SCC ado fastcd installed but not recognized

[Jorrit Gosens]

As a bit of a followup to a thread on using pathnames in do files (here)

I want to clean up some of my do files with fastcd from SSC. Somehow the installation is not recognized. Should I move the fastcd ado?
I have not changed any ado folder settings on this installation of Stata.

​. fastcd cur ddata
unrecognized command:  fastcd
r(199);

. ssc install fastcd
checking fastcd consistency and verifying not already installed...
all files already exist and are up to date.

. sysdir
   STATA:  C:\Program Files (x86)\Stata13\
    BASE:  C:\Program Files (x86)\Stata13\ado\base\
    SITE:  C:\Program Files (x86)\Stata13\ado\site\
    PLUS:  c:\ado\plus\
PERSONAL:  c:\ado\personal\
OLDPLACE:  c:\ado\

[Martyn Sherriff]

Try installing dirtools from SSC and described here http://www.stata.com/meeting/germany...e14_kohler.pdf, and all you have to do is type 'c':

. c
martyn C:\Users\Martyn\OneDrive\Martyn\Stata
sd C:\Stata Data
               
  c code          to change directories
  c cur  code     to add current directory to database
  c drop code     to drop entry

. pwd
C:\Stata Data

. c martyn
C:\Users\Martyn\OneDrive\Martyn\Stata

. pwd
C:\Users\Martyn\OneDrive\Martyn\Stata

Martyn

[Jorrit Gosens]

Okay, thanks, that does the trick as well.
Still very confused about the behavior of fastcd though.

[Scott Merryman]

Though helpfile lists the command as fastcd the actual command is just c

. ssc install fastcd
checking fastcd consistency and verifying not already installed...
all files already exist and are up to date.

. c
               data C:\DATA

  c code          to change directories
  c cur  code     to add current directory to database
  c drop code     to drop entry

[Nick Cox]

See also

. ssc desc fastcd

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
package fastcd from http://fmwww.bc.edu/repec/bocode/f
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TITLE
      'FASTCD': module to automate changing directories

DESCRIPTION/AUTHOR(S)
      
      The fastcd package contains the Stata command 'c', which
      automates the process of changing directories within Stata. The
      command allows you to build a database of commonly-used directory
      paths, and to associate a short mnemonic code with each.
      
      KW: directories
      KW: do-files
      
      Requires: Stata version 7.0
      
      
      Author: Nick Winter,  University of Virginia
      Support: email  [email protected]
      
      Distribution-Date: 20051029

INSTALLATION FILES                               (type net install fastcd)
      ../c/c.ado
      fastcd.hlp
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(type -ssc install fastcd- to install)

[Jorrit Gosens]

Aha. That explains my confusion.
Thanks

[Nick Cox]

This all stems from a feature built in to the ssc command. Try

ssc desc c

to see that it lists packages whose names begin with c, as a convenience to those guessing or remembering about a package, but not being confident on its exact name.

It follows that the letters a ... z _ are forbidden as package names on SSC, a small price to pay for this, we think. (As far as I know, this is the only package so far obliged to choose a name other than that of its main command.)

[Jorrit Gosens]

Aha. Well, that's fair enough, but the 'help fastcd' file could make better (read: any) mention of this. Codes and examples given there just dont work.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
help for fastcd                                                                                                                    Nicholas Winter
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Utility to automate changing directories

     fastcd

     fastcd code

     fastcd cur new_code

     fastcd drop existing_code


---------------------------------------------------------------
Examples

     . fastcd

            bowling U:\nwinter\marketing\Putnam\bowlingdata
            brrsims U:\nwinter\StataData\brrsims
                ccd c:\usrdata\ccd
             nascar c:\usrdata\nascar

            fastcd code          to change directories
            fastcd cur  code     to add current directory to database
            fastcd drop code     to drop entry

     . fastcd ccd
     c:\usrdata\ccd

[Nick Cox]

Now you have cause to take this up with the author. He visits here occasionally, but I would write to him direct. The email address in the help file is valid.

[Jorrit Gosens]

Thanks, I just have. Good thing there's always this list for these types of questions.