Softpanorama (slightly skeptical) Open Source Software Educational Society

May the source be with you, but remember the KISS principle ;-)

Norton Change Directory (NCD) clones

The Norton Utilities releases were collections of software utilities. Peter Norton published the first version for DOS, The Norton Utilities, Release 1, ca 1981. Release 2 came out several years later, long with the first hard drives for the IBM PC line. Release 4 for was around 1987 and was the first in which the set of utilities became more or less stable.

That was the version of NU were  Norton Change Directory (NCD) was introduced.  It was written by Brad Kingsbury. Later he recollected those early days in the following way:

I joined Peter Norton Computing in 1985, as the company’s first programmer. My previous employer had just closed its doors, so I had sent my resume to a few companies in the area. Peter responded, flew me to Seattle where he was vacationing for the summer, and hired me on the spot. Because Peter was still on vacation, I worked out of a hotel in Seattle for my first two weeks on the job. After that, I spent another six months working from the Nortons’ kitchen table. When Eileen, Peter’s wife, started cooking dinner, I knew it was time to call it a day and head home.

... My job responsibility was to develop the software, and that's what I did. I just developed the programs, and that was pretty much the last day Peter programmed.

The PNCI staff was up to five now. Peter did his writing, managing and marketing from the den of his home. The three clerical people worked upstairs...

Peter Norton has always been a laid-back person. His whole philosophy, and I've heard him quote this many times, was, `We're going to do this business stuff while it's fun.' So that was our primary focus that first it has to be fun, and second it has to make money.

``I never knew what would happen if we didn't make any money and it was still fun. It probably wouldn't have been too fun at that point, especially for Peter,'' says Kingsbury. ``But he wasn't out to create the next greatest generation of software, he wasn't out to make a whole lot of money. It was really to have fun and he enjoyed the flexibility of not having to work under someone else.''

PNCI reached $5 million in revenues in 1986. It published several other software packages but, according to Kingsbury, the Norton Utilities was still PNCI's cash cow. Utility software was gaining wider acceptance in the microcomputer industry as users realized the advantages of data recovery.

It soon was improved in the release of Norton Utilities 4.5. Peter Norton's company was sold to Symantec in 1990 and at this point Norton Utilities were doomed.  Soon NDD disappeared from the package.  Later Norton Utilities themselves disappeared from Symantec product line as they were replaced by eclectic collection of utilities company bought called Norton Systemworks. The latter included Norton AntiVirus, Norton Utilities, and a number of other utilities that expanded as Symantec purchased more utilities companies. SystemWorks continues to be a suite of utilities, but Norton Utilities is no longer available as a separate package.

The importance of Norton Change Directory (NCD) is that it inspired OFM file managers navigation paradigm. But it was importnt stand-alone utility in its own right.

The key idea was probably partially borrowed from Xtree (Ytree  clone for Linux is available for most linux distributions) but it was refined for quick navigation of complex directory trees and proved to be very influential:

• Builds a database of all directories (or all subdirectories of a certain directory).  In simple clones find command that stores the list of directories into gzip archive is usually used.  Sometimes multiple archives are used (one per each root directory) to speed up search. But generally database is needed here as you need to compare modification date of the directory with archive data to decide if you need to rescan the sub tree or not.
   
• Allows a user to search this database for directory names using regular expressions and then cd to the directory.  Along with  regular expressions some kind of "Directories Morse Code" is often used when just initial letters of each subdirectory are supplied. For example "ncd ulb" means  cd /usr/local/bin. If multiple directories are found for the supplied "Directories Morse Code" they are all displayed instead of jumping to the target directory (often with leading numbers to simplify user choice). 
  
  Here multiple enhancements are possible for example but "ncd ul+" means the second directory that starts with letter "l" in the /usr directory and ncd ul++ the third such directory.   Return on investment is unclear.
   
• Optionally (for example if invoked without parameters) provide a visual interface to navigate the directory tree.  NCD pioneered a new and interesting style of visual navigation of directory tree which later bacame common in OFM and best GUI-based filemanagers. Each letter typed serves as a prefix for directory to find. Arrows permit moving to/out of branches. Ctrl-Enter finds the next directory with the same prefix within the same branch.
  
  This simple interface provided a very powerful way to change quickly from directory to another without having to type in complex pathnames.

The most common modern implementation of NCD functionality can be found in OFM managers, for example FAR.

Unfortunately none of Unix shells implements ncd functionality out of the box. In a way Unix administrators are stuck with the navigational paradigm (cd command) that definitely outlived its usefulness and is completely unsuitable for modern filesystem with their deeply nested directory structures. Therefore you need to extend it either with a utility or with a script to get this functionality.

