junegunn/fzf

Show your love for fzf -- T-shirts, mugs, and stickers now available!

commitgoods.com/collections/fzf

fzf is a general-purpose command-line fuzzy finder and an interactive terminal toolkit.

Whether you're selecting files, browsing command history, previewing data, navigating complex datasets with fuzzy matching, or creating custom menus and workflows, fzf provides the building blocks to turn shell scripts into rich terminal applications.

Highlights

• Portable // Distributed as a single binary for easy installation
• Fast // Optimized to process millions of items in milliseconds
• Programmable // Event-driven architecture for building custom terminal interfaces and workflows
• Batteries-included // Comes with integrations for Bash, Zsh, Fish, Nushell, Vim, and Neovim

Table of Contents

• Installation
  • Using Homebrew
  • Using Mise
  • Linux packages
  • Windows packages
  • Using git
  • Binary releases
  • Setting up shell integration
  • Vim/Neovim plugin
• Upgrading fzf
• Building fzf
• Usage
  • Using the finder
  • Display modes
    • --height mode
    • --popup mode
  • Search syntax
  • Environment variables
  • Customizing the look
  • Options
  • Demo
• Examples
• Key bindings for command-line
• Fuzzy completion
  • Files and directories
  • Process IDs
  • Host names
  • Environment variables / Aliases
  • Customizing fuzzy completion for bash and zsh
    • Customizing fzf options for completion
    • Customizing completion source for paths and directories
    • Supported commands (bash)
    • Custom fuzzy completion
  • Fuzzy completion for fish
  • Fuzzy completion for Nushell
• Vim plugin
• Advanced topics
  • Customizing for different types of input
  • Performance
  • Executing external programs
  • Turning into a different process
  • Reloading the candidate list
    • 1. Update the list of processes by pressing CTRL-R
    • 2. Switch between sources by pressing CTRL-D or CTRL-F
    • 3. Interactive ripgrep integration
  • Preview window
  • Previewing an image
• Tips
  • Respecting .gitignore
  • Fish shell
  • fzf Theme Playground
• Related projects
• License
• Goods
• Sponsors :heart:

Installation

Using Homebrew

You can use Homebrew (on macOS or Linux) to install fzf.

brew install fzf

[!IMPORTANT] To set up shell integration (key bindings and fuzzy completion), see the instructions below.

fzf is also available via MacPorts: sudo port install fzf

Using Mise

You can use mise to install fzf.

mise use -g fzf@latest

Linux packages

[!IMPORTANT] To set up shell integration (key bindings and fuzzy completion), see the instructions below.

Windows packages

On Windows, fzf is available via Chocolatey, Scoop, Winget, and MSYS2:

Using git

Alternatively, you can "git clone" this repository to any directory and run install script.

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/junegunn/fzf.git ~/.fzf
~/.fzf/install

The install script will add lines to your shell configuration file to modify $PATH and set up shell integration.

Binary releases

You can download the official fzf binaries from the releases page.

• https://github.com/junegunn/fzf/releases

Setting up shell integration

Add the following line to your shell configuration file.

• bash

  # Set up fzf key bindings and fuzzy completion
  eval "$(fzf --bash)"

• zsh

  # Set up fzf key bindings and fuzzy completion
  source <(fzf --zsh)

• fish

  # Set up fzf key bindings
  fzf --fish | source

• Nushell -- Nushell does not support piping into source, so the install script generates a file in the autoload directory. If you didn't use the install script, you can manually set it up:

  # Generate the integration script
  mkdir ($nu.default-config-dir | path join "autoload")
  fzf --nushell | save -f ($nu.default-config-dir | path join "autoload" "_fzf_integration.nu")

[!NOTE] --bash, --zsh, --fish, and --nushell options are only available in recent versions of fzf. If you have an older version of fzf, or want finer control, you can source individual script files in the /shell directory. The location of the files may vary depending on the package manager you use. Please refer to the package documentation for more information. (e.g. apt show fzf)

[!TIP] You can disable CTRL-T, CTRL-R, or ALT-C bindings by setting the corresponding *_COMMAND variable to an empty string when sourcing the script. For example, to disable CTRL-R and ALT-C:

• bash: FZF_CTRL_R_COMMAND= FZF_ALT_C_COMMAND= eval "$(fzf --bash)"
• zsh: FZF_CTRL_R_COMMAND= FZF_ALT_C_COMMAND= source <(fzf --zsh)
• fish: fzf --fish | FZF_CTRL_R_COMMAND= FZF_ALT_C_COMMAND= source
• nushell: add to your env.nu: $env.FZF_CTRL_R_COMMAND = ""; $env.FZF_ALT_C_COMMAND = ""

Setting the variables after sourcing the script will have no effect.

