fzf #

fzf is an interactive filter program for any kind of list.

It implements a “fuzzy” matching algorithm, so you can quickly type in patterns with omitted characters and still get the results you want.

Search mode #

-x, --extended #

Extended-search mode. Enabled by default. You can disable it with +x or --no-extended.

-e, --exact #

Enable exact-match

-i, --ignore-case #

Case-insensitive match (default: smart-case match)

+i, --no-ignore-case #

Case-sensitive match

--literal #

Do not normalize latin script letters for matching.

--scheme=SCHEME #

Choose scoring scheme tailored for different types of input.

--algo=TYPE #

Fuzzy matching algorithm (default: v2)

-n, --nth=N[,..] #

Comma-separated list of field index expressions for limiting search scope. See field index expression for the details. When you use this option with --with-nth, the field index expressions are calculated against the transformed lines (unlike in --preview where fields are extracted from the original lines) because fzf doesn’t allow searching against the hidden fields.

--with-nth=N[,..] #

Transform the presentation of each line using field index expressions

-d, --delimiter=STR #

Field delimiter regex for --nth, --with-nth, and field index expressions (default: AWK-style)

--disabled #

Do not perform search. With this option, fzf becomes a simple selector interface rather than a “fuzzy finder”. You can later enable the search using enable-search or toggle-search action.

Search result #

+s, --no-sort #

Do not sort the result

--tail=NUM #

Maximum number of items to keep in memory. This is useful when you want to browse an endless stream of data (e.g. log stream) with fzf while limiting memory usage.

# Interactive filtering of a log stream
tail -f *.log | fzf --tail 100000 --tac --no-sort --exact

--track #

Make fzf track the current selection when the result list is updated. This can be useful when browsing logs using fzf with sorting disabled. It is not recommended to use this option with --tac as the resulting behavior can be confusing. Also, consider using track action instead of this option.

git log --oneline --graph --color=always | nl |
    fzf --ansi --track --no-sort --layout=reverse-list

--tac #

Reverse the order of the input

history | fzf --tac --no-sort

--tiebreak=CRI[,..] #

Comma-separated list of sort criteria to apply when the scores are tied.

• Each criterion should appear only once in the list
• index is only allowed at the end of the list
• index is implicitly appended to the list when not specified
• Default is length (or equivalently length,index)
• If end is found in the list, fzf will scan each line backwards

Interface #

-m, --multi #

Enable multi-select with tab/shift-tab. It optionally takes an integer argument which denotes the maximum number of items that can be selected.

+m, --no-multi #

Disable multi-select

--no-mouse #

Disable mouse

--bind=KEYBINDS #

Comma-separated list of custom key bindings. See Key/event bindings for the details.

--cycle #

Enable cyclic scroll

--wrap #

Enable line wrap

--wrap-sign=INDICATOR #

Indicator for wrapped lines. The default is ↳ or > depending on --no-unicode.

--no-multi-line #

Disable multi-line display of items when using --read0

--gap[=N] #

Render empty lines between each item

--keep-right #

Keep the right end of the line visible when it’s too long. Effective only when the query string is empty.

--scroll-off=LINES #

Number of screen lines to keep above or below when scrolling to the top or to the bottom (default: 3).

--no-hscroll #

Disable horizontal scroll

--hscroll-off=COLS #

Number of screen columns to keep to the right of the highlighted substring (default: 10). Setting it to a large value will cause the text to be positioned on the center of the screen.

--filepath-word #

Make word-wise movements and actions respect path separators. The following actions are affected:

• backward-kill-word
• backward-word
• forward-word
• kill-word

--jump-labels=CHARS #

Label characters for jump mode.

Layout #

--height=EXPR #

=[~]HEIGHT[%]

Display fzf window below the cursor with the given height instead of using the full screen.

If a negative value is specified, the height is calculated as the terminal height minus the given value.

fzf --height=-1

When prefixed with ~, fzf will automatically determine the height in the range according to the input size.

# Will not take up 100% of the screen
seq 5 | fzf --height=~100%

Adaptive height has the following limitations:

• Cannot be used with top/bottom margin and padding given in percent size
• Negative value is not allowed
• It will not find the right size when there are multi-line items

--min-height=HEIGHT #

Minimum height when --height is given in percent (default: 10). Ignored when --height is not specified.

