📦 junegunn / fzf

It's an interactive filter program for any kind of list; files, command history, processes, hostnames, bookmarks, git commits, etc. It implements a "fuzzy" matching algorithm, so you can quickly type in patterns with omitted characters and still get the results you want.

Highlights

• Portable — Distributed as a single binary for easy installation
• Fast — Optimized to process millions of items instantly
• Versatile — Fully customizable through an event-action binding mechanism
• All-inclusive — Comes with integrations for Bash, Zsh, Fish, Vim, and Neovim

• 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

• --tmux 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
• 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

[!NOTE]
--bash, --zsh, and --fish options are only available in fzf 0.48.0 or
later. 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
> 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

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

• 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

Usage

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

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

--tmux mode

With --tmux option, fzf will start in a tmux popup.

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

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

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

[!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 tmux popup if on tmux, otherwise use --height mode
> export FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS='--height 40% --tmux 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

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

• 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

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

Examples

• Wiki page of examples

• Advanced fzf examples

• 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

• CTRL-R - Paste the selected command from history onto the command-line

• If you want to see the commands in chronological order, press CTRL-R

• Press ALT-R to toggle "raw" mode where you can see the surrounding items

• Press CTRL-/ or ALT-/ to toggle line wrapping

• 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'"

• Can be disabled by setting FZF_CTRL_R_COMMAND to an empty string when

• 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

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='--tmux bottom,60% --height 60% --border top')

More tips can be found on the wiki page.

Fuzzy completion

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 \

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
(Available in 0.68.0 or later)
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, 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.
The only supported configuration variable is FZF_COMPLETION_OPTS.

That said, just like in bash and zsh, you can implement custom completion for
a specific command by defining an _fzf_complete_COMMAND function. For example:

function _fzf_complete_foo
  function _fzf_complete_foo_post
    awk '{print $NF}'
  end
  _fzf_complete --multi --reverse --header-lines=3 -- $argv < (ls -al | psub)

  functions -e _fzf_complete_foo_post
end

And here's a more complex example for customizing git
function _fzf_complete_git
  switch $argv[2]
    case checkout switch
      _fzf_complete --reverse --no-preview -- $argv < (git branch --all --format='%(refname:short)' | psub)

    case add
      function _fzf_complete_git_post
        awk '{print $NF}'
      end
      _fzf_complete --multi --reverse -- $argv < (git status --short | psub)

    case show log diff
      function _fzf_complete_git_post
        awk '{print $1}'
      end
      _fzf_complete --reverse --no-sort --preview='git show --color=always {1}' -- $argv < (git log --oneline | psub)

    case ''
      __fzf_complete_native "$argv[1] " --query=(commandline -t | string escape)

    case '*'
      set -l -- current_token (commandline -t)
      __fzf_complete_native "$argv $current_token" --query=(string escape -- $current_token) --multi
  end

  functions -e _fzf_complete_git_post
end

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.
Scheme
Description
--scheme=default
Generic scheme designed to work well with any kind of input
--scheme=path
Suitable for file paths
--scheme=history
Suitable for command history or any input where chronological ordering is important
(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.

{}"         "$@" ;;
    ssh)          fzf --preview 'dig {}'                   "$@" ;;
    *)            fzf --preview 'bat -n --color=always {}' "$@" ;;
  esac
}

Customizing completion source for paths and directories

%%CODEBLOCK28%%

Supported commands (bash)

On bash, fuzzy completion is enabled only for a predefined set of commands (%%INLINECODE146%% to see the list). But you can enable it for other commands as well by using %%INLINECODE147%% helper function.

%%CODEBLOCK29%%

Custom fuzzy completion

(Custom completion API is experimental and subject to change)

For a command named "COMMAND", define %%INLINECODE148%% function using %%INLINECODE149%% helper.

%%CODEBLOCK30%%

• The arguments before %%INLINECODE150%% are the options to fzf.
• After %%INLINECODE151%%, simply pass the original completion arguments unchanged (%%INLINECODE152%%).
• Then, write a set of commands that generates the completion candidates and

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 %%INLINECODE154%% command.

