`kn` /n/

kn is an alternative to cd. It lets you navigate quickly by typing abbreviations. It doesn't track frecency or any other statistics - it's dumb, predictable and good at one thing.

WARNING: This project is in its alpha stage.

demo

Watch demo.

Installation

git clone https://github.com/micouy/kn.git
cd kn
Put the binary in a folder that is in PATH:

cargo build -Z unstable-options --out-dir DIR_IN_PATH --release

Or just build it and copy the binary to that dir:

cargo build --release cp target/release/_kn DIR_IN_PATH
Add this line to the config of your shell (notice the underscore in _kn):
- fish (usually ~/.config/fish/config.fish):
  
  _kn init fish | source
- bash (usually ~/.bashrc):
  
  eval "$(_kn init bash)"
- zsh (usually ~/.zshrc):
  
  eval "$(_kn init zsh)"
Reload your config or launch a new shell instance to use kn.

Usage

test-dir ├── boo │ └── buzz ├── buzz ├── bazz └── foo ├── bizz └── bazz

``` $ kn # enter ~ $ kn ~ # also enter ~

$ kn - # go back to previous location

$ kn tes/fo/iz # enter test-dir/foo/bizz

$ kn tes/baz # enter test-dir/bazz

$ kn tes/-/baz # enter test-dir/foo/bazz

$ kn -/bo/uzz # enter test-dir/boo/buzz

```

kn ~, kn .., kn ., kn / work just like with cd.

kn a/-/b means "Go to b in any dir which is in a.". kn -/a means "Go to a in any dir which is in current dir.". kn /-/a means "Go to a in any dir which is in root.".

Details about the ordering of found paths

If kn finds many matching paths with the same number of components it orders them in such a way:

Complete matches before partial matches. All matches by wildcards are equal. There can't be a wildcard and a complete/partial match at the same depth.
Partial matches with smaller Levenshtein distance first.
The first component (the component at the smallest depth) is the most significant and so on.

Running kn a/-/b on paths below returns them in the following order:

apple/x/b Partial(4) / Wildcard / Complete 1. = = != apple/y/bee Partial(4) / Wildcard / Partial(_) 2.

apple/x/bo Partial(4) / Wildcard / Partial(1) 1. = = != apple/y/bee Partial(4) / Wildcard / Partial(2) 2.

a/x/bo Complete / Wildcard / Partial(1) 1. != - - apple/y/b Partial(4) / Wildcard / Complete 2.

Help wanted

In this project I have entered a lot of areas I have little knowledge about. Contributions and criticism are very welcome. Here are some things you can do:

Check the correctness of scripts in init/.
Add scripts and installation instructions for shells other than fish, bash and zsh.
Check regular expressions used in Abbr::from_string in src/query/abbr.rs to validate abbreviation's components. Are there other characters or sequences which should be prohibited?

TODO

Search engine

[ ] What to do about . and .. in the middle of path abbreviation? With .. in paths the results would be too unpredictable. Are there any situations when .. show up in path? The user probably wouldn't type it but a command line tool could return such path.
[ ] Return objects containing details about the matches (the sequence of Congruences with details about which chars have been matched). This will be useful in interactive mode.
[ ] Use inodes instead of traversing the directory structure using read_dir(). Guide. Are there inodes on other OSes?
[ ] Read Falsehoods programmers believe about paths.

CLI experience

[ ] Make kn somewhat interactive. Tab could confirm the path kn has found so far and the search could begin from that location. That would narrow down the search. (Is that possible with fish and other shells?)
[ ] Add --help to kn function. (How?)
[ ] Read about broot.
[ ] Enable excluding dirs.