--tmux[=EXPR] #

[center|top|bottom|left|right][,SIZE[%]][,SIZE[%]]

Start fzf in a tmux popup (default center,50%). Requires tmux 3.3 or later. This option is ignored if you are not running fzf inside tmux.

# Popup in the center with 70% width and height
fzf --tmux 70%

# Popup on the left with 40% width and 100% height
fzf --tmux right,40%

# Popup on the bottom with 100% width and 30% height
fzf --tmux bottom,30%

# Popup on the top with 80% width and 40% height
fzf --tmux top,80%,40%

--layout=LAYOUT #

Choose the layout (default: default)

--reverse #

A synonym for --layout=reverse

--border[=BORDER_OPT] #

Draw border around the finder

If you use a terminal emulator where each box-drawing character takes 2 columns, try setting --ambidouble. If the border is still not properly rendered, set --no-unicode.

--border-label=LABEL #

Label to print on the horizontal border line. Should be used with one of the following --border options.

• rounded
• sharp
• bold
• double
• horizontal
• top (up)
• bottom (down)

# ANSI color codes are supported
# (with https://github.com/busyloop/lolcat)
label=$(curl -s http://metaphorpsum.com/sentences/1 | lolcat -f)

# Border label at the center
fzf --height=10 --border --border-label="╢ $label ╟" --color=label:italic:black

# Left-aligned (positive integer)
fzf --height=10 --border --border-label="╢ $label ╟" --border-label-pos=3 --color=label:italic:black

# Right-aligned (negative integer) on the bottom line (:bottom)
fzf --height=10 --border --border-label="╢ $label ╟" --border-label-pos=-3:bottom --color=label:italic:black

--border-label-pos=EXPR #

N[:top|bottom]

Position of the border label on the border line. Specify a positive integer as the column position from the left. Specify a negative integer to right-align the label. Label is printed on the top border line by default, add :bottom to put it on the border line on the bottom. The default value 0 (or center) will put the label at the center of the border line.

--no-unicode #

Use ASCII characters instead of Unicode drawing characters to draw borders, the spinner and the horizontal separator.

--ambidouble #

Set this option if your terminal displays ambiguous width characters (e.g. box-drawing characters for borders) as 2 columns.

--margin=MARGIN #

Comma-separated expression for margins around the finder.

Each part can be given in absolute number or in percentage relative to the terminal size with % suffix.

fzf --margin 10%
fzf --margin 1,5%

--padding=PADDING #

Comma-separated expression for padding inside the border. Padding is distinguishable from margin only when --border option is used.

fzf --margin 5% --padding 5% --border --preview 'cat {}' \
    --color bg:#222222,preview-bg:#333333

--info=STYLE #

Determines the display style of the finder info. (e.g. match counter, loading indicator, etc.)

--info-command=COMMAND #

Command to generate the finder info line. The command runs synchronously and blocks the UI until completion, so make sure that it’s fast. ANSI color codes are supported. $FZF_INFO variable is set to the original info text. For additional environment variables available to the command, see the section Environment variables exported to child processes.

# Prepend the current cursor position in yellow
fzf --info-command='echo -e "\x1b[33;1m$FZF_POS\x1b[m/$FZF_INFO 💛"'

--no-info #

A synonym for --info=hidden

--separator=STR #

The given string will be repeated to form the horizontal separator on the info line (default: ─ or - depending on --no-unicode).

ANSI color codes are supported.

--no-separator #

Do not display horizontal separator on the info line. A synonym for --separator=''

--scrollbar=CHAR1[CHAR2] #

Use the given character to render scrollbar. (default: │ or : depending on --no-unicode). The optional CHAR2 is used to render scrollbar of the preview window.

--no-scrollbar #

Do not display scrollbar. A synonym for --scrollbar=''

--prompt=STR #

Input prompt (default: > )

--pointer=STR #

Pointer to the current line (default: ▌ or > depending on --no-unicode)

--marker=STR #

Multi-select marker (default: ┃ or > depending on --no-unicode)

--marker-multi-line=STR #

Multi-select marker for multi-line entries. 3 elements for top, middle, and bottom. (default: ╻┃╹ or .|' depending on --no-unicode)

--header=STR #

The given string will be printed as the sticky header. The lines are displayed in the given order from top to bottom regardless of --layout option, and are not affected by --with-nth. ANSI color codes are processed even when --ansi is not set.

--header-lines=N #

The first N lines of the input are treated as the sticky header. When --with-nth is set, the lines are transformed just like the other lines that follow.

