1VIFM(1) General Commands Manual VIFM(1)
2
6 vifm - vi file manager
7
9 vifm [OPTION]...
10 vifm [OPTION]... path
11 vifm [OPTION]... path path
12
14 Vifm is an ncurses based file manager with vi like keybindings. If you
15 use vi, vifm gives you complete keyboard control over your files with‐
16 out having to learn a new set of commands.
17
19 vifm starts in the current directory unless it is given a different di‐
20 rectory on the command line or 'vifminfo' option includes "savedirs"
21 (in which case last visited directories are used as defaults).
22 - Read list of files from standard input stream and compose custom
24 view out of them (see "Custom views" section). Current working
25 directory is used as a base for relative paths.
26 <path> Starts Vifm in the specified path.
28 <path> <path>
30 Starts Vifm in the specified paths.
31 Specifying two directories triggers split view even when vifm was in
33 single-view mode on finishing previous run. To suppress this behaviour
34 :only command can be put in the vifmrc file.
35 When only one path argument is found on command-line, the left/top pane
37 is automatically set as the current view.
38 Paths to files are also allowed in case you want vifm to start with
40 some archive opened.
41 --select <path>
43 Open parent directory of the given path and select specified
44 file in it.
45 -f Makes vifm instead of opening files write selection to
47 $VIFM/vimfiles and quit.
48 --choose-files <path>|-
50 Sets output file to write selection into on exit instead of
51 opening files. "-" means standard output. Use empty value to
52 disable it.
53 --choose-dir <path>|-
55 Sets output file to write last visited directory into on exit.
56 "-" means standard output. Use empty value to disable it.
57 --delimiter <delimiter>
59 Sets separator for list of file paths written out by vifm.
60 Empty value means null character. Default is new line charac‐
61 ter.
62 --on-choose <command>
64 Sets command to be executed on selected files instead of opening
65 them. The command may use any of macros described in "Command
66 macros" section below. The command is executed once for whole
67 selection.
68 --logging[=<startup log path>]
70 Log some operational details $VIFM/log. If the optional startup
71 log path is specified and permissions allow to open it for writ‐
72 ing, then logging of early initialization (before value of $VIFM
73 is determined) is put there.
74 --server-list
76 List available server names and exit.
77 --server-name <name>
79 Name of target or this instance (sequential numbers are appended
80 on name conflict).
81 --remote
83 Sends the rest of the command line to another instance of vifm,
84 --server-name is treated just like any other argument and should
85 precede --remote on the command line. When there is no server,
86 quits silently. There is no limit on how many arguments can be
87 processed. One can combine --remote with -c <command> or +<com‐
88 mand> to execute commands in already running instance of vifm.
89 See also "Client-Server" section below.
90 --remote-expr
92 passes expression to vifm server and prints result. See also
93 "Client-Server" section below.
94 -c <command> or +<command>
96 Run command-line mode <command> on startup. Commands in such
97 arguments are executed in the order they appear in command line.
98 Commands with spaces or special symbols must be enclosed in dou‐
99 ble or single quotes or all special symbols should be escaped
100 (the exact syntax strongly depends on shell). "+" argument is
101 equivalent to "$" and thus picks last item of of the view.
102 --help, -h
104 Show a brief command summary and exit vifm.
105 --version, -v
107 Show version information and quit.
108 --no-configs
110 Skip reading vifmrc and vifminfo.
111 See "Startup" section below for the explanations on $VIFM.
114
116 Ctrl-C or Escape
117 cancel most operations (see "Cancellation" section below), clear
118 all selected files.
119 Ctrl-L clear and redraw the screen.
121
123 The basic vi key bindings are used to move through the files and pop-up
124 windows.
125 k, gk, or Ctrl-P
127 move cursor up one line.
128 j, gj or Ctrl-N
130 move cursor down one line.
131 h when 'lsview' is off move up one directory (moves to parent di‐
133 rectory node in tree view), otherwise move left one file.
134 l when 'lsview' is off move into a directory or launch a file,
136 otherwise move right one file. See "Selection" section below.
137 gg move to the first line of the file list.
139 G move to the last line in the file list.
141 gh go up one directory regardless of view representation (regular,
143 ls-like). Also can be used to leave custom views including tree
144 view.
145 gl or Enter
147 enter directory or launch a file. See "Selection" section be‐
148 low.
149 H move to the first file in the window.
151 M move to the file in the middle of the window.
153 L move to the last file in the window.
155 Ctrl-F or Page Down
157 move forward one page.
158 Ctrl-B or Page Up
160 move back one page.
161 Ctrl-D jump back one half page.
163 Ctrl-U jump forward one half page.
165 n% move to the file that is n percent from the top of the list (for
167 example 25%).
168 0 or ^ move cursor to the first column. See 'lsview' option descrip‐
170 tion.
171 $ move cursor to the last column. See 'lsview' option descrip‐
173 tion.
174 Space switch file lists.
176 gt switch to the next tab (wrapping around).
178 {n}gt switch to the tab number {n} (wrapping around).
180 gT switch to the previous tab (wrapping around).
182 {n}gT switch to {n}-th previous tab.
184
186 Most movement commands also accept a count, 12j would move down 12
187 files.
188 [count]%
190 move to percent of the file list.
191 [count]j
193 move down [count] files.
194 [count]k
196 move up [count] files.
197 [count]G or [count]gg
199 move to list position [count].
200 [count]h
202 go up [count] directories.
203
205 zt redraw pane with file in top of list.
206 zz redraw pane with file in center of list.
208 zb redraw pane with file in bottom of list.
210 Ctrl-E scroll pane one line down.
212 Ctrl-Y scroll pane one line up.
214
216 Second character can be entered with or without Control key.
217 Ctrl-W H
219 move the pane to the far left.
220 Ctrl-W J
222 move the pane to the very bottom.
223 Ctrl-W K
225 move the pane to the very top.
226 Ctrl-W L
228 move the pane to the far right.
229 Ctrl-W h
232 switch to the left pane.
233 Ctrl-W j
235 switch to the pane below.
236 Ctrl-W k
238 switch to the pane above.
239 Ctrl-W l
241 switch to the right pane.
242 Ctrl-W b
245 switch to bottom-right window.
246 Ctrl-W t
248 switch to top-left window.
249 Ctrl-W p
252 switch to previous window.
253 Ctrl-W w
255 switch to other pane.
256 Ctrl-W o
259 leave only one pane.
260 Ctrl-W s
262 split window horizontally.
263 Ctrl-W v
265 split window vertically.
266 Ctrl-W x
269 exchange panes.
270 Ctrl-W z
272 quit preview pane or view modes.
273 Ctrl-W -
276 decrease size of the view by count.
277 Ctrl-W +
279 increase size of the view by count.
280 Ctrl-W <
282 decrease size of the view by count.
283 Ctrl-W >
285 increase size of the view by count.
286 Ctrl-W |
289 set current view size to count.
290 Ctrl-W _
292 set current view size to count.
293 Ctrl-W =
295 make size of two views equal.
296 For Ctrl-W +, Ctrl-W -, Ctrl-W <, Ctrl-W >, Ctrl-W | and Ctrl-W _ com‐
298 mands count can be given before and/or after Ctrl-W. The resulting
299 count is a multiplication of those two. So "2 Ctrl-W 2 -" decreases
300 window size by 4 lines or columns.
301 Ctrl-W | and Ctrl-W _ maximise current view by default.
303
305 Marks are set the same way as they are in vi.
306 You can use these characters for marks [a-z][A-Z][0-9].
308 m[a-z][A-Z][0-9]
310 set a mark for the file at the current cursor position.
311 '[a-z][A-Z][0-9]
313 navigate to the file set for the mark.
314 There are also several special marks that can't be set manually:
317 - ' (single quote) - previously visited directory of the view, thus
319 hitting '' allows switching between two last locations
320 - < - the first file of the last visually selected block
322 - > - the last file of the last visually selected block
324
326 /regular expression pattern
327 search for files matching regular expression in forward direc‐
328 tion and advance cursor to next match.
329 / perform forward search with top item of search pattern history.
331 ?regular expression pattern
333 search for files matching regular expression in backward direc‐
334 tion and advance cursor to previous match.
335 ? perform backward search with top item of search pattern history.
