fzf

Section: fzf - a command-line fuzzy finder (1)
Updated: Feb 2020
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NAME

fzf - a command-line fuzzy finder

 

SYNOPSIS

fzf [options]

 

DESCRIPTION

fzf is a general-purpose command-line fuzzy finder.

 

OPTIONS

 

Search mode

-x, --extended
Extended-search mode. Since 0.10.9, this is enabled by default. You can disable it with +x or --no-extended.
-e, --exact
Enable exact-match
-i
Case-insensitive match (default: smart-case match)
+i
Case-sensitive match
--literal
Do not normalize latin script letters for matching.
--algo=TYPE
Fuzzy matching algorithm (default: v2)


v2 Optimal scoring algorithm (quality)
v1 Faster but not guaranteed to find the optimal result (performance)

-n, --nth=N[,..]
Comma-separated list of field index expressions for limiting search scope. See FIELD INDEX EXPRESSION for the details.
--with-nth=N[,..]
Transform the presentation of each line using field index expressions
-d, --delimiter=STR
Field delimiter regex for --nth and --with-nth (default: AWK-style)
--phony
Do not perform search. With this option, fzf becomes a simple selector interface rather than a "fuzzy finder".
 

Search result

+s, --no-sort
Do not sort the result
--tac
Reverse the order of the input

e.g.
     history | fzf --tac --no-sort
--tiebreak=CRI[,..]
Comma-separated list of sort criteria to apply when the scores are tied.


length Prefers line with shorter length
begin Prefers line with matched substring closer to the beginning
end Prefers line with matched substring closer to the end
index Prefers line that appeared earlier in the input stream


- Each criterion should appear only once in the list
- index is only allowed at the end of the list
- index is implicitly appended to the list when not specified
- Default is length (or equivalently length,index)
- If end is found in the list, fzf will scan each line backwards

 

Interface

-m, --multi
Enable multi-select with tab/shift-tab. It optionally takes an integer argument which denotes the maximum number of items that can be selected.
+m, --no-multi
Disable multi-select
--no-mouse
Disable mouse
--bind=KEYBINDS
Comma-separated list of custom key bindings. See KEY/EVENT BINDINGS for the details.
--cycle
Enable cyclic scroll
--no-hscroll
Disable horizontal scroll
--hscroll-off=COL
Number of screen columns to keep to the right of the highlighted substring (default: 10). Setting it to a large value will cause the text to be positioned on the center of the screen.
--filepath-word
Make word-wise movements and actions respect path separators. The following actions are affected:

backward-kill-word
backward-word
forward-word
kill-word

--jump-labels=CHARS
Label characters for jump and jump-accept
 

Layout

--height=HEIGHT[%]
Display fzf window below the cursor with the given height instead of using the full screen.
--min-height=HEIGHT
Minimum height when --height is given in percent (default: 10). Ignored when --height is not specified.
--layout=LAYOUT
Choose the layout (default: default)


default Display from the bottom of the screen
reverse Display from the top of the screen
reverse-list Display from the top of the screen, prompt at the bottom

--reverse
A synonym for --layout=reverse

--border
Draw border above and below the finder

--no-unicode
Use ASCII characters instead of Unicode box drawing characters to draw border

--margin=MARGIN
Comma-separated expression for margins around the finder.


TRBL Same margin for top, right, bottom, and left
TB,RL Vertical, horizontal margin
T,RL,B Top, horizontal, bottom margin
T,R,B,L Top, right, bottom, left margin


Each part can be given in absolute number or in percentage relative to the terminal size with % suffix.


e.g.
     fzf --margin 10%
     fzf --margin 1,5%

--info=STYLE
Determines the display style of finder info.


default Display on the next line to the prompt
inline Display on the same line
hidden Do not display finder info

--no-info
A synonym for --info=hidden

--prompt=STR
Input prompt (default: '> ')
--pointer=STR
Pointer to the current line (default: '>')
--marker=STR
Multi-select marker (default: '>')
--header=STR
The given string will be printed as the sticky header. The lines are displayed in the given order from top to bottom regardless of --layout option, and are not affected by --with-nth. ANSI color codes are processed even when --ansi is not set.
--header-lines=N
The first N lines of the input are treated as the sticky header. When --with-nth is set, the lines are transformed just like the other lines that follow.
 

Display

--ansi
Enable processing of ANSI color codes
--tabstop=SPACES
Number of spaces for a tab character (default: 8)
--color=[BASE_SCHEME][,COLOR:ANSI]
Color configuration. The name of the base color scheme is followed by custom color mappings. Ansi color code of -1 denotes terminal default foreground/background color. You can also specify 24-bit color in #rrggbb format.