%%CODEBLOCK31%%

If you need to post-process the output from fzf, define %%INLINECODE155%% as follows.

%%CODEBLOCK32%%

Fuzzy completion for fish

(Available in 0.68.0 or later)

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

• It doesn't require a trigger sequence like %%INLINECODE156%%. Instead, if activates

• It relies on fish's native completion system to populate the candidate list,

• The only supported configuration variable is %%INLINECODE160%%.

%%CODEBLOCK33%%

And here's a more complex example for customizing %%INLINECODE162%%

%%CODEBLOCK34%%

Vim plugin

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.

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.

• %%INLINECODE167%% tells fzf to extract and parse ANSI color codes in the input, and it

• %%INLINECODE169%% makes fzf slower because it has to tokenize each line.
• A plain string %%INLINECODE170%% should be preferred over a regular expression

• %%INLINECODE171%% makes fzf slower as fzf has to tokenize and reassemble each

Executing external programs

You can set up key bindings for starting external processes without leaving fzf (%%INLINECODE172%%, %%INLINECODE173%%).

%%CODEBLOCK35%%

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

Turning into a different process

%%INLINECODE174%% is similar to %%INLINECODE175%%/%%INLINECODE176%% 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.

%%CODEBLOCK36%%

Compared to the seemingly equivalent command substitution %%INLINECODE177%%, this approach has several advantages:

• Vim will not open an empty file when you terminate fzf with

• Vim will not open an empty file when you press ENTER on an empty

• Can handle multiple selections even when they have whitespaces

To be fair, running %%INLINECODE178%% instead of %%INLINECODE179%% resolves all of the issues mentioned. Nonetheless, %%INLINECODE180%% still offers additional benefits in different scenarios.

• You can set up multiple bindings to handle the result in different ways

• Previously, you would have to use %%INLINECODE181%% and check the first

• You can easily build the subsequent command using the field index

Reloading the candidate list

By binding %%INLINECODE182%% 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

%%CODEBLOCK40%%

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

%%CODEBLOCK41%%

3. Interactive ripgrep integration

The following example uses fzf as the selector interface for ripgrep. We bound %%INLINECODE183%% action to %%INLINECODE184%% event, so every time you type on fzf, the ripgrep process will restart with the updated query string denoted by the placeholder expression %%INLINECODE185%%. Also, note that we used %%INLINECODE186%% option so that fzf doesn't perform any secondary filtering.

%%CODEBLOCK42%%

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 %%INLINECODE187%% 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 %%INLINECODE188%% 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 %%INLINECODE189%% is used to execute the command with %%INLINECODE190%%. The window can be scrolled using the mouse or custom key bindings.

%%CODEBLOCK43%%

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

%%CODEBLOCK44%%

You can customize the size, position, and border of the preview window using %%INLINECODE191%% option, and the foreground and background color of it with %%INLINECODE192%% option. For example,

%%CODEBLOCK45%%

See the man page (%%INLINECODE193%%) 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 %%INLINECODE194%% option to your %%INLINECODE195%%.
> %%CODEBLOCK46%%

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

%%CODEBLOCK47%%

Tips

Respecting %%INLINECODE196%%

You can use fd, ripgrep, or the silver searcher to traverse the file system while respecting %%INLINECODE197%%.

%%CODEBLOCK48%%

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

%%CODEBLOCK49%%

Fish shell

%%INLINECODE198%% 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 %%INLINECODE199%% at the end of the following command-line

%%CODEBLOCK50%%

will list all files and directories under %%INLINECODE200%%.

When using a custom %%INLINECODE201%%, use the unexpanded %%INLINECODE202%% variable to make use of this feature. %%INLINECODE203%% defaults to %%INLINECODE204%% when the last token is not a valid directory. Example:

%%CODEBLOCK51%%

fzf Theme Playground

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

Related projects

License

Copyright (c) 2013-2026 Junegunn Choi

Goods

Sponsors :heart:

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