GitPedia

Goto

Alias and navigate to directories with tab completion in Linux

From iridakos·Updated May 18, 2026·View on GitHub·

A shell utility allowing users to navigate to aliased directories supporting auto-completion :feet: The project is written primarily in Shell, distributed under the MIT License license, first published in 2018. Key topics include: aliases, bash, directories, linux, productivity.

Latest release: v2.0.0Version 2.0.0
January 28, 2020View Changelog →

goto

A shell utility allowing users to navigate to aliased directories supporting auto-completion :feet:

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How does it work?

User registers directory aliases, for example:

bash
goto -r dev /home/iridakos/development

and then cds to that directory with:

bash
goto dev

goto demo gif

goto completion

goto comes with a nice auto-completion script so that whenever you press the tab key after the goto command, bash or zsh prompts with suggestions of the available aliases:

bash
$ goto <tab> bc /etc/bash_completion.d dev /home/iridakos/development rubies /home/iridakos/.rvm/rubies

Installation

Via script

Clone the repository and run the install script as super user or root:

bash
git clone https://github.com/iridakos/goto.git cd goto sudo ./install

Manually

Copy the file goto.sh somewhere in your filesystem and add a line in your .zshrc or .bashrc to source it.

For example, if you placed the file in your home folder, all you have to do is add the following line to your .zshrc or .bashrc file:

bash
source ~/goto.sh

macOS - Homebrew

A formula named goto is available for the bash shell in macOS.

bash
brew install goto

Add colored <tab> output

bash
echo -e "\$include /etc/inputrc\nset colored-completion-prefix on" >> ~/.inputrc

Note:

  • you need to restart your shell after installation
  • you need to have the bash completion feature enabled for bash in macOS (see this issue):
    • you can install it with brew install bash-completion in case you don't have it already

Usage

Change to an aliased directory

To change to an aliased directory, type:

bash
goto <alias>

Example:

bash
goto dev

Register an alias

To register a directory alias, type:

bash
goto -r <alias> <directory>

or

bash
goto --register <alias> <directory>

Example:

bash
goto -r blog /mnt/external/projects/html/blog

or

bash
goto --register blog /mnt/external/projects/html/blog

Notes

  • goto expands the directories hence you can easily alias your current directory with:
bash
goto -r last_release .

and it will automatically be aliased to the whole path.

  • Pressing the tab key after the alias name, you have the default directory suggestions by the shell.

Unregister an alias

To unregister an alias, use:

bash
goto -u <alias>

or

bash
goto --unregister <alias>

Example

goto -u last_release

or

goto --unregister last_release

Notes

Pressing the tab key after the command (-u or --unregister), the completion script will prompt you with the list of registered aliases for your convenience.

List aliases

To get the list of your currently registered aliases, use:

bash
goto -l

or

bash
goto --list

Expand an alias

To expand an alias to its value, use:

bash
goto -x <alias>

or

bash
goto --expand <alias>

Example

bash
goto -x last_release

or

bash
goto --expand last_release

Cleanup

To cleanup the aliases from directories that are no longer accessible in your filesystem, use:

bash
goto -c

or

bash
goto --cleanup

Help

To view the tool's help information, use:

bash
goto -h

or

bash
goto --help

Version

To view the tool's version, use:

bash
goto -v

or

bash
goto --version

Extras

Push before changing directories

To first push the current directory onto the directory stack before changing directories, type:

bash
goto -p <alias>

or

bash
goto --push <alias>

Revert to a pushed directory

To return to a pushed directory, type:

bash
goto -o

or

bash
goto --pop

Notes

This command is equivalent to popd, but within the goto command.

Troubleshooting

Updating from 1.x to 2.x

From version 2.x and after, the goto DB file is located in the $XDG_CONFIG_HOME or in the ~/.config directory under the name goto.

If you updated from version 1.x to 2.x or newer, you need to move this file which was previously located at ~/.goto.

Note that the new file is not hidden, it does not start with a dot .

zsh

command not found: compdef

In case you get such an error, you need to load the bashcompinit. Append this to your .zshrc file:

bash
autoload bashcompinit bashcompinit

TODO

  • Test on macOS extensively
  • Write tests

Contributing

  1. Fork it ( https://github.com/iridakos/goto/fork )
  2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature)
  3. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add some feature')
  4. Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature)
  5. Make sure that the script does not have errors or warning on ShellCheck
  6. Create a new Pull Request

License

This tool is open source under the MIT License terms.

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Contributors

Showing top 12 contributors by commit count.

View all contributors on GitHub →

This article is auto-generated from iridakos/goto via the GitHub API.Last fetched: 6/18/2026