I've been using the following in some form for over 3 decades! (now in zsh) alias .=cd In /bin/sh "." sources a script. While this can be common in a sc

I've been using the following in some form for over 3 decades! (now in zsh) alias .=cd In /bin/sh "." sources a script. While this can be common in a script, one rarely does this interactively so I usurped . for the most common operation! alias ,=pushd alias ,,=popd alias ,.=dirs Think of cd as a goto, pushd as a call, popd as a return and dirs as a stack trace! ..() { cd ../$* } cdpath=(. .. ~/src ~) Use of cdpath can be confusing so it is best to show part of $PWD in the prompt: PS1="%* %5. %h%(#.#.:) " This ends the prompt with a # if you are running as superuser. These aliases/functions are enabled in .zshrc (only if run interactively -- that is, they are included below the following test): if [[ ! -o interactive ]] ; then return; fi The "benefit" of Jeroen's mark/unmark is that these paths persist (and can be used from any window running a shell. I have not found much need for that + I can have different $dirs in different windows. Also, given that my shell windows (under screen) persist for a very long time, I don't need symlink's persistence! Alternatively I define "." to be a function that does arg specific operation (cd if a dir, acroread if .pdf, vi if text etc.).