--header-first #

Print header before the prompt line

--ellipsis=STR #

Ellipsis to show when line is truncated (default: ‘..’)

Display #

--ansi #

Enable processing of ANSI color codes

`–tabstop=" SPACES #

Number of spaces for a tab character (default: 8)

--color=EXPR #

[BASE_SCHEME][,COLOR_NAME[:ANSI_COLOR][:ANSI_ATTRIBUTES]]...

Color configuration. The name of the base color scheme is followed by custom color mappings.

Base scheme #

(default: dark on 256-color terminal, otherwise 16; If NO_COLOR is set, bw)

Color names #

• fg — Text
  • selected-fg — Selected line text
  • preview-fg — Preview window text
• bg — Background
  • selected-bg — Selected line background
  • preview-bg — Preview window background
• hl — Highlighted substrings
  • selected-hl — Highlighted substrings in the selected line
• current-fg (fg+) — Text (current line)
• current-bg (bg+) — Background (current line)
  • gutter — Gutter on the left
• current-hl (hl+) — Highlighted substrings (current line)
• query — Query string
  • disabled — Query string when search is disabled (--disabled)
• info — Info line (match counters)
• border — Border around the window (--border and --preview)
  • scrollbar — Scrollbar
  • preview-border — Border around the preview window (--preview)
  • preview-scrollbar — Scrollbar
  • separator — Horizontal separator on info line
• label — Border label (--border-label and --preview-label)
  • preview-label — Border label of the preview window (--preview-label)
• prompt — Prompt
• pointer — Pointer to the current line
• marker — Multi-select marker
• spinner — Streaming input indicator
• header — Header

ANSI colors #

• -1 — Default terminal foreground/background color (or the original color of the text)
• 0 ~ 15 — 16 base colors
  • black
  • red
  • green
  • yellow
  • blue
  • magenta
  • cyan
  • white
  • bright-black (gray | grey)
  • bright-red
  • bright-green
  • bright-yellow
  • bright-blue
  • bright-magenta
  • bright-cyan
  • bright-white
• 16 ~ 255 — ANSI 256 colors
• #rrggbb — 24-bit colors

ANSI ATTRIBUTES #

(Only applies to foreground colors)

• regular — Clears previously set attributes; should precede the other ones
• bold
• underline
• reverse
• dim
• italic
• strikethrough

EXAMPLES #

# Seoul256 theme with 8-bit colors
# (https://github.com/junegunn/seoul256.vim)
fzf --color='bg:237,bg+:236,info:143,border:240,spinner:108' \
    --color='hl:65,fg:252,header:65,fg+:252' \
    --color='pointer:161,marker:168,prompt:110,hl+:108'

# Seoul256 theme with 24-bit colors
fzf --color='bg:#4B4B4B,bg+:#3F3F3F,info:#BDBB72,border:#6B6B6B,spinner:#98BC99' \
    --color='hl:#719872,fg:#D9D9D9,header:#719872,fg+:#D9D9D9' \
    --color='pointer:#E12672,marker:#E17899,prompt:#98BEDE,hl+:#98BC99'

--highlight-line #

Highlight the whole current line

--no-bold #

Do not use bold text

--black #

Use black background

History #

--history=HISTORY_FILE #

Load search history from the specified file and update the file on completion. When enabled, CTRL-N and CTRL-P are automatically remapped to next-history and prev-history.

--history-size=N #

Maximum number of entries in the history file (default: 1000). The file is automatically truncated when the number of the lines exceeds the value.

Preview #

--preview=COMMAND #

Execute the given command for the current line and display the result on the preview window. {} in the command is the placeholder that is replaced to the single-quoted string of the current line. To transform the replacement string, specify field index expressions between the braces (See field index expression for the details).

fzf --preview='head -$LINES {}'
ls -l | fzf --preview="echo user={3} when={-4..-2}; cat {-1}" --header-lines=1

fzf exports $FZF_PREVIEW_LINES and $FZF_PREVIEW_COLUMNS so that they represent the exact size of the preview window. (It also overrides $LINES and $COLUMNS with the same values but they can be reset by the default shell, so prefer to refer to the ones with FZF_PREVIEW_ prefix.)

fzf also exports $FZF_PREVIEW_TOP and $FZF_PREVIEW_LEFT so that the preview command can determine the position of the preview window.