337 Trailing slash for directories is taken into account, so /\/ searches
339 for directories and symbolic links to directories. At the moment //
340 works too, but this can change in the future, so consider escaping the
341 slash if not typing pattern by hand.
342 Matches are automatically selected if 'hlsearch' is set. Enabling
344 'incsearch' makes search interactive. 'ignorecase' and 'smartcase' op‐
345 tions affect case sensitivity of search queries as well as local filter
346 and other things detailed in the description of 'caseoptions'.
347 [count]n
350 go to the next file matching last search pattern. Takes last
351 search direction into account.
352 [count]N
354 go to the previous file matching last search pattern. Takes
355 last search direction into account.
356 If 'hlsearch' option is set, hitting n/N to perform search and go to
358 the first matching item resets current selection in normal mode. It is
359 not the case if search was already performed on files in the directory,
360 thus selection is not reset after clearing selection with escape key
361 and hitting n/N key again.
362 Note: vifm uses extended regular expressions for / and ?.
364 [count]f[character]
367 search forward for file with [character] as first character in
368 name. Search wraps around the end of the list.
369 [count]F[character]
371 search backward for file with [character] as first character in
372 name. Search wraps around the end of the list.
373 [count];
375 find the next match of f or F.
376 [count],
378 find the previous match of f or F.
379 Note: f, F, ; and , wrap around list beginning and end when they are
381 used alone and they don't wrap when they are used as selectors.
382
384 There are three basic file filters:
385 - dot files filter (does not affect "." and ".." special directories,
387 whose appearance is controlled by the 'dotdirs' option), see 'dot‐
388 files' option;
389 - permanent filter;
391 - local filter (see description of the "=" normal mode command).
393 Permanent filter essentially allows defining a group of files names
395 which are not desirable to be seen by default, like temporary or backup
396 files, which might be created alongside normal ones. Just like you
397 don't usually need to see hidden dot files (files starting with a dot).
398 Local filter on the other hand is for temporary immediate filtering of
399 file list at hand, to get rid of uninterested files in the view or to
400 make it possible to use % range in a :command.
401 For the purposes of more deterministic editing permanent filter is
403 split into two parts:
404 - one edited explicitly via :filter command;
406 - another one which is edited implicitly via zf shortcut.
408 Files are tested against both parts and a match counts if at least one
410 of the parts matched.
411 Each file list has its own copy of each filter.
414 Filtered files are not checked in / search or :commands.
416 Files and directories are filtered separately. This is done by append‐
418 ing a slash to a directory name before testing whether it matches the
419 filter. Examples:
420 " filter directories which names end with '.files'
423 :filter /^.*\.files\/$/
424 " filter files which names end with '.d'
426 :filter {*.d}
427 " filter files and directories which names end with '.o'
429 :filter /^.*\.o\/?$/
430 Note: vifm uses extended regular expressions.
432 The basic vim folding key bindings are used for managing filters.
434 za toggle visibility of dot files.
437 zo show dot files.
439 zm hide dot files.
441 zf add selected files to permanent filter.
443 zO reset permanent filter.
445 zR save and reset all filters.
447 zr clear local filter.
449 zM restore all filters (undoes last zR).
451 zd exclude selection or current file from a custom view. Does
453 nothing for regular view. For tree view excluding directory ex‐
454 cludes that sub-tree. For compare views zd hides group of adja‐
455 cent identical files, count can be specified as 1 to exclude
456 just single file or selected items instead. Files excluded this
457 way are not counted as filtered out and can't be returned unless
458 view is reloaded.
459 =regular expression pattern
461 filter out files that don't match regular expression. Whether
462 view is updated as regular expression is changed depends on the
463 value of the 'incsearch' option. This kind of filter is auto‐
464 matically reset when directory is changed.
465
467 While some of the keys make sense outside of tree-view, they are most
468 useful in trees.
469 [z go to first sibling of current entry.
471 ]z go to last sibling of current entry.
473 zj go to next directory sibling of current entry or do nothing.
475 zk go to previous directory sibling of current entry or do nothing.
477 zx toggle fold under the cursor or parent entry of the current file
479 if cursor is not on a directory.
480
482 [count]:
483 enter command line mode. [count] generates range.
484 q: open external editor to prompt for command-line command. See
486 "Command line editing" section for details.
487 q/ open external editor to prompt for search pattern to be searched
489 in forward direction. See "Command line editing" section for
490 details.
491 q? open external editor to prompt for search pattern to be searched
493 in backward direction. See "Command line editing" section for
494 details.
495 q= open external editor to prompt for filter pattern. See "Command
497 line editing" section for details. Unlike other q{x} commands
498 this one doesn't work in Visual mode.
499 [count]!! and [count]!<selector>
501 enter command line mode with entered ! command. [count] modi‐
502 fies range.
503 Ctrl-O go backwards through directory history of current view. Nonex‐
505 istent directories are automatically skipped.
506 Ctrl-I if 'cpoptions' contains "t" flag, <tab> and <c-i> switch active
508 pane just like <space> does, otherwise it goes forward through
509 directory history of current view. Nonexistent directories are
510 automatically skipped.
511 Ctrl-G show a dialog with detailed information about current file. See
513 "Menus and dialogs" section for controls.
514 Shift-Tab
516 enter view mode (works only after activating view pane with
517 :view command).
518 ga calculate directory size. Uses cached directory sizes when pos‐
520 sible for better performance. As a special case calculating
521 size of ".." entry results in calculation of size of current di‐
522 rectory.
523 gA like ga, but force update. Ignores old values of directory
525 sizes.
526 If file under cursor is selected, each selected item is processed, oth‐
528 erwise only current file is updated.
529 gf find link destination (like l with 'followlinks' off, but also
531 finds directories). On Windows additionally follows .lnk-files.
532 gF Same as gf, but resolves final path of the chain of symbolic
534 links.
535 gr only for MS-Windows
537 same as l key, but tries to run program with administrative
538 privileges.
539 av go to visual mode into selection amending state preserving cur‐
541 rent selection.
542 gv go to visual mode restoring last selection.
544 [reg]gs
546 when no register is specified, restore last t selection (similar
547 to what gv does for visual mode selection). If register is
548 present, then all files listed in that register and which are
549 visible in current view are selected.
550 gu<selector>
552 make names of selected files lowercase.
553 [count]guu and [count]gugu
555 make names of [count] files starting from the current one lower‐
556 case. Without [count] only current file is affected.
557 gU<selector>
559 make names of selected files uppercase.
560 [count]gUU and [count]gUgU
562 make names of [count] files starting from the current one upper‐
563 case. Without [count] only current file is affected.
564 e explore file in the current pane.
566 i handle file (even if it's an executable and 'runexec' option is
568 set).
569 cw change word is used to rename a file or files. If multiple
571 files are selected, behaves as :rename command run without argu‐
572 ments.
573 cW change WORD is used to change only name of file (without exten‐
575 sion).
576 cl change link target.
578 co only for *nix
580 change file owner.
581 cg only for *nix
583 change file group.
584 [count]cp
586 change file attributes (permission on *nix and properties on
587 Windows). If [count] is specified, it's treated as numerical
588 argument for non-recursive `chmod` command (of the form
589 [0-7]{3,4}). See "Menus and dialogs" section for controls.
590 [count]C
592 clone file [count] times.
593 [count]dd or d[count]selector
595 move selected file or files to trash directory (if 'trash' op‐
596 tion is set, otherwise delete). See "Trash directory" section
597 below.
598 [count]DD or D[count]selector
600 like dd and d<selector>, but omitting trash directory (even when
601 'trash' option is set).
602 Y, [count]yy or y[count]selector
604 yank selected files.
605 p copy yanked files to the current directory or move the files to
607 the current directory if they were deleted with dd or :d[elete]
608 or if the files were yanked from trash directory. See "Trash
609 directory" section below.
610 P move the last yanked files. The advantage of using P instead of
612 d followed by p is that P moves files only once. This isn't im‐
613 portant in case you're moving files in the same file system
614 where your home directory is, but using P to move files on some
615 other file system (or file systems, in case you want to move
616 files from fs1 to fs2 and your home is on fs3) can save your
617 time.
618 al put symbolic links with absolute paths.
620 rl put symbolic links with relative paths.
622 t select or unselect (tag) the current file.
624 u undo last change.
