1wcd(1) 2023-04-23 wcd(1)
2
6 wcd - Wherever Change Directory
7 chdir for DOS and Unix
9
11 wcd [options] [directory]
12
14 Overview
15 Wcd is a command-line program to change directory fast. It saves time
16 typing at the keyboard. One needs to type only a part of a directory
17 name and wcd will jump to it. Wcd has a fast selection method in case
18 of multiple matches and allows aliasing and banning of directories. Wcd
19 also includes a full screen interactive directory tree browser with
20 speed search.
21 Wcd was modeled after Norton Change Directory (NCD). NCD appeared first
23 in The Norton Utilities, Release 4, for DOS in 1987, published by Peter
24 Norton.
25 Wcd has been ported to different command-line shells: DOS command.com,
27 Windows cmd.exe and PowerShell, OS/2 cmd.exe, and Unix shells such as
28 Bourne (sh), Bourne Again (bash), Korn (ksh), Z (zsh), and C (csh)
29 shell and others running on any operating system.
30 Wcd supports 8 bit character sets on all systems, and has optional
32 support for Unicode. See section LOCALIZATION.
33 See section INSTALLATION how to setup wcd for personal use.
35 Basic use
37 By default (if no wildcards are used) wcd searches for a directory with
38 a name that begins with the typed name.
39 For instance this command will change to directory to the current
41 user's "/home/user/Desktop":
42 wcd Desk
44 When there are multiple matches, wcd will present the user a list of
46 all matches. The user can then make a selection with a few keystrokes
47 (most of the times only one).
48 Wildcards
50 Wcd supports following wildcards:
51 * matches any sequence of characters (zero or more)
53 ? matches any character
54 [SET] matches any character in the specified set,
55 [!SET] or [^SET] matches any character not in the specified set.
56 A set is composed of characters or ranges; a range looks like character
58 hyphen character as in "0-9" or "A-Z". The "[0-9a-zA-Z_]" is the
59 minimal set of characters allowed in the "[..]" pattern construct.
60 International characters (i.e. 8 bit characters) are allowed if the
61 system supports them. To suppress the special syntactic significance of
62 any of "[]*?!^-\" inside or outside a "[..]" construct and match the
63 character exactly, precede the character with a backslash ("\") marker.
64 Using wildcards makes powerful searching possible. For instance this
66 matches any directory name that ends with "top":
67 wcd *top
69 Match directories that have "top" anywhere in the name:
71 wcd *top*
73 Match any directory name that begins with "a", "b" or "c":
75 wcd [a-c]*
77 It is also possible to give a part of a directory path. Here Wcd
79 searches for directory that begins with "Desk" and which path matches
80 *me/Desk*.
81 wcd me/Desk
83 It is allowed to type any kind of expression with slashes and
85 wildcards. E.g.:
86 wcd src*/*1?/a*2
88 Other uses
90 If no wildcards are used and wcd finds a perfect match, wcd will ignore
91 all wild matches by default. This behaviour can be changed with the -w
92 option.
93 The interactive directory tree browser can be started by using option
95 -g.
96 wcd -g
98 Wcd generates a treedata file where it searches the directory. On Unix
100 and Windows systems wcd does add symbolic links to the treedata file
101 while scanning the disk, but does not follow them. While following
102 links wcd could end up scanning infinite loops, or scan very large
103 portions of a network.
104 Wcd can also change to directories that are not in the treedata file.
106 E.g.:
107 wcd ..
109 If wcd found a match but can't change to the directory it tries to
111 remove it from the default treedata file. Not from the extra treedata
112 file. See also option -k.
113 Wcd keeps a directory stack which is stored on disk. The stack has a
115 default size of 10 and is cyclic. See options -z, -, + and =.
116 In multi-user environments option -u can be used to change to
118 directories of other users.
119 On DOS and Windows systems it does not matter if you use a slash "/" or
121 a backslash "\" as a directory separator.
122 It is possible on DOS and Windows systems to change drive and directory
124 in one go by preceding the directory name with the drive name.
125 wcd d:games
127 Windows UNC paths
129 The Windows versions (Command Prompt, PowerShell, MSYS, zsh, cygwin)
130 support Windows SMB LAN UNC paths without drive letter such as
131 "\\servername\sharename". Wcd for Windows Command Prompt makes use of
132 the "pushd" command to automatically map a UNC path to a drive letter.
133 In Windows PowerShell, MSYS, zsh and Cygwin UNC paths are fully
134 supported. The current working directory can be a UNC path.
135 Console resizing on Windows
137 Wcd supports console resizing in Windows 10 console and ConEmu (see
138 <https://conemu.github.io/>) since version 6.0.3. The Windows 10
139 console must not be in legacy mode (check the console's properties).
140 The screen may not refresh when the console Layout property "Wrap text
141 output on resize" is disabled. The screen can be refreshed manually by
142 pressing the F5 key.
143 Interfaces
145 Wcd has three different interfaces to choose from a list of matches.
146 The interface can be chosen at compile time.
147 The first interface uses plain stdin/stdout. A numbered list is printed
149 in the terminal. The user has to choose from the list by typing a
150 number followed by <Enter>. This interface does not provide scroll back
151 functionality in case of a long list. The scroll back capability of the
152 terminal/console has to be used. It is very small and portable.
153 The second interface is built with the conio library. It provides a
155 builtin scroll back capability. The user is presented a list numbered
156 with letters. Choosing from a list can be done by pressing just one
157 letter. This interface is fast because it saves keystrokes. If possible
158 the screen will be restored after exiting. One who prefers to type
159 numbers can use the -N option.