Several implementation of varying quality exists. Shell scripts are more flexible and can be adapted to individual needs but complied versions are more powerful and sometimes (like in case of kcd -- actually a very interesting implementation with some novel ideas of its own) provide functionality close to ncd.

At one time a Unix version of Norton Utilities was developed and marketed by Interactive Systems Corp. On September 26, 1991 Sun Microsystems acquired the Intel-UNIX operating system business from ISC and the product was scrapped. In 1994 it was later relaunched as "The Almond Utilities for UNIX" by Dave Mandelkern's compnay AlmondSeed Software. The product was successful enough to sustain a commercial company and the company  did not last long.  As of late 2007 Dave Mandelhern is CEO of QuickHealth.   Here is the press release:

AlmondSeed Software Announces The Almond Utilities for UNIX

-- Formerly The Norton Utilities for UNIX; Provides Disk and File Management Tools --

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA, February 14, 1994-- AlmondSeed Software, Inc. announced today the availability of The Almond Utilities for UNIX, a comprehensive suite of disk and file management tools that ease the complexity of UNIX. The product was previously marketed as The Norton Utilities for UNIX under license from Symantec Corporation, which currently provides the DOS and Macintosh versions of The Norton Utilities and is the owner of The Norton Utilities trademark. AlmondSeed announced the immediate availability of The Almond Utilities for SCO UNIX and introduced The Almond Utilities for Sun SPARC, which is scheduled for release in the second quarter of 1994.

While The Norton Utilities have gained enormous popularity among DOS, Windows and Macintosh users for their ability to rescue inadvertently or accidentally erased files and directories, this capability has been unavailable to UNIX users since Interactive Systems Corporation ceased marketing the original Norton Utilities for UNIX in early 1992. With the release of The Almond Utilities for UNIX, UNIX system users can once again recover accidentally deleted files with The Almond Utilities' file recovery tool, Almond UnRemove. In addition to its rescue features, The Almond Utilities for UNIX diagnoses hard-disk problems, manages files and replaces some of the unwieldy systems tools typical of UNIX with more user-friendly products, including:

• Almond Disk Explorer--allows a user to explore any area of a disk and make repairs to damaged file systems
• Almond ScrubDisk--protects confidential data by wiping an entire logical disk to U.S. Dept. of Defense standards.
• Almond Change Directory--displays a full-screen graphical image of the directory tree and allows users to interactively change directories.
• Almond Text Search and Almond File Find--searches for user-specified text patterns in one or more files, and locates files whose names match a specified pattern, or lists files in a specified directory.

Dave Mandelkern, president and chief executive officer of AlmondSeed Software, Inc., said, "There is a strong potential for UNIX to thrive in the world of mainstream desktop computing. By providing user-friendly, low-cost, shrink-wrapped products for end-users, AlmondSeed hopes to increase the popularity and commercial usage of UNIX on the desktop. The Norton Utilities is one of the consistently best-selling utility packages for DOS and Macintosh, and we are pleased to make similar capabilities available to today's UNIX users through The Almond Utilities."

Peter Norton, founder, Peter Norton Computing, Inc., said, "We originally developed The Norton Utilities to take the average user's fear out of disk and file management. AlmondSeed's product carries on our efforts to increase the user-friendliness of UNIX and to offer the popular tools that are familiar in the PC environment to UNIX system users."

"The Norton Utilities is the industry standard for disk and file management, and we are pleased that AlmondSeed is relaunching the UNIX version as The Almond Utilities for UNIX. Because of our cooperation with AlmondSeed, customers will now be able to have a standard set of tools that runs across all of the major computing platforms throughout their enterprise," said Ellen Taylor, Symantec's vice president and general manager of the Peter Norton Group.

Availability and Pricing

The Almond Utilities for UNIX is available now for SCO UNIX and sells for $495. System requirements are the SCO UNIX operating system, version 3.2.4.0 or higher with a STREAMS driver and optional SCO Link Kit software; 386, 486 or Pentium CPU; hard disk with 6 MB free disk space; 3.5" 1.44 MB disk media. The product is packaged and documented in a style consistent with PC and Macintosh software. VAR and distributor discounts are available.

AlmondSeed Software Inc.

AlmondSeed Software, Inc. is setting the industry standard for easy-to-use, off-the-shelf UNIX software products in the sub-$500 price range. AlmondSeed products are designed to boost the productivity of end-users and increase the value of the UNIX desktop workstation to the enterprise. The privately-held company can be reached at 444 Castro Street, Suite 440, Mountain View, CA 94041. Tel: 415-968-5100, Fax: 415-969-8670.

