bash-idh: Bash Interactive Directory History

bash-idh enables Bash shell users to transparently view and interact with Bash's built-in directory stack. The interface is much cleaner and much less cryptic than the built-in dirs, pushd and popd commands.

For example, if in a Bash session you've visited /tmp, /usr/local/src, /etc/init.d, and /home/user (where your account name is user), the built-in Bash command dirs will show (~ indicates your home dir):

/tmp /usr/local/src /etc/init.d ~

If you have enabled bash-idh, you'll get a prompt like:

<3> /tmp
<2> /usr/local/src/
<1> /etc/init.d
[~ user@machine]$ 

and you can issue short commands to change the current directory to places you've visited recently. For example, given the above set of recently visited directories, back 3 will change the current directory to the 3rd most recently visited directory (/tmp, labeled <3> in the above directory history listing).

Enabling bash-idh

To enable bash-idh, source bash-idh.sh from your ~/.bashrc file. For example:

source /path/to/bash-idh.sh

bash-idh works in part by modifying the value of the $PROMPT_COMMAND environment variable to call a function that prunes stale directories from the Bash directory stack and then displays recently visited directories above the prompt.

See the top of bash-idh.sh for customization possibilities.

bash-idh commands

The commands below are intended to be issued from an interactive shell.

• back

  Navigate the directory history by giving this command followed by the number corresponding to a directory history entry to which you want to return.

  Usage: back n (where n is a directory history entry number)

  For example, back 15 will change the current directory to the directory labeled as <15> in the directory history listing.

  back alone, with no n, is equivalent to back 1.

• cd

  This command overrides Bash's built-in cd command, to keep the directory stack from accumulating non-unique entries. In every other respect, it works the same way as Bash's built-in cd.

• drop

  Use this command to remove individual directory history entries or ranges of them.

  Usage: drop [n | n-m | -n | n- | all] (where n,m are directory history entries)

  For example, drop 15- 6 -2 8-12 will remove the following entries from the Bash directory stack (given that they exist):

  param	removed entries
  15-	15 (and all entries with numbers greater than 15)
  6	6
  -2	1 and 2
  8-12	8, 9, 10, 11 and 12

  drop all removes all directory stack entries.

• tddh ("Toggle display directory history")

  Use this command to toggle between three directory history lengths: max (default: 100 entries); moderate (default: 10 entries); and none. This allows you to trade off screen real estate for immediate info about the Bash directory stack.

  The author uses the readline configuration file, ~/.inputrc, to map the [F9] key to run this command (i.e. "\e[20~":"tddh\n", under vt100 emulation).