160 The third interface is built with the curses library. It is similar to
162 the conio interface. The curses version of wcd has also an additional
163 'graphical' interface. It lets the user select a directory via a full
164 screen interactive directory tree browser. It has a vim(1) like
165 navigation and search method. It can be activated with option -g.
166 By using the -o option one can always fall back to the stdin/stdout
168 interface.
169
171 -a Add current path to the default treedata file.
172 Use this option to quickly add the current path to the default
174 treedata file. Re-scanning the complete disk can take a long time
175 in some cases.
176 -aa Add current and all parent paths to the default treedata file.
178 -A PATH
180 Scan directory tree from PATH and append to the default treedata
181 file. Examples:
182 wcd -A .
184 wcd -A /home -A /etc
185 wcd -A d: -A e: -A \\server\share
186 On Windows one can scan all shared directories of a Windows LAN
188 server by typing something like: "wcd -A \\servername".
189 See also option -S and -s and -E.
191 -b Ban current path.
193 Wcd places the current path in the ban file. This means that wcd
195 ignores all matches of this directory and its sub directories.
196 The ban file can be edited with a text editor. Use of wildcards is
198 supported and names are matched against the absolute path.
199 Banned paths are not excluded from scanning the disk. To do that
201 use option -xf.
202 -c, --direct-cd
204 Direct CD mode. By default wcd works as follows:
205 1. Try to find a match in the treedata file(s)
207 2. If no match, try to open the directory you typed.
208 In direct CD mode wcd works in reversed order.
210 1. Try to open the directory you typed.
212 2. If not, try to find a match in the treedata file(s).
213 -d DRIVE
215 Set drive for stack and go file (DOS only).
216 The stack file and the go-script are by default stored on drive C:
218 if environment variable HOME is not set. Use this option if drive
219 C: is a read-only drive. This option must be used in front of the
220 stack options -, + and =.
221 -e Add current path to the extra treedata file.
223 Use this option to quickly add the current path to the extra
225 treedata file.
226 -ee Add current and all parent paths to extra treedata file.
228 -E PATH
230 Scan directory tree from PATH and append to Extra treedata file.
231 See also options -A and -S.
232 -f FILE
234 Read treedata file FILE. Do not read the default treedata file.
235 +f FILE
237 Read treedata file FILE in addition to the default treedata file.
238 -g Graphical interface (only in version with curses interface).
240 Wcd starts a textual curses based 'graphical' interface. The user
242 can select a directory via a full-screen interactive directory tree
243 browser. It has a vim(1) like navigation and search method.
244 If no search string is given wcd presents the whole tree which is
246 in the default treedata file and the extra treedata files.
247 If a search string is given the match list is presented as a
249 directory tree.
250 The default tree layout is similar to the tree layout of the
252 original NCD on DOS. The difference in layout is that in NCD all
253 directories of a same depth level were vertically aligned over the
254 whole tree. This was possible in NCD, because the maximum width of
255 a directory name in DOS was 12 (8.3) characters. On modern
256 operating systems directory names can be very long, so also the
257 differences in length can be large. Therefore folders with a same
258 depth are not vertically aligned over the whole tree in wcd, but
259 only in sub-branches. So there is some sideways movement when
260 moving straight up and down from one sub-branch to another sub-
261 branch.
262 The navigation behaviour in Wcd is exactly the same as in the
264 original NCD. For instance if you push the Down key you go down to
265 the next directory with the same depth level, jumping over
266 branches. This enables fast navigation through the tree.
267 See options -Ta, -TC, and -Tc to change the navigation behaviour.
269 -gd Dump the treedata files as a tree to stdout.
271 -G PATH
273 Write go-script in directory PATH. For instance on Unix, "wcd -G
274 PATH" will write a go-script PATH/wcd.go.
275 -GN, --no-go-script
277 Do not create go-script. This option can be used in combination
278 with the option -j if one does not want wcd to create a go-script.
279 -h, --help
281 Show help and exit.
282 -i, --ignore-case
284 Ignore case. Dos and Windows versions of wcd ignore case default.
285 Unix/Cygwin versions regard case by default.
286 +i, --no-ignore-case
288 Regard case. See also option -i.
289 -I, --ignore-diacritics
291 Ignore diacritics for Latin-based scripts. Letters with
292 diacritical marks match their base letter without diacritical mark.
293 The following Latin encodings are supported: CP437, CP850, CP852,
294 CP1250, CP1252, ISO-8859-1, ISO-8859-2, and Unicode Latin-1, Latin
295 Extended-A, and Latin Extended-B. See also
296 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diacritic>
297 +I, --no-ignore-diacritics
299 Regard diacritics (default). See also option -I.
300 -j, --just-go
302 Just go mode.
303 In this mode wcd will not present a list when there is more than
305 one directory that matches the given directory. Wcd will just
306 change to the first option. When wcd is invoked again with the same
307 arguments it will change to the next option, and so on.
308 Wcd will print the directory to go to to stdout. So a different
310 installation method can be used. One could make the following
311 function for a POSIX compatible shell:
312 wcd ()
314 {
315 cd "$($HOME/bin/wcd.exe -j $@)"
316 }
317 When you are using an old shell that doesn't support "$()" command
319 substitution you have to use old style command substitution with
320 back-quotes.
