junegunn/fzf

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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

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

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.

^core go$ | rb$ | py$

Environment variables

• FZF_DEFAULT_COMMAND
  • Default command to use when input is tty
  • e.g. export FZF_DEFAULT_COMMAND='fd --type f'
• FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS
  • Default options
  • e.g. export FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS="--layout=reverse --inline-info"
• FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS_FILE
  • If you prefer to manage default options in a file, set this variable to point to the location of the file
  • e.g. export FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS_FILE=~/.fzfrc

[!WARNING] FZF_DEFAULT_COMMAND is not used by shell integration due to the slight difference in requirements.

• CTRL-T runs $FZF_CTRL_T_COMMAND to get a list of files and directories
• ALT-C runs $FZF_ALT_C_COMMAND to get a list of directories
• vim ~/**<tab> runs fzf_compgen_path() with the prefix (~/) as the first argument
• cd foo**<tab> runs fzf_compgen_dir() with the prefix (foo) as the first argument

The available options are described later in this document.

Customizing the look

The user interface of fzf is fully customizable with a large number of configuration options. For a quick setup, you can start with one of the style presets -- default, full, or minimal -- using the --style option.

fzf --style full \
    --preview 'fzf-preview.sh {}' --bind 'focus:transform-header:file --brief {}'

Preset	Screenshot
default
full
minimal

Here's an example based on the full preset:

git ls-files | fzf --style full \
    --border --padding 1,2 \
    --border-label ' Demo ' --input-label ' Input ' --header-label ' File Type ' \
    --preview 'fzf-preview.sh {}' \
    --bind 'result:transform-list-label:
        if [[ -z $FZF_QUERY ]]; then
          echo " $FZF_MATCH_COUNT items "
        else
          echo " $FZF_MATCH_COUNT matches for [$FZF_QUERY] "
        fi
        ' \
    --bind 'focus:transform-preview-label:[[ -n {} ]] && printf " Previewing [%s] " {}' \
    --bind 'focus:+transform-header:file --brief {} || echo "No file selected"' \
    --bind 'ctrl-r:change-list-label( Reloading the list )+reload(sleep 2; git ls-files)' \
    --color 'border:#aaaaaa,label:#cccccc' \
    --color 'preview-border:#9999cc,preview-label:#ccccff' \
    --color 'list-border:#669966,list-label:#99cc99' \
    --color 'input-border:#996666,input-label:#ffcccc' \
    --color 'header-border:#6699cc,header-label:#99ccff'

Options

See the man page (fzf --man or man fzf) for the full list of options.

Demo

If you learn by watching videos, check out this screencast by @samoshkin to explore fzf features.

Examples

• Wiki page of examples
  • Disclaimer: The examples on this page are maintained by the community and are not thoroughly tested
• Advanced fzf examples

Key bindings for command-line

By setting up shell integration, you can use the following key bindings in bash, zsh, fish, and Nushell.

• CTRL-T - Paste the selected files and directories onto the command-line
  • The list is generated using --walker file,dir,follow,hidden option
    • You can override the behavior by setting FZF_CTRL_T_COMMAND to a custom command that generates the desired list
    • Or you can set --walker* options in FZF_CTRL_T_OPTS
  • Set FZF_CTRL_T_OPTS to pass additional options to fzf

    # Preview file content using bat (https://github.com/sharkdp/bat)
    export FZF_CTRL_T_OPTS="
      --walker-skip .git,node_modules,target
      --preview 'bat -n --color=always {}'
      --bind 'ctrl-/:change-preview-window(down|hidden|)'"
    

  • Can be disabled by setting FZF_CTRL_T_COMMAND to an empty string when sourcing the script
• CTRL-R - Paste the selected command from history onto the command-line.
  • Select multiple commands with TAB.
  • If you want to see the commands in chronological order, press CTRL-R again which toggles sorting by relevance
  • Press ALT-R to toggle "raw" mode where you can see the surrounding items of a match. In this mode, you can press CTRL-N and CTRL-P to move between the matching items only.
  • Press CTRL-/ or ALT-/ to toggle line wrapping
  • Press SHIFT-DELETE to delete the selected commands (bash and fish)
  • Fish shell only:
    • Press ALT-ENTER to reformat and insert the selected commands
    • Press ALT-T to cycle through command prefix (timestamp, date/time, none)
  • Set FZF_CTRL_R_OPTS to pass additional options to fzf

    # CTRL-Y to copy the command into clipboard using pbcopy
    export FZF_CTRL_R_OPTS="
      --bind 'ctrl-y:execute-silent(echo -n {2..} | pbcopy)+abort'
      --color header:italic
      --header 'Press CTRL-Y to copy command into clipboard'"
    

    # Fish shell: Set date/time as default prefix
    set -gx FZF_CTRL_R_OPTS "--with-nth 1,3.. --bind 'alt-t:change-with-nth(2..|3..|1,3..)'"
    
