Provide an option to use cd on quit without requiring implementation as a shell function

[enoryw]

The feature "cd on quit" is useful for but AFAIK it's only possible to use this by running nnn in a wrapper shell function. This seems like an arbitrary requirement given that nnn is lightweight, extensible, and runs in a limited environment. How about supporting the feature natively?

Or at least e.g. an option to output the last path on exit, so that you can do `cd "$(nnn)" in the shell. I run nnn in an nnn wrapper script--I would rather not load the entire setup in shell config (prefer to keep it light and non-application-specific) and which could technically affect shell startup (not a real concern).

[N-R-K]

How about supporting the feature natively?

Not possible

Or at least e.g. an option to output the last path on exit

The last path is output to $NNN_TMPFILE, it's what the cd on quit function uses to cd on the parent shell. You can use the same logic in your custom wrapper.

I run nnn in an nnn wrapper script

This is, I repeat, not possible. A child process (the wrapper script) cannot change the working directory of the parent process (the interactive shell).

[enoryw]

I see. The following works in the shell config (least code required):

NNN_TMPFILE="${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-$HOME/.config}/nnn/.lastd"

n() {
  nnn-wrapper

  if [[ -f "$NNN_TMPFILE" ]]; then
      . "$NNN_TMPFILE"
      rm -f "$NNN_TMPFILE" > /dev/null
  fi
}

Can you describe a little why exporting vs. not exporting NNN_TMPFILE and why it needs to be a particular path for "cd only on ^G" to work? When I start nnn, I see its value of NNN_TMPFILE is set for it whether or not NNN_TMPFILE was exported, so how is this different? I assume the particular path is hardcoded in the code. I understand child process cannot change the working dir of the parent so it saves the location for the parent to source it once the child process ends and that export makes available a variable to its children processes but can't piece together how "cd only on ^G" works.

Appreciate it.

[N-R-K]

If NNN_TMPFILE is not set, nnn will write the last path only on quitting via ^G to the "hardcoded" path. If it is defined, it will write it always.

[enoryw]

Even without export, when I start nnn and start a shell with ! binding, it sees this custom value, so isn't it still set in nnn? Why does nnn not just use the value of NNN_TMPFILE it sees and instead uses a hardcoded path? Asking out of curiosity and to learn but also being able to define custom value of NNN_TMPFILE for nnn to write to (e.g. a path in tmpfs) seems to make a little more sense than to write to disk on "cd only on ^G" to hardcoded path. I prefer to define any non-essential state changes in tmpfs/memory over writing to disk.

I only suggest using a custom value of $NNN_TMPFILE for "cd only on ^G" because nnn provides other variables to use like NNN_SEL and NNN_FIFO which also carry state changes so also make sense to set to e.g. a path in tmpfs/memory.