QJump

QJump (short for QuickJump) allows you to bookmark directories on your local machine and switch between them easily. It's like a URL shortener but it's designed for your local machine.

Supported platforms

I tried it under Linux only. It works with Bash, ZSH and Fish shells (settings are included). I think it should also work under Mac OS.

Demo

After the bookmark, you can also specify a substring and you'll be redirected to the first subdirectory whose name contains this substring:

$ cd
$ pwd
/home/jabba

$ qj nim
$ pwd
/home/jabba/Dropbox/nim

$ cd
$ pwd
/home/jabba

$ qj nim/26
$ pwd
/home/jabba/Dropbox/nim/Nim-2026

Here, only "nim" was present in the database. However, "nim/26" worked and the current directory was changed to ".../nim/Nim-2026".

Help

QJump 0.3.4 by Jabba Laci (jabba.laci@gmail.com), 2026
https://github.com/jabbalaci/qjump

Usage: qj [alias] [option]

Location of DB file: /home/jabba/Dropbox/qjump.txt

Provide an alias (bookmark) or use one of these options:

-h, --help          show this help
-v, --version       version info
-l, --list          show list of available aliases
-d, --dead          list dead (non-existing) paths
-a, --alive         list existing paths

Motivation

During my daily work, there are some folders that I visit regularly. QJump lets me change directories with the speed of light :)

Installation

• The program tries to read the environment variable DROPBOX. If it exists, then the database file will be created inside your Dropbox folder, thus you'll get auto synchronization. If this env. variable doesn't exist, then the database file will be created in your HOME folder. When you ask the help (--help), the location of the database file will be printed.
• If you're not satisfied with these default values, then modify the value of DB_FILE in the source code. If you modify anything, don't forget to recompile the project (see the Makefile).
• Add the content of function.bash / function.zsh / function.fish to your shell's settings file (depending on what shell you use). Modify the variable QJ to point to the binary qjump .
• Open a new terminal and issue the command qj, which calls the shell function. When you call qj for the first time and no database file exists yet, then qjump will create a simple DB file that you can extend later.

Notes

QJump generates a hash for a directory, it'll be the bookmark. You are encouraged to change it by editing the database file (qjump.txt) manually. Just make sure that all bookmarks are unique. The program generates 3-character-long bookmarks but you can use shorter / longer bookmarks if you want.

Links

• QuickJump is the predecessor of this project, written in Python. QJump (this project) is similar but it contains some improvements, and since it's written in Nim (a compiled language), it ships as a single binary. QuickJump is retired; use QJump instead.