BASE SCHEME:
    (default: dark on 256-color terminal, otherwise 16)


    dark    Color scheme for dark 256-color terminal
    light   Color scheme for light 256-color terminal
    16      Color scheme for 16-color terminal
    bw      No colors (equivalent to --no-color)

COLOR:
    fg         Text
    bg         Background
    preview-fg Preview window text
    preview-bg Preview window background
    hl         Highlighted substrings
    fg+        Text (current line)
    bg+        Background (current line)
    gutter     Gutter on the left (defaults to bg+)
    hl+        Highlighted substrings (current line)
    info       Info
    border     Border of the preview window and horizontal separators (--border)
    prompt     Prompt
    pointer    Pointer to the current line
    marker     Multi-select marker
    spinner    Streaming input indicator
    header     Header

EXAMPLES:


     # Seoul256 theme with 8-bit colors
     # (https://github.com/junegunn/seoul256.vim) 
     fzf --color='bg:237,bg+:236,info:143,border:240,spinner:108' \
         --color='hl:65,fg:252,header:65,fg+:252' \
         --color='pointer:161,marker:168,prompt:110,hl+:108'


     # Seoul256 theme with 24-bit colors
     fzf --color='bg:#4B4B4B,bg+:#3F3F3F,info:#BDBB72,border:#6B6B6B,spinner:#98BC99' \
         --color='hl:#719872,fg:#D9D9D9,header:#719872,fg+:#D9D9D9' \
         --color='pointer:#E12672,marker:#E17899,prompt:#98BEDE,hl+:#98BC99'

--no-bold
Do not use bold text
--black
Use black background
 

History

--history=HISTORY_FILE
Load search history from the specified file and update the file on completion. When enabled, CTRL-N and CTRL-P are automatically remapped to next-history and previous-history.
--history-size=N
Maximum number of entries in the history file (default: 1000). The file is automatically truncated when the number of the lines exceeds the value.
 

Preview

--preview=COMMAND
Execute the given command for the current line and display the result on the preview window. {} in the command is the placeholder that is replaced to the single-quoted string of the current line. To transform the replacement string, specify field index expressions between the braces (See FIELD INDEX EXPRESSION for the details).

e.g.
     fzf --preview='head -$LINES {}'
     ls -l | fzf --preview="echo user={3} when={-4..-2}; cat {-1}" --header-lines=1

fzf exports $FZF_PREVIEW_LINES and $FZF_PREVIEW_COLUMNS so that they represent the exact size of the preview window. (It also overrides $LINES and $COLUMNS with the same values but they can be reset by the default shell, so prefer to refer to the ones with FZF_PREVIEW_ prefix.)

A placeholder expression starting with + flag will be replaced to the space-separated list of the selected lines (or the current line if no selection was made) individually quoted.

e.g.
     fzf --multi --preview='head -10 {+}'
     git log --oneline | fzf --multi --preview 'git show {+1}'

When using a field index expression, leading and trailing whitespace is stripped from the replacement string. To preserve the whitespace, use the s flag.

Also, {q} is replaced to the current query string, and {n} is replaced to zero-based ordinal index of the line. Use {+n} if you want all index numbers when multiple lines are selected.

A placeholder expression with f flag is replaced to the path of a temporary file that holds the evaluated list. This is useful when you multi-select a large number of items and the length of the evaluated string may exceed ARG_MAX.

e.g.
     # Press CTRL-A to select 100K items and see the sum of all the numbers.
     # This won't work properly without 'f' flag due to ARG_MAX limit.
     seq 100000 | fzf --multi --bind ctrl-a:select-all \
                      --preview "awk '{sum+=1} END {print sum}' {+f}"

Note that you can escape a placeholder pattern by prepending a backslash.

Preview window will be updated even when there is no match for the current query if any of the placeholder expressions evaluates to a non-empty string.

--preview-window=[POSITION][:SIZE[%]][:noborder][:wrap][:hidden]
Determines the layout of the preview window. If the argument contains :hidden, the preview window will be hidden by default until toggle-preview action is triggered. Long lines are truncated by default. Line wrap can be enabled with :wrap flag.

If size is given as 0, preview window will not be visible, but fzf will still execute the command in the background.

