One Thing Well

f is a tool for quick access to files in bash and zsh. It is inspired by tools like autojump, z and v. f keeps track of files you have accessed, so that you can quickly reference them in the command line. f ranks files and directories by “frecency,” that is, by both “frequency” and “recency.”

f is a little more flexible than the tools mentioned above¹, with options to open the files it finds in a given application, the ability to match only files or directories, and tab completion.

As developer Wei Dai suggests, f really comes into its own if you set up a few aliases:

alias v='f -f -e vim' # quick opening files with vim
alias m='f -f -e mplayer' # quick opening files with mplayer
alias j='f -d -e cd' # quick cd into directories, mimicking autojump and z
alias o='f -e xdg-open' # quick opening files with xdg-open