What does HackerNews think of z?

So you've installed `fzf` – now what? | Mar 2023

I'd never heard of fzf before! It looks like there's a lot of cool stuff you can do with it, but honestly, I think it's worth it even just to replace the frustrating ctrl+R search in bash, which I use a lot, but constantly dislike.

I feel like with a lot of these kinds of tools, if I have to actually actively use them, I forget that they exist ('z'[0] ended up being like this for me) and eventually remove them, but something that directly replaces something I use regularly (but hate the UX of) is perfect for me.

Another bit that helps is that I'm not having to learn/remember something new that I'll only have on my laptop. I'll continue to ctrl+R and get a nicer experience, but if I'm ssh'ed into some random box without fzf, ctrl+R will still work, just with a worse experience.

[0] https://github.com/rupa/z

Fig | May 2022

I use Z to jump around in the shell. Jump around, btw, is how it's purpose it offically defined.

It uses some sort of substring/edit distance matching and LRU heuristics, and it works almost every time. Sometimes it feels like it's reading my mind.

https://github.com/rupa/z

Show HN: "q", a DNS query tool with support for UDP, TCP, DoT, DoH, DoQ and ODoH | Apr 2022

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I use a “z” as well, but it’s a global cd tool. https://github.com/rupa/z/

A statically typed scripting language that transpiles to Posix sh | Mar 2022

looks like the task runner part [1] has unfortunate name overlap with the family of programs that include z.lua[2] or zoxide [3] or z.sh [4].

Not really that big of a deal, I just like tracking command line apps naming because it is an interesting exercise of being short, intuitive, and unique. When you decide a single letter is your name, surely you are going to run into this.

1. https://github.com/zakuro9715/z 2. https://github.com/skywind3000/z.lua 3. https://github.com/ajeetdsouza/zoxide 4. https://github.com/rupa/z

Ask HN: Why are there so few single-letter command line utilities / tools? | Dec 2021

Check out “z” - I use it all the time: https://github.com/rupa/z

How to navigate directories faster with Bash (2015) | Apr 2021

We tried to somewhat mimic the finder experience when implementing directory navigation at Fig (https://withfig.com). Except of course, we make it all keyboard driven!

The methods listed in the article are almost certainly better if you know exactly which directory you need to go to (like a specific project repo, your bin etc) however often you don’t!

Another interesting tool is Z: https://github.com/rupa/z

How to navigate directories faster with Bash (2015) | Apr 2021

The most important tool I found for switching directories is called "z". You just partially type a previously visited directory's name and it takes you there. It also keeps track of your history to rank candidates for popularity. https://github.com/rupa/z/ It's basically CDPATH on stereoids and doesn't require preconfiguration like CDPATH.

How to navigate directories faster with Bash (2015) | Apr 2021

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In my opinion this replaces (and even does a much better job i.e. less typing in the end, less commands to remember) almost everything in the article, especially when combined with https://github.com/rupa/z/. (or the PS counterpart ZLocation). Might be the type of work of course, but ever since I started using this I can go by weeks without needing to manually type cd. After all most of my time is spent in the same directories anyway. And if not, I'm really not manually going to type it, not even tab it, if it can be fuzzy matched since that is nearly always faster. tldr; people do yourself a favor and stop cd'ing around.