A placeholder expression starting with + flag will be replaced to the space-separated list of the selected lines (or the current line if no selection was made) individually quoted.

fzf --multi --preview='head -10 {+}'
git log --oneline | fzf --multi --preview 'git show {+1}'

When using a field index expression, leading and trailing whitespace is stripped from the replacement string. To preserve the whitespace, use the s flag.

A placeholder expression with f flag is replaced to the path of a temporary file that holds the evaluated list. This is useful when you multi-select a large number of items and the length of the evaluated string may exceed ARG_MAX.

# Press CTRL-A to select 100K items and see the sum of all the numbers.
# This won't work properly without 'f' flag due to ARG_MAX limit.
seq 100000 | fzf --multi --bind ctrl-a:select-all \
                 --preview "awk '{sum+=\$1} END {print sum}' {+f}"

Also,

• {q} is replaced to the current query string

• {n} is replaced to the zero-based ordinal index of the current item. Use {+n} if you want all index numbers when multiple lines are selected.

Note that you can escape a placeholder pattern by prepending a backslash.

Preview window will be updated even when there is no match for the current query if any of the placeholder expressions evaluates to a non-empty string or {q} is in the command template.

Since 0.24.0, fzf can render partial preview content before the preview command completes. ANSI escape sequence for clearing the display (CSI 2 J) is supported, so you can use it to implement preview window that is constantly updating.

fzf --preview 'for i in $(seq 100000); do
  (( i % 200 == 0 )) && printf "\\033[2J"
  echo "$i"
  sleep 0.01
done'

fzf has experimental support for Kitty graphics protocol and Sixel graphics. The following example uses https://github.com/junegunn/fzf/blob/master/bin/fzf-preview.sh script to render an image using either of the protocols inside the preview window.

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

--preview-label=LABEL #

Label to print on the horizontal border line of the preview window. Should be used with one of the following --preview-window options.

• border-rounded (default on non-Windows platforms)
• border-sharp (default on Windows)
• border-bold
• border-double
• border-block
• border-thinblock
• border-horizontal
• border-top
• border-bottom

--preview-label-pos=EXPR #

N[:top|bottom]

Position of the border label on the border line of the preview window. Specify a positive integer as the column position from the left. Specify a negative integer to right-align the label. Label is printed on the top border line by default, add :bottom to put it on the border line on the bottom. The default value 0 (or center) will put the label at the center of the border line.

--preview-window=EXPR #

[POSITION][,SIZE[%]][,border-BORDER_OPT][,[no]wrap][,[no]follow][,[no]cycle]
[,[no]hidden][,+SCROLL[OFFSETS][/DENOM]][,~HEADER_LINES][,default]
[,<SIZE_THRESHOLD(ALTERNATIVE_LAYOUT)]"

• POSITION (default: right)
  • up
  • down
  • left
  • right

Determines the layout of the preview window.

• If the argument contains :hidden, the preview window will be hidden by default until toggle-preview action is triggered.
• If size is given as 0, preview window will not be visible, but fzf will still execute the command in the background.
• Long lines are truncated by default. Line wrap can be enabled with wrap flag.
• Preview window will automatically scroll to the bottom when follow flag is set, similarly to how tail -f works.

  fzf --preview-window follow --preview 'for i in $(seq 100000); do
    echo "$i"
    sleep 0.01
    (( i % 300 == 0 )) && printf "\\033[2J"
  done
  

• Cyclic scrolling is enabled with cycle flag.
• To hide the scroll offset information on the top right corner, specify noinfo.
• To change the style of the border of the preview window, specify one of the options for --border with border- prefix. e.g. border-rounded (border with rounded edges, default), border-sharp (border with sharp edges), border-left, border-none, etc.
• [:+SCROLL[OFFSETS][/DENOM]] determines the initial scroll offset of the preview window.
  • SCROLL can be either a numeric integer or a single-field index expression that refers to a numeric integer.
  • The optional OFFSETS part is for adjusting the base offset. It should be given as a series of signed integers (-INTEGER or +INTEGER).
  • The final /DENOM part is for specifying a fraction of the preview window height.
• ~HEADER_LINES keeps the top N lines as the fixed header so that they are always visible.
• default resets all options previously set to the default.

