Autoleap

Access any previously visited directory typing cd <part_of_path>

How to use it

After using the cd command several times, you will have a set of directories that you can easily access like bookmarks. For example:

You accessed the /home/user/Downloads/ once. Next time you want to visit the /Downloads directory you can just type cd Downloads anywhere, or even cd Dow, for instance.

How it works

The script declares a cd function that wraps the built-in cd command. Every time you change directories, the full path is stored into the ~/.autoleap.history file.

The built-in cd is always tried first, so all standard behavior is fully preserved — including CDPATH, cd -, cd old new substitution, and options like -P/-L. Autoleap only kicks in as a fallback when the built-in cd cannot resolve the path on its own.

When the fallback activates, Autoleap searches the history file for your input and changes to the best matching path. If there are multiple matches, Autoleap will use fzf (if available) to display an interactive selection menu. In this list, exact final-directory-name matches are prioritized over broader substring-only matches, and the displayed order preserves this ranking.

Paths that no longer exist on disk are automatically removed from the history file when encountered.

Installation

• Be sure you use the Bash shell, since this script was written for it.
• Autoleap works by being sourced from your ~/.bashrc; simply placing it on PATH is not enough.
• Reopen the terminal after installing, or run source ~/.bashrc.
• For interactive directory selection, install fzf by following the instructions at https://github.com/junegunn/fzf/

Install only for the current user

Option 1: Clone the repository and symlink the script into ~/.local/bin

mkdir -p ~/repos ~/.local/bin
git clone https://github.com/llagerlof/autoleap.git ~/repos/autoleap
chmod +x ~/repos/autoleap/autoleap.sh
ln -sf ~/repos/autoleap/autoleap.sh ~/.local/bin/autoleap.sh
grep -qxF 'source "$HOME/.local/bin/autoleap.sh"' ~/.bashrc || echo 'source "$HOME/.local/bin/autoleap.sh"' >> ~/.bashrc

If you prefer ~/repositories, replace ~/repos with ~/repositories.

Option 2: Download the script directly into ~/.local/bin

mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/llagerlof/autoleap/HEAD/autoleap.sh -o ~/.local/bin/autoleap.sh
chmod +x ~/.local/bin/autoleap.sh
grep -qxF 'source "$HOME/.local/bin/autoleap.sh"' ~/.bashrc || echo 'source "$HOME/.local/bin/autoleap.sh"' >> ~/.bashrc

Install for everyone

Option 3: Clone the repository and symlink the script into /usr/local/bin

Clone the repository into a normal user's home directory, then create the system-wide symlink with sudo:

mkdir -p ~/repos
git clone https://github.com/llagerlof/autoleap.git ~/repos/autoleap
chmod +x ~/repos/autoleap/autoleap.sh
sudo ln -sf ~/repos/autoleap/autoleap.sh /usr/local/bin/autoleap.sh
grep -qxF 'source /usr/local/bin/autoleap.sh' ~/.bashrc || echo 'source /usr/local/bin/autoleap.sh' >> ~/.bashrc

If you prefer ~/repositories, replace ~/repos with ~/repositories.

Use this option only if you intentionally want all users to depend on a clone managed by one trusted user account. For a safer and simpler multi-user setup, prefer Option 4.

Option 4: Download the script directly into /usr/local/bin

sudo curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/llagerlof/autoleap/HEAD/autoleap.sh -o /usr/local/bin/autoleap.sh
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/autoleap.sh
grep -qxF 'source /usr/local/bin/autoleap.sh' ~/.bashrc || echo 'source /usr/local/bin/autoleap.sh' >> ~/.bashrc

Acknowledgment

This project was inspired by wting/autojump.