config/oh-my-zsh/plugins/dircycle

dircycle

Plugin for cycling through the directory stack

This plugin enables directory navigation similar to using back and forward on browsers or common file explorers like Finder or Nautilus. It uses a small zle trick that lets you cycle through your directory stack left or right using Ctrl + Shift + Left / Right . This is useful when moving back and forth between directories in development environments, and can be thought of as kind of a nondestructive pushd/popd.

Enabling the plugin

1. Open your .zshrc file and add dircycle in the plugins section:

   plugins=(
       # all your enabled plugins
       dircycle
   )
   

2. Restart the shell or restart your Terminal session:

   $ exec zsh
   $
   

Usage Examples

Say you opened these directories on the terminal:

~$ cd Projects
~/Projects$ cd Hacktoberfest
~/Projects/Hacktoberfest$ cd oh-my-zsh
~/Projects/Hacktoberfest/oh-my-zsh$ dirs -v
0       ~/Projects/Hacktoberfest/oh-my-zsh
1       ~/Projects/Hacktoberfest
2       ~/Projects
3       ~

By pressing Ctrl + Shift + Left, the current working directory or $CWD will be from oh-my-zsh to Hacktoberfest. Press it again and it will be at Projects.

And by pressing Ctrl + Shift + Right, the $CWD will be from Projects to Hacktoberfest. Press it again and it will be at oh-my-zsh.

Here's a example history table with the same accessed directories like above:

Current $CWD	Key press	New $CWD
oh-my-zsh	Ctrl + Shift + Left	Hacktoberfest
Hacktoberfest	Ctrl + Shift + Left	Projects
Projects	Ctrl + Shift + Left	~
~	Ctrl + Shift + Right	Projects
Projects	Ctrl + Shift + Right	Hacktoberfest
Hacktoberfest	Ctrl + Shift + Right	oh-my-zsh
oh-my-zsh	Ctrl + Shift + Right	~

Note the last traversal, when pressing Ctrl + Shift + Right on a last known $CWD, it will change back to the first known $CWD, which in the example is ~.

Here's an asciinema cast demonstrating the example above:

Functions

Function	Description
insert-cycledleft	Change $CWD to the previous known stack, binded on Ctrl + Shift + Left
insert-cycledright	Change $CWD to the next known stack, binded on Ctrl + Shift + Right

Rebinding keys

You can bind these functions to other key sequences, as long as you know the bindkey sequence. For example, these commands bind to Alt + Shift + Left / Right in xterm-256color:

bindkey '^[[1;4D' insert-cycledleft
bindkey '^[[1;4C' insert-cycledright

You can get the bindkey sequence by pressing Ctrl + V, then pressing the keyboard shortcut you want to use.