Attempt to provide NCD functionality for Unix started long ago but none of the was very successful. I really cannot understand why as the idea was simple and brilliant. For example as recently as in April 2003 Unix Review  published a note by Ed Schaefer Shell Corner Changing Directories with ncd which compared two recent implementations:

Changing Directories with ncd

This month, Fergal Goggin submits Korn/Bash script ncd, a Unix version of the Norton change directory utility. Instead of typing in long directory paths, using regular expressions, ncd greps a file for matches. If ncd finds more than one match, the user is prompted to choose the required directory.

After Fergal describes ncd, I contrast the ncd solution with Fred Brunet's article, fcd: a Smart Change Directory (Sys Admin, November 1994), and I include my testing results.

Introducing ncd

Norton change directory was a useful utility when I was using PCs in the DOS days, but when I started using Unix, no equivalent existed so I created ncd, which:

• Builds a database of all directories below shell variable $BASEDIR (default is /). The database is a compressed file created by sending directories to the gzip file.
• Allows a user to search this database for directory names using regular expressions and then changes to the directory.

ncd should run in both Korn and Bash shells. I normally run it in an xterm window. The scroll bar is very handy if there are loads of "hits". It should run fine in a terminal (if you choose your regular expressions carefully!).

Since cd is called in the script, it should be dot executed. I use an alias:

alias ncd='. /home/fgoggin/scripts/ncd.bash'

Once the alias exists, enter the directory to change to:

ncd

ncd vs. fcd

Essentially, Fred Brunet's fcd script (fcd: A Smart Change Directory) shares the same goal as Fergal's ncd — build a database of full path directories, search the database, and allow the user to choose the correct directory.

Where fcd uses traditional grep to search a flat ASCII file, ncd uses zrep to search a gzip compressed file. Other "z" utilities exist for processing gzip files — zdiff, zcat, and zmore.

Don't expect the "z" utilities to function consistently across Unix variants. The Solaris 7 zcat expects the compressed file to have a "Z" extention. This means zcat only works on files created with the compress utility. Conversely, the Red Hat Linux 7.1 zcat version works on ncd's data file.

If the argument to fcd isn't exact, Brunet displays the matching directories with a sequence number and prompts the user to choose one; ncd performs the same function, but Fergal elegantly uses the select construct to generate a menu of directories to choose from.

Testing ncd

I successfully tested ncd under Solaris 7 and Red Hat Linux 7.1. In the course of my testing, I made two changes:

1. I changed the default BASEDIR from root, /, to $HOME. I decided to test as a regular, non-root user.
2. My Solaris 7 home directory is actually a link to another directory. For either fcd or ncd to work on a linked home directory, add the find -follow, the link option:
find $BASEDIR -type d -follow 2> /dev/null | gzip > $NCDDATABASE

In ncd, the BOLD_TYPE and NORMAL_TYPE shell variables are hard-coded escape sequences. You could use the tput command arguments for terminal control:

BOLD_TYPE=`tput smso`
NORMAL_TYPE=`tput smso`

In conclusion, fcd/ncd's obvious weakness is that the database file rapidly obsoletes as the directory structure grows and shrinks. Consider dropping the database file periodically.

Old News ;-)

[Jun 10, 2009] wcd 5.0.2

WCD is a directory changer for DOS and Unix. Another NCD (Norton Change Directory) clone. This program jumps to a (sub)directory anywhere in the directory-tree. The directory to jump to can be given by... only the first characters or an expression with wildcards

[Dec 12, 2008] Norton Change Directory TechProsaic

Does anybody else remember NCD.exe? This is a way old school command-line utility written in the mid-eighties. It built a databaose of the directories on your hard drive, then when you typed ncd <foo> it would try to get a partial match against the database. Where there were multiple matches, a little ANSI graphics box popped up and allowed you to use the cursor to select the right folder. Once the folder is selected, your working directory is changed. Very simple and to the point.

I don’t know why I got to thinking about it. I used to collect utilities like this back in the DOS days but as I got into Windows that became less and less important. But now I’m always in a powershell console and I find myself missing this sort of tool. I found a very informative (if confused and rambling) webpage on the topic which brought back some old memories. There’s a bunch of clones of NCD, I found one called WCD released as recently as 2006 which is available for several different shells.

Seems this sort of thing would be well within the realm of a PowerShell utility. A bit beyond my own skills perhaps, or at least my interest in learning how to write at the moment. But maybe someone else will be inspired.

Comments

bitbyte

2008-03-13 09:00:37

WCD in PowerShell: if you’re wiling to use the -j option, you can use the following wcd.ps1 script:

wcdwin32 $args -GN -j | %{$_ -replace ‘”‘,”} | sl

Tips of the Trade by Carla Schroder

It's not clear if  aliases and symbolic links are worse then storage of favorites in some file and using special program. At least they are simpler.