321 wcd ()
323 {
324 cd "`$HOME/bin/wcd.exe -j $@`"
325 }
326 On Windows systems, if one is running 4NT shell, one could make the
328 following alias:
329 alias wcd `cd %@execstr[wcdwin32.exe -z 0 -j %1]`
331 This method eliminates the need of the go-script, so one can use
333 option -GN in combination with -j.
334 -k, --keep-paths
336 Keep paths.
337 Keep paths in the treedata file when wcd can't change to them. The
339 default behaviour of wcd is that it tries to remove paths from the
340 treedata when wcd can't change to them. With this option this
341 behavior is turned off.
342 -K, --color
344 Use colors in graphical mode.
345 -l ALIAS
347 Name the current path with ALIAS. Wcd places the current path with
348 alias ALIAS in the alias file. Aliases are case sensitive.
349 -ls Show the name of the alias file, and list all the aliases.
351 -m DIR
353 Make directory and add to treedata file.
354 -L, --license
356 Print the distribution license.
357 -M DIR
359 Make directory and add to extra treedata file.
360 -n PATH
362 Read relative treedata file from PATH.
363 Do not read the default treedata file. The relative treedata file
365 should already have been created using the wcd +S option. PATH may
366 also point to a file directly.
367 An example. Suppose another system has been mounted to mount point
369 "/mnt/network":
370 wcd -n /mnt/network src
372 Wcd opens the relative treedata file in "/mnt/network/". The file
374 contains the paths relative from that point.
375 +n PATH
377 Read relative treedata file in addition to the default treedata
378 file. See option -n.
379 -N, --numbers
381 Use numbers instead of letters.
382 Wcd with a conio or curses based interface (see section Interfaces)
384 presents a match list by default numbered with letters. When the -N
385 option is used the match list is numbered with numbers. Regardless
386 of the -N option one can type a letter or numbers to make a
387 selection from the list of matches.
388 -o Use stdin/stdout interface.
390 When for some kind of reason the conio or curses interface of wcd
392 does not work one can fall back to the stdin/stdout interface of
393 wcd by using the -o option.
394 -od, --to-stdout
396 Dump all matches to stdout.
397 -q, --quiet
399 Quieter operation. Printing of the final match is suppressed.
400 -r DIR
402 Remove directory and remove from the treedata file.
403 If the directory is empty, wcd will remove it, and try to remove it
405 from the treedata file.
406 -rmtree DIR
408 Recursively remove directory and remove from the treedata file.
409 Wcd will remove the directory and all its sub directories and
411 files, and remove the directories from the treedata file.
412 -s (re)Scan disk from $HOME directory. If HOME is not defined the disk
414 is scanned from root directory /.
415 The existing default treedata file is overwritten.
417 The default scan directory can be overruled with environment
419 variable "WCDSCAN". See section ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES.
420 -S PATH
422 Scan directory tree from PATH and overwrite the default treedata
423 file. See also options -A, -s and -E. E.g. with option -A you can
424 create a default treedata file of your choice. Examples:
425 Unix:
427 wcd -S /
429 wcd -S /home -A /etc -A /usr
430 DOS/Windows:
432 wcd -S c:/
434 wcd -S c: -A d: -A \\server\share
435 With the Windows versions one can scan all shared directories of a
437 Windows LAN server by typing something like: "wcd -S \\servername".
438 +S PATH
440 Scan disk from PATH and place relative paths in a relative treedata
441 file. This file is used by the -n and +n options of wcd. E.g. "wcd
442 -n PATH src".
443 -t Do not strip tmp mount dir "/tmp_mnt" (Unix only)
445 Wcd strips by default "/tmp_mnt/" from the match. Directory
447 "/tmp_mnt" is used by the auto-mounter. This behaviour can be
448 turned off with the -t option.
449 -T, --ascii-tree
451 Draw tree with ASCII characters. Use this option if line drawing
452 characters are not displayed properly in your terminal.
453 -Ta, --alt-tree-nav
455 Alternative way of navigation in the graphical tree.
456 In the default NCD style tree layout the -Ta option disables
458 jumping to unrelated directories.
459 In compact tree mode the alternative mode makes navigation similar
461 to navigation in GUI file managers such as Windows Explorer or
462 Linux KDE Konqueror. Pressing Up and Down moves the selected folder
463 one line up or down. Pressing Left first folds the sub-folders and
464 the next move left moves really left.
465 You can switch on-the-fly between default and alternative
467 navigation by pressing <Shift-A>.
468 When alternative navigation mode is on, you will see an "A" in the
470 lower right corner.
471 -TC, --center-tree
473 Centered view in the graphical tree. The selected directory stays
474 in the middle of the screen. The centered mode can also be switched
475 on and off with key <t> in the graphical tree.
476 The standard non-centered behaviour, which minimises tree movement,
478 is the same as in the original NCD.
479 -Tc, --compact-tree
481 By default the 'graphical' tree is drawn the same way as the
482 original NCD on DOS did it. On DOS a directory path could only be
483 66 characters in total. With the deep directory structures of today
484 the tree can become very wide. To overcome this wcd can draw the
485 tree in a compact way, similar to most GUI file managers, with only
486 one folder per line. Use option -Tc or switch on-the-fly with the
487 <m> key.
488 -Td, --cjk-width
490 Legacy East-Asian CJK (Chinese, Japanese, and Korean) fonts have
491 certain characters and line drawing symbols with a column width of
492 2, while the normal Unicode width for these characters is 1 column.
493 For instance the Chinese CP936 raster font on Windows and the
494 Simsun font. Use this option for a correct outlining of the
495 graphical tree when a legacy CJK font is used.
