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Comment by timonoko | Hacker News Reader

Where is Msdos utility "ncd"? It was like "cd" but guessed from few character hint where you wanted to go. If the choice was not immediately obvious if offered a menu or a tree. I shortened it to "n". -- There was some linux utility but setting it up was annoyingly tedious, with lots of useless and cryptic options.

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Didn't know about "ncd", ended up re-inventing it. The following script, named 'F', takes regexp(3) pattern in $1 and works reasonably well in the 'all text is hypertex' environment of (p9p) Acme. If it finds one match, it opens it via plumb(1). Otherwise lists results; one right-click opens the clicked result again via plumb(1).

Yes, the find -type f focuses on files; nonetheless it's easy enough to right-click-select the relevant directory to open it rather than the file.

  #!/usr/bin/env rc
  
  if (~ `{find -type f | 9 grep $1 | wc -l} 1)
   plumb `{find -type f | 9 grep $1}
  if not
   find -type f | 9 grep $1

Que? What is rc?

"rc - implementation of the AT&T Plan 9 shell".

Do I have to install that?

Nevermind now that I think about it, this is basically most of ncd:

    #! /bin/bash                                     
     d=$(find / -name "$1" 2>/dev/null | head -1)            
     echo Jumping to $d, Control-D to return         
     cd $d                                           
     bash

Actually it is now perfect. If the guess is wrong, you can return and add letters to you search string.

Consider fzf: https://github.com/junegunn/fzf

I have it bound to ctrl-e for edit: https://gist.github.com/FeepingCreature/5f575b6fcda041a48f58...

It's like adding the vscode file finder to bash :)

The additional code is to make bash "act as if you typed in the command manually". So you can arrow-up to find it in the history buffer with the filename expanded.

Ach. It was "Norton Change Directory" http://www.softpanorama.org/OFM/norton_change_directory_clon...

But I already made my own. It is quite perfect:

    #! /bin/bash
     d=$(find /  -name "$1" 2>/dev/null | head -1)
     echo Jumping to $d, Control-D to return 
     sleep 1
     cd $d
     bash

Use z[1]. Also use fzf.

[1] - https://github.com/skywind3000/z.lua

cd cannot be an external command in Unix-like systems, it has to be a shell built-in.

It could have been a script for adding to shell startup files.

But cd can be invoked from a shell function (which doesn't create a subshell).

I think that's the default behaviour in Zsh or Fish if you press tab.

Probably immediate subdir. What I am talking about is universal jump-to-anywhere.

Like I have subdir "/media/tnoko/sdc1/capture/Roinaa/".

"ncd Roi" should be totally sufficient and unique command to go there.

For this I use autojump[0], what I really like is the integration with ranger FM[1]. I don't know exactly how ncd works, but with autojump you need to visit the directory at least one time to be able to fuzzy-jump.

0: https://github.com/wting/autojump

1: https://github.com/fdw/ranger-autojump

Notably for this there's autojump[0], z[1] and fasd[2]. More work than an efficient script for sure, but more fancy options around it all. Autojump works pretty well with zsh (and before that with fish) for me.

[0] https://github.com/wting/autojump

[1] https://github.com/rupa/z

[2] https://github.com/clvv/fasd

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