This week's "Cool Tool" is CDargs, a browser and bookmark utility for all of you Unix command-line commandos. CDargs is an extension to the cd, or "change directory" command, that lets you quickly navigate to the farthest corners of your filesystem. As the author says, CDargs is for "... when even the almighty and wonderful tab-completion is too much typing." (And CDargs also supports tab-completion.)

To get started, first reference the path to examples/cdargs-bash.sh in your ~/.bashrc:

source /usr/share/doc/cdargs/examples/cdargs-bash.sh

Then, open the CDargs browser:

$ cdargs [. ] /home/carla 0 [1writin-g] /home/carla/1writing 1 [Desktop ] /home/carla/Desktop 2 [Mail ] /home/carla/Mail 3 [Maildir ] /home/carla/Maildir 4 [archive ] /home/carla/archive 5 [bin ] /home/carla/bin ...

Navigate with the arrow keys, and hit return to select. Toggle using the tab key to switch between Browse and List modes. List mode contains your own custom bookmarks, which you create in a plain text file, or by using CDarg's built-in commands.

CDargs also works with the tcsh shell. It is released under the GPL, so anyone who wishes to adapt it for other shells can go for it. Read all about it at the CDargs home page.

Tellumar Kampiva CDargs

It's not clear if  aliases and symbolic links are worse then storage of favorites in some file and using special program. At least they are simpler.

The code is really bad, I know that. It was written during that phase when you start learning C++ after coding in C for quite a while... This is just another reason for never touching it again (unless, of course, I receive fixes for bugs not detected yet.)

I'd like to include some ZSH-code for completion into the distribution but I don't use ZSH and thus I won't write it.

Current Version: 1.35

CDargs heavily enhances the navigation of the common unix file-system inside the shell. It plugs into the shell built-in cd-command (via a shell function or an alias) and thus adds bookmarks and a browser to it. It enables you to move to a very distant place in the file-system with just a few keystrokes. This is the kind of thing that power shell users invent when even the almighty and wonderful TAB-completion is too much typing. (Just as a side-note: there exists TAB-completion for cdargs ;-)

This little piece of software was inspired by an article Michael Schilli wrote for the German iX-Magazine]. There he showed a script which let you choose from a list of alternatives were to cd to, e.g. in your xterm. In the forum connected to this article some others enhanced this script.

When I wanted to change it even more and put some more features in it I discovered that it was not under the GPL so I decided to do a complete rewrite of the whole thing. Since I wanted to make sure that I shared no code with the original artwork I chose to use C/C++ together with the ncurses library. This program is the result of those efforts.

Actually

• Claus Brunzema
• Dan Allen

were heavily involved in this project. Please read the THANKS file in the distribution for a full list of contributors. It's amazing that such a small program can have so many people helping it.

[Sep 27, 2007] freshmeat.net Project details for Closebracket

This is essentially reinvention and re-implementation of OFM context sensitive linkage of extension to commands (via ext file) with he additional twist that if there is no extension file type (for example as discovered by file) is used.

Closebracket lets you define multiple shell actions in a single command to speed up the typing of the most repetitive shell commands. It includes ']' and '][' commands, which are located near the "Enter" key and are easy to type quickly. They invoke primary and secondary actions respectively.

wcd 3.1.6

Sep 29, 2005 OS: MS-DOS/Windows 3.1/95/98/ME/NT/2000 License: Freeware

N/A Wcd is a program to change directory fast (another Norton Change Directory clone). It saves time typing at the keyboard. One needs to type only a part of a directory name and wcd will jump to it. Wcd has a fast selection method in case of multiple matches and allows aliasing and banning of directories. Wcd also includes a full-screen interactive directory browser with speed search. Features:

• - Full screen interactive directory browser
• - Let the user choose in case of multiple match
• - Wildcards *, ? and [SET] supported
• - Subdir definition possible. Eg. wcd subdira/subdirb
• - Long directory-names support in Win95/98 DOS box
• - UNC paths support
• - Add directories without scanning
• - Alias directories -
•  Ban paths
• - Change disk and drive in one go (DOS)
• - 'cd' behaviour. Eg. wcd ../../src will work.
• - Directory stack, push pop
• - Free portable source-code
• - Supports: DOS 16/32 bit, DJGPP Bash Windows 9x/NT Cygwin Bash Win 32 Z shell Unix csh, ksh, bash and zsh

Phil Braham this not NCD variant but attempt to enhance pushd/popd functionality.

cdll readme

Bash scripts

A replacement for cd. Keeps unlimited history, setup special directories for quick access

cdll allows easy moving about between directories. When changing to a new directory the current one is automatically put onto a stack. By default 50 entries are kept but this is configurable. Special directories can be kept for easy access - by default up to 10 but this is configurable. The most recent stack entries and the special entries can
be easily viewed.

