Install cdargs with Homebrew, apt, dnf, MacPorts

Project links

• Homepage
• Upstream docs
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• cdargs

Project history

The upstream README identifies Stefan Kamphausen as the 2001-2003 copyright holder and describes cdargs as a complete C++ rewrite inspired by Michael Schili's CDBM script for the German iX magazine and follow-up scripts from the related discussion thread.

The bundled man page was dated March 2002 and documents the core behavior still associated with cdargs: a bookmarks file, list and browse modes, shell integration functions, and optional bash and tcsh helper files. The upstream ChangeLog shows maintenance through the 1.x series, including bash completion, tcsh aliases, Emacs integration, packaging fixes, and a 2006 1.35 release. A 2018 ChangeLog entry records version 2.0 as a C++11 modernization and Meson/Ninja build-system conversion.

Adoption history

cdargs became a small but durable Unix package rather than a large ecosystem project. The Homebrew input records packages in Homebrew, Debian, Fedora, MacPorts, and Ubuntu, which is the kind of cross-distribution presence typical of old shell productivity utilities that solved one workflow well enough to persist.

How it is used

The tool is used to bookmark project directories, jump by short descriptions, browse the filesystem from a terminal UI, and emit the selected path to a result file such as ~/.cdargsresult so a shell function can perform the final cd operation. Its ~/.cdargs file is deliberately simple and editable with a normal text editor.

Why package nerds care

cdargs is interesting as a pre-fzf, pre-zoxide example of directory-jumping ergonomics. It shows an older packaging pattern where a small binary, a man page, and shell snippets provide an interactive workflow that shells themselves cannot implement directly because child processes cannot change the parent shell's working directory.

Timeline

• 2001: Stefan Kamphausen copyright period begins in the upstream README.
• 2002: Man page dated March 2002 documents ~/.cdargs, shell functions, and interactive list/browse modes.
• 2003: Upstream README copyright period ends; ChangeLog shows active feature work around shell integration and bookmark handling.
• 2006: ChangeLog records version 1.35.
• 2010: Current GitHub repository was created.
• 2018: ChangeLog records version 2.0, a C++11 cleanup and Meson/Ninja build conversion.

Related projects

• cdargs was inspired by the CDBM shell script mentioned in the upstream README. In package-manager culture it sits in the same practical family as autojump, fasd, z, and zoxide, although those related tools are not cdargs upstream dependencies.

Sources

• https://api.github.com/repos/cbxbiker61/cdargs
• https://github.com/cbxbiker61/cdargs
• https://github.com/cbxbiker61/cdargs#readme
• https://github.com/cbxbiker61/cdargs/blob/master/doc/cdargs.1
• https://formulae.brew.sh/api/formula/cdargs.json
• https://github.com/cbxbiker61/cdargs/blob/master/ChangeLog
• https://github.com/cbxbiker61/cdargs/blob/master/README