626 Ctrl-R redo last change.
628 dp in compare view of "ofboth grouppaths" kind, makes corresponding
630 entry of the other pane equal to the current one. The semantics
631 is as follows:
632 - nothing done for identical entries
633 - if file is missing in current view, its pair gets removed
634 - if file is missing or differs in other view, it's replaced
635 - file pairs are defined by matching relative paths
636 File removal obeys 'trash' option. When the option is enabled,
637 the operation can be undone/redone (although results won't be
638 visible automatically).
639 Unlike in Vim, this operation is performed on a single line
640 rather than a set of adjacent changes.
641 do same as dp, but applies changes in the opposite direction.
643 v or V enter visual mode, clears current selection.
645 [count]Ctrl-A
647 increment first number in file name by [count] (1 by default).
648 [count]Ctrl-X
650 decrement first number in file name by [count] (1 by default).
651 ZQ same as :quit!.
653 ZZ same as :quit.
655 . repeat last command-line command (not normal mode command) of
657 this run (does nothing right after startup or :restart command).
658 The command doesn't depend on command-line history and can be
659 used with completely disabled history.
660 ( go to previous group. Groups are defined by primary sorting
662 key. For name and iname members of each group have same first
663 letter, for all other sorting keys vifm uses size, uid, ...
664 ) go to next group. See ( key description above.
666 { speeds up navigation to closest previous entry of the opposite
668 type by moving to the first file backwards when cursor is on a
669 directory and to the first directory backwards when cursor is on
670 a file. This is essentially a special case of ( that is locked
671 on "dirs".
672 } same as {, but in forward direction.
674 [c go to previous mismatched entry in directory comparison view or
676 do nothing.
677 ]c go to next mismatched entry in directory comparison view or do
679 nothing.
680 [d go to previous directory entry or do nothing.
682 ]d go to next directory entry or do nothing.
684 [r same as :siblprev.
686 ]r same as :siblnext.
688 [R same as :siblprev!.
690 ]R same as :siblnext!.
692 [s go to previous selected entry or do nothing.
694 ]s go to next selected entry or do nothing.
696
698 You can use count with commands like yy.
699 [count]yy
701 yank count files starting from current cursor position downward.
702 Or you can use count with motions passed to y, d or D.
704 d[count]j
706 delete (count + 1) files starting from current cursor position
707 upward.
708
710 vifm supports multiple registers for temporary storing list of yanked
711 or deleted files.
712 Registers should be specified by hitting double quote key followed by a
714 register name. Count is specified after register name. By default
715 commands use unnamed register, which has double quote as its name.
716 Though all commands accept registers, most of commands ignores them
718 (for example H or Ctrl-U). Other commands can fill register or append
719 new files to it.
720 Presently vifm supports ", _, a-z and A-Z characters as register names.
722 As mentioned above " is unnamed register and has special meaning of the
724 default register. Every time when you use named registers (a-z and A-
725 Z) unnamed register is updated to contain same list of files as the
726 last used register.
727 _ is black hole register. It can be used for writing, but its list is
729 always empty.
730 Registers with names from a to z and from A to Z are named ones. Low‐
732 ercase registers are cleared before adding new files, while uppercase
733 aren't and should be used to append new files to the existing file list
734 of appropriate lowercase register (A for a, B for b, ...).
735 Registers can be changed on :empty command if they contain files under
737 trash directory (see "Trash directory" section below).
738 Registers do not contain one file more than once.
740 Example:
742 "a2yy
744 puts names of two files to register a (and to the unnamed register),
746 "Ad
748 removes one file and append its name to register a (and to the unnamed
750 register),
751 p or "ap or "Ap
753 inserts previously yanked and deleted files into current directory.
755
757 y, d, D, !, gu and gU commands accept selectors. You can combine them
758 with any of selectors below to quickly remove or yank several files.
759 Most of selectors are like vi motions: j, k, gg, G, H, L, M, %, f, F,
761 ;, comma, ', ^, 0 and $. But there are some additional ones.
762 a all files in current view.
764 s selected files.
766 S all files except selected.
768 Examples:
770 - dj - delete file under cursor and one below;
772 - d2j - delete file under cursor and two below;
774 - y6gg - yank all files from cursor position to 6th file in the list.
776 When you pass a count to whole command and its selector they are multi‐
778 plied. So:
779 - 2d2j - delete file under cursor and four below;
781 - 2dj - delete file under cursor and two below;
783 - 2y6gg - yank all files from cursor position to 12th file in the
785 list.
786
788 Visual mode has two generic operating submodes:
789 - plain selection as it is in Vim;
791 - selection editing submode.
793 Both modes select files in range from cursor position at which visual
795 mode was entered to current cursor position (let's call it "selection
796 region"). Each of two borders can be adjusted by swapping them via "o"
797 or "O" keys and updating cursor position with regular cursor motion
798 keys. Obviously, once initial cursor position is altered this way,
799 real start position becomes unavailable.
800 Plain Vim-like visual mode starts with cleared selection, which is not
802 restored on rejecting selection ("Escape", "Ctrl-C", "v", "V"). Con‐
803 trary to it, selection editing doesn't clear previously selected files
804 and restores them after reject. Accepting selection by performing an
805 operation on selected items (e.g. yanking them via "y") moves cursor to
806 the top of current selection region (not to the top most selected file
807 of the view).
808 In turn, selection editing supports three types of editing (look at
810 statusbar to know which one is currently active):
811 - append - amend selection by selecting elements in selection region;
813 - remove - amend selection by deselecting elements in selection re‐
815 gion;
816 - invert - amend selection by inverting selection of elements in se‐
818 lection region.
819 No matter how you activate selection editing it starts in "append".
821 One can switch type of operation (in the order given above) via "Ctrl-
822 G" key.
823 Almost all normal mode keys work in visual mode, but instead of accept‐
825 ing selectors they operate on selected items.
826 Enter save selection and go back to normal mode not moving cursor.
828 av leave visual mode if in amending mode (restores previous selec‐
830 tion), otherwise switch to amending selection mode.
831 gv restore previous visual selection.
833 v, V, Ctrl-C or Escape
835 leave visual mode if not in amending mode, otherwise switch to
836 normal visual selection.
837 Ctrl-G switch type of amending by round robin scheme: append -> remove
839 -> invert.
840 : enter command line mode. Selection is cleared on leaving the
842 mode.
843 o switch active selection bound.
845 O switch active selection bound.
847 gu, u make names of selected files lowercase.
849 gU, U make names of selected files uppercase.
851 cw same as running :rename command without arguments.
853
855 This mode tries to imitate the less program. List of builtin shortcuts
856 can be found below. Shortcuts can be customized using :qmap, :qnoremap
857 and :qunmap command-line commands.
858 Shift-Tab, Tab, q, Q, ZZ
860 return to normal mode.
861 [count]e, [count]Ctrl-E, [count]j, [count]Ctrl-N, [count]Enter
863 scroll forward one line (or [count] lines).
864 [count]y, [count]Ctrl-Y, [count]k, [count]Ctrl-K, [count]Ctrl-P
866 scroll backward one line (or [count] lines).
867 [count]f, [count]Ctrl-F, [count]Ctrl-V, [count]Space
869 scroll forward one window (or [count] lines).
870 [count]b, [count]Ctrl-B, [count]Alt-V
872 scroll backward one window (or [count] lines).
873 [count]z
875 scroll forward one window (and set window to [count]).
876 [count]w
878 scroll backward one window (and set window to [count]).
879 [count]Alt-Space
881 scroll forward one window, but don't stop at end-of-file.
882 [count]d, [count]Ctrl-D
884 scroll forward one half-window (and set half-window to [count]).
885 [count]u, [count]Ctrl-U
887 scroll backward one half-window (and set half-window to
888 [count]).
889 r, Ctrl-R, Ctrl-L
891 repaint screen.
892 R reload view preserving scroll position.
894 F toggle automatic forwarding. Roughly equivalent to periodic
896 file reload and scrolling to the bottom. The behaviour is simi‐
897 lar to `tail -F` or F key in less.
898 a switch to the next viewer. Does nothing for preview constructed
900 via %q macro.
901 A switch to the previous viewer. Does nothing for preview con‐
903 structed via %q macro.