    # Or display no prefix by default
    set -gx FZF_CTRL_R_OPTS "--with-nth 3.. --bind 'alt-t:change-with-nth(2..|1,3..|3..)'"
    

  • Can be disabled by setting FZF_CTRL_R_COMMAND to an empty string when sourcing the script
  • Custom override via a non-empty FZF_CTRL_R_COMMAND is not yet supported and will emit a warning
• ALT-C - cd into the selected directory
  • The list is generated using --walker dir,follow,hidden option
  • Set FZF_ALT_C_COMMAND to override the default command
    • Or you can set --walker-* options in FZF_ALT_C_OPTS
  • Set FZF_ALT_C_OPTS to pass additional options to fzf

    # Print tree structure in the preview window
    export FZF_ALT_C_OPTS="
      --walker-skip .git,node_modules,target
      --preview 'tree -C {}'"
    

  • Can be disabled by setting FZF_ALT_C_COMMAND to an empty string when sourcing the script

Display modes for these bindings can be separately configured via FZF_{CTRL_T,CTRL_R,ALT_C}_OPTS or globally via FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS. (e.g. FZF_CTRL_R_OPTS='--popup bottom,60% --height 60% --border top')

More tips can be found on the wiki page.

Fuzzy completion

Shell integration also provides fuzzy completion for bash, zsh, fish, and Nushell.

Files and directories

Fuzzy completion for files and directories can be triggered if the word before the cursor ends with the trigger sequence, which is by default **.

• COMMAND [DIRECTORY/][FUZZY_PATTERN]**<TAB>

# Files under the current directory
# - You can select multiple items with TAB key
vim **<TAB>

# Files under parent directory
vim ../**<TAB>

# Files under parent directory that match `fzf`
vim ../fzf**<TAB>

# Files under your home directory
vim ~/**<TAB>


# Directories under current directory (single-selection)
cd **<TAB>

# Directories under ~/github that match `fzf`
cd ~/github/fzf**<TAB>

Process IDs

Fuzzy completion for PIDs is provided for kill command.

# Can select multiple processes with <TAB> or <Shift-TAB> keys
kill -9 **<TAB>

Host names

For ssh command, fuzzy completion for hostnames is provided. The names are extracted from /etc/hosts and ~/.ssh/config.

ssh **<TAB>

Environment variables / Aliases

# bash and zsh
unset **<TAB>
export **<TAB>
unalias **<TAB>

# fish
set <SHIFT-TAB>

Customizing fuzzy completion for bash and zsh

Customizing fzf options for completion

# Use ~~ as the trigger sequence instead of the default **
export FZF_COMPLETION_TRIGGER='~~'

# Options to fzf command
export FZF_COMPLETION_OPTS='--border --info=inline'

# Options for path completion (e.g. vim **<TAB>)
export FZF_COMPLETION_PATH_OPTS='--walker file,dir,follow,hidden'

# Options for directory completion (e.g. cd **<TAB>)
export FZF_COMPLETION_DIR_OPTS='--walker dir,follow'

# Advanced customization of fzf options via _fzf_comprun function
# - The first argument to the function is the name of the command.
# - You should make sure to pass the rest of the arguments ($@) to fzf.
_fzf_comprun() {
  local command=$1
  shift

  case "$command" in
    cd)           fzf --preview 'tree -C {} | head -200'   "$@" ;;
    export|unset) fzf --preview "eval 'echo \$'{}"         "$@" ;;
    ssh)          fzf --preview 'dig {}'                   "$@" ;;
    *)            fzf --preview 'bat -n --color=always {}' "$@" ;;
  esac
}

Customizing completion source for paths and directories

# Use fd (https://github.com/sharkdp/fd) for listing path candidates.
# - The first argument to the function ($1) is the base path to start traversal
# - See the source code (completion.{bash,zsh}) for the details.
_fzf_compgen_path() {
  fd --hidden --follow --exclude ".git" . "$1"
}

# Use fd to generate the list for directory completion
_fzf_compgen_dir() {
  fd --type d --hidden --follow --exclude ".git" . "$1"
}

Supported commands (bash)

On bash, fuzzy completion is enabled only for a predefined set of commands (complete | grep _fzf to see the list). But you can enable it for other commands as well by using _fzf_setup_completion helper function.

