmarking current directory
jf

# Unbookmarking directory with tag
jf TagName

# Open dialog interface to choose location
jj

# Jump immediately to directory
jj TagName