$ cdc [dir]

If your repositories are spread throughout your system like a pandemic, then cdc is the solution!

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About

Overview

I have a few directories in which I clone repositories, so hopping from one project to another can be tedious. This plugin provides a way to change directory to any repository, regardless of where it's located, with cdc [REPOSITORY]. The only setup necessary is to specify which paths the plugin should check for the repository. The plugin comes with tab-completion, as long as your zsh/bash version supports it. The plugin also includes session history, and has options available that behave similar to the pushd, popd, and dirs commands.

While this plugin was written for directories that contain repositories, you can obviously use it for adding any directories to your cd path. In fact, this is the default behavior, but you can force cdc to only recognize repositories with a simple configuration change.

Rationale

I chose to make this function rather than editing $CDPATH because I don't like changing the default behavior of cd, but you could just as easily do the following:

# Assuming `repository` exists in `/path/to/repo_dir`
CDPATH=/path/to/repo_dir

cd repository # will cd to /path/to/repo_dir/repository

Alternatively, you could make aliases:

alias repository='cd /path/to/repo_dir/repository'

I don't like this method either, as it just pollutes your environment. In my opinion, the less aliases, the better. Also, you now have to remember an alias for each repository. cdc solves this issue with its tab-completion.

Why the name "cdc"?

I wanted something fast to type that wasn't already a command or builtin. You already type cd a million times a day, and you don't even have to move your finger to hit the c key again. You can't get much faster.

Installation

oh-my-zsh

Clone the repository in your $ZSH_CUSTOM/plugins directory

git clone https://github.com/evanthegrayt/cdc.git $ZSH_CUSTOM/plugins/cdc

Then add the plugin to your $HOME/.zshrc file in the plugins array:

plugins=(cdc) # Obviously, leave your other plugins in the array.

bash-it

Clone the repository in your $BASH_IT_CUSTOM directory

git clone https://github.com/evanthegrayt/cdc.git $BASH_IT_CUSTOM/cdc

Files in this directory that end with .bash are automatically sourced, so there's nothing else to do.

Vanilla zsh or bash

Clone the repository wherever you like, and source either the cdc.plugin.zsh file for zsh, or cdc.plugin.bash file for bash, from one of your startup files, such as ~/.zshrc or ~/.bashrc, respectively.

# Where $INSTALLATION_PATH is the path to where you installed the plugin.
source $INSTALLATION_PATH/cdc.plugin.zsh  # in ~/.zshrc
source $INSTALLATION_PATH/cdc.plugin.bash # in ~/.bashrc

If you're using a version of zsh/bash that doesn't support the completion features, or you just don't want to use them, just source the cdc.sh file directly.

source $INSTALLATION_PATH/cdc.sh # in either ~/.zshrc or ~/.bashrc

Set-up

The following settings require variables to be set from a file called ~/.cdcrc. Note that the ~/.cdcrc file is just a shell script that sets values, so you can use bash conditionals if you'd like to use the same config file on multiple systems. You can view an example of this in my config file. Just remember, these files get sourced into your interactive shell on startup, so only use it to set the following values.

Telling cdc where to look

To use this plugin, you need to set CDC_DIRS in ~/.cdcrc. It should be an array with absolute paths to the directories to search.

# Set this in ~/.cdcrc
CDC_DIRS=($HOME/dir_with_repos $HOME/workspace/another_dir_with_repos)

Note that the order of the elements in the array matters. The plugin will cd to the first match it finds, so if you have the same repository -- or two repositories with the same name -- in two places, the first location in the array will take precedence. There is currently an issue to better handle this "feature". Not sure how I want to go about it yet. Suggestions are very much welcome on the issue.

Ignoring certain directories

If you have directories within CDC_DIRS that you want the plugin to ignore, you can set CDC_IGNORE to an array containing those directories. These elements should only be the directory base-name, not the absolute path. "Ignoring" a directory will prevent it from being "seen" by cdc.