904 i toggle raw mode (ignoring of defined viewers). Does nothing for
906 preview constructed via %q macro.
907 [count]/pattern
909 search forward for ([count]‐th) matching line.
910 [count]?pattern
912 search backward for ([count]‐th) matching line.
913 [count]n
915 repeat previous search (for [count]‐th occurrence).
916 [count]N
918 repeat previous search in reverse direction (for [count]‐th oc‐
919 currence).
920 [count]g, [count]<, [count]Alt-<
922 scroll to the first line of the file (or line [count]).
923 [count]G, [count]>, [count]Alt->
925 scroll to the last line of the file (or line [count]).
926 [count]p, [count]%
928 scroll to the beginning of the file (or N percent into file).
929 v invoke an editor to edit the current file being viewed. The
931 command for editing is taken from the 'vicmd' or 'vixcmd' option
932 value and extended with middle line number prepended by a plus
933 sign and name of the current file.
934 All "Ctrl-W x" keys work the same was as in Normal mode. Active mode
936 is automatically changed on navigating among windows. When less-like
937 mode activated on file preview is left using one by "Ctrl-W x" keys,
938 its state is stored until another file is displayed using preview (it's
939 possible to leave the mode, hide preview pane, do something else, then
940 get back to the file and show preview pane again with previously stored
941 state in it).
942
944 These keys are available in all submodes of the command line mode: com‐
945 mand, search, prompt and filtering.
946 Down, Up, Left, Right, Home, End and Delete are extended keys and they
948 are not available if vifm is compiled with --disable-extended-keys op‐
949 tion.
950 Esc, Ctrl-C
952 leave command line mode, cancels input. Cancelled input is
953 saved into appropriate history and can be recalled later.
954 Ctrl-M, Enter
956 execute command and leave command line mode.
957 Ctrl-I, Tab
959 complete command or its argument.
960 Shift-Tab
962 complete in reverse order.
963 Ctrl-_ stop completion and return original input.
965 Ctrl-B, Left
967 move cursor to the left.
968 Ctrl-F, Right
970 move cursor to the right.
971 Ctrl-A, Home
973 go to line beginning.
974 Ctrl-E, End
976 go to line end.
977 Alt-B go to the beginning of previous word.
979 Alt-F go to the end of next word.
981 Ctrl-U remove characters from cursor position till the beginning of
983 line.
984 Ctrl-K remove characters from cursor position till the end of line.
986 Ctrl-H, Backspace
988 remove character before the cursor.
989 Ctrl-D, Delete
991 remove character under the cursor.
992 Ctrl-W remove characters from cursor position till the beginning of
994 previous word.
995 Alt-D remove characters from cursor position till the beginning of
997 next word.
998 Ctrl-T swap the order of current and previous character and move cursor
1000 forward or, if cursor past the end of line, swap the order of
1001 two last characters in the line.
1002 Alt-. insert last part of previous command to current cursor position.
1004 Each next call will insert last part of older command.
1005 Ctrl-G edit command-line content in external editor. See "Command line
1007 editing" section for details.
1008 Ctrl-N recall more recent command-line from history.
1010 Ctrl-P recall older command-line from history.
1012 Up recall more recent command-line from history, that begins as the
1014 current command-line.
1015 Down recall older command-line from history, that begins as the cur‐
1017 rent command-line.
1018 Ctrl-] trigger abbreviation expansion.
1020
1022 The shortcuts listed below insert specified values into current cursor
1023 position. Last key of every shortcut references value that it inserts:
1024 - c - [c]urrent file
1025 - d - [d]irectory path
1026 - e - [e]xtension of a file name
1027 - r - [r]oot part of a file name
1028 - t - [t]ail part of directory path
1029 - a - [a]utomatic filter
1031 - m - [m]anual filter
1032 - = - local filter, which is bound to "=" in normal mode
1033 Values related to filelist in current pane are available through Ctrl-X
1035 prefix, while values from the other pane have doubled Ctrl-X key as
1036 their prefix (doubled Ctrl-X is presumably easier to type than upper‐
1037 case letters; it's still easy to remap the keys to correspond to names
1038 of similar macros).
1039 Ctrl-X c
1041 name of the current file of the active pane.
1042 Ctrl-X d
1044 path to the current directory of the active pane.
1045 Ctrl-X e
1047 extension of the current file of the active pane.
1048 Ctrl-X r
1050 name root of current file of the active pane.
1051 Ctrl-X t
1053 the last component of path to the current directory of the ac‐
1054 tive pane.
1055 Ctrl-X Ctrl-X c
1057 name of the current file of the inactive pane.
1058 Ctrl-X Ctrl-X d
1060 path to the current directory of the inactive pane.
1061 Ctrl-X Ctrl-X e
1063 extension of the current file of the inactive pane.
1064 Ctrl-X Ctrl-X r
1066 name root of current file of the inactive pane.
1067 Ctrl-X Ctrl-X t
1069 the last component of path to the current directory of the inac‐
1070 tive pane.
1071 Ctrl-X a
1074 value of implicit permanent filter (old name "automatic") of the
1075 active pane.
1076 Ctrl-X m
1078 value of explicit permanent filter (old name "manual") of the
1079 active pane.
1080 Ctrl-X =
1082 value of local filter of the active pane.
1083 Ctrl-X /
1086 last pattern from search history.
1087
1089 vifm provides a facility to edit several kinds of data, that is usually
1090 edited in command-line mode, in external editor (using command speci‐
1091 fied by 'vicmd' or 'vixcmd' option). This has at least two advantages
1092 over built-in command-line mode:
1093 - one can use full power of Vim to edit text;
1094 - finding and reusing history entries becomes possible.
1095 The facility is supported by four input submodes of the command-line:
1097 - command;
1098 - forward search;
1099 - backward search;
1100 - file rename (see description of cw and cW normal mode keys).
1101 Editing command-line using external editor is activated by the Ctrl-G
1103 shortcut. It's also possible to do almost the same from Normal and
1104 Visual modes using q:, q/ and q? commands.
1105 Temporary file created for the purpose of editing the line has the fol‐
1107 lowing structure:
1108 1. First line, which is either empty or contains text already entered
1110 in command-line.
1111 2. 2nd and all other lines with history items starting with the most
1113 recent one. Altering this lines in any way won't change history
1114 items stored by vifm.
1115 After editing application is finished the first line of the file is
1117 taken as the result of operation, when the application returns zero
1118 exit code. If the application returns an error (see :cquit command in
1119 Vim), all the edits made to the file are ignored, but the initial value
1120 of the first line is saved in appropriate history.
1121
1123 This is the mode that appears when status bar content is so big that it
1124 doesn't fit on the screen. One can identify the mode by "-- More --"
1125 message at the bottom.
1126 The following keys are handled in this mode:
1128 Enter, Ctrl-J, j or Down
1131 scroll one line down.
1132 Backspace, k or Up
1134 scroll one line up.
1135 d scroll one page (half of a screen) down.
1138 u scroll one page (half of a screen) up.
1140 Space, f or PageDown
1143 scroll down a screen.
1144 b or PageUp
1146 scroll up a screen.
1147 G scroll to the bottom.
1150 g scroll to the top.
1152 q, Escape or Ctrl-C
1155 quit the mode.
1156 : switch to command-line mode.
1158
1160 Commands are executed with :command_name<Enter>
1161 Commented out lines should start with the double quote symbol ("),
1163 which may be preceded by whitespace characters intermixed with colons.
1164 Inline comments can be added at the end of the line after double quote
1165 symbol, only last line of a multi-line command can contain such com‐
1166 ment. Not all commands support inline comments as their syntax con‐
1167 flicts with names of registers and fields where double quotes are al‐
1168 lowed.
1169 Most of the commands have two forms: complete and the short one. Exam‐
1171 ple:
1172 :noh[lsearch]
1174 This means the complete command is nohlsearch, and the short one is
1176 noh.
1177 Most of command-line commands completely reset selection in the current
1179 view. However, there are several exceptions:
1180 - `:invert s` most likely leaves some files selected;
1182 - :normal command (when it doesn't leave command-line mode);
1184 - :if and :else commands don't affect selection on successful execu‐
1186 tion.
1187 '|' can be used to separate commands, so you can give multiple commands
1189 in one line. If you want to use '|' in an argument, precede it with
1190 '\'.
