zoxide1

Usage

Overview

zoxide is a smarter cd command for your terminal. It keeps track of the directories you use most frequently, and uses a ranking algorithm to navigate to the best match.

Usage

z foo              # cd into highest ranked directory matching foo
z foo bar          # cd into highest ranked directory matching foo and bar
z foo /            # cd into a subdirectory starting with foo

z ~/foo            # z also works like a regular cd command
z foo/             # cd into relative path
z ..               # cd one level up
z -                # cd into previous directory

zi foo             # cd with interactive selection (using fzf)

z foo<SPACE><TAB>  # show interactive completions (bash 4.4+/fish/zsh only)

Subcommands

Options

-h, --help

Print help information.

-V, --version

Print version information.

Environment

Environment variables can be used for configuration. They must be set before zoxide-init(1) is called.

_ZO_DATA_DIR

Specifies the directory in which the database is stored. The default value varies across OSes:

OS	Path
Linux/BSD	$XDG_DATA_HOME or $HOME/.local/share, eg. /home/alice/.local/share
macOS	$HOME/Library/Application Support, eg. /Users/Alice/Library/Application Support
Windows	%LOCALAPPDATA%, eg. C:\Users\Alice\AppData\Local

_ZO_ECHO

When set to 1, z will print the matched directory before navigating to it.

_ZO_EXCLUDE_DIRS

Prevents the specified directories from being added to the database. This is provided as a list of globs, separated by OS-specific characters:

OS	Separator
Linux/macOS/BSD	:, eg. $HOME:$HOME/private/*
Windows	;, eg. $HOME;$HOME/private/*

By default, this is set to $HOME. After setting this up, you might need to use zoxide-remove(1) to remove any existing entries from the database.

_ZO_FZF_OPTS

Custom options to pass to fzf(1) during interactive selection. See the manpage for the full list of options.

_ZO_MAXAGE

Configures the aging algorithm, which limits the maximum number of entries in the database. By default, this is set to 10000.

_ZO_RESOLVE_SYMLINKS

When set to 1, z will resolve symlinks before adding directories to the database.

Algorithm

AGING

zoxide uses a parameter called _ZO_MAXAGE to limit the number of entries in the database based on usage patterns. If the total FRECENCY of the directories in the database exceeds this value, we divide each directory's score by a factor k - such that the new total becomes ~90% of _ZO_MAXAGE. Thereafter, if the new score of any directory falls below 1, it is removed from the database.

Theoretically, the maximum number of directories in the database is 4 * _ZO_MAXAGE, although it is lower in practice.

FRECENCY

Each directory in zoxide is given a score, starting with 1 the first time it is accessed. Every subsequent access increases the score by 1. When a query is made, we calculate frecency based on the last time the directory was accessed:

Last access time	Frecency
Within the last hour	score * 4
Within the last day	score * 2
Within the last week	score / 2
Otherwise	score / 4