The directory stack and special entries can be saved to, and loaded from, a file. This  allows them to be set up on login, saved before logging out or changed when moving project to project.

In addition, cdll provides a flexible command prompt facility that allows, for example, a directory name in colour that is truncated from the left if it gets too long.

History of visited directories in BASH LG #109

Do you realize how many times you type cd per day? Do you realize how many times you retype the same directory names again and again? Ever since I migrated from 4DOS/NT shell on Windows to using Bash on Unix platforms, I've missed its cd history access. In 4DOS/NT the history of the visited directories can be navigated by Ctrl+PgUp/Dn. Every time you go to a new directory by cd, its name automatically goes on top of an easily accessible history list.

In Bash, cd - switches between the last two directories. This is a function in the right direction but many times I wanted to go to the directory before the last, I dreamed of something like cd -2.

A little scripting creates some sanity in the directory navigation of Bash.

Installing the CD history function

To install the modified CD function, copy acd_func.sh to any directory in your $PATH, or even your home directory. At the end of your .bashrc add source acd_func.sh. Restart your bash session and then type cd --.

lotzmana@safe$ cd --
0  ~

Type cd -- to verify if the installation works. Above you may see the result 0 ~. This shows that you have one directory in your history.

lotzmana@safe$ cd work
lotzmana@safe$ cd scripts
lotzmana@safe$ pwd
/home/petarma/work/scripts
lotzmana@safe$ cd --
 0  ~/work/scripts
 1  ~/work
 2  ~
lotzmana@safe$ cd -2
lotzmana@safe$ pwd
/home/petarma

The cd command works as usual. The new feature is the history of the last 10 directories and the cd command expanded to display and access it. cd -- (or simply pressing ctrl+w) shows the history. In front of every directory name you see a number. cd -num with the number you want jumps to the corresponding directory from the history.

How CD with history works

lotzmana@safe$ nl -w2 -s' '  acd_func.sh
 1 # do ". acd_func.sh"
 2 # acd_func 1.0.5, 10-nov-2004
 3 # petar marinov, http:/geocities.com/h2428, this is public domain

 4 cd_func ()
 5 {
 6   local x2 the_new_dir adir index
 7   local -i cnt

 8   if [[ $1 ==  "--" ]]; then
 9     dirs -v
10     return 0
11   fi

12   the_new_dir=$1
13   [[ -z $1 ]] && the_new_dir=$HOME

14   if [[ ${the_new_dir:0:1} == '-' ]]; then
15     #
16     # Extract dir N from dirs
17     index=${the_new_dir:1}
18     [[ -z $index ]] && index=1
19     adir=$(dirs +$index)
20     [[ -z $adir ]] && return 1
21     the_new_dir=$adir
22   fi

23   #
24   # '~' has to be substituted by ${HOME}
25   [[ ${the_new_dir:0:1} == '~' ]] && the_new_dir="${HOME}${the_new_dir:1}"

26   #
27   # Now change to the new dir and add to the top of the stack
28   pushd "${the_new_dir}" > /dev/null
29   [[ $? -ne 0 ]] && return 1
30   the_new_dir=$(pwd)

31   #
32   # Trim down everything beyond 11th entry
33   popd -n +11 2>/dev/null 1>/dev/null

34   #
35   # Remove any other occurence of this dir, skipping the top of the stack
36   for ((cnt=1; cnt <= 10; cnt++)); do
37     x2=$(dirs +${cnt} 2>/dev/null)
38     [[ $? -ne 0 ]] && return 0
39     [[ ${x2:0:1} == '~' ]] && x2="${HOME}${x2:1}"
40     if [[ "${x2}" == "${the_new_dir}" ]]; then
41       popd -n +$cnt 2>/dev/null 1>/dev/null
42       cnt=cnt-1
43     fi
44   done

45   return 0
46 }

47 alias cd=cd_func

48 if [[ $BASH_VERSION > "2.05a" ]]; then
49   # ctrl+w shows the menu
50   bind -x "\"\C-w\":cd_func -- ;"
51 fi

4-7: cd_func() is a function, variables are declared local and are automatically deleted at the end of the function

8-11: if the function is called with a parameter "--" then it dumps the current content of the directory history. It is stored in the same place pushd/popd keep names -- the directory stack. Storage is the same, access is different.

12-13: Argument $1 is transferred into $the_new_dir for some post-processing. Immediately after that, if there are no parameters we assume that user asked for his home directory.