496 When CJK mode is on, you will see a "C" in the lower right corner.
498 -u USER
500 Scan treedata file of another user based on USER, do not scan your
501 own default treedata file. See also section ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
502 for WCDUSERSHOME.
503 On Unix/Cygwin the base directory for user home directories is
505 assumed to be "/home". Wcd will look for "/home/USER/.treedata.wcd"
506 and "/home/USER/.wcd/.treedata.wcd", in that order, and read the
507 first one that exists and is readable. On DOS/Windows the base
508 directory for user home directories is assumed to be "\\users", so
509 wcd tries to read "\\users\USER\treedata.wcd" and
510 "\\users\USER\.wcd\treedata.wcd".
511 +u USER
513 Read default treedata file of USER in addition to your own treedata
514 file.
515 -v, --verbose
517 Display verbose messages. With this option wcd prints all filters,
518 bans and excludes.
519 -V, --version
521 Print version information and exit.
522 -w, --wild-match-only
524 Wild matching only. Treat all matches as wild matches.
525 -x PATH
527 Exclude PATH from scanning.
528 When this option is used wcd will exclude PATH and all its
530 subdirectories when wcd is scanning a disk. Wildcards are supported
531 and matched against absolute paths. Option -x can be used multiple
532 times.
533 wcd -x <path1> -x <path2> -s
535 Option -x must be used in front of any scan option (-s, -S, +S, -A,
537 -E).
538 On DOS/Windows systems one must specify the drive letter depending
540 on if environment variable HOME or WCDHOME is set. If HOME or
541 WCDHOME is set one needs to specify the drive letter. An example:
542 wcd -x c:/temp -S c:
544 Otherwise do not specify drive letter.
546 wcd -x /temp -s
548 -xf FILE
550 Exclude all paths listed in FILE from scanning.
551 When this option is used wcd will exclude all paths listed in FILE
553 and all their subdirectories when wcd is scanning a disk. Wildcards
554 are supported and they are matched against absolute paths; one path
555 per line. Be aware that wcd will not ignore leading or trailing
556 blanks on a line, because they are legal characters in a directory
557 name. Option -xf can be used multiple times. When one wants to
558 exclude all banned paths from scanning one can do the following
559 (example for wcd on unix):
560 wcd -xf ~/.ban.wcd -s
562 Wildcards are supported. For instance to exclude all your
564 Subversion directories with administrative files add a line with
565 "*/.svn".
566 Option -xf must be used in front of any scan option (-s, -S, +S,
568 -A, -E).
569 -y, --assume-yes
571 Assume Yes on all queries.
572 Wcd will not prompt the user with yes/no questions, but assumes the
574 user answers yes on all questions. This can be used in combination
575 with option -rmtree. This option must be used in front of options
576 that can lead to yes/no questions.
577 -z NUMBER
579 Set maximum stack size to NUMBER.
580 The default size of the stack is 10. Stack operation can be turned
582 off by setting the size to 0. This option must be used in front of
583 any other stack operations (-,+,=). Otherwise the size of the stack
584 will be set back to the default 10.
585 A correct command is:
587 wcd -z 50 -
589 The new stack size will be 50, wcd will go one directory back. A
591 wrong command is:
592 wcd - -z 50
594 Wcd goes one directory back, the stack gets the default size 10.
596 The -z 50 is ignored.
597 Add this option as the first option to your wcd alias or function.
599 E.g. for the a POSIX compatible shell this would be:
600 wcd ()
602 {
603 wcd.exe -z 50 "$@"
604 . ${WCDHOME:-${HOME}}/bin/wcd.go
605 }
606 -[NUMBER]
608 Push dir NUMBER of times. Default is one.
609 Go back a directory. Command "wcd -" goes one directory back. To go
611 more directories back add a number to it. E.g. command "wcd -3".
612 The stack is cyclic.
613 +[NUMBER]
615 Pop dir NUMBER of times. Default is one.
616 Go forward a directory. Command "wcd +" goes one directory forward.
618 To go more directories forward add a number to it. E.g. command
619 "wcd +2". The stack is cyclic.
620 = Show stack.
622 Use this option if you do not know anymore how many times to push
624 or pop. The stack is printed and you can choose a number. The
625 current place in the stack is marked with an asterisk "*".
626
628 The current working directory of a Unix shell can only be changed by
629 the builtin cd(1) command. Therefore the program is always called by a
630 function or an alias. The function or alias sources a shell script (go-
631 script) which is generated by the wcd program. Wcd can only work after
632 the function or alias is defined.
633 Another important influence on your installation is the definition of
635 environment variables HOME and WCDHOME. See section ENVIRONMENT
636 VARIABLES.
637 Install for POSIX type shells
639 For a POSIX shell (ksh, bash, zsh, etc.) on Unix, Linux, Cygwin, or
640 native MSYS add the following function to the shell startup file (e.g.
641 Bash uses "$HOME/.bashrc"):
642 wcd ()
644 {
645 PATH/wcd.exe "$@"
646 . ${WCDHOME:-${HOME}}/bin/wcd.go
647 }
648 Replace PATH with the location where the wcd executable has been
650 installed. Reload the shell initialization files or start new shell.
651 The location of the go-script "wcd.go" differs per shell.
653 Wcd for DJGPP DOS bash and OS/2 bash require a different function. The
655 go script is not written in a directory "bin", and if WCDHOME and HOME
656 are both not defined the go-script is written on c:/.
