TP

TP - A bash/zsh tool for teleporting from one directory to another.

tp --> tp -/> cd --! dc --x

What it is

tp is just a wrapper for cd. It makes use of so called portals that point to user defined directories.

Why you need TP

Let's say your current working directory is ~/Documents/foo/bar/1/oak/blah and you quickly want to change your directory to ~/Documents/oof/rab/1/kao/halb. The worst thing you can do is to start entering dots into your command line:

$ cd ../../../../oof/rab/1/kao/halb

Since you are using both blah and halb very regularly, you often find yourself remembering such long paths and entering such commands. You maybe start wondering: isn't there a nice alternative to such mind numbing procedure? Wonder no more! tp is here to save you.

With tp, switching from ~/Documents/foo/bar/1/oak/blah to ~/Documents/oof/rab/1/kao/halb is done in a 7 char command:

$ tp halb
halb --> /home/user/Documents/oof/rab/1/kao/halb

And when you want to switch back, simply enter tb blah:

$ tp blah
blah --> /home/user/Documents/foo/bar/1/oak/blah

Where you need TP

Everybody has a couple of static directories they use on a daily basis. Such directories are the perfect use case for tp. Of course, seldom used directories, e.g. ~/Documents/code/java/project/src/main/java/io, do not require a separate portal, if ~/Documents/code/java/project/ already has one.

How you use TP

tp was developed with the ambition to create a minimalistic tool that offers great ease of use.

Setting up a portal

Before teleporting to a directory is possible, a portal must be created for that directory:

# This creates a portal called "local" that points to ~/.local/share by
# appending it to ~/.tp_config
$ tp -a local ~/.local/share

Of course, you can also manually add portals by editing ~/.tp_config with your favorite text editor.

TP in action

Let's assume this is your ~/.tp_config file:

up=../
r=/
root=/root
documents=/home/user/Documents/
local=/home/user/.local/share
code=/home/user/Documents/code/
bash=/home/user/Documents/code/bash
java=/home/user/Documents/code/java
proj=/home/user/Documents/code/java/proj/src/main/java/org/
py=/home/user/Documents/code/python
python=/home/user/Documents/code/python
go=/home/user/Documents/code/go
tp=/home/user/Documents/code/bash/teleport
volumes=/var/lib/docker/volumes

You are currently working on a python project and want to switch to your java project. Instead of using cd with a (long) relative path or inconvenient absolute path, you simply enter this command:

$ tp proj
proj --> /home/user/Documents/code/java/proj/src/main/java/org/

Installation

Clone this repo and source the script:

$ git clone https://github.com/abzicht/tp && cd tp
$ source $PWD/tp

This does not install tp permanently, its functionality won't be present after the next login. To permanently install tp, run

echo "source $PWD/tp" >> $HOME/.bashrc

once. This assumes that you use bash. For ZSH, run

echo "source $PWD/tp" >> $HOME/.zshrc

After running tp for the first time, the two files ~/.tp_config and ~/.tp_config.defaults are created. Add your own portals to ~/.tp_config with tp -a or use the existing portals in ~/.tp_config.defaults.

abzicht / tp

TP