14-22: If parameter begins with '-' then the user is attempting to access one of the names in the history list. $index gets the number of the directory, then we extract the corresponding name into $adir. For example, dirs +3 dumps directory #3 from the stack.

At this point in $the_new_dir we have either a name specified explicitly as a parameter or a name obtained from the history of previously visited directories.

23-25: If a directory name begins with '~' then this character has to be replaced by the actual home directory name.

26-30: pushd does the actual 'cd'. It also puts the name on top of the directory stack. stdout is redirected to /dev/null in order to completely imitate how 'cd' works. Notice that any output to stderr, for example a message telling that the directory specified by the user doesn't exist will show up, which is again similar to what 'cd' does. The function aborts if pushd fails. We also need the new directory name for further analysis and $the_new_dir carries it down the function.

31-33: Keeping track of more than 10 directories is unproductive. Since we have just pushed one on top of the stack, we trim off any that fall below 11 names deep.

34-44: We loop through all the names in the directory stack. Any name that matches the new current directory is eliminated. Again, we have to translate any name from the list which begins with '~' to its format of fully expanded home directory.

47: We assign cd to be cd_func().

48-51: If the bash version allows for macros to be assigned we make ctrl+w summon the history of visited directories.

This script defines a function. It must be sourced and not executed, so that cd_func() is parsed and stored in the current environment. Try env and you must see it after all environment variables.

Documentation page of the script

Visit the acd_func.sh man page.

For comments on this article please visit or join zepp mailing list.
The text of this page is public domain.

[Mar 27, 2003]Accelerator for Changing Directory

An interesting idea of first letter abbreviations. Implementation can be better, but idea is sound.

Since I moved to Win XP my old and trusted companion for easily jumping between different spots in the directory tree, NCD (Norton Change Directory) has ceased to work.
NCD worked by building a database and by using NCD to make and remove directories, the database could be kept in sync, well almost anyway.
If the directory you wanted to go to had a unique name all you had to type was NCD dir_name but if it was a common name like test you might have had to recall the commandline one or more times to get to the destination.

Another approach would be to note that if you consider part of or the whole branch, from root to the destination, the situation will be less ambigous or even unique Using that idea I came up with this simple solution which IMHO works quite well. The user interface may be rendered idiosyncratic by some, but I welcome you to suggest improvements. The documentation is nothing fancy just a few examples included in the code. The program is tested under Win XP, but I think it could work on other OS's with some minor tweaks. PS. As directory delimiter "\", "/" or even "," can be used. The comma is due to laziness, because on the Swedish keyboard one has to use Shift or Alt Gr key to get slashes!!

So instead of typing
cd "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Crypto\RSA\Machin eKeys"
at the DOS prompt, typing the more dense command of
a ,d,a,a,m,c,r,m
will suffice. Or even horrors a ,d,,,,,r,m ;-), but that one is tougher on the filesystem.

@perl -Swx %0 %*
@c:\a_cd.bat
@goto :eof

#!perl
# 
# Utility for quickly changing directory
# Named to "a.bat" in homage to Pr1mOS's change working directory comm
+and *a* (attach) ;-]
# 
# Syntax: 
#   a ,wi,ja,pa ===> cd \Windows\java\Packages
#   a ...\me    ===> cd \Windows\Media
#   a           ===> cd \Windows\Media\Microsoft Office 2000 *OR* a se
+lection of subdirectories
#   a /         ===> cd \
#   a mys,d,*
#   [a] /mysql/data/mysql/
#   [b] /mysql/data/tast/
#   [c] /mysql/data/test/
#   [d] /mysql/Docs/Flags/
#   select:
#
# if ambigous the correct target is selected with alpha keys /a .. zz/

#
# Versions:
# 0.2 2003-02-22 Cleanup
# 0.1 2003-01-31 First working
# 0.0 2003-01-15 Start of Coding
#

use strict;
use warnings;

use Cwd;

my $DEBUG = 0;
my $DELIM = qr{,|\\|\/};  ## Either "," or "/" or \" 
  
my @to = @ARGV ? split(/$DELIM/, $ARGV[0] ) : ();

my @cwd = split(/$DELIM/, cwd);
shift @cwd;  # Remove disk

unless ( @ARGV ) {
    push @to, @cwd, '*';
}
elsif ( $ARGV[0] =~ /^$DELIM/ and not @to ){ 
}
elsif ( $to[0] eq '' ) {
    shift @to;
}
else {
    unshift @to, @cwd;
}

## Lazy-dots
foreach my $part (0 .. $#to) {
    if ( $to[$part] =~ /\.(\.+)/ ) {
        $to[$part] = join('/',  ('..') x length($1));
    }
}

@to = split(/\//, join('/', @to));