# Non-default scroll window positions and sizes
fzf --preview="head {}" --preview-window=up,30%
fzf --preview="file {}" --preview-window=down,1

# Initial scroll offset is set to the line number of each line of
# git grep output *minus* 5 lines (-5)
git grep --line-number '' |
  fzf --delimiter : --preview 'nl {1}' --preview-window '+{2}-5'

# Preview with bat, matching line in the middle of the window below
# the fixed header of the top 3 lines
#
#   ~3    Top 3 lines as the fixed header
#   +{2}  Base scroll offset extracted from the second field
#   +3    Extra offset to compensate for the 3-line header
#   /2    Put in the middle of the preview area
#
git grep --line-number '' |
  fzf --delimiter : \
      --preview 'bat --style=full --color=always --highlight-line {2} {1}' \
      --preview-window '~3,+{2}+3/2'

# Display top 3 lines as the fixed header
fzf --preview 'bat --style=full --color=always {}' --preview-window '~3'

• You can specify an alternative set of options that are used only when the size of the preview window is below a certain threshold. Note that only one alternative layout is allowed.

fzf --preview 'cat {}' --preview-window 'right,border-left,<30(up,30%,border-bottom)'

Scripting #

-q, --query=STR #

Start the finder with the given query

-1, --select-1 #

If there is only one match for the initial query (--query), do not start interactive finder and automatically select the only match

-0, --exit-0 #

If there is no match for the initial query (--query), do not start interactive finder and exit immediately

-f, --filter=STR #

Filter mode. Do not start interactive finder. When used with --no-sort, fzf becomes a fuzzy-version of grep.

--print-query #

Print query as the first line

--expect=KEY[,..] #

Comma-separated list of keys that can be used to complete fzf in addition to the default enter key. When this option is set, fzf will print the name of the key pressed as the first line of its output (or as the second line if --print-query is also used). The line will be empty if fzf is completed with the default enter key. If --expect option is specified multiple times, fzf will expect the union of the keys. --no-expect will clear the list.

fzf --expect=ctrl-v,ctrl-t,alt-s --expect=f1,f2,~,@

This option is not compatible with --bind on the same key and will take precedence over it. To combine the two, use print action.

fzf --multi --bind 'enter:print()+accept,ctrl-y:select-all+print(ctrl-y)+accept'

--read0 #

Read input delimited by ASCII NUL characters instead of newline characters

--print0 #

Print output delimited by ASCII NUL characters instead of newline characters

--no-clear #

Do not clear finder interface on exit. If fzf was started in full screen mode, it will not switch back to the original screen, so you’ll have to manually run tput rmcup to return. This option can be used to avoid flickering of the screen when your application needs to start fzf multiple times in order. (Note that in most cases, it is preferable to use reload action instead.)

foo=$(seq 100 | fzf --no-clear) || (
  # Need to manually switch back to the main screen when cancelled
  tput rmcup
  exit 1
) && seq "$foo" 100 | fzf

--sync #

Synchronous search for multi-staged filtering. If specified, fzf will launch the finder only after the input stream is complete and the initial filtering and the associated actions (bound to any of start, load, result, or focus) are complete.

# Avoid rendering both fzf instances at the same time
fzf --multi | fzf --sync

# fzf will not render intermediate states
(sleep 1; seq 1000000; sleep 1) |
  fzf --sync --query 5 --listen --bind start:up,load:up,result:up,focus:change-header:Ready\fR

--with-shell=STR #

Shell command and flags to start child processes with. On *nix Systems, the default value is $SHELL -c if $SHELL is set, otherwise sh -c. On Windows, the default value is cmd /s/c when $SHELL is not set.

gem list | fzf --with-shell 'ruby -e' --preview 'pp Gem::Specification.find_by_name({1})'

--listen[=[ADDR:]PORT], --listen-unsafe[=[ADDR:]PORT] #

Start HTTP server and listen on the given address. It allows external processes to send actions to perform via POST method.

• If the port number is omitted or given as 0, fzf will automatically choose a port and export it as FZF_PORT environment variable to the child processes
• If FZF_API_KEY environment variable is set, the server would require sending an API key with the same value in the x-api-key HTTP header
• FZF_API_KEY is required for a non-localhost listen address
• To allow remote process execution, use --listen-unsafe

# Start HTTP server on port 6266
fzf --listen 6266

# Send action to the server
curl -XPOST localhost:6266 -d 'reload(seq 100)+change-prompt(hundred> )'

# Get program state in JSON format (experimental)
# * Make sure NOT to access this endpoint from execute/transform actions
#   as it will result in a timeout
curl localhost:6266