657 DOS bash:
659 wcd ()
661 {
662 PATH/wcdbash.exe "$@"
663 . ${WCDHOME:-${HOME:-"c:"}}/wcd.go
664 }
665 OS/2 bash:
667 wcd ()
669 {
670 PATH/wcdos2bash.exe "$@"
671 . ${WCDHOME:-${HOME:-"c:"}}/wcd.go
672 }
673 The WinZsh version of wcd requires a bit different function. The go-
675 script will never be written in c:/.
676 wcd ()
678 {
679 PATH/wcdwin32zsh.exe "$@"
680 . ${WCDHOME:-${HOME}}/wcd.go
681 }
682 See section FILES for more information.
684 Install for C-alike shells (csh, tcsh)
686 Add the following alias to the shell startup file "$HOME/.cshrc" or
687 "$HOME/.tcshrc" :
688 if ( ${?WCDHOME} ) then
690 alias wcd "PATH/wcd.exe \!* ; source $WCDHOME/bin/wcd.go"
691 else
692 alias wcd "PATH/wcd.exe \!* ; source $HOME/bin/wcd.go"
693 endif
694 Replace PATH with the location where the wcd executable has been
696 installed. Reload the shell initialization files or start a new shell.
697 Windows Command Prompt version
699 Unpack the zip file and add directory "bin" to your environment
700 variable PATH.
701 In Windows Command Prompt a Windows program cannot change the current
703 work directory, but a .bat file can. The batch script "wcd.bat" runs
704 the wcd program which generates a new batch script "wcdgo.bat". Then
705 "wcd.bat" runs "wcdgo.bat" which actually changes the directory.
706 Windows VISTA and higher
708 In a Windows VISTA and higher Command Prompt you may have limited
709 access to directories. To get access to more directories you need
710 administrator rights. You can get a Command Prompt with administrator
711 rights if you right click on the Command Prompt icon and select Run as
712 administrator.
713 Windows PowerShell version
715 Add the following function to your PowerShell user profile. The
716 location of this profile is stored in the $profile variable. It is
717 required that one of the environment variables HOME or WCDHOME is
718 defined.
719 function wcd
721 {
722 PATH\wcdwin32psh.exe $args
723 & $env:HOME\wcdgo.ps1
724 }
725 Replace PATH with the location where the wcd executable has been
727 installed. Start a new PowerShell. Wcd for PowerShell supports only
728 the file system provider. No other providers.
729 OS/2 Command Prompt version
731 In an OS/2 Command Prompt (cmd.exe) an OS/2-program can't change the
732 current work directory. That is why wcd generates a command script
733 "wcdgo.cmd" which must be executed in the current shell. The script
734 "wcd.cmd" first executes "wcdos2.exe", which creates the "wcdgo.cmd"
735 script. Then "wcd.cmd" executes the "wcdgo.cmd" script.
736
738 LANG
739 The primary language is selected with the environment variable
740 LANG. The LANG variable consists out of several parts. The first
741 part is in small letters the language code. The second one is
742 optional and is the country code in capital letters, preceded with
743 an underscore. There is also an optional third part: character
744 encoding, preceded with a dot. A few examples for POSIX standard
745 type shells:
746 export LANG=nl Dutch
748 export LANG=nl_NL Dutch, The Netherlands
749 export LANG=nl_BE Dutch, Belgium
750 export LANG=es_ES Spanish, Spain
751 export LANG=es_MX Spanish, Mexico
752 export LANG=en_US.iso88591 English, USA, Latin-1 encoding
753 For a complete list of language and country codes see the
755 gettext(1) manual:
756 <http://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/manual/gettext.html#Language-Codes>
757 On Unix systems you can use to command locale(1) to get locale
758 specific information.
759 LANGUAGE
761 With the LANGUAGE environment variable you can specify a priority
762 list of languages, separated by colons. Wcd gives preference to
763 LANGUAGE over LANG. For instance, first Dutch and then German:
764 "LANGUAGE=nl:de". You have to first enable localization, by setting
765 LANG or LC_ALL to a value other than C, before you can use a
766 language priority list through the LANGUAGE variable. See also the
767 gettext(1) manual:
768 <http://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/manual/gettext.html#The-LANGUAGE-variable>
769 If you select a language which is not available you will get the
771 standard English messages.
772 WCDLOCALEDIR
774 With the environment variable WCDLOCALEDIR the LOCALEDIR used
775 during compilation and installation of wcd can be overruled.
776 LOCALEDIR is used by wcd with native language support to find the
777 language files. The GNU default value is "/usr/local/share/locale".
778 By typing "wcd -V" wcd will print the LOCALEDIR that is used.
779 If you have installed wcd in a different directory than the default
781 directory you may need to set the environment variable WCDLOCALEDIR
782 to point to the locale directory.
783 An example for Windows cmd:
785 set WCDLOCALEDIR=c:/my_prefix/share/locale
787 An example for a POSIX shell:
789 export WCDLOCALEDIR=$HOME/share/locale
791 LC_COLLATE
793 When there are multiple directory matches wcd presents a sorted
794 list. The sorting depends on the locale settings. If the
795 environment LANG has been set the matches are sorted like
796 dictionaries or phone books are sorted in that language. For
797 instance dots and dashes are ignored, or letters e with and without
798 accent are equal, or upper and lower case is ignored.