# Assuming you never want to `cdc notes_directory`:
CDC_IGNORE=(notes_directory)

Only recognize actual repositories

You can set CDC_REPOS_ONLY in ~/.cdcrc to make cdc only recognize repositories as directories. This is disabled by default. You can also set an array of files and directories that mark what you consider a repository. Note that markers that are directories must end with a /, while files must not.

# Enable "repos-only" mode. Note, the default is false.
CDC_REPOS_ONLY=true
# Set repository markers with the following. Note, the following is already the
# default, but this is how you can overwrite it in ~/.cdcrc.
CDC_REPO_MARKERS=(.git/ .git Rakefile Makefile .hg/ .bzr/ .svn/)

If you want to add markers to the existing array without overwriting it, you can use += when assigning it.

CDC_REPO_MARKERS+=(.example_directory_marker/ .example_file_marker)

Note that this setting can be overridden with the -r and -R options. See options below.

Automatically pushing to the history stack

By default, every cdc call will push the directory onto the history stack. You can disable this feature by setting CDC_AUTO_PUSH to false in your ~/.cdcrc.

# Disable auto-pushing to history stack.
CDC_AUTO_PUSH=false

You can then manually push directories onto the stack with -u. If you have CDC_AUTO_PUSH set to true, you can still cdc to a directory and not push it to the stack with the -U option. See options below.

Colored Output

You can enable/disable colored terminal output, and even change the colors, by adding the following lines to your ~/.cdcrc.

CDC_COLOR=false               # Default: true. Setting to false disables colors
# The following lines would make the colored output bold.
CDC_SUCCESS_COLOR='\033[1;92m'  # Bold green.   Default: '\033[0;32m' (green)
CDC_WARNING_COLOR='\033[1;93m'  # Bold yellow.  Default: '\033[0;33m' (yellow)
CDC_ERROR_COLOR='\033[1;91m'    # Bold red.     Default: '\033[0;31m' (red)

Usage

Typing cdc <TAB> will list all available directories, and this list is built on the fly; nothing is hard-coded. Hit return after typing the directory name to change to that directory.

You can append subdirectories, and it will work; however, this is an experimental feature, and I don't have tab-completion working for this yet (any help with the issue would be greatly appreciated). For example:

cdc repo/bin

If the subdirectory doesn't exist, it will cd to the base directory, and then print a message to stderr.

Options

The plugin comes with a few available options. Some are for dealing with the directory history stack, similar to pushd, popd, and dirs. Others are for overriding variables set in ~/.cdcrc. There's also a debug mode.

Flag	What it does
-a	Allow the plugin to cd to ignored directories.
-c	Enable colored output.
-C	Disable colored output.
-l	List all directories to which you can cdc. Same as tab-completion.
-L	List the directories in which cdc will search.
-i	List the directories that are to be ignored.
-d	List directories in history stack. Similar to the dirs command.
-n	cd to the current directory in the history stack.
-t	Toggle to the last directory, similar to cd -. Rearranges history stack.
-p	cd to previous directory in history stack. Similar to the popd command.
-u	Push the directory onto the stack. Similar to the pushd command.
-U	Do not push the directory onto the stack.
-r	Only cd to repositories.
-R	cd to the directory even if it's not a repository.
-s	Re-source the config file (~/.cdcrc)
-D	Debug mode. Enables warnings for when things aren't working as expected.
-w	Print the directory location instead of changing to it. Like which.
-h	Print help.

Reporting bugs

If you have an idea or find a bug, please create an issue. Just make sure the topic doesn't already exist. Better yet, you can always submit a Pull Request.

If you have an issue with tab-completion, make sure you have completion enabled for your shell (bash / zsh). If, after reading the manual, you still have problems, feel free to submit an issue.

Self-Promotion

I do these projects for fun, and I enjoy knowing that they're helpful to people. Consider starring the repository if you like it! If you love it, follow me on github!