# usage: _fzf_setup_completion path|dir|var|alias|host COMMANDS...
_fzf_setup_completion path ag git kubectl
_fzf_setup_completion dir tree

Custom fuzzy completion

(Custom completion API is experimental and subject to change)

For a command named "COMMAND", define _fzf_complete_COMMAND function using _fzf_complete helper.

# Custom fuzzy completion for "doge" command
#   e.g. doge **<TAB>
_fzf_complete_doge() {
  _fzf_complete --multi --reverse --prompt="doge> " -- "$@" < <(
    echo very
    echo wow
    echo such
    echo doge
  )
}

• The arguments before -- are the options to fzf.
• After --, simply pass the original completion arguments unchanged ("$@").
• Then, write a set of commands that generates the completion candidates and feed its output to the function using process substitution (< <(...)).

zsh will automatically pick up the function using the naming convention but in bash you have to manually associate the function with the command using the complete command.

[ -n "$BASH" ] && complete -F _fzf_complete_doge -o default -o bashdefault doge

If you need to post-process the output from fzf, define _fzf_complete_COMMAND_post as follows.

_fzf_complete_foo() {
  _fzf_complete --multi --reverse --header-lines=3 -- "$@" < <(
    ls -al
  )
}

_fzf_complete_foo_post() {
  awk '{print $NF}'
}

[ -n "$BASH" ] && complete -F _fzf_complete_foo -o default -o bashdefault foo

Fuzzy completion for fish

Fuzzy completion for fish differs from bash and zsh in that:

• It doesn't require a trigger sequence like **. Instead, if activates on Shift-TAB (replacing the native pager search mode), while TAB preserves fish's native completion behavior.
• It relies on fish's native completion system to populate the candidate list, rather than performing a recursive file system traversal. For recursive searching, use the CTRL-T binding instead.
• If the current command line token is a wildcard pattern, it performs search on the wildcard expansion path list (instead of the native behavior of inserting all the results in command line). Because the shell is used for the expansion, there is a limit in the number of results.
• The only supported configuration variables are FZF_COMPLETION_OPTS and FZF_EXPANSION_OPS.
• The function that is used by custom completion functions is named fzf_complete, which only accepts fzf options as arguments, and can be also called without any redirected input, to just modify fzf options while presenting the native completion results. For compatibility with other shells, a function named _fzf_complete is provided, that can accept -- $argv in its command line arguments, after fzf options.

For commands that are not covered by fish completions, it is better to create regular fish completion functions (which will work for both TAB and Shift-TAB), and create fzf completion functions only when needing to modify fzf options for a specific command or want different results for Shift-TAB:

# Customize git completion
function _fzf_complete_git
  # Show header text with active branch for all git completions
  set -lx -- FZF_COMPLETION_OPTS --header="'"(git branch --show-current 2>/dev/null)"'"

  # No other changes when less than 3 arguments, or when completing options
  if not set -q argv[3]; or string match -q -- '-*' $argv[-1]
    fzf_complete
    return
  end

  # Check subcommand
  switch $argv[2]
    case checkout diff log show
      # Set preview and display all branches and commits for subcommands: checkout, diff, log, show
      begin
        git branch --all --format='%(refname:short)'
        git log --all --oneline --color=always
      end | fzf_complete --no-multi --ansi --accept-nth=1 --query=$argv[-1] --preview='git show --color=always {1}'

    case add rm mv
      # Only set preview for subcommands: add, rm, mv
      # Special characters in fish completion lists are escaped, so the r flag must be used.
      fzf_complete --preview="git diff --color=always {r1}"

    case '*'
      # No changes for other subcommands
      fzf_complete
  end
end

Similar to bash and zsh, the output of fzf can be processed before inserted in command line, by defining a function named _fzf_complete_COMMAND_post or _fzf_post_complete_COMMAND:

function _fzf_complete_foo
  ls -sh --zero --color=always | fzf_complete --read0 --print0 --ansi --no-multi-line --header-lines=1
end

function _fzf_post_complete_foo
  while read -lz result
    string escape -n -- $result | string trim -l -c '\ ' | string split -m 1 -f 2 ' '
  end
end

