Speed Up Linux Directory Navigation with Autojump: Installation & Usage Guide

Installation

Autojump requires Python 2.6+ or Python 3.3+. The example uses CentOS 7.5 with Python 2 installed. If Python 3 is needed, run the provided python3_install.sh script (place the two tar packages and the script in the same directory, then execute): sh python3_install.sh Download the source archive from GitHub, unzip it, and run the install or uninstall script:

unzip autojump-master.zip
cd autojump-master
./install.py   # or ./uninstall.py

If the installer does not automatically add the initialization line, append the following to ~/.bashrc:

[[ -s /root/.autojump/etc/profile.d/autojump.sh ]] && source /root/.autojump/etc/profile.d/autojump.sh

Reload the shell configuration and verify the installation:

source ~/.bashrc
autojump --version   # or j -v

Basic Usage

After visiting a directory with cd, Autojump records it. Use autojump (or its short alias j) followed by a keyword to jump to the most frequently visited matching directory:

# j autojump
/root/autojump-master

When multiple subdirectories match, use jc followed by the subdirectory name:

# jc bin
/root/autojump-master/bin

Open a graphical file manager at a matching directory with jo (or jco for a subdirectory). These commands require a desktop environment such as GNOME or KDE.

Command Options

-h – display help information

-a DIRECTORY – add a path manually

-i [WEIGHT] – increase weight of the current directory

-d [WEIGHT] – decrease weight of the current directory

--complete – enable tab completion

--purge – remove non‑existent paths from the database

-s – show database entries with their weights

-v – show version information

The short command j is interchangeable with autojump.

Advanced Tips & Limitations

Autojump only records directories entered via cd. Directories never visited with cd cannot be jumped to.

Paths that begin with a hyphen ( -) are not supported for automatic jumping.

Autojump tracks directory changes by modifying the $PROMPT_COMMAND variable in Bash. Do not overwrite this variable; if additional commands are needed, append them to the existing $PROMPT_COMMAND value.

Database files are stored under ~/.local/share/autojump/. Deleting or overwriting these files will lose the accumulated statistics.

Use j -s to inspect recorded weights. Higher weights indicate more frequent usage.

Repository

Official repository: https://github.com/wting/autojump