Code Self Study Forum

Check out fzf

Operating Systems, Editors, and Tools
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#1

If anyone isn’t using fzf yet, check it out. It works well with other command line tools like fd, ripgrep, and bat.

Here is a video walk through:

Here’s a text version of the tutorial:

If the terminal keybindings don’t work out of the box, you can find the configuration scripts by searching with fzf from the root of your system (Linux or Mac1) like this:

cd /
fzf

Then type the names of the files that you’re searching for.

fzf search
fzf search845×238 43.1 KB

Copy the config files called key-bindings.zsh and completion.zsh somewhere in your dotfiles/config area and source them in your .zshrc (or similar) file.

They are probably located at a path something like:

...???/fzf/key-bindings.zsh
...???/fzf/completion.zsh

(I found their names in the Arch Wiki.)

There is some more info here: CLI: improved (command line tools) - #5 by Josh

1 I’m not sure how to do it in Windows.

1 Like
#2

I think these are the default keybindings:

  • ctrl+t — search files
  • alt+c — search directories
  • ctrlrr — search command history

The characters ** followed by a tab will trigger the fuzzy finder.

For example, type this and then press tab:

$ vim **

(Select multiple files with the tab key.)

I created some aliases like these that fuzzy search for files in the current directory (multi-select with tab) and opens them in various kinds of splits/tabs in vim:

alias v='vim `fzf`'        # opens files
alias vof='vim -o `fzf`'   # opens files in horizontal splits
alias vOf='vim -O `fzf`'   # opens files in vertical splits
alias vpf='vim -p `fzf`'   # opens files in tabs
#3

There’s another article here: