autojump not working in Ubuntu

Created on 10 Nov 2015 · 6Comments · Source: wting/autojump

I did sudo apt-get install autojump which installed v21.7.1; however, it does not pick up directories that i cd into, as I can verify with j -s. There's a remark in the readme that warns people to mess around with $PROMPT_COMMAND, and, in fact, i had

export PROMPT_COMMAND="history -a; history -c; history -r; $PROMPT_COMMAND"

in my .bashrc. I've since out-commented that line, restarted and re-installed autojump to no avail.

1)—could the cause of autojump not working be something else?

2)—the readme isn't very clear of what a working $PROMPT_COMMAND line would have too look like; is export PROMPT_COMMAND="history -a" meant as an example for how to _do_ it or for how _not_ to do it (disclosure: I tried and sourced, to no avail)

3)—the readme doesn't give away a clear diagnostic to ascertain whether $PROMPT_COMMAND is or is not the culprit; IOW: what value/text should that variable have/contain to make autojump work properly?

Source

loveencounterflow

Most helpful comment

Update I added source /usr/share/autojump/autojump.bash to my .bashrc as recommended by http://askubuntu.com/a/185996. Now the autojump DB does pick up directories as I visit them.

However, now when I do j xxx I do get a suggested target path printed out, but autojump leaves it at that and does not cd into that directory.

I think the current issue is still valid, so I leave it open.

loveencounterflow on 10 Nov 2015

👍5

All 6 comments

Update I added source /usr/share/autojump/autojump.bash to my .bashrc as recommended by http://askubuntu.com/a/185996. Now the autojump DB does pick up directories as I visit them.

However, now when I do j xxx I do get a suggested target path printed out, but autojump leaves it at that and does not cd into that directory.

I think the current issue is still valid, so I leave it open.

loveencounterflow on 10 Nov 2015

👍5

Hrm, I just looked in autojump.bash and it does an awful lot more than the docs indicated.

I use PROMPT_COMMAND for something else, but the docs said autojump needs it for things, so I was careful to add 'history -a' as the docs indicated I'd need to do; but, of course, it still didn't pick up new directories.

Source diving on autojump.bash indicated I really needed to simply source autojump after I add my PROMPT_COMMAND _or_ add 'autojump_add_to_database' (not history -a).

jettero on 9 Feb 2016

:+1: on ubuntu autojump does not cd, only prints the path

mgcrea on 24 Feb 2016

Is this still an issue?

r-barnes on 30 Jul 2018

I barely remember the discussion... (2016?). It's solved on my end. I couldn't say if it's a problem for others, but the trouble for me was that I overuse my PROMPT_COMMAND and I have to really carefully inject autojump manually or it won't work.

jettero on 10 Aug 2018

I'm still facing this issue. It's just printing the current path and not actually cd-ing.