799 The sorting gives preference to environment variable LC_COLLATE
801 over LANG. If you make LC_COLLATE equal to "C" or "POSIX", locale
802 sorting is turned off. For instance if you want Dutch language, but
803 not Dutch sorting, you can do something like this:
804 export LANG=nl_NL
806 export LC_COLLATE=C
807 LC_CTYPE
809 With regard to character encoding Wcd will give preference to
810 variable LC_CTYPE over LANG. For instance to set character encoding
811 to UTF-8 the following environment setting can be done.
812 export LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8
814 LC_ALL
816 All locale environment variables that start with LC_ are overruled
817 by the environment variable LC_ALL if it is defined. Wcd gives
818 preference to LC_ALL over LC_COLLATE and LC_CTYPE.
819 WINDOWS CODE PAGES
821 There are two groups of code pages: DOS code pages (OEM) and Windows
822 code pages (ANSI). The default encoding for Windows, when configured
823 with Western regional settings, is ANSI CP1252. Windows programs, for
824 instance notepad, use this default system ANSI code page. The Windows
825 console uses by default an OEM code page (CP437 or CP850) for
826 compatibility with DOS programs. If you use a DOS version of wcd in a
827 Windows console it will work, because of the DOS code page. But the
828 DOS version of wcd lacks support for long directory names and network
829 drives on Windows.
830 The Windows version of wcd is a native Windows program and will use the
832 Windows system ANSI code page. So on a Western regional Windows it will
833 use code page CP1252 for directory names and messages. In order to get
834 consistent output, independent of the active code page, all Windows
835 versions of Wcd translate ANSI output to Unicode output in the Command
836 Prompt and PowerShell.
837 The console raster font only supports the original OEM code page
839 installed with Windows, so you have to change the console's font to
840 true type Lucida Console to make Unicode (and ANSI) letters appear
841 correctly.
842 Non-Unicode versions of Wcd prior to version 5.2.0 use plain ANSI
844 output. For these older versions the code page of the console has to
845 be made equal to the system code page (changed to 1252) to make wcd for
846 Windows work properly with special characters such as accented
847 characters or the Euro symbol.
848 The Windows system code page can be changed via the Control Panel
850 regional options. The Windows console code page is changed with the
851 "chcp" command.
852 When you type "wcd -V", the actual character encoding used by wcd is
854 shown. Type the command "chcp" to display the active code page of the
855 Windows console.
856 UNICODE
858 Wcd has optional support for Unicode. To see if wcd was built with
859 Unicode support type "wcd -V". If your terminal/console and font
860 supports it, you should see the Euro symbol and Chinese characters
861 (meaning: "Chinese").
862 Wcd has been soft converted to Unicode. In its core wcd handles all
864 data as a stream of bytes. Only the lines printed to screen are on the
865 fly converted to Unicode wide characters. Wcd fully relies on libc
866 functions and has no UTF-8 specific code. See also
867 <http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/unicode.html>
868 Wcd has optional support for Unicode matching with normalisation. To
870 find out whether Wcd has normalisation support type "wcd -V". Wcd with
871 Unicode normalization support will match Unicode names based on
872 compatible equivalence. Without Unicode normalization support, names
873 are matched when they are binary equivalent. See also
874 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicode_normalization>
875 UTF-8 on Unix/Linux
877 In order to view UTF-8 characters your console/terminal also needs to
879 support UTF-8. The xterm version that comes with XFree86 4.0 or higher
880 includes UTF-8 support. To activate it, start xterm(1) in a UTF-8
881 locale and use a font with iso10646-1 encoding, for instance with
882 LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8 xterm -u8 -fn '-Misc-Fixed-Medium-R-SemiCondensed--13-120-75-75-C-60-ISO10646-1'
884 Modern distributions of GNU/Linux support UTF-8 by default. Other
886 multi-byte character encodings should also work, but that has not been
887 tested.
888 Wcd assumes that the treedata files are encoded in the locale character
890 encoding. There are no Byte Order Marks written to treedata files.
891 UTF-16 on Windows
893 On Windows Unicode is supported in all versions of PowerShell, and in
895 Windows Command Prompt on Windows 7 (or higher). Unicode also works in
896 Take Command or TCC/LE made by JP Software, which can be used on older
897 Windows versions (XP/Vista).
898 On Windows all the directory names on disk are encoded in UTF-16
900 Unicode. For non-Unicode Windows programs the Unicode characters are
901 translated to the default ANSI code page. For characters that are not
902 part of the regional setting this translation is not possible and non-
903 Unicode programs print a question mark or a wrong character instead.
904 Wcd with Unicode support will read the UTF-16 encoded directory names
906 and converts them internally to UTF-8. All treedata files are encoded
907 in UTF-8 and not compatible with the non-Unicode version of Wcd. Wcd
908 will create a go-script encoded in UTF-8.
909 All versions of Windows PowerShell are able to run scripts encoded in
911 UTF-8, provided there is an UTF-8 BOM in the script.
912 Since Windows 7 it is possible in Windows Command Prompt to change
914 directory with a batch script to a directory with Unicode letters in
915 the name. The directory name needs to be encoded in UTF-8, and the
916 batch script must not have a BOM. The active code page of the Command
917 Prompt needs to be set to 65001 (UTF-8) prior to the cd command. Wcd
918 for Command Prompt will create such a go script "wcdgo.bat". It first
919 changes the code page to 65001, then changes directory, and finally
920 sets the code page back to the original code page.
921 You need to set the font to True Type Lucida Console (not raster font)
923 when letters don't appear correctly.
