`cd` alternative. Navigate by typing abbreviation of paths.

Last update: Dec 30, 2022

Overview

`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.

WARNING: This project is in its alpha stage.

Features

.
├── foo
│  └── bar
├── bar
├── photosxxxxxxxxxxx2021
└── photosxxxxxxxxxxx2020

$ kn foo/bar       # Use `kn` just like `cd`...
$ kn pho2021       # ...or navigate with abbreviations!
$ kn -/bar         # Wildcards let you skip a dir name altogether (./foo/bar/).

$ kn .            # Stay in current dir.
$ kn ..           # Enter parent dir.
$ kn /            # Enter root dir.
$ kn              # Enter home dir.
$ kn ~            # Also enter home dir.
$ kn -            # Go to previous location.

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.

Installation

Getting the binary

Install kn from crates.io

cargo install kn

Build binary from source

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

Download a binary of the latest release for your OS and move it to a directory which is in your $PATH. You may need to change the binary's permissions by running chmod +x _kn.

If there are any problems with the pre-compiled binaries, file an issue.

Configuring your shell

Then 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)"

To be able to use kn, reload your config or launch a new shell instance.

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.
Review 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?
Review Github Actions workflows in .github/workflows/.

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.

Comments

G_LIBC_2.18 not found

I am on old linux machine and the linux executable requires a specific version of g_libc. Can you provide a musl version (the same way ripgrep does)? Many thanks

opened by elkarouh 3

Unable to use

The situation in a nutshell:

~
❯ cargo install kn --force
    Updating crates.io index
  Installing kn v0.3.0
    Finished release [optimized] target(s) in 0.42s
   Replacing /Users/virginiacool/.cargo/bin/_kn
    Replaced package `kn v0.3.0` with `kn v0.3.0` (executable `_kn`)
~
❯ exa
Applications  Dev
~
❯ _kn Dev
Value of arg `subcommand` is invalid.
~
❯

Two questions:

Why executable is _kn?
Why doesn't it work?

opened by teenjuna 1

Surprising behavior with no arguments

Running kn with no arguments kills the shell that it's running in. This is somewhat surprising and not how I'm used to tools in this category working (e.g. with zoxide/z, if no arguments are provided, then nothing happens).

opened by chipbuster 1
Some pattern that didn't worked
In this situation:

. ── foo │ └── bar ├── libfoo │ └── bar

$ kn foo $ kn ../lib-/bar Path not found

I don't know if it's suppose to work so I'm reporting :)

Feel free to close is it's intended behaviour :)
opened by Geobert 1
Double dot (..) in the middle of path

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.

I see double dots in filenames all the time when users create files on Windows where filename extensions are hidden by default. For example, when dealing with personal names: Truman, Harry S..pdf, Truman, H.S..pdf - Windows users just never see the .pdf at the end so no double-dots for them :)

opened by sio 1
Merge `proto/slim-down` into master.
Changes:

Remove loose slices.

Rename slices to abbreviations.

Remove search options.

Make abbreviations match their superseries.

Add ordering of findings.

Fix bug with - at the beginning of the abbreviation.

Interpret the prefix, /, . and .. components at the beginning as a start path.
opened by micouy 0
Merge `refac/slice-matching` into master.
Changes:

Add wildcards -.

Add extracting start dir from the first sequence.

Refac whole matching logic.

Add proper handling of search options.

Add logging.

Add tests in mod query.
opened by micouy 0

Releases(v0.3.2)

Owner

Mikołaj Powierża

GitHub

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`cd` alternative. Navigate by typing abbreviation of paths.

Related tags

Overview

kn /n/

Features

Installation

Getting the binary

Configuring your shell

Help wanted

TODO

Search engine

CLI experience

Comments

G_LIBC_2.18 not found

Unable to use

Surprising behavior with no arguments

Some pattern that didn't worked

Double dot (..) in the middle of path

Merge `proto/slim-down` into master.

Merge `refac/slice-matching` into master.