## Rel2Abs
my @fixed;
for (@to) {
    if ($_ eq '..') {
        pop @fixed if @fixed;
    } elsif($_ eq '.') {
        ## Skip
    } else {
        push @fixed, $_
    }
}

my @choices = expand('/', @fixed);


my %hash;
my $enum = 'a';
my $choice = '';
if (1 == @choices) {    # Autoselect if only one item to choose
    $hash{a} = $choices[0];
    $choice = $enum;
} elsif(1 < @choices) {
    foreach my $c (@choices) {
        ($hash{$enum} = $c) ;
        print '[', $enum++, "] $c\n";
    }
    
    print "select: ";
    $choice = <STDIN>;
    chomp $choice;
}

# Create a batch file to change the directory in the shell.
open (CD, '>', 'C:/A_CD.BAT') or die "Failed to create CD bat file $!\
+n";
if ( defined $hash{$choice} ) {
    $hash{$choice} =~ s/\//\\/g; # Make windows happy
    print CD "\@CD \"$hash{$choice}\"\n";
} else {
    print CD "\@echo No match\n";
}
close CD;

sub expand {
    my ($bough, @twigs) = @_;

    return $bough unless @twigs; ## Looked it up in the thesaurus ;-]
    
    opendir(my $dh, $bough) || die "Can not check $bough for twigs due
+ to $!\n";
    my $regexp = shift @twigs;
    $regexp =~ s/\*/.*/;
    my @found;  
    foreach my $f ( grep { $_ =~ /^$regexp/i and $_ !~ /^\./}  readdir
+($dh) ) {
        push @found, expand("$bough$f/", @twigs) if (-d "$bough$f");
    }     
    closedir($dh) || die "Bad close for $bough $!\n";
    
    return @found;
}             

__END__

Ze Freeware. NCD : 'Nother Change Directory

Briggs Softworks Products

Directory Maven 95 is an automated change directory program. Like the DOS version, you can quickly change to any directory on any drive from the MS-DOS command line or view the directory trees of all your drives. However, Directory Maven 95 is a 32-bit console application that supports long filenames and up to 10,000 directories per drive. This program is freeware: Try it!

Coig Change Directory v0.803a

Coig Change Directory (CCD) is a freeware DOS enhanced directory changer. It allows you to change to any directory in your drives quickly, and without typing long CD commands from the command line.

CCD can be used with arguments from the command line or by using its user-friendly graphical interface, where you can navigate through the directory tree with the cursor keys.

ncd Script

Fergal's ncd Script

February 2003

#!/usr/bin/ksh # # Fergal Goggin 11-April-2000, SSL # ncd : a change directory script for UNIX. works like norton change # directory on a PC. It can take regular expressions on the # command line. Remove $HOME/.ncd if you want to change the # database. Use env var BASEDIR to specify the top level directory # in the tree (defaults to the root dir, /) # # usage: [BASEDIR=XXX] ncd - to create, remove $HOME/.ncd first # ncd - to search # BOLD_TYPE="" NORMAL_TYPE="" INVERSE_TYPE="" if [ $TERM = "xterm" ] then BOLD_TYPE="" NORMAL_TYPE="" INVERSE_TYPE="" fi NCDDATABASE=$HOME/.ncd.`uname -n` NCDTMPFILE=/tmp/$$.ncd if [ "$BASEDIR" = "" ] then BASEDIR=/ fi if [ ! -f $NCDDATABASE ] then echo "re-creating database from $BASEDIR" find $BASEDIR -type d 2> /dev/null | gzip > $NCDDATABASE elif [ $# -lt 1 ] then echo "ncd, change directory for UNIX, fgoggin 2000" echo "usage: [BASEDIR=XXX] ncd " else zgrep $1 $NCDDATABASE > $NCDTMPFILE trap 'rm -f $NCDTMPFILE' 2 noLines=0 # wc -l seems to stick a tab in front of it output # so it is just as easy to use grep -c noLines=`grep -c ^ $NCDTMPFILE` if [ $noLines -eq 0 ] then echo "No match" elif [ $noLines -eq 1 ] then # exact match cd `cat $NCDTMPFILE` else # list all directories found and let the user pick one directorySelected="" PS3="${INVERSE_TYPE}Pick one from the above list${NORMAL_TYPE} > " select directorySelected in `cat $NCDTMPFILE` do if [ "$directorySelected" = "" ] then # when the user wants to break out of the # display loop without changing directory. case "$REPLY" in "q"|"Q"|"quit"|"Quit"|"QUIT"|"E"|"e"|"X"|"x"|"exit"|"Exit"|"EXIT") break esac echo "${BOLD_TYPE}not valid${NORMAL_TYPE}" # force list to be re-displayed REPLY="" else cd $directorySelected # break out of select loop break fi done fi fi rm -f $NCDTMPFILE BASEDIR=""