POSITION: (default: right)
    up
    down
    left
    right

e.g.
     fzf --preview="head {}" --preview-window=up:30%
     fzf --preview="file {}" --preview-window=down:1
 

Scripting

-q, --query=STR
Start the finder with the given query
-1, --select-1
Automatically select the only match
-0, --exit-0
Exit immediately when there's no match
-f, --filter=STR
Filter mode. Do not start interactive finder. When used with --no-sort, fzf becomes a fuzzy-version of grep.
--print-query
Print query as the first line
--expect=KEY[,..]
Comma-separated list of keys that can be used to complete fzf in addition to the default enter key. When this option is set, fzf will print the name of the key pressed as the first line of its output (or as the second line if --print-query is also used). The line will be empty if fzf is completed with the default enter key. If --expect option is specified multiple times, fzf will expect the union of the keys. --no-expect will clear the list.

e.g.
     fzf --expect=ctrl-v,ctrl-t,alt-s --expect=f1,f2,~,@
--read0
Read input delimited by ASCII NUL characters instead of newline characters
--print0
Print output delimited by ASCII NUL characters instead of newline characters
--no-clear
Do not clear finder interface on exit. If fzf was started in full screen mode, it will not switch back to the original screen, so you'll have to manually run tput rmcup to return. This option can be used to avoid flickering of the screen when your application needs to start fzf multiple times in order.
--sync
Synchronous search for multi-staged filtering. If specified, fzf will launch ncurses finder only after the input stream is complete.

e.g. fzf --multi | fzf --sync
--version
Display version information and exit

Note that most options have the opposite versions with --no- prefix.

 

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

FZF_DEFAULT_COMMAND
Default command to use when input is tty. On *nix systems, fzf runs the command with sh -c, so make sure that it's POSIX-compliant.
FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS
Default options. e.g. export FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS="--extended --cycle"

 

EXIT STATUS

0 Normal exit
1 No match
2 Error
130 Interrupted with CTRL-C or ESC

 

FIELD INDEX EXPRESSION

A field index expression can be a non-zero integer or a range expression ([BEGIN]..[END]). --nth and --with-nth take a comma-separated list of field index expressions.

 

Examples

1 The 1st field
2 The 2nd field
-1 The last field
-2 The 2nd to last field
3..5 From the 3rd field to the 5th field
2.. From the 2nd field to the last field
..-3 From the 1st field to the 3rd to the last field
.. All the fields

 

EXTENDED SEARCH MODE

Unless specified otherwise, fzf will start in "extended-search mode". In this mode, you can specify multiple patterns delimited by spaces, such as: 'wild ^music .mp3$ sbtrkt !rmx

You can prepend a backslash to a space (\ ) to match a literal space character.

 

Exact-match (quoted)

A term that is prefixed by a single-quote character (') is interpreted as an "exact-match" (or "non-fuzzy") term. fzf will search for the exact occurrences of the string.

 

Anchored-match

A term can be prefixed by ^, or suffixed by $ to become an anchored-match term. Then fzf will search for the lines that start with or end with the given string. An anchored-match term is also an exact-match term.

 

Negation

If a term is prefixed by !, fzf will exclude the lines that satisfy the term from the result. In this case, fzf performs exact match by default.

 

Exact-match by default

If you don't prefer fuzzy matching and do not wish to "quote" (prefixing with ') every word, start fzf with -e or --exact option. Note that when --exact is set, '-prefix "unquotes" the term.

 

OR operator

A single bar character term acts as an OR operator. For example, the following query matches entries that start with core and end with either go, rb, or py.

e.g. ^core go$ | rb$ | py$

 

KEY/EVENT BINDINGS

--bind option allows you to bind a key or an event to one or more actions. You can use it to customize key bindings or implement dynamic behaviors.

--bind takes a comma-separated list of binding expressions. Each binding expression is KEY:ACTION or EVENT:ACTION.

e.g.
     fzf --bind=ctrl-j:accept,ctrl-k:kill-line

 

AVAILABLE KEYS: (SYNONYMS)

ctrl-[a-z]
ctrl-space
ctrl-\
ctrl-]
ctrl-^ (ctrl-6)
ctrl-/ (ctrl-_)
ctrl-alt-[a-z]
alt-[a-z]
alt-[0-9]
f[1-12]
enter (return ctrl-m)
space
bspace (bs)
alt-up
alt-down
alt-left
alt-right
alt-enter
alt-space
alt-bspace (alt-bs)
alt-/
tab
btab (shift-tab)
esc
del
up
down
left
right
home
end
insert
pgup (page-up)
pgdn (page-down)
shift-up
shift-down
shift-left
shift-right
left-click
right-click
double-click
or any single character

 

AVAILABLE EVENTS:

change (triggered whenever the query string is changed)


    e.g.
         # Moves cursor to the top (or bottom depending on --layout) whenever the query is changed
         fzf --bind change:top

 

AVAILABLE ACTIONS:

A key or an event can be bound to one or more of the following actions.