1191 These commands see '|' as part of their arguments even when it's es‐
1193 caped:
1194 :[range]!
1196 :autocmd
1197 :cabbrev
1198 :cmap
1199 :cnoreabbrev
1200 :cnoremap
1201 :command
1202 :dmap
1203 :dnoremap
1204 :filetype
1205 :fileviewer
1206 :filextype
1207 :map
1208 :mmap
1209 :mnoremap
1210 :nmap
1211 :nnoremap
1212 :noremap
1213 :normal
1214 :qmap
1215 :qnoremap
1216 :vmap
1217 :vnoremap
1218 :wincmd
1219 :windo
1220 :winrun
1221 To be able to use another command after one of these, wrap it with the
1223 :execute command. An example:
1224 if filetype('.') == 'reg' | execute '!!echo regular file' | endif
1226 :[count]
1228 :number
1230 move to the file number.
1231 :12 would move to the 12th file in the list.
1232 :0 move to the top of the list.
1233 :$ move to the bottom of the list.
1234 :[count]command
1236 The only builtin :[count]command are :[count]d[elete] and
1237 :[count]y[ank].
1238 :d3 would delete three files starting at the current file position
1240 moving down.
1241 :3d would delete one file at the third line in the list.
1243 :command [args]
1245 :[range]!program
1247 execute command via shell. Accepts macros.
1248 :[range]!command &
1250 same as above, but the command is run in the background using vifm's
1252 means.
1253 Programs that write to stderr create error dialogs showing errors of
1255 the command.
1256 Note the space before ampersand symbol, if you omit it, command will be
1258 run in the background using job control of your shell.
1259 Accepts macros.
1261 :!!
1263 :[range]!!command
1265 same as :!, but pauses before returning.
1266 :!! repeat the last command.
1268 :alink
1270 :[range]alink[!?]
1272 create absolute symbolic links to files in directory of inactive
1273 view. With "?" prompts for destination file names in an edi‐
1274 tor. "!" forces overwrite.
1275 :[range]alink[!] path
1277 create absolute symbolic links to files in directory specified
1278 by the path (absolute or relative to directory of inactive
1279 view).
1280 :[range]alink[!] name1 name2...
1282 create absolute symbolic links of files in directory of other
1283 view giving each next link a corresponding name from the argu‐
1284 ment list.
1285 :apropos
1287 :apropos keyword...
1289 create a menu of items returned by the apropos command. Select‐
1290 ing an item in the menu opens corresponding man page. By de‐
1291 fault the command relies on the external "apropos" utility,
1292 which can be customized by altering value of the 'aproposprg'
1293 option. See "Menus and dialogs" section for controls.
1294 :autocmd
1296 :au[tocmd] {event} {pat} {cmd}
1298 register autocommand for the {event}, which can be:
1299 - DirEnter - triggered after directory is changed
1300 Event name is case insensitive.
1301 {pat} is a comma-separated list of modified globs patterns,
1303 which can contain tilde or environment variables. All paths use
1304 slash ('/') as directory separator. The pattern can start with
1305 a '!', which negates it. Patterns that do not contain slashes
1306 are matched against the last item of the path only (e.g. "dir"
1307 in "/path/dir"). Literal comma can be entered by doubling it.
1308 Two modifications to globs matching are as follows:
1309 - * - never matches a slash (i.e., can signify single direc‐
1310 tory level)
1311 - ** - matches any character (i.e., can match path of arbi‐
1312 trary depth)
1313 {cmd} is a :command or several of them separated with '|'.
1315 Examples of patterns:
1317 - conf.d - matches conf.d directory anywhere
1318 - *.d - matches directories ending with ".d" anywhere
1319 - **.git - matches something.git, but not .git anywhere
1320 - **/.git/** - matches /path/.git/objects, but not /path/.git
1321 - **/.git/**/ - matches /path/.git/ only (because of trailing
1322 slash)
1323 - /etc/* - matches /etc/conf.d/, /etc/X11, but not
1324 /etc/X11/fs
1325 - /etc/**/*.d - matches /etc/conf.d, /etc/X11/conf.d, etc.
1326 - /etc/**/* - matches /etc/ itself and any file below it
1327 - /etc/**/** - matches /etc/ itself and any file below it
1328 :au[tocmd] [{event}] [{pat}]
1330 list those autocommands that match given event-pattern combina‐
1331 tion.
1332 {event} and {pat} can be omitted to list all autocommands. To
1333 list any autocommands for specific pattern one can use * place‐
1334 holder in place of {event}.
1335 :au[tocmd]! [{event}] [{pat}]
1337 remove autocommands that match given event-pattern combination.
1338 Syntax is the same as for listing above.
1339 :apropos
1341 repeat last :apropos command.
1342 :bmark
1344 :bmark tag1 [tag2 [tag3...]]
1346 bookmark current directory with specified tags.
1347 :bmark! path tag1 [tag2 [tag3...]]
1349 same as :bmark, but allows bookmarking specific path instead of
1350 current directory. This is for use in vifmrc and for bookmark‐
1351 ing files.
1352 Path can contain macros that expand to single path (%c, %C, %d,
1354 %D) or those that can expand to multiple paths, but contain only
1355 one (%f, %F, %rx). The latter is done for convenience on using
1356 the command interactively. Complex macros that include spaces
1357 (e.g. "%c:gs/ /_") should be escaped.
1358 :bmarks
1360 :bmarks
1362 display all bookmarks in a menu.
1363 :bmarks [tag1 [tag2...]]
1365 display menu of bookmarks that include all of the specified
1366 tags. See "Menus and dialogs" section for controls.
1367 :bmgo
1369 :bmgo [tag1 [tag2...]]
1371 when there are more than one match acts exactly like :bmarks,
1372 otherwise navigates to single match immediately (and fails if
1373 there is no match).
1374 :cabbrev
1376 :ca[bbrev]
1378 display menu of command-line mode abbreviations. See "Menus and
1379 dialogs" section for controls.
1380 :ca[bbrev] lhs-prefix
1382 display command-line mode abbreviations which left-hand side
1383 starts with specified prefix.
1384 :ca[bbrev] lhs rhs
1386 register new or overwrites existing abbreviation for command-
1387 line mode. rhs can contain spaces and any special sequences ac‐
1388 cepted in rhs of mappings (see "Mappings" section below). Ab‐
1389 breviations are expanded non-recursively.
1390 :cnoreabbrev
1392 :cnorea[bbrev]
1394 display menu of command-line mode abbreviations. See "Menus and
1395 dialogs" section for controls.
1396 :cnorea[bbrev] lhs-prefix
1398 display command-line mode abbreviations which left-hand side
1399 starts with specified prefix.
1400 :cnorea[bbrev] lhs rhs
1402 same as :cabbrev, but mappings in rhs are ignored during expan‐
1403 sion.
1404 :cd
1406 :cd or :cd ~ or :cd $HOME
1408 change to home directory.
1409 :cd - go to the last visited directory.
1411 :cd ~/dir
1413 change directory to ~/dir.
1414 :cd /curr/dir /other/dir
1416 change directory of the current pane to /curr/dir and directory
1417 of the other pane to /other/dir. Relative paths are assumed to
1418 be relative to directory of current view. Command won't fail if
1419 one of directories is invalid. All forms of the command accept
1420 macros.
1421 :cd! /dir
1423 same as :cd /dir /dir.
1424 :cds
1426 :cds[!] pattern string
1428 navigate to path obtained by substituting first match in current
1429 path. Arguments can include slashes, but starting first argu‐
1430 ment with a separator will activate below form of the command.
1431 Specifying "!" changes directory of both panes.
1432 Available flags:
1434 - i - ignore case (the 'ignorecase' and 'smartcase' options are not
1436 used)
1437 - I - don't ignore case (the 'ignorecase' and 'smartcase' options are
1439 not used)
1440 :cds[!]/pattern/string/[flags]
1442 same as above, but with :substitute-like syntax. Other punctua‐
1443 tion characters can be used as separators.
1444 :change
1446 :c[hange]
1448 show a dialog to alter properties of files.
1449 :chmod
1451 :[range]chmod
1453 display file attributes (permission on *nix and properties on
1454 Windows) change dialog.
1455 :[range]chmod[!] arg...
1457 only for *nix
1458 change permissions for files. See `man 1 chmod` for arg format.
