---
title: cd'ing to frequently-used directories in ZSH
teaser:
tags: unix
author: Gabe Berke-Williams
published_on: 2011-09-30
---

[Josh](https://thoughtbot.com/people) just dropped some sweet, sweet ZSH
knowledge. I spend a lot of time in the directories under `$HOME/thoughtbot/`
and `$HOME/src`, and to get there I type (for example) `cd
~/thoughtbot/hoptoad`. There is a better way!

First, add this to your `~/.zshrc` and source it:

    setopt auto_cd
    cdpath=($HOME/thoughtbot $HOME/src)

Obviously, use different paths in `cdpath` depending on which directories you
`cd` into a lot.

Now let's try it out:

    $ cd rspec-core # Autocompleted from rspe<TAB>
    $ pwd
    /Users/gabe/src/rspec-core
    $ cd hoptoad
    $ pwd
    /Users/gabe/thoughtbot/hoptoad

Seriously, check out your coworkers' dotfiles. It can improve your workflow
efficiency by an order of magnitude. Like most of the thoughtbot crew, Josh
keeps his dotfiles [on Github](https://github.com/joshuaclayton/dotfiles/).