If I want to navigate inside folder with long hard-to-type name, is there way to use 'cd' with some kind of shortened name of this folder, to get free from unnecessary work?
Linux – ‘cd’ command in terminal – using partial folder name
command linelinuxterminal
Related Solutions
USB usually isn't used for the classic "dumb terminal" paradigm, although as Chris mentioned in his answer you could get a USB-serial adapter. The traditional terminal is old, CRT-based and large, and you want small.
Since your'e looking for small, try the Nokia N810 net tablet. My friend has discovered that he can use VNC with it to control his PC, you could just as easily use ssh or telnet to connect to your main PC. He's a DJ, and has a PC-controllable Yamaha mixer, and so will use the N810 to control his PC, which then controls his mixer... as your application would be far simpler, I would think it would be very doable. The N810 runs a modified version of Debian Linux, so you should be able to get a ssh client to run in its' terminal window (according to one forum post I found, it comes with a ssh client). Plus, you can do this wirelessly, which cuts down on the cordage. The cheaper Nokia N800 would also do this too.
Either that, or get a netbook, overwrite the OS with a Linux distribution that lets you use the commandline, and do the same thing.
After much searching, I have a solution: Use Powershell. It is an advanced command-line tool with scripting language and is available on Windows 7.
Just type power into search on start and click the powershell icon (as illustrated). It might take a second to boot but it is a good utility.
Here is tabbing (cycling) through alphnumeric folders...
P.s. Changing the functionailty of the command-line completion on ordinary CMD does not seem to be an option. You can only turn it on or off. The other alternative is to download a different SHELL (Console2 for instance) but Powershell works fine and should do all you need. For the name alone "PowerShell", it is pretty cool ;-)
Best Answer
If you know that the name is unique after a few typed letters, you can do – for example to go to the folder "FooBarBaz":
The
*glob will expand to the name of all folders starting withFoo, andcdwill go to the first folder found.The same works the other way around, or if the part you know is in the middle of the folder name:
This probably requires the least keypresses. You can just press Enter and it'll expand automatically.
You can get even shorter if you set the
autocdoption, assuming you use Bash, withshopt -s autocd. It requires you only to type the directory name withoutcdto have the shellcdto it. For example:Of course, you can add this option to your shell's configuration file to have it loaded automatically (e.g.,
~/.bash_profileor~/.bashrc, depending on what you use).