fzf is a general-purpose command-line fuzzy finder released under an open source license. It’s an interactive Unix filter for command-line that can be used with any list; files, command history, processes, hostnames, bookmarks, git commits, and much more.
This tool will launch curses-based finder, read the list from STDIN, and write the selected item to STDOUT. It accepts a list — by default, the list of files in the current directory tree — and allows selection by way of fuzzy finding.
fzf by default starts in fullscreen mode.
fzf project consists of the following components:
- fzf executable
- fzf-tmux script for launching fzf in a tmux pane
- Shell extensions
- Key bindings (CTRL-T, CTRL-R, and ALT-C) (bash, zsh, fish)
- Fuzzy auto-completion (bash, zsh)
- Vim/Neovim plugin
Key Features
- Very fast, clean, colourful, and easy to use.
- Good range of features.
- Fuzzy completion for files and directories, bash, zsh, process IDs, host names, and more. You can type in multiple search terms delimited by spaces.
- Flexible layout. You can run the utility in fullscreen or horizontal/vertical split.
- Vim/Neovim plugin, key bindings and fuzzy auto-completion.
- Execute arbitrary commands without leaving fzf.
- Runs asynchronously.
- Preview window – fzf automatically starts external process with the current line as the argument and shows the result in the split window. Preview window supports ANSI colors.
- Key bindings.
- Portable, no dependencies.
- fzf-tmux is a bash script that opens fzf in a tmux pane.
- Can run inside GVim.
- Basic support for Cygwin environment.
- Cross-platform support.
Website: github.com/junegunn/fzf
Support: GitHub
Developer: Junegunn Choi
License: The MIT License
fzf is written in Go. Learn Go with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
| Search Tools | |
|---|---|
| ripgrep | Recursively search directories for a regex pattern |
| fzf | Command-line fuzzy finder for your shell |
| McFly | Navigate through your shell history |
| peco | Interactive filtering tool |
| SeaGOAT | Semantic-code search engine |
| FSearch | Fast file search utility based on GTK+3 |
| Heatseeker | General-purpose fuzzy selector |
| ANGRYsearch | Like FSearch, a search tool inspired by Everything Search Engine |
| catfish | Versatile search GUI powered by locate and find |
Read our verdict in the software roundup. You’ll also find other similar software explored in these other roundups: Return to CLI Navigation Tools | Return to Small Console Menu Tools | Alternatives to find
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