# Start HTTP server on port 6266 with remote connections allowed
# * Listening on non-localhost address requires using an API key
export FZF_API_KEY="$(head -c 32 /dev/urandom | base64)"
fzf --listen 0.0.0.0:6266

# Send an authenticated action
curl -XPOST localhost:6266 -H "x-api-key: $FZF_API_KEY" -d 'change-query(yo)'

# Choose port automatically and export it as $FZF_PORT to the child process
fzf --listen --bind 'start:execute-silent:echo $FZF_PORT > /tmp/fzf-port'

Help #

--version #

Display version information and exit

--help #

Show help message

--man #

Show man page

Directory traversal #

--walker=EXPR #

[file][,dir][,follow][,hidden]

Determines the behavior of the built-in directory walker that is used when $FZF_DEFAULT_COMMAND is not set. The default value is file,follow,hidden.

• file — Include files in the search result
• dir — Include directories in the search result
• hidden — Include and follow hidden directories
• follow — Follow symbolic links

--walker-root=DIR #

The root directory from which to start the built-in directory walker. The default value is the current working directory.

--walker-skip=DIRS #

Comma-separated list of directory names to skip during the directory walk. The default value is .git,node_modules.

Shell integration #

--bash #

Print script to set up Bash shell integration

eval "$(fzf --bash)"

--zsh #

Print script to set up Zsh shell integration

source <(fzf --zsh)

--fish #

Print script to set up Fish shell integration

fzf --fish | source

Environment variableS #

FZF_DEFAULT_COMMAND #

Default command to use when input is tty. On *nix systems, fzf runs the command with $SHELL -c if SHELL is set, otherwise with sh -c, so in this case make sure that the command is POSIX-compliant.

FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS #

Default options.

export FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS="--layout=reverse --border --cycle"

FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS_FILE #

The location of the file that contains the default options.

export FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS_FILE=~/.fzfrc

FZF_API_KEY #

Can be used to require an API key when using --listen option. If not set, no authentication will be required by the server. You can set this value if you need to protect against DNS rebinding and privilege escalation attacks.

Exit status #

Field index expression #

A field index expression can be a non-zero integer or a range expression ([BEGIN]..[END]). --nth and --with-nth take a comma-separated list of field index expressions.

Examples #

Environment variables exported to child processes #

fzf exports the following environment variables to its child processes.

The following variables are additionally exported to the preview commands.

Extended search mode #

Unless specified otherwise, fzf will start in “extended-search mode”. In this mode, you can specify multiple patterns delimited by spaces, such as: 'wild ^music .mp3$ sbtrkt !rmx

You can prepend a backslash to a space (\ ) to match a literal space character.

Exact-match (quoted) #

A term that is prefixed by a single-quote character (') is interpreted as an “exact-match” (or “non-fuzzy”) term. fzf will search for the exact occurrences of the string.

Anchored-match #

A term can be prefixed by ^, or suffixed by $ to become an anchored-match term. Then fzf will search for the lines that start with or end with the given string. An anchored-match term is also an exact-match term.

Exact-boundary-match (quoted both ends) #

A single-quoted term is interpreted as an “exact-boundary-match”. fzf will search for the exact occurrences of the string with both ends at the word boundaries. Unlike in regular expressions, this also sees an underscore as a word boundary. But the words around underscores are ranked lower and appear later in the result than the other words around the other types of word boundaries.

1. xxx foo xxx (highest score)
2. xxx foo_xxx
3. xxx_foo xxx
4. xxx_foo_xxx (lowest score)

Negation #

If a term is prefixed by !, fzf will exclude the lines that satisfy the term from the result. In this case, fzf performs exact match by default.

Exact-match by default #

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

OR operator #

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.

e.g. ^core go$ | rb$ | py$

Key/event bindings #

--bind option allows you to bind a key or an event to one or more actions. You can use it to customize key bindings or implement dynamic behaviors.

