cd -1, -2, -3 etc in Z shell

Question

How do you set up the Z shell such that typing cd - gives you a list of previously visited paths, and cd -1, -2, -3, etc. will then take you to the directories?

Answer 1

If you have setopt AUTO_PUSHD in your .zshrc then cd will automatically do a pushd of each directory you change to. Taking the example from ZyX:

$ setopt AUTO_PUSHD
$ mkdir -p 1/2/3/4
$ cd 1
$ cd 2
$ cd 3
$ cd 4

You can see a list of the directories using dirs:

$ dirs -v
0    ~/1/2/3/4
1    ~/1/2/3
2    ~/1/2
3    ~/1
4    ~

To be able to tab complete the list you can use the + and - arguments with cd ( meaning you hit the tab key):

$ cd +
1 -- ~/1/2/3
2 -- ~/1/2
3 -- ~/1
4 -- ~

Or the reverse:

$ cd -
0 -- ~
1 -- ~/1
2 -- ~/1/2
3 -- ~/1/2/3

Then just select the number to go to that directory:

$ cd +2
$ pwd
~/1/2

Tab Complete Directories

I always forget the magic sequence to do the following so I updated the answer to explain this part.

The + and - will only take you to the directory, you can't tab complete the path in the stack (i.e. cd -2/ gives you nothing). To make this work, you can use a tilde (~).

Make some directories in 3 to make this example better.

$ mkdir 3/foo 3/bar 3/baz

Then find the directory in the stack.

$ cd ~+
1 -- ~/1/2/3/4
2 -- ~/1/2/3
3 -- ~/1
4 -- ~

Then use tab completion on an entry.

$ cd ~+2/
4/    bar/  baz/  foo/