924 The non-Unicode Windows version of Wcd can read Unicode treedata files
926 since version 5.2.0, provided there is a Byte Order Mark (BOM) in the
927 file (see <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byte_order_mark>), but it can't
928 change to directories with Unicode letters in the name that are not
929 part of the default system ANSI code page. The Unicode Windows version
930 of wcd writes a BOM in the UTF-8 encoded treedata files since version
931 5.2.0, which makes them also readable by notepad.
932 UTF-8 on Cygwin
934 Cygwin supports Unicode since version 1.7. The Cygwin layer takes care
936 that the Windows UTF-16 Unicode names are converted to UTF-8. So
937 programs, like wcd, do not need to be aware of this and can operate
938 using UTF-8 encoding as on Unix/Linux. Set character encoding to UTF-8
939 with the LANG or LC_CTYPE environment variable. You may need to rescan
940 your drives. You need to set the font to True Type Lucida Console (not
941 raster font) if you use the default Cygwin console.
942 The Cygwin version behaves exactly as the Unix version of wcd. There
944 is no BOM written in the treedata files, and it is assumed they are
945 encoded in the Cygwin locale character encoding.
946
948 If the environment variable WCDHOME is set wcd will use WCDHOME instead
949 of HOME. All "*.wcd" files are text files. They can be edited with a
950 text editor. The Windows Command Prompt version of wcd behaves as the
951 DOS version. The Cygwin version of wcd behaves as the Unix version.
952 wcd.exe
954 The program. In Unix shells the program is always called by a
955 function or alias, because the current working directory of a Unix
956 shell can only be changed by the builtin cd command. See also
957 section INSTALLATION.
958 default treedata file
960 This is the default treedata file where wcd searches for matches.
961 If it is not readable wcd will create a new one.
962 DOS: \treedata.wcd or %HOME%\treedata.wcd
964 Unix: $HOME/.treedata.wcd
965 extra treedata file
967 An optional extra treedata file. If it exists and is readable wcd
968 will try to find matches in this file also.
969 DOS: \extra.wcd or %HOME%\extra.wcd
971 Unix: $HOME/.extra.wcd
972 ban file
974 In this optional file wcd places banned paths. See option -b.
975 Wildcards are supported.
976 DOS: \ban.wcd or %HOME%\ban.wcd
978 Unix: $HOME/.ban.wcd
979 alias file
981 Optional file with wcd aliases. See option -l.
982 DOS: \alias.wcd or %HOME%\alias.wcd
984 Unix: $HOME/.alias.wcd
985 stack file
987 In this file wcd stores its stack. The drive letter can be changed
988 with the -d option.
989 DOS: c:\stack.wcd or %HOME%\stack.wcd
991 Unix: $HOME/.stack.wcd
992 The name of the stack file can be changed with environment variable
994 WCDSTACKFILE. See section ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES.
995 go-script
997 This is the shell script which wcd.exe creates each time. It is
998 sourced via a function or an alias. The drive letter can be changed
999 with the -d option. For history reasons it is placed by default in
1000 "$HOME/bin" on Unix systems. The directory of this file can be
1001 changed with the option -G.
1002 DOS bash: c:/wcd.go or $HOME/wcd.go
1004 Windows Command Prompt: c:\wcdgo.bat or %HOME%\wcdgo.bat
1005 Windows PowerShell: $env:HOME\wcdgo.ps1
1006 WinZsh: $HOME/wcd.go
1007 Cygwin/MSYS: $HOME/bin/wcd.go
1008 OS/2 Command Prompt: c:\wcdgo.cmd or %HOME%\wcdgo.cmd
1009 OS/2 bash: c:/wcd.go or $HOME/wcd.go
1010 Unix: $HOME/bin/wcd.go
1011 relative treedata file
1013 Text file with relative paths from DIR. See options +S, -n and +n.
1014 DOS: PATH\rtdata.wcd
1016 Unix: PATH/.rtdata.wcd
1017
1019 HOME
1020 Wcd uses by default environment variable HOME to determine where to
1021 store its files. See also section FILES. This can be overruled with
1022 environment variable WCDHOME.
1023 HOME also defines where to start scanning the disk when option -s
1025 is used. This can be overruled with the environment variable
1026 WCDSCAN.
1027 For the Unix, Cygwin, Windows PowerShell, WinZsh and MSYS version
1029 it is required that HOME or WCDHOME is set. For the other versions
1030 of wcd the use of these variables is optional.
1031 If HOME is set on DOS/Windows, wcd will place all its files
1033 (treedata.wcd, extra.wcd, alias.wcd, ban.wcd, wcd.go) in directory
1034 HOME. The behaviour of wcd is then equal to the Unix version of
1035 wcd. Wcd will scan the disk default from HOME. Drives will not be
1036 automatically scanned by changing to them. You need to tell wcd
1037 explicitly. E.g.:
1038 wcd -S c: -A d: -A e:
1040 Matching of directories is now global over all scanned drives.
1042 WCDHOME
1044 Environment variable WCDHOME can be used to change the location of
1045 wcd's files. If both HOME and WCDHOME are set, WCDHOME will be used
1046 instead of HOME.
1047 In wcd versions prior to 5.1.5 WCDHOME also changed the default
1049 scan directory. This has changed. Since version 5.1.5 WCDHOME does
1050 not change the default scan directory. See option -s. From version
1051 5.1.5, use environment WCDSCAN to overrule the default scan
1052 directory.