--bind takes a comma-separated list of binding expressions. Each binding expression is KEY:ACTION or EVENT:ACTION.

fzf --bind=ctrl-j:accept,ctrl-k:kill-line

Available keys #

• ctrl-[a-z]
• ctrl-space
• ctrl-delete
• ctrl-\
• ctrl-]
• ctrl-^ (ctrl-6)
• ctrl-/ (ctrl-_)
• ctrl-alt-[a-z]
• alt-[*] (Any case-sensitive single character is allowed)
• f[1-12]
• enter (return, ctrl-m)
• space
• backspace (bspace, bs)
• alt-up
• alt-down
• alt-left
• alt-right
• alt-enter
• alt-space
• alt-backspace (alt-bspace, alt-bs)
• tab
• shift-tab (btab)
• esc
• delete (del)
• up
• down
• left
• right
• home
• end
• insert
• page-up (pgup)
• page-down (pgdn)
• shift-up
• shift-down
• shift-left
• shift-right
• shift-delete
• alt-shift-up
• alt-shift-down
• alt-shift-left
• alt-shift-right
• left-click
• right-click
• double-click
• scroll-up
• scroll-down
• preview-scroll-up
• preview-scroll-down
• shift-left-click
• shift-right-click
• shift-scroll-up
• shift-scroll-down
• or any single character

Available events #

start #

Triggered only once when fzf finder starts. Since fzf consumes the input stream asynchronously, the input list is not available unless you use --sync.

# Move cursor to the last item and select all items
seq 1000 | fzf --multi --sync --bind start:last+select-all

load #

Triggered when the input stream is complete and the initial processing of the list is complete.

# Change the prompt to "loaded" when the input stream is complete
(seq 10; sleep 1; seq 11 20) | fzf --prompt 'Loading> ' --bind 'load:change-prompt:Loaded> '

resize #

Triggered when the terminal size is changed.

fzf --bind 'resize:transform-header:echo Resized: ${FZF_COLUMNS}x${FZF_LINES}'

result #

Triggered when the filtering for the current query is complete and the result list is ready.

# Put the cursor on the second item when the query string is empty
# * Note that you can't use 'change' event in this case because the second position may not be available
fzf --sync --bind 'result:transform:[[ -z {q} ]] && echo "pos(2)"'

change #

Triggered whenever the query string is changed

# Move cursor to the first entry whenever the query is changed
fzf --bind change:first

focus #

Triggered when the focus changes due to a vertical cursor movement or a search result update.

fzf --bind 'focus:transform-preview-label:echo [ {} ]' --preview 'cat {}'

# Any action bound to the event runs synchronously and thus can make the interface sluggish
# e.g. lolcat isn't one of the fastest programs, and every cursor movement in
#      fzf will be noticeably affected by its execution time
fzf --bind 'focus:transform-preview-label:echo [ {} ] | lolcat -f' --preview 'cat {}'

# Beware not to introduce an infinite loop
seq 10 | fzf --bind 'focus:up' --cycle

one #

Triggered when there’s only one match. one:accept binding is comparable to --select-1 option, but the difference is that --select-1 is only effective before the interactive finder starts but one event is triggered by the interactive finder.

# Automatically select the only match
seq 10 | fzf --bind one:accept

zero #

Triggered when there’s no match. zero:abort binding is comparable to --exit-0 option, but the difference is that --exit-0 is only effective before the interactive finder starts but zero event is triggered by the interactive finder.

# Reload the candidate list when there's no match
echo $RANDOM | fzf --bind 'zero:reload(echo $RANDOM)+clear-query' --height 3

backward-eof #

Triggered when the query string is already empty and you try to delete it backward.

fzf --bind backward-eof:abort

jump #

Triggered when successfully jumped to the target item in jump mode.

fzf --bind space:jump,jump:accept

jump-cancel #

Triggered when jump mode is cancelled.

fzf --bind space:jump,jump:accept,jump-cancel:abort

click-header #

Triggered when a mouse click occurs within the header. Sets FZF_CLICK_HEADER_LINE and FZF_CLICK_HEADER_COLUMN environment variables starting from 1.

printf "head1\nhead2" | fzf --header-lines=2 --bind 'click-header:transform-prompt:printf ${FZF_CLICK_HEADER_LINE}x${FZF_CLICK_HEADER_COLUMN}'

Available actions #

A key or an event can be bound to one or more of the following actions.

Action composition #

Multiple actions can be chained using + separator.

fzf --multi --bind 'ctrl-a:select-all+accept'
fzf --multi --bind 'ctrl-a:select-all' --bind 'ctrl-a:+accept'

Action argument #

An action denoted with (...) suffix takes an argument.

fzf --bind 'ctrl-a:change-prompt(NewPrompt> )'
fzf --bind 'ctrl-v:preview(cat {})' --preview-window hidden

If the argument contains parentheses, fzf may fail to parse the expression. In that case, you can use any of the following alternative notations to avoid parse errors.