1459 "!" means set permissions recursively.
1460 :chown
1462 :[range]chown
1464 only for *nix
1465 same as co key in normal mode.
1466 :[range]chown [user][:][group]
1468 only for *nix
1469 change owner and/or group of files. Operates on directories re‐
1470 cursively.
1471 :clone
1473 :[range]clone[!?]
1475 clones files in current directory. With "?" vifm will open vi
1476 to edit file names. "!" forces overwrite. Macros are expanded.
1477 :[range]clone[!] path
1479 clones files to directory specified with the path (absolute or
1480 relative to current directory). "!" forces overwrite. Macros
1481 are expanded.
1482 :[range]clone[!] name1 name2...
1484 clones files in current directory giving each next clone a cor‐
1485 responding name from the argument list. "!" forces overwrite.
1486 Macros are expanded.
1487 :colorscheme
1489 :colo[rscheme]?
1491 print current color scheme name on the status bar.
1492 :colo[rscheme]
1494 display a menu with a list of available color schemes. You can
1495 choose primary color scheme here. It is used for view if no di‐
1496 rectory specific colorscheme fits current path. It's also used
1497 to set border color (except view titles) and colors in menus and
1498 dialogs. See "Menus and dialogs" section for controls.
1499 :colo[rscheme] color_scheme_name
1501 change primary color scheme to color_scheme_name. In case of
1502 errors (e.g. some colors are not supported by terminal) either
1503 nothing is changed or color scheme is reset to builtin colors to
1504 ensure that TUI is left in a usable state.
1505 :colo[rscheme] color_scheme_name directory
1507 associate directory with the color scheme. The directory argu‐
1508 ment can be either absolute or relative path when :colorscheme
1509 command is executed from command line, but mandatory should be
1510 an absolute path when the command is executed in scripts loaded
1511 at startup (until vifm is completely loaded).
1512 :colo[rscheme] color_scheme_name color_scheme_name...
1514 loads the first color scheme in the order given that exists and
1515 is supported by the terminal. If none matches, current one re‐
1516 mains unchanged. For example:
1517 " use a separate color scheme for panes which are inside FUSE mounts
1519 execute 'colorscheme in-fuse' &fusehome
1520 :comclear
1522 :comc[lear]
1524 remove all user defined commands.
1525 :command
1527 :com[mand]
1529 display a menu of user commands. See "Menus and dialogs" sec‐
1530 tion for controls.
1531 :com[mand] prefix
1533 display user defined commands that start with the prefix.
1534 :com[mand] name action[ &]
1536 set or redefine a user command.
1537 Use :com[mand]! to overwrite a previously set command of the
1538 same name. Builtin commands can't be redefined.
1539 User commands must start with an upper or lower case letter.
1540 Command name can't contain special symbols except for a single
1541 trailing '?' or '!'. Numbers are allowed provided that they
1542 don't cause parsing ambiguity (no command name prefix that pre‐
1543 cedes a digit can match an existing command unless it has a
1544 digit in the same place), for example:
1545 " good
1546 :command mp3 command
1547 " good
1548 :command mp4 command
1549 :command mp3! command
1550 :command mp4? command
1551 " bad
1552 :command mp command
1553 :command mp44 command
1554 " good
1555 :command mp4c command
1556 User commands are run in a shell by default (see below for syn‐
1558 tax of other options). To run a command in the background you
1559 must mark it as a background command by adding " &" after the
1560 command's action (e.g., `:com rm rm %f &`).
1561 User commands of all kinds have macros expanded in them. See
1562 "Command macros" section for more information.
1563 :com[mand] name /pattern
1565 set search pattern.
1566 :com[mand] name =pattern
1568 set local filter value.
1569 :com[mand] name filter{:filter args}
1571 set file name filter (see :filter command description). For ex‐
1572 ample:
1573 " display only audio files
1575 :command onlyaudio filter/.+.\(mp3|wav|mp3|flac|ogg|m4a|wma|ape\)$/i
1576 " display everything except audio files
1577 :command noaudio filter!/.+.\(mp3|wav|mp3|flac|ogg|m4a|wma|ape\)$/i
1578 :com[mand] name :commands
1580 set kind of an alias for internal commands (like in a shell).
1581 Passes range given to alias to an aliased command, so running
1582 :%cp after
1583 :command cp :copy %a
1584 equals
1585 :%copy
1586 :compare
1588 :compare [byname | bysize | bycontents | listall | listunique |
1590 listdups | ofboth | ofone | groupids | grouppaths | skipempty]...
1591 compare files in one or two views according to the arguments.
1592 The default is "bycontents listall ofboth grouppaths". See
1593 "Compare views" section below for details. Diff structure is
1594 incompatible with alternative representations, so values of
1595 'lsview' and 'millerview' options are ignored.
1596 :copen
1598 :cope[n]
1600 opens menu with contents of the last displayed menu with naviga‐
1601 tion to files by default, if any.
1602 :copy
1604 :[range]co[py][!?][ &]
1606 copy files to directory of other view. With "?" prompts for
1607 destination file names in an editor. "!" forces overwrite.
1608 :[range]co[py][!] path[ &]
1610 copy files to directory specified with the path (absolute or
1611 relative to directory of other view). "!" forces overwrite.
1612 :[range]co[py][!] name1 name2...[ &]
1614 copy files to directory of other view giving each next file a
1615 corresponding name from the argument list. "!" forces over‐
1616 write.
1617 :cquit
1619 :cq[uit][!]
1621 same as :quit, but also aborts directory choosing via
1622 --choose-dir (empties output file) and returns non-zero exit
1623 code.
1624 :cunabbrev
1626 :cuna[bbrev] lhs
1628 unregister command-line mode abbreviation by its lhs.
1629 :cuna[bbrev] rhs
1631 unregister command-line mode abbreviation by its rhs, so that
1632 abbreviation could be removed even after expansion.
1633 :delbmarks
1635 :delbmarks
1637 remove bookmarks from current directory.
1638 :delbmarks tag1 [tag2 [tag3...]]
1640 remove set of bookmarks that include all of the specified tags.
1641 :delbmarks!
1643 remove all bookmarks.
1644 :delbmarks! path1 [path2 [path3...]]
1646 remove bookmarks of listed paths.
1647 :delcommand
1649 :delc[ommand] user_command
1651 remove user defined command named user_command.
1652 :delete
1654 :[range]d[elete][!][ &]
1656 delete selected file or files. "!" means complete removal
1657 (omitting trash).
1658 :[range]d[elete][!] [reg] [count][ &]
1660 delete selected or [count] files to the reg register. "!" means
1661 complete removal (omitting trash).
1662 :delmarks
1664 :delm[arks]!
1666 delete all marks.
1667 :delm[arks] marks ...
1669 delete specified marks, each argument is treated as a set of
1670 marks.
1671 :delsession
1673 :delsession
1675 delete specified session if it was stored previously. Deleting
1676 current session doesn't detach it.
1677 :display
1679 :di[splay]
1681 display menu with registers content.
1682 :di[splay] list ...
1684 display the contents of the numbered and named registers that
1685 are mentioned in list (for example "az to display "", "a and "z
1686 content).
1687 :dirs
1689 :dirs display directory stack in a menu. See "Menus and dialogs" sec‐
1691 tion for controls.
1692 :echo
1694 :ec[ho] [<expr>...]
1696 evaluate each argument as an expression and output them sepa‐
1697 rated with a space. See help on :let command for a definition
1698 of <expr>.
1699 :edit
1701 :[range]e[dit] [file...]
1703 open selected or passed file(s) in editor. Macros and environ‐
1704 ment variables are expanded.
1705 :else
1707 :el[se]
1709 execute commands until next matching :endif if all other condi‐
1710 tions didn't match. See also help on :if and :endif commands.
1711 :elseif
1713 :elsei[f] {expr1}
1715 execute commands until next matching :elseif, :else or :endif if
1716 conditions of previous :if and :elseif branches were evaluated
1717 to zero. See also help on :if and :endif commands.
1718 :empty
1720 :empty permanently remove files from all existing non-empty trash di‐
1722 rectories (see "Trash directory" section below). Trash directo‐
1723 ries which are specified via %r and/or %u also get deleted com‐
1724 pletely. Also remove all operations from undolist that have no
1725 sense after :empty and remove all records about files located
1726 inside directories from all registers. Removal is performed as
1727 background task with undetermined amount of work and can be
1728 checked via :jobs menu.