Fuzzy completion for Nushell

Fuzzy completion in Nushell works via the external completer mechanism. There are some differences compared to bash and zsh:

• On Nushell >= 0.103.0, the external completer is no longer called for built-in commands (e.g. cd, ls). Fuzzy completion with **<TAB> only works for external commands.
• Custom completers can be defined via the $env.FZF_COMPLETERS record in your config.nu. Each entry is a closure that receives the prefix and the command spans, and returns either a list of candidate strings or a record { candidates: [...], opts: [...] } for custom fzf options:

  $env.FZF_COMPLETERS = {
      pacman: {|prefix, spans|
          let sub = $spans | skip 1 | first
          let candidates = (if ($sub =~ "-[SF]") { ^pacman -Slq | lines
          } else if ($sub =~ "-[QR]") { ^pacman -Qq | lines
          } else { [] })
          { candidates: $candidates, opts: ["--preview", "pacman -Si {}"] }
      }
  }
  

  See shell/completion-examples.nu for more examples.
• The following environment variables are supported: FZF_COMPLETION_TRIGGER, FZF_COMPLETION_OPTS, FZF_COMPLETION_PATH_OPTS, FZF_COMPLETION_DIR_OPTS, FZF_COMPLETION_DIR_COMMANDS.

Vim plugin

See README-VIM.md.

Advanced topics

Customizing for different types of input

Since fzf is a general-purpose text filter, its algorithm was designed to "generally" work well with any kind of input. However, admittedly, there is no true one-size-fits-all solution, and you may want to tweak the algorithm and some of the settings depending on the type of the input. To make this process easier, fzf provides a set of "scheme"s for some common input types.

(See fzf --man for the details)

Performance

fzf is fast. Performance should not be a problem in most use cases. However, you might want to be aware of the options that can affect performance.

• --ansi tells fzf to extract and parse ANSI color codes in the input, and it makes the initial scanning slower. So it's not recommended that you add it to your $FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS.
• --nth makes fzf slower because it has to tokenize each line.
• A plain string --delimiter should be preferred over a regular expression delimiter.
• --with-nth makes fzf slower as fzf has to tokenize and reassemble each line.

Executing external programs

You can set up key bindings for starting external processes without leaving fzf (execute, execute-silent).

# Press F1 to open the file with less without leaving fzf
# Press CTRL-Y to copy the line to clipboard and aborts fzf (requires pbcopy)
fzf --bind 'f1:execute(less -f {}),ctrl-y:execute-silent(echo {} | pbcopy)+abort'

See KEY/EVENT BINDINGS section of the man page for details.

Turning into a different process

become(...) is similar to execute(...)/execute-silent(...) described above, but instead of executing the command and coming back to fzf on complete, it turns fzf into a new process for the command.

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

Compared to the seemingly equivalent command substitution vim "$(fzf)", this approach has several advantages:

• Vim will not open an empty file when you terminate fzf with CTRL-C
• Vim will not open an empty file when you press ENTER on an empty result
• Can handle multiple selections even when they have whitespaces

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

To be fair, running fzf --print0 | xargs -0 -o vim instead of vim "$(fzf)" resolves all of the issues mentioned. Nonetheless, become(...) still offers additional benefits in different scenarios.

• You can set up multiple bindings to handle the result in different ways without any wrapping script

  fzf --bind 'enter:become(vim {}),ctrl-e:become(emacs {})'
  

  • Previously, you would have to use --expect=ctrl-e and check the first line of the output of fzf
• You can easily build the subsequent command using the field index expressions of fzf

  # Open the file in Vim and go to the line
  git grep --line-number . |
      fzf --delimiter : --nth 3.. --bind 'enter:become(vim {1} +{2})'
  

Reloading the candidate list

By binding reload action to a key or an event, you can make fzf dynamically reload the candidate list. See https://github.com/junegunn/fzf/issues/1750 for more details.

1. 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 \
      --height=50% --layout=reverse

2. Switch between sources by pressing CTRL-D or CTRL-F

FZF_DEFAULT_COMMAND='find . -type f' \
  fzf --bind 'ctrl-d:reload(find . -type d),ctrl-f:reload(eval "$FZF_DEFAULT_COMMAND")' \
      --height=50% --layout=reverse

3. Interactive ripgrep integration

The following example uses fzf as the selector interface for ripgrep. We bound reload action to change event, so every time you type on fzf, the ripgrep process will restart with the updated query string denoted by the placeholder expression {q}. Also, note that we used --disabled option so that fzf doesn't perform any secondary filtering.