  ACTION:               DEFAULT BINDINGS (NOTES):
    abort
                 ctrl-c  ctrl-g  ctrl-q  esc
    accept                enter   double-click
    accept-non-empty      (same as accept except that it prevents fzf from exiting without selection)
    backward-char         ctrl-b  left
    backward-delete-char  ctrl-h  bspace
    backward-kill-word    alt-bs
    backward-word         alt-b   shift-left
    beginning-of-line     ctrl-a  home
    cancel                (clear query string if not empty, abort fzf otherwise)
    clear-screen          ctrl-l
    clear-selection       (clear multi-selection)
    clear-query           (clear query string)
    delete-char           del
    delete-char/eof       ctrl-d
    deselect-all          (deselect all matches)
    down                  ctrl-j  ctrl-n  down
    end-of-line           ctrl-e  end
    execute(...)          (see below for the details)
    execute-silent(...)   (see below for the details)
    execute-multi(...)    (deprecated in favor of {+} expression)
    forward-char          ctrl-f  right
    forward-word          alt-f   shift-right
    ignore
    jump                  (EasyMotion-like 2-keystroke movement)
    jump-accept           (jump and accept)
    kill-line
    kill-word             alt-d
    next-history          (ctrl-n on --history)
    page-down             pgdn
    page-up               pgup
    half-page-down
    half-page-up
    preview-down          shift-down
    preview-up            shift-up
    preview-page-down
    preview-page-up
    previous-history      (ctrl-p on --history)
    print-query           (print query and exit)
    reload(...)           (see below for the details)
    replace-query         (replace query string with the current selection)
    select-all            (select all matches)
    toggle                (right-click)
    toggle-all            (toggle all matches)
    toggle+down           ctrl-i  (tab)
    toggle-in             (--layout=reverse* ? toggle+up : toggle+down)
    toggle-out            (--layout=reverse* ? toggle+down : toggle+up)
    toggle-preview
    toggle-preview-wrap
    toggle-sort
    toggle+up             btab    (shift-tab)
    top                   (move to the top result)
    unix-line-discard     ctrl-u
    unix-word-rubout      ctrl-w
    up                    ctrl-k  ctrl-p  up
    yank                  ctrl-y

 

ACTION COMPOSITION

Multiple actions can be chained using + separator.

e.g.
     fzf --bind 'ctrl-a:select-all+accept'

 

COMMAND EXECUTION

With execute(...) action, you can execute arbitrary commands without leaving fzf. For example, you can turn fzf into a simple file browser by binding enter key to less command like follows.


    fzf --bind "enter:execute(less {})"

You can use the same placeholder expressions as in --preview.

If the command contains parentheses, fzf may fail to parse the expression. In that case, you can use any of the following alternative notations to avoid parse errors.


    execute[...]
    execute~...~
    execute!...!
    execute@...@
    execute#...#
    execute$...$
    execute%...%
    execute^...^
    execute&...&
    execute*...*
    execute;...;
    execute/.../
    execute|...|
    execute:...

The last one is the special form that frees you from parse errors as it does not expect the closing character. The catch is that it should be the last one in the comma-separated list of key-action pairs.

fzf switches to the alternate screen when executing a command. However, if the command is expected to complete quickly, and you are not interested in its output, you might want to use execute-silent instead, which silently executes the command without the switching. Note that fzf will not be responsive until the command is complete. For asynchronous execution, start your command as a background process (i.e. appending &).

 

RELOAD INPUT

reload(...) action is used to dynamically update the input list without restarting fzf. It takes the same command template with placeholder expressions as execute(...).

See https://github.com/junegunn/fzf/issues/1750 for more info.

e.g.
     # Update the list of processes by pressing CTRL-R
     ps -ef | fzf --bind 'ctrl-r:reload(ps -ef)' --header 'Press CTRL-R to reload' \
                  --header-lines=1 --layout=reverse


     # Integration with ripgrep
     RG_PREFIX="rg --column --line-number --no-heading --color=always --smart-case "
     INITIAL_QUERY="foobar"
     FZF_DEFAULT_COMMAND="$RG_PREFIX '$INITIAL_QUERY'" \
       fzf --bind "change:reload:$RG_PREFIX {q} || true" \
           --ansi --phony --query "$INITIAL_QUERY"

 

AUTHOR

Junegunn Choi (junegunn.c@gmail.com)

 

SEE ALSO

Project homepage:
https://github.com/junegunn/fzf


Extra Vim plugin:

https://github.com/junegunn/fzf.vim

 

LICENSE

MIT


 

Index

NAME
SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
OPTIONS
Search mode
Search result
Interface
Layout
Display
History
Preview
Scripting
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
EXIT STATUS
FIELD INDEX EXPRESSION
Examples
EXTENDED SEARCH MODE
Exact-match (quoted)
Anchored-match
Negation
Exact-match by default
OR operator
KEY/EVENT BINDINGS
AVAILABLE KEYS: (SYNONYMS)
AVAILABLE EVENTS:
AVAILABLE ACTIONS:
ACTION COMPOSITION
COMMAND EXECUTION
RELOAD INPUT
AUTHOR
SEE ALSO
LICENSE

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