How I navigate directories?

I do not use any autojump tools to navigate across my project directories. A simple bash function does the job for me. Customization is the main reason.

The tools I use to create the functions can be replaced with GNU tools. I use them because they are fast and have some additional features like respect .gitignore file. Let’s create the function.

Steps

1. Find directories or files to navigate to

I need a way to list all the directories I am interested in. This could be directories under your project dir (for me, it is ${HOME}/projects).

$ fd . -d 5 ${HOME}/project/ -E vendor

This lists all directories in my project directory till 5 depth. By default fd ignores git-ignored files and directories. I am also excluding vendor directory for my golang projects as sometimes they are not git-ignored.

Note: Use any finder instead fd. GNU find will work too.

2. Open an interactive fuzzy-finder

Now, we have a huge list of results. Pipe the results to fzf

$ fd . -d 5 ${HOME}/project/ -E vendor | fzf

Interactive mode through FZF

The selection is returned as a result of the command. We could choose to handle however we want if its a directory.

function godir {
    directory=$(fd -E vendor -d 5 . ${HOME}/project/ | fzf --color 16)
    if [ ! -z  "$directory" ]; then
        if [ ! -d "$directory" ]; then
            # Its a file. cd to the directory.
            cd $(dirname "$directory")
        else
            # cd to the directory
            cd $directory
        fi
    fi
}

$ godir # opens an interactive finder now

We have a basic interactive finder now. Let’s add a little bit of preview feature before deciding to change directory.

Alternatives: jhawthorn/fzy, lotabout/skim

3. Preview

fzf allows us to run a preview command before actually making the selection. Lets do the following,

function previewSelection {
    directory=$1
    if [ ! -z  "$directory" ]; then
        if [ ! -d "$directory" ]; then
            # cat but with syntax highlighting
            bat --color=always "$directory"
        else
            # ls with colors and git-aware
            exa --color=always -l --git --git-ignore -h $directory
        fi
    fi
}

# Export the function
export -f previewSelection

Now, in our previous function we change our fzf to preview our selection.

fd -E vendor -d 5 . ${HOME}/project/ | fzf --color 16 --preview "previewSelection {}"

Preview a directory with exa:

preview-a-directory

Alternatives: You could just use ls.

Preview a file with bat:

preview-a-file

Alternatives: cat or any other highlight tool you would want.

4. Our final script

function previewSelection {
    directory=$1
    if [ ! -z  "$directory" ]; then
        if [ ! -d "$directory" ]; then
            # cat but with syntax highlighting
            bat --color=always "$directory"
        else
            # ls with colors and git-aware
            exa --color=always -l --git --git-ignore -h $directory
        fi
    fi
}

# Export the function
export -f previewSelection

function godir {
    directory=$(fd -E vendor -d 5 . ${HOME}/project/ | fzf --color 16 --preview "previewSelection {}" )
    if [ ! -z  "$directory" ]; then
        if [ ! -d "$directory" ]; then
            # Its a file. cd to the directory.
            cd $(dirname "$directory")
        else
            # cd to the directory
            cd $directory
        fi
    fi
}

Tools Reference