: | rg_prefix='rg --column --line-number --no-heading --color=always --smart-case' \
    fzf --bind 'start:reload:$rg_prefix ""' \
        --bind 'change:reload:$rg_prefix {q} || true' \
        --bind 'enter:become(vim {1} +{2})' \
        --ansi --disabled \
        --height=50% --layout=reverse

If ripgrep doesn't find any matches, it will exit with a non-zero exit status, and fzf will warn you about it. To suppress the warning message, we added || true to the command, so that it always exits with 0.

See "Using fzf as interactive Ripgrep launcher" for more sophisticated examples.

Preview window

When the --preview option is set, fzf automatically starts an external process with the current line as the argument and shows the result in the split window. Your $SHELL is used to execute the command with $SHELL -c COMMAND. The window can be scrolled using the mouse or custom key bindings.

# {} is replaced with the single-quoted string of the focused line
fzf --preview 'cat {}'

Preview window supports ANSI colors, so you can use any program that syntax-highlights the content of a file, such as Bat or Highlight:

fzf --preview 'bat --color=always {}' --preview-window '~3'

You can customize the size, position, and border of the preview window using --preview-window option, and the foreground and background color of it with --color option. For example,

fzf --height 40% --layout reverse --info inline --border \
    --preview 'file {}' --preview-window up,1,border-horizontal \
    --bind 'ctrl-/:change-preview-window(50%|hidden|)' \
    --color 'fg:#bbccdd,fg+:#ddeeff,bg:#334455,preview-bg:#223344,border:#778899'

See the man page (man fzf) for the full list of options.

More advanced examples can be found here.

[!WARNING] Since fzf is a general-purpose text filter rather than a file finder, it is not a good idea to add --preview option to your $FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS.

# *********************
# ** DO NOT DO THIS! **
# *********************
export FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS='--preview "bat --style=numbers --color=always --line-range :500 {}"'

# bat doesn't work with any input other than the list of files
ps -ef | fzf
seq 100 | fzf
history | fzf

Previewing an image

fzf can display images in the preview window using one of the following protocols:

• Kitty graphics protocol
• iTerm2 inline images protocol
• Sixel

See bin/fzf-preview.sh script for more information.

fzf --preview 'fzf-preview.sh {}'

Tips

Respecting .gitignore

You can use fd, ripgrep, or the silver searcher to traverse the file system while respecting .gitignore.

# Feed the output of fd into fzf
fd --type f --strip-cwd-prefix | fzf

# Setting fd as the default source for fzf
export FZF_DEFAULT_COMMAND='fd --type f --strip-cwd-prefix'

# Now fzf (w/o pipe) will use the fd command to generate the list
fzf

# To apply the command to CTRL-T as well
export FZF_CTRL_T_COMMAND="$FZF_DEFAULT_COMMAND"

If you want the command to follow symbolic links and don't want it to exclude hidden files, use the following command:

export FZF_DEFAULT_COMMAND='fd --type f --strip-cwd-prefix --hidden --follow --exclude .git'

Fish shell

CTRL-T key binding of fish, unlike those of bash and zsh, will use the last token on the command-line as the root directory for the recursive search. For instance, hitting CTRL-T at the end of the following command-line

ls /var/

will list all files and directories under /var/.

When using a custom FZF_CTRL_T_COMMAND, use the unexpanded $dir variable to make use of this feature. $dir defaults to . when the last token is not a valid directory. Example:

set -g FZF_CTRL_T_COMMAND "command find -L \$dir -type f 2> /dev/null | sed '1d; s#^\./##'"

fzf Theme Playground

fzf Theme Playground created by Vitor Mello is a webpage where you can interactively create fzf themes.

Related projects

https://github.com/junegunn/fzf/wiki/Related-projects

License

The MIT License (MIT)

Copyright (c) 2013-2026 Junegunn Choi

Goods

Grab fzf T-shirts, mugs, and stickers here: https://commitgoods.com/collections/fzf

Sponsors :heart:

I would like to thank all the sponsors of this project who make it possible for me to continue to improve fzf.

If you'd like to sponsor this project, please visit https://github.com/sponsors/junegunn.