The Problem: “cd” & “ls” sucks 👎
keep using cd
command to change directory and ls
to preview files in current directory, may work some times but it’s frustrating to have to use this workflow all the time whenever you want to go somewhere
The Solution
I will give you 3 solutions not just one to make your life easier in terminal and jump easily between files
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” — Abraham Lincoln
Let’s sharpen our Axe 🪓
you gonna need someperquisites to follow with me
- Zsh
- Tmux
- Zoxide
- LF
- Fzf
Solution 1: Zoxide
zoxide is a smarter cd command
this one is pretty cool, here is what it’s doing:
- it remember all directories you visit, organize them by most frequent
- all you need is to type some letters from the name
des => Desktop
- it jump immediately there (super super cool)
step 1: Install it with Homebrew
brew install zoxide
step 2: Initialize in ~/.zshrc
- open your ~/.zshrc file and add this to initialize it
eval "$(zoxide init zsh)"
- source ~/.zshrc to apply the changes
source ~/.zshrc
step 3: Use zoxide instead of “cd”
- first you need to visit directories you want to jump to
- so, zoxide can identify it, and fuzzy find it
- type
z
+ any letters you remember from the directory
z desk
// cd ~/Desktop
Solution 2: LF Manager
lf
(as in "list files") is a terminal file manager written in Go with a heavy inspiration from ranger file manager
Let me tell you a secret, this is my favorite one 🤫
- if you’re like me, using vim navigation keys hjkl
- After you get used to it, you suddenly want to use them everywhere
LF , do exactly that, it works like columns view in Finder but with vim- But don’t get me wrong, it still work with regular “Arrow” keys as well
Step 1: Install it with Homebrew
brew install lf
Step 2: Change directory on quit
“ it’s funny, but for some reason, it didn’t change directory on quit”
- It’s like the main point, right !! 🥲
- so lets fix this with small function work as wrapper to lf
- it just save last directory path in temp file, then cd to it
Add this function to your~/.zshrc
# lf wrapper
function lf {
local tmp=$(mktemp)
precmd() {
echo "$PWD" > "$tmp"
precmd_functions=()
}
command lf -last-dir-path="$tmp" "$@"
cd "$(cat "$tmp")"
rm -r "$tmp"
}
Step 3: Customize your “lfrc” file
It’s the LF config file to customize it, I like to keep it minimal
- few ui interface configurations
- shortcuts to jump to my frequent main directories
- with small cheatsheet for favorite LF shortcuts
you gonna find at ~/.config/lf/lfrc
( if you can’t find it, create it )
_ __ __ _
| |/ _| ___ ___ _ __ / _(_) __ _
| | |_ / __/ _ \| '_ \| |_| |/ _` |
| | _| | (_| (_) | | | | _| | (_| |
|_|_| \___\___/|_| |_|_| |_|\__, |
|___/
# ui
set hidden # show hidden files
set icons # show icons for files/directories
set relativenumber # show files/directories relative numbers
# jump shortcuts
map gh cd ~ # use 'gh' to go home directory
map gp cd ~/personal/ # use 'gp' to go personal directory
map gw cd ~/work/ # use 'gw' to go work directory
map gt cd ~/tools/ # use 'gt' to go tools directory
map gd cd ~/Downloads/ # use 'gd' to go downloads directory
map gv cd /Volumes/ # use 'gv' to go volumes for (external drives)
map gb cd ~/brainExt # use 'gb' to go obsidian BrainExt vault
# fav shortcuts
# ==============
# hjkl/gg/G # Vim-like Navigation (move)
# space/v/u # select/invert/unselect (select)
# y/d/p/c # yank/delete/paste/clear (change)
# i/e/l # open with less/default-editor/default-app (open)
change your default editor in ~/.zshrc
- to make sure, when you use
e
shortcut, it always open with it - then verify that your default editor changed:
echo $EDITOR
export EDITOR=vi # change default editor to vim
Step 4: Cool Tmux Keybinding
Imagine this scenario, you’re working on file in Tmux, then do quick shortcut open lf
in new window, to open any file from same directory 🚀
- Lets go do exactly that, in
~/.tmux.conf
- But first, make sure that zsh is our default shell for tmux conf
# set default shell to zsh
set-option -g default-shell /bin/zsh
- this smart keybinding
ctrl+f
, open new window with name “Files” - The new window start from same path as well as your current window
- And finally it open
lf
directly there ( use q to quit )
# ctrl+f => lf (q)
bind -n C-f new-window -n "files" -c "#{pane_current_path}" "zsh -ic 'lf; zsh'"
- Don’t forget to source
~/.tmux.conf
tmux source-file ~/.tmux.conf
Solution 3: Tmux-fzf Script
This one we don’t just use another utility, we build our own tmux manager script to fuzzy find all our project files in specific directories and jump 🦘
Step 1: Organize your project files in specific directories
For example
- ~/personal
- ~/work
- ~/tools
Step 2: Build “Tmux Manager” Bash Script
- Create new file with name
tmux_manager.sh
in tools directory - change this file into executable:
chmod +x tmux_manager.sh
- This script list all projects, in those directories to fuzzy find
- Finally, open selected project as Tmux Session (or create it if not found)
#!/usr/bin/env bash
_
| |_ _ __ ___ _ ___ __
| __| '_ ` _ \| | | \ \/ /
| |_| | | | | | |_| |> <
\__|_| |_| |_|\__,_/_/\_\
# use fuzzy finder to get my working directories paths
session=$(find ~ ~/personal ~/work/ ~/tools -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type d | fzf)
# get last part as name & replace any (.) with (_)
session_name=$(basename "$session" | tr . _)
# if session isn't already existed, create it
if ! tmux has-session -t "$session_name" 2> /dev/null; then # remove err msg to null
tmux new-session -s "$session_name" -c "$session" -d
fi
# switch to session by name
tmux switch-client -t "$session_name"
Step 3: Create Alias to our “Tmux Manager” script
- open ~/.zshrc, to add our new Alias
- Don’t forget to source it 😉
source ~/.zshrc
alias tm="~/tools/tmux_manager.sh"
Step 4: Cooool tmux keybinding for “Tmux Manager”
- The same trick we did before with
lf
- quick shortcut
ctrl+t
will run our tmux manager script alias - it will open in new tmux window, big list of all projects
- your selected project will open in it’s own Tmux session
- tell me that this isn’t cool ?! 🙃
bind -n C-t new-window -n "tmux" "zsh -ic 'tm; zsh'"
- don’t forget to source
~/.tmux.conf
tmux source-file ~/.tmux.conf