• action-name[...]
• action-name{...}
• action-name<...>
• action-name~...~
• action-name!...!
• action-name@...@
• action-name#...#
• action-name$...$
• action-name%...%
• action-name^...^
• action-name&...&
• action-name*...*
• action-name;...;
• action-name/.../
• action-name|...|
• action-name:...

The last one is the special form that frees you from parse errors as it does not expect the closing character. The catch is that it should be the last one in the comma-separated list of key-action pairs.

Command execution #

With execute(...) action, you can execute arbitrary commands without leaving fzf. For example, you can turn fzf into a simple file browser by binding enter key to less command like follows.

fzf --bind "enter:execute(less {})"

You can use the same placeholder expressions as in --preview.

fzf switches to the alternate screen when executing a command. However, if the command is expected to complete quickly, and you are not interested in its output, you might want to use execute-silent instead, which silently executes the command without the switching. Note that fzf will not be responsive until the command is complete. For asynchronous execution, start your command as a background process (i.e. appending &).

On *nix systems, fzf runs the command with $SHELL -c if SHELL is set, otherwise with sh -c, so in this case make sure that the command is POSIX-compliant.

become(...) action is similar to execute(...), but it replaces the current fzf process with the specified command using execve(2) system call.

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

Reload input #

reload(...) action is used to dynamically update the input list without restarting fzf. It takes the same command template with placeholder expressions as execute(...).

See https://github.com/junegunn/fzf/issues/1750 for more info.

# 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 --layout=reverse

# Integration with ripgrep
RG_PREFIX="rg --column --line-number --no-heading --color=always --smart-case "
INITIAL_QUERY="foobar"
FZF_DEFAULT_COMMAND="$RG_PREFIX '$INITIAL_QUERY'" \
  fzf --bind "change:reload:$RG_PREFIX {q} || true" \
      --ansi --disabled --query "$INITIAL_QUERY"

reload-sync(...) is a synchronous version of reload that replaces the list only when the command is complete. This is useful when the command takes a while to produce the initial output and you don’t want fzf to run against an empty list while the command is running.

# You can still filter and select entries from the initial list for 3 seconds
seq 100 | fzf --bind 'load:reload-sync(sleep 3; seq 1000)+unbind(load)'

Transform actions #

Actions with transform- prefix are used to transform the states of fzf using the output of an external command. The output of these commands are expected to be a single line of text.

fzf --bind 'focus:transform-header:file --brief {}'

transform(...) action runs an external command that should print a series of actions to be performed. The output should be in the same format as the payload of HTTP POST request to the --listen server.

# Disallow selecting an empty line
echo -e "1. Hello\n2. Goodbye\n\n3. Exit" |
  fzf --height '~100%' --reverse --header 'Select one' \
      --bind 'enter:transform:[[ -n {} ]] &&
                echo accept ||
                echo "change-header:Invalid selection"'

Preview binding #

With preview(...) action, you can specify multiple different preview commands in addition to the default preview command given by --preview option.

# Default preview command with an extra preview binding
fzf --preview 'file {}' --bind '?:preview:cat {}'

# A preview binding with no default preview command
# (Preview window is initially empty)
fzf --bind '?:preview:cat {}'

# Preview window hidden by default, it appears when you first hit '?'
fzf --bind '?:preview:cat {}' --preview-window hidden

Change preview window attributes #

change-preview-window action can be used to change the properties of the preview window. Unlike the --preview-window option, you can specify multiple sets of options separated by | characters.

# Rotate through the options using CTRL-/
fzf --preview 'cat {}' --bind 'ctrl-/:change-preview-window(right,70%|down,40%,border-horizontal|hidden|right)'

# The default properties given by `--preview-window` are inherited, so an empty string in the list is interpreted as the default
fzf --preview 'cat {}' --preview-window 'right,40%,border-left' --bind 'ctrl-/:change-preview-window(70%|down,border-top|hidden|)'

# This is equivalent to toggle-preview action
fzf --preview 'cat {}' --bind 'ctrl-/:change-preview-window(hidden|)'

Author #

Junegunn Choi

See also #

• Project documentation: https://junegunn.github.io/fzf/
• Project homepage: https://github.com/junegunn/fzf
• Extra Vim plugin: https://github.com/junegunn/fzf.vim

License #

The MIT License (MIT)

Copyright (c) 2013-2024 Junegunn Choi

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN
THE SOFTWARE.