Vim/Neovim plugin

If you use vim-plug, add this to your Vim configuration file:

Plug 'junegunn/fzf', { 'do': { -> fzf#install() } }
Plug 'junegunn/fzf.vim'

• junegunn/fzf provides the basic library functions
  • fzf#install() makes sure that you have the latest binary
• junegunn/fzf.vim is a separate project that provides a variety of useful commands

To learn more about the Vim integration, see README-VIM.md.

[!TIP] If you use Neovim and prefer Lua-based plugins, check out fzf-lua.

Upgrading fzf

fzf is being actively developed, and you might want to upgrade it once in a while. Please follow the instruction below depending on the installation method used.

• git: cd ~/.fzf && git pull && ./install
• brew: brew update; brew upgrade fzf
• macports: sudo port upgrade fzf
• chocolatey: choco upgrade fzf
• vim-plug: :PlugUpdate fzf

Building fzf

See BUILD.md.

Usage

fzf will launch interactive finder, read the list from STDIN, and write the selected item to STDOUT.

find * -type f | fzf > selected

Without STDIN pipe, fzf will traverse the file system under the current directory to get the list of files.

vim $(fzf)

[!NOTE] You can override the default behavior

• Either by setting $FZF_DEFAULT_COMMAND to a command that generates the desired list
• Or by setting --walker, --walker-root, and --walker-skip options in $FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS

[!WARNING] A more robust solution would be to use xargs but we've presented the above as it's easier to grasp

fzf --print0 | xargs -0 -o vim

[!TIP] fzf also has the ability to turn itself into a different process.

fzf --bind 'enter:become(vim {})'

See Turning into a different process for more information.

Using the finder

• CTRL-K / CTRL-J (or CTRL-P / CTRL-N) to move cursor up and down
• Enter key to select the item, CTRL-C / CTRL-G / ESC to exit
• On multi-select mode (-m), TAB and Shift-TAB to mark multiple items
• Emacs style key bindings
• Mouse: scroll, click, double-click; shift-click and shift-scroll on multi-select mode

Display modes

fzf by default runs in fullscreen mode, but there are other display modes.

--height mode

With --height HEIGHT[%], fzf will start below the cursor with the given height.

fzf --height 40%

reverse layout and --border goes well with this option.

fzf --height 40% --layout reverse --border

By prepending ~ to the height, you're setting the maximum height.

# Will take as few lines as possible to display the list
seq 3 | fzf --height ~100%
seq 3000 | fzf --height ~100%

Height value can be a negative number.

# Screen height - 3
fzf --height -3

--popup mode

With --popup option, fzf will start in a popup window (requires tmux 3.3+ or Zellij 0.44+).

# --popup [center|top|bottom|left|right][,SIZE[%]][,SIZE[%][,border-native]]

fzf --popup center         # Center, 50% width and height
fzf --popup 80%            # Center, 80% width and height
fzf --popup 100%,50%       # Center, 100% width and 50% height
fzf --popup left,40%       # Left, 40% width
fzf --popup left,40%,90%   # Left, 40% width, 90% height
fzf --popup top,40%        # Top, 40% height
fzf --popup bottom,80%,40% # Bottom, 80% width, 40% height

--popup is silently ignored when you're not on tmux or Zellij.

[!NOTE] If you're stuck with an old version of tmux that doesn't support popup, or if you want to open fzf in a regular tmux pane, check out fzf-tmux script.

[!TIP] You can add these options to $FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS so that they're applied by default. For example,

# Open in a popup if on tmux or Zellij, otherwise use --height mode
export FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS='--height 40% --popup bottom,40% --layout reverse --border top'

Search syntax

Unless otherwise specified, fzf starts in "extended-search mode" where you can type in multiple search terms delimited by spaces. e.g. ^music .mp3$ sbtrkt !fire