Ken Silverman's Utility Page

NCD.EXE 5,592 bytes

KeN's Change Directory. If you like jumping to different directories quickly, you should try my version of the program, based on one of my favorite Norton Utilities. My NCD program is extremely small and fast. One cool feature is that it stores the entire directory tree (skips hidden directories) in the "NCD.EXE" program file itself. This keeps your HD from getting cluttered and makes the program load even faster. DOS16

Recommended Links

public-ftp-pub-linux-utils-shell

• gd-1.2.2.tar.gz (LSM entry) 1998-07-05 change to directories w/ just the last dir name (6079 bytes) ;
• locatedir  by Alexander Kourakos (BASH, tcsh, or csh; find & sort commands.)
• ncd-0.9.8.lsm
• kcd-6.11.0.lsm
• qprompt-2.3.lsm -- utility to process raw keyboard keystrokes
• rcd.readme fancy Change Directory program (122880 bytes)
• xd change's directories based on incomplete specs.

Shell Corner Changing Directories with ncd

Changing Directories with ncd

This month, Fergal Goggin submits Korn/Bash script ncd, a Unix version of the Norton change directory utility. Instead of typing in long directory paths, using regular expressions, ncd greps a file for matches. If ncd finds more than one match, the user is prompted to choose the required directory.

After Fergal describes ncd, I contrast the ncd solution with Fred Brunet's article, fcd: a Smart Change Directory (Sys Admin, November 1994), and I include my testing results.

Kcd

[Nov 26, 2004] kcd Home Page

KCD is the most interesting Linux implementation of NCD functionality with some novel ideas. Actively supported. Highly recommended.

kcd is a directory change utility under Linux or any other Unix clones. It helps you navigate the directory tree. You can supply the desired directory name in the command line and let kcd find it for you or let kcd show the entire directory tree and use arrow keys to go to the destination directory.

Here is a list some features available in kcd:

• Fast directory rescanning. All directory timestamp is saved so that certain directories do not need rescanning if they are not changed.
• When you supply directory in command line and kcd find too many matches. kcd shows all of them and let you select using cursor keys.
• You can tell kcd to skip some directory. You can also chose whether you want the whole directory tree, inside your home directory, etc. They can be set in kcd configuration file.
• Supports bash, ash, pdksh, zsh and tcsh.
• Multiple configuration profiles.
• Priority directory matching via bookmark.
• Fuzzy directory searching (Contributed by Robert Sandilands).
• Supports UTF-8 Unicode encoding with combining characters.
• Supports localization.
• Default, vi, and emacs key binding modes.
• Partial directory tree display.
• Display directory tree without saved data.

kcd is available as stable version and development version. You can distinguish development version from stable version by looking at its version number. Beginning from version 5.0.0, any version x.y.z where y is even is a stable version. Those where y is odd is a development version. Features currently present in the development version will eventually appear in the future stable version 8.0.0.

kcd is distributed in source form under General Public License (GPL).

The program and this web page is maintained by Kriang Lerdsuwanakij

WCD

Erwin Waterlander, WCD Wherever Change Directory Another Norton Change Directory (NCD) clone with too many features. This is too complex variant. Not very useful in Linux/Unix environment.

Wcd is a program to change directory fast. It saves time typing at the keyboard. One needs to type only a part of a directory name and wcd will jump to it. By default wcd searches for a directory with a name that begins with what has been typed, but the use of wildcards is also fully supported.
For instance:

wcd Desk

will change to directory /home/waterlan/Desktop

But also

wcd *top

will do that.

Wcd is free to use and you can get the source code too.

Some features of wcd:

Full screen interactive directory browser with speed search.

Present the user a list in case of multiple matches.

Wildcards *, ? and [SET] supported.

Directory stack, push pop.

Subdir definition possible. E.g. wcd subdira/subdirb

Long directory names support in Win95/98/NT DOS-box

Windows LAN UNC paths supported.

Change drive and directory at once.

Alias directories.

Ban directories.

'cd' behaviour

Free portable source-code, no special libraries required

Multi platform:
DOS 16 bit, DOS 32 bit, DOS bash, Windows 3.1/95/NT DOS-box, Cygwin bash, Unix ksh, csh, bash and zsh.

Wcd has been tested on: FreeDOS, MS-DOS 6.2, Win95, Win98, Windows NT 4.0, Linux, FreeBSD, HP-UX, SunOS, Solaris, SGI IRIX. Wcd works on any PC and can be ported to any Unix system.

WCD is free software, distributed under GNU General Public License.