Ret

Ret is a tool that goes up the directory chain and returns the first directory with a landmark.

A landmark is an important property of the directory, such as the existence of a configuration file, being the user’s home directory, or being on a different drive.

This project is hosted on GitHub.
This project is on Hackage.

How to use

You can use this to go back to your project root in a jiffy by using your shell’s command substitution syntax, e.g.:

cd $(ret)

or

cd (ret)

You can specify a set of landmark names as the arguments to ret to only use them. You can also specify a set of default landmark names in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/ret/landmarks.txt, one per line.

You are invited to contribute more landmark specifications! Or send me an email if you want one added.

Installing

Note: All install methods except the NixOS one are untested by the author.

Shell integration

After installing (see below), you can make using ret even more convenient by defining a shell function that does cd for you.

e.g.

ret() {
  cd $(command ret "$@")
}

or

function ret
  cd (command ret $argv)
end

Manual install

You can, of course, manually copy the ret binary into a location of your choice. You can download the binary from the GitHub releases or build it yourself.

Hackage install

This package is published on Hackage. You can install it using cabal-the-tool:

cabal install ret

Debian install

Warning: The Debian package is produced without care and has a wrong version number.

You can install the Debian package that’s downloadable from the GitHub releases page using dpkg or apt or another frontend.

Cabal install

Clone this repository and run

cabal install

NixOS install

This repository provides a Nixpkgs overlay you can use to get this into your flake-based NixOS or home-manager config.
Add github:schuelermine/ret to your inputs, add ret.overlays.default to your overlays, and add ret to your packages.

How to build

You can build it using The Haskell Cabal or Nix.

Cabal build

Use cabal-the-tool:

cabal build

Nix build

First, enable the nix-command and flakes experimental features.
Then, run:

nix build

Build a Debian package

Make sure that you have Nix installed and enabled the nix-command and flakes experimental features.

nix bundle --bundler bundlers#toDEB