1053 Example for DOS, Windows, OS/2 Command Prompt:
1055 set WCDHOME=C:\Users\erwin\wcd
1057 An example for POSIX type shells:
1059 export WCDHOME="$HOME/.wcd"
1061 An example for Csh type shells:
1063 setenv WCDHOME "$HOME/.wcd"
1065 WCDSCAN
1067 Use environment variable WCDSCAN to overrule the default scan
1068 directory HOME. Define a colon separated list (Unix) to define more
1069 than one directory. On DOS/Windows make the list semi-colon
1070 separated.
1071 Examples for DOS, Windows, OS/2 Command Prompt:
1073 set WCDSCAN=C:\Users\erwin;D:\data
1075 set WCDSCAN=%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%;\\projectdrive\projectX
1077 An example for POSIX type shells:
1079 export WCDSCAN="$HOME:/projectdisk/projectX"
1081 An example for Csh type shells:
1083 setenv WCDSCAN "$HOME:/projectdisk/projectX"
1085 WCDFILTER
1087 Specify filters with environment variable WCDFILTER. All
1088 directories that do not match the filter(s) are ignored. A list can
1089 be specified by separating filters by the shell path separator.
1090 Similar as specifying the PATH variable. The case sensitivity is
1091 mandated by the Operating system.
1092 An example for DOS, Windows, OS/2 Command Prompt:
1094 set WCDFILTER=projects;doc
1096 An example for POSIX type shells:
1098 export WCDFILTER="projects:doc"
1100 An example for Csh type shells:
1102 setenv WCDFILTER "projects:doc"
1104 WCDBAN
1106 The paths specified with environment WCDBAN will be banned by wcd.
1107 See also option -b. Specify a list of paths separated by shell PATH
1108 separator.
1109 WCDEXCLUDE
1111 The paths specified with environment WCDEXCLUDE will be excluded by
1112 wcd. See also options -x and -xf. Specify a list of paths separated
1113 by shell PATH separator.
1114 An example for DOS, Windows, OS/2 Command Prompt:
1116 set WCDEXCLUDE=*/windows;*/temp;*CVS
1118 An example for POSIX type shells:
1120 export WCDEXCLUDE="/dev:/tmp:*CVS"
1122 An example for Csh type shells:
1124 setenv WCDEXCLUDE "/dev:/tmp:*CVS"
1126 WCDUSERSHOME
1128 Set the base of user's home directories. On DOS/Windows the
1129 default value is "\\users". On Unix/Cygwin the default value is
1130 "/home". This variable is used to scan treedata files of other
1131 users. See also options -u and +u. In verbose mode wcd will print
1132 all filters, bans and excludes. See option -v.
1133 WCDSTACKFILE
1135 Wcd gives preference to WCDSTACKFILE over the default stack file
1136 name (see section FILES). With this variable each shell (or used
1137 terminal emulator) can have its private stack of used directories.
1138 To use a unique time based YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS file for each opened
1140 interactive shell.
1141 export WCDSTACKFILE=$HOME/.wcd/stack.$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S)
1143 For a stack per xterm(1), use the xterm WINDOWID environment
1145 variable:
1146 export WCDSTACKFILE=$HOME/.wcd/stack.$WINDOWID
1148 For GNU screen(1), to use stack per screen:
1150 export WCDSTACKFILE=$HOME/.wcd/stack.$WINDOW
1152 TERMINFO
1154 If the environment variable TERMINFO is defined, wcd with ncurses
1155 interface checks for a local terminal definition before checking in
1156 the standard place. This is useful if terminal definitions are not
1157 on a standard place. Often used standard places are
1158 "/usr/lib/terminfo" and "/usr/share/terminfo".
1159 PDC_RESTORE_SCREEN
1161 Wcd with PDCurses interface recognizes the environment variable
1162 PDC_RESTORE_SCREEN. If this environment variable is set, PDCurses
1163 will take a copy of the contents of the screen at the time that wcd
1164 is started; when wcd exits, the screen will be restored. An
1165 example for Windows Command Prompt:
1166 set PDC_RESTORE_SCREEN=1
1168 Windows allows only a small buffer to be saved. So it is not always
1170 possible to restore everything. Some garbage data may be printed in
1171 the console after wcd exits if you have set a large buffer width.
1172 SHELL
1174 Printing of "#!$SHELL" on the first line of the go-script for POSIX
1175 type shell or C shell is needed for 8 bit characters. Some shells
1176 otherwise think that the go-script is a binary file and will not
1177 source it. In Cygwin Bash the variable SHELL must be set in
1178 environment using the "export" command, otherwise wcd can't read
1179 the variable.
1180 BASH
1182 Wcd for DOS bash uses $BASH instead of $SHELL, because $SHELL
1183 points to the DOS command shell. One may need to define $BASH with
1184 an "export" command, otherwise wcd can't read the variable.
1185
1187 sh(1), bash(1), csh(1), ksh(1), zsh(1), locale(1), ncurses(1),
1188
1190 Wcd was written by Erwin Waterlander <waterlan@xs4all.nl>
1191 Project homepage: <http://waterlan.home.xs4all.nl/>
1193 SourceForge: <http://sourceforge.net/projects/wcd/>
1195 The manual page formatting was provided by Jari Aalto
1197 <jari.aalto@cante.net>.
1198 NCD was originally written by Brad Kingsbury for Peter Norton's "Norton
1200 Utilities" around 1987. See also
1201 <http://www.softpanorama.org/OFM/norton_change_directory_clones.shtml>
1202wcd 2023-04-23 wcd(1)