A command-line fuzzy finder written in Go
GitHub - junegunn/fzf: :cherry_blossom: A command-line fuzzy finder



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

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
⚡ Blazingly fast — Highly optimized code instantly processes millions of items
🛠️ Extremely versatile — Fully customizable via an event-action binding mechanism
🔋 Batteries included — Includes integration with bash, zsh, fish, Vim, and Neovim

Sponsors ❤️
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.

Table of Contents


Installation

Using Homebrew
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
Options
Demo


Examples
Key bindings for command-line
Fuzzy completion for bash and zsh

Files and directories
Process IDs
Host names
Environment variables / Aliases
Settings
Supported commands
Custom fuzzy completion


Vim plugin
Advanced topics

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


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

ImportantTo set up shell integration (key bindings and fuzzy completion),
see the instructions below.

fzf is also available via MacPorts: sudo port install fzf
Linux packages



Package Manager
Linux Distribution
Command




APK
Alpine Linux
sudo apk add fzf


APT
Debian 9+/Ubuntu 19.10+
sudo apt install fzf


Conda

conda install -c conda-forge fzf


DNF
Fedora
sudo dnf install fzf


Nix
NixOS, etc.
nix-env -iA nixpkgs.fzf


Pacman
Arch Linux
sudo pacman -S fzf


pkg
FreeBSD
pkg install fzf


pkgin
NetBSD
pkgin install fzf


pkg_add
OpenBSD
pkg_add fzf


Portage
Gentoo
emerge --ask app-shells/fzf


Spack

spack install fzf


XBPS
Void Linux
sudo xbps-install -S fzf


Zypper
openSUSE
sudo zypper install fzf



ImportantTo 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:



Package manager
Command




Chocolatey
choco install fzf


Scoop
scoop install fzf


Winget
winget install fzf


MSYS2 (pacman)
pacman -S $MINGW_PACKAGE_PREFIX-fzf



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)

TipYou can disable CTRL-T or ALT-C binding by setting FZF_CTRL_T_COMMAND or
FZF_ALT_C_COMMAND to an empty string when sourcing the script.
For example, to disable ALT-C binding:

bash: FZF_ALT_C_COMMAND= eval "$(fzf --bash)"
zsh: FZF_ALT_C_COMMAND= source <(fzf --zsh)
fish: fzf --fish | 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
that provides a variety of useful commands

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

NoteYou 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


WarningA 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

Tipfzf 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.

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[%]]

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% height, 40% height
--tmux is silently ignored when you're not on tmux.
NoteIf 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.

TipYou 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



Token
Match type
Description




sbtrkt
fuzzy-match
Items that match sbtrkt


'wild
exact-match (quoted)
Items that include wild


'wild'
exact-boundary-match (quoted both ends)
Items that include wild at word boundaries


^music
prefix-exact-match
Items that start with music


.mp3$
suffix-exact-match
Items that end with .mp3


!fire
inverse-exact-match
Items that do not include fire


!^music
inverse-prefix-exact-match
Items that do not start with music


!.mp3$
inverse-suffix-exact-match
Items that do not end with .mp3



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.

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



WarningFZF_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.

Options
See the man page (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, and fish.

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

If you want to see the commands in chronological order, press CTRL-R
again which toggles sorting by relevance
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'"



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='--tmux bottom,60% --height 60% --border top')
More tips can be found on the wiki page.
Fuzzy completion for bash and zsh
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 and telnet commands, fuzzy completion for hostnames is provided. The
names are extracted from /etc/hosts and ~/.ssh/config.
ssh **<TAB>
telnet **<TAB>
Environment variables / Aliases
unset **<TAB>
export **<TAB>
unalias **<TAB>
Settings
# Use ~~ as the trigger sequence instead of the default **
export FZF_COMPLETION_TRIGGER='~~'

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

# 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"
}

# 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 {}' "$@" ;;
  esac
}
Supported commands
On bash, fuzzy completion is enabled only for a predefined set of commands
(complete | grep _fzf to see the list). But you can enable it for other
commands as well by using _fzf_setup_completion helper function.
# usage: _fzf_setup_completion path|dir|var|alias|host COMMANDS...
_fzf_setup_completion path ag git kubectl
_fzf_setup_completion dir tree
Custom fuzzy completion
(Custom completion API is experimental and subject to change)
For a command named "COMMAND", define _fzf_complete_COMMAND function using
_fzf_complete helper.
# Custom fuzzy completion for "doge" command
#   e.g. doge **<TAB>
_fzf_complete_doge() {
  _fzf_complete --multi --reverse --prompt="doge> " -- "$@" < <(
    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
Vim plugin
See README-VIM.md.
Advanced topics
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.
--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 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 #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.
WarningSince 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

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) 2013-2024 Junegunn Choi
