Fasd is a self-contained posix shell script that can be either sourced or executed. A Makefile is provided to install `fasd` and `fasd.1` to desired places. System-wide install: make install Install to $HOME: PREFIX=$HOME make install Or alternatively you can just copy `fasd` to anywhere you like. To get fasd working in a shell, some initialization code must be run. Put the line below in your shell rc. eval "$(fasd --init auto)" This will setup a command hook that executes on every command and advanced tab completion for zsh and bash. If you want more control over what gets into your shell environment, you can pass customized set of arguments to `fasd --init`. zsh-hook # define _fasd_preexec and add it to zsh preexec array zsh-ccomp # zsh command mode completion definitions zsh-ccomp-install # setup command mode completion for zsh zsh-wcomp # zsh word mode completion definitions zsh-wcomp-install # setup word mode completion for zsh bash-hook # add hook code to bash $PROMPT_COMMAND bash-ccomp # bash command mode completion definitions bash-ccomp-install # setup command mode completion for bash posix-alias # define alias that applies to all posix shells posix-hook # setup $PS1 hook for shells that's posix compatible tcsh-alias # define aliases for tcsh tcsh-hook # setup tcsh precmd alias Example for a minimal zsh setup (no tab completion): eval "$(fasd --init posix-alias zsh-hook)" Note that this method will slightly increase your shell start-up time, since calling binaries has overhead. You can cache fasd init code if you want minimal overhead. Example code for bash (to be put into .bashrc): fasd_cache="$HOME/.fasd-init-bash" if [ "$(command -v fasd)" -nt "$fasd_cache" -o ! -s "$fasd_cache" ]; then fasd --init posix-alias bash-hook bash-ccomp bash-ccomp-install >| "$fasd_cache" fi source "$fasd_cache" unset fasd_cache Optionally, if you can also source `fasd` if you want `fasd` to be a shell function instead of an executable. You can tweak initialization code. For instance, if you want to use "c" instead of "z" to do directory jumping. You run the code below: # function to execute built-in cd fasd_cd() { if [ $# -le 1 ]; then fasd "$@" else local _fasd_ret="$(fasd -e echo "$@")" [ -z "$_fasd_ret" ] && return [ -d "$_fasd_ret" ] && cd "$_fasd_ret" || echo "$_fasd_ret" fi } alias c='fasd_cd -d' # `-d' option present for bash completion