1729 :endif
1731 :en[dif]
1733 end conditional block. See also help on :if and :else commands.
1734 :execute
1736 :exe[cute] [<expr>...]
1738 evaluate each argument as an expression and join results sepa‐
1739 rated by a space to get a single string which is then executed
1740 as a command-line command. See help on :let command for a defi‐
1741 nition of <expr>.
1742 :exit
1744 :exi[t][!]
1746 same as :quit.
1747 :file
1749 :f[ile][ &]
1751 display menu of programs set for the file type of the current
1752 file. " &" forces running associated program in background.
1753 See "Menus and dialogs" section for controls.
1754 :f[ile] arg[ &]
1756 run associated command that begins with the arg skipping opening
1757 menu. " &" forces running associated program in background.
1758 :filetype
1760 :filet[ype] pattern-list [{descr}]def_prog[ &],[{descr}]prog2[ &],...
1762 associate given program list to each of the patterns. Associ‐
1763 ated program (command) is used by handlers of l and Enter keys
1764 (and also in the :file menu). If you need to insert comma into
1765 command just double it (",,"). Space followed by an ampersand
1766 as two last characters of a command means running of the command
1767 in the background. Optional description can be given to each
1768 command to ease understanding of what command will do in the
1769 :file menu. Vifm will try the rest of the programs for an asso‐
1770 ciation when the default isn't found. When program entry
1771 doesn't contain any of vifm macros, name of current file is ap‐
1772 pended as if program entry ended with %c macro on *nix and %"c
1773 on Windows. On Windows path to executables containing spaces
1774 can (and should be for correct work with such paths) be double
1775 quoted. See "Patterns" section below for pattern definition and
1776 "Selection" section for how selection is handled. See also "Au‐
1777 tomatic FUSE mounts" section below. Example for zip archives
1778 and several actions:
1779 filetype *.zip,*.jar,*.war,*.ear
1781 \ {Mount with fuse-zip}
1782 \ FUSE_MOUNT|fuse-zip %SOURCE_FILE %DESTINATION_DIR,
1783 \ {View contents}
1784 \ zip -sf %c | less,
1785 \ {Extract here}
1786 \ tar -xf %c,
1787 Note that on OS X when `open` is used to call an app, vifm is
1789 unable to check whether that app is actually available. So if
1790 automatic skipping of programs that aren't there is desirable,
1791 `open` should be replaced with an actual command.
1792 :filet[ype] filename
1794 list (in menu mode) currently registered patterns that match
1795 specified file name. Same as ":filextype filename".
1796 :filextype
1798 :filex[type] pattern-list [{ description }] def_program,program2,...
1800 same as :filetype, but this command is ignored if not running in
1801 X. In X :filextype is equal to :filetype. See "Patterns" sec‐
1802 tion below for pattern definition and "Selection" section for
1803 how selection is handled. See also "Automatic FUSE mounts" sec‐
1804 tion below.
1805 For example, consider the following settings (the order might
1807 seem strange, but it's for the demonstration purpose):
1808 filetype *.html,*.htm
1810 \ {View in lynx}
1811 \ lynx
1812 filextype *.html,*.htm
1813 \ {Open with dwb}
1814 \ dwb %f %i &,
1815 filetype *.html,*.htm
1816 \ {View in links}
1817 \ links
1818 filextype *.html,*.htm
1819 \ {Open with firefox}
1820 \ firefox %f &,
1821 \ {Open with uzbl}
1822 \ uzbl-browser %f %i &,
1823 If you're using vifm inside a terminal emulator that is running
1825 in graphical environment (when X is used on *nix; always on Win‐
1826 dows), vifm attempts to run application in this order:
1827 1. lynx
1829 2. dwb
1830 3. links
1831 4. firefox
1832 5. uzbl
1833 If there is no graphical environment (checked by presence of
1835 non-empty $DISPLAY or $WAYLAND_DISPLAY environment variable on
1836 *nix; never happens on Windows), the list will look like:
1837 1. lynx
1839 2. links
1840 Just as if all :filextype commands were not there.
1842 The purpose of such differentiation is to allow comfortable use
1844 of vifm with same settings in desktop environment/through remote
1845 connection (SSH)/in native console.
1846 Note that on OS X $DISPLAY isn't defined unless you define it,
1848 so :filextype should be used only if you set $DISPLAY in some
1849 way.
1850 :filext[ype] filename
1852 list (in menu mode) currently registered patterns that match
1853 specified file name. Same as ":filetype filename".
1854 :fileviewer
1856 :filev[iewer] pattern-list command1,command2,...
1858 register specified list of commands as viewers for each of the
1859 patterns. Viewer is a command which output is captured and dis‐
1860 played in one of the panes of vifm after pressing "e" or running
1861 :view command. When the command doesn't contain any of vifm
1862 macros, name of current file is appended as if command ended
1863 with %c macro. Comma escaping and missing commands processing
1864 rules as for :filetype apply to this command. See "Patterns"
1865 section below for pattern definition. Supports Lua handlers.
1866 Example for zip archives:
1868 fileviewer *.zip,*.jar,*.war,*.ear zip -sf %c, echo "No zip to preview:"
1870 :filev[iewer] filename
1872 list (in menu mode) currently registered patterns that match
1873 specified filename.
1874 :filter
1876 :filter[!] {pattern}
1878 filter files matching the pattern out of directory listings.
1879 '!' controls state of filter inversion after updating filter
1880 value (see also 'cpoptions' description). Filter is matched
1881 case sensitively on *nix and case insensitively on Windows. See
1882 "File Filters" and "Patterns" sections.
1883 Example:
1885 " filter all files ending in .o from the filelist.
1887 :filter /.o$/
1888 :filter[!] {empty-pattern}
1891 same as above, but use last search pattern as pattern value.
1892 Example:
1894 :filter //I
1896 :filter
1899 reset filter (set it to an empty string) and show all files.
1900 :filter!
1902 same as :invert.
1903 :filter?
1905 show information on local, name and auto filters.
1906 :find
1908 :[range]fin[d] pattern
1910 display results of find command in the menu. Searches among se‐
1911 lected files if any. Accepts macros. By default the command
1912 relies on the external "find" utility, which can be customized
1913 by altering value of the 'findprg' option.
1914 :[range]fin[d] -opt...
1916 same as :find above, but user defines all find arguments.
1917 Searches among selected files if any.
1918 :[range]fin[d] path -opt...
1920 same as :find above, but user defines all find arguments. Ig‐
1921 nores selection and range.
1922 :[range]fin[d]
1924 repeat last :find command.
1925 :finish
1927 :fini[sh]
1929 stop sourcing a script. Can only be used in a vifm script file.
1930 This is a quick way to skip the rest of the file.
1931 :goto
1933 :go[to]
1935 change directory if necessary and put specified path under the
1936 cursor. The path should be existing non-root path. Macros and
1937 environment variables are expanded.
1938 :grep
1940 :[range]gr[ep][!] pattern
1942 will show results of grep command in the menu. Add "!" to re‐
1943 quest inversion of search (look for lines that do not match pat‐
1944 tern). Searches among selected files if any and no range given.
1945 Ignores binary files by default. By default the command relies
1946 on the external "grep" utility, which can be customized by al‐
1947 tering value of the 'grepprg' option.
1948 :[range]gr[ep][!] -opt...
1950 same as :grep above, but user defines all grep arguments, which
1951 are not escaped. Searches among selected files if any.
1952 :[range]gr[ep][!]
1954 repeat last :grep command. "!" of this command inverts "!" in
1955 repeated command.
1956 :help
1958 :h[elp]
1960 show the help file.
1961 :h[elp] argument
1963 is the same as using ':h argument' in vim. Use vifm-<something>
1964 to get help on vifm (tab completion works). This form of the
1965 command doesn't work when 'vimhelp' option is off.
1966 :hideui
1968 :hideui
1970 hide interface to show previous commands' output.
1971 :highlight
1973 :hi[ghlight]
1975 display information about all highlight groups active at the mo‐
1976 ment.
1977 :hi[ghlight] clear
1979 reset all highlighting to builtin defaults and removed all file‐
1980 name-specific rules.
1981 :hi[ghlight] clear ( {pat1,pat2,...} | /regexp/ )
1983 remove specified rule.
1984 :hi[ghlight] ( group-name | {pat1,pat2,...} | /regexp/ )
1986 display information on given highlight group or file name pat‐
1987 tern of color scheme used in the active view.
1988 :hi[ghlight] ( group-name | {pat1,pat2,...} | /regexp/[iI] )
1990 cterm=style | ctermfg=color | ctermbg=color | gui=style | guifg=color |
1991 guibg=color
1992 set style (cterm, gui), foreground (ctermfg, guifg) and/or back‐
1993 ground (ctermbg, guibg) parameters of highlight group or file
1994 name pattern for color scheme used in the active view.
1995 All style values as well as color names are case insensitive.
1997 Available style values (some of them can be combined):
1999 - bold
2000 - underline
2001 - reverse or inverse
2002 - standout
2003 - italic (on unsupported systems becomes reverse)
2004 - combine - add attributes of current group to attributes of the par‐
2005 ent in group hierarchy (see below) instead of replacing them
2006 - none
2007 Available group-name values:
2009 - Win - color of all windows (views, dialogs, menus) and default color
2010 for their content (e.g. regular files in views)
2011 - AuxWin - color of auxiliary areas of windows
2012 - OtherWin - color of inactive pane
2013 - Border - color of vertical parts of the border
2014 - TabLine - tab line color (for 'tabscope' set to "global")
2015 - TabLineSel - color of the tip of selected tab (regardless of 'tab‐
2016 scope')
2017 - TopLine - top line color of the other pane
2018 - TopLineSel - top line color of the current pane
2019 - CmdLine - the command line/status bar color
2020 - ErrorMsg - color of error messages in the status bar
2021 - StatusLine - color of the line above the status bar
2022 - JobLine - color of job line that appears above the status line
2023 - WildMenu - color of the wild menu items
2024 - SuggestBox - color of key suggestion box
2025 - CurrLine - line at cursor position in active view
2026 - OtherLine - line at cursor position in inactive view
2027 - OddLine - color of every second entry line in a pane
2028 - LineNr - line number column of views
2029 - Selected - color of selected files
2030 - Directory - color of directories
2031 - Link - color of symbolic links in the views
2032 - BrokenLink - color of broken symbolic links
2033 - HardLink - color of regular files with more than one hard link
2034 - Socket - color of sockets
2035 - Device - color of block and character devices
2036 - Executable - color of executable files
2037 - Fifo - color of fifo pipes
2038 - CmpMismatch - color of mismatched files in side-by-side comparison
2039 by path
2040 - User1..User9 - 9 colors which can be used via %* 'statusline' macro
2041 Available colors:
2043 - -1 or default or none - default or transparent
2044 - black and lightblack
2045 - red and lightred
2046 - green and lightgreen
2047 - yellow and lightyellow
2048 - blue and lightblue
2049 - magenta and lightmagenta
2050 - cyan and lightcyan
2051 - white and lightwhite
2052 - 0-255 - corresponding colors from 256-color palette (for ctermfg and
2053 ctermbg)
2054 - #rrggbb - direct ("gui", "true", 24-bit) color in hex-notation, each
2055 of the three compontents are in the range 0x00 to 0xff (for guifg and
2056 guibg)
2057 Light versions of colors are regular colors with bold attribute set au‐
2059 tomatically in terminals that have less than 16 colors. So order of
2060 arguments of :highlight command is important and it's better to put
2061 "cterm" in front of others to prevent it from overwriting attributes
2062 set by "ctermfg" or "ctermbg" arguments.
2063 For convenience of color scheme authors xterm-like names for 256 color
2065 palette is also supported. The mapping is taken from
2066 http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Xterm256_color_names_for_console_Vim
2067 Duplicated entries were altered by adding an underscore followed by nu‐
2068 merical suffix.
2069 0 Black 86 Aquamarine1 172 Orange3
2071 1 Red 87 DarkSlateGray2 173 LightSalmon3_2
2072 2 Green 88 DarkRed_2 174 LightPink3
2073 3 Yellow 89 DeepPink4_2 175 Pink3
2074 4 Blue 90 DarkMagenta 176 Plum3
2075 5 Magenta 91 DarkMagenta_2 177 Violet
2076 6 Cyan 92 DarkViolet 178 Gold3_2
2077 7 White 93 Purple 179 LightGoldenrod3
2078 8 LightBlack 94 Orange4_2 180 Tan
2079 9 LightRed 95 LightPink4 181 MistyRose3
2080 10 LightGreen 96 Plum4 182 Thistle3
2081 11 LightYellow 97 MediumPurple3 183 Plum2
2082 12 LightBlue 98 MediumPurple3_2 184 Yellow3_2
2083 13 LightMagenta 99 SlateBlue1 185 Khaki3
2084 14 LightCyan 100 Yellow4 186 LightGoldenrod2
2085 15 LightWhite 101 Wheat4 187 LightYellow3
2086 16 Grey0 102 Grey53 188 Grey84
2087 17 NavyBlue 103 LightSlateGrey 189 LightSteelBlue1
2088 18 DarkBlue 104 MediumPurple 190 Yellow2
2089 19 Blue3 105 LightSlateBlue 191 DarkOliveGreen1
2090 20 Blue3_2 106 Yellow4_2 192 DarkOliveG‐
2091 reen1_2
2092 21 Blue1 107 DarkOliveGreen3 193 DarkSeaGreen1_2
2093 22 DarkGreen 108 DarkSeaGreen 194 Honeydew2
2094 23 DeepSkyBlue4 109 LightSkyBlue3 195 LightCyan1
2095 24 DeepSkyBlue4_2 110 LightSkyBlue3_2 196 Red1
2096 25 DeepSkyBlue4_3 111 SkyBlue2 197 DeepPink2
2097 26 DodgerBlue3 112 Chartreuse2_2 198 DeepPink1
2098 27 DodgerBlue2 113 DarkOliveGreen3_2 199 DeepPink1_2
2099 28 Green4 114 PaleGreen3_2 200 Magenta2_2
2100 29 SpringGreen4 115 DarkSeaGreen3 201 Magenta1
2101 30 Turquoise4 116 DarkSlateGray3 202 OrangeRed1
2102 31 DeepSkyBlue3 117 SkyBlue1 203 IndianRed1
2103 32 DeepSkyBlue3_2 118 Chartreuse1 204 IndianRed1_2
2104 33 DodgerBlue1 119 LightGreen_2 205 HotPink
2105 34 Green3 120 LightGreen_3 206 HotPink_2
2106 35 SpringGreen3 121 PaleGreen1 207 MediumOrchid1_2
2107 36 DarkCyan 122 Aquamarine1_2 208 DarkOrange
2108 37 LightSeaGreen 123 DarkSlateGray1 209 Salmon1
2109 38 DeepSkyBlue2 124 Red3 210 LightCoral
2110 39 DeepSkyBlue1 125 DeepPink4_3 211 PaleVioletRed1
2111 40 Green3_2 126 MediumVioletRed 212 Orchid2
2112 41 SpringGreen3_2 127 Magenta3 213 Orchid1
2113 42 SpringGreen2 128 DarkViolet_2 214 Orange1
2114 43 Cyan3 129 Purple_2 215 SandyBrown
2115 44 DarkTurquoise 130 DarkOrange3 216 LightSalmon1
2116 45 Turquoise2 131 IndianRed 217 LightPink1
2117 46 Green1 132 HotPink3 218 Pink1
2118 47 SpringGreen2_2 133 MediumOrchid3 219 Plum1
2119 48 SpringGreen1 134 MediumOrchid 220 Gold1
2120 49 MediumSpringGreen 135 MediumPurple2 221 LightGolden‐
2121 rod2_2
2122 50 Cyan2 136 DarkGoldenrod 222 LightGolden‐
2123 rod2_3
2124 51 Cyan1 137 LightSalmon3 223 NavajoWhite1
2125 52 DarkRed 138 RosyBrown 224 MistyRose1
2126 53 DeepPink4 139 Grey63 225 Thistle1
2127 54 Purple4 140 MediumPurple2_2 226 Yellow1
2128 55 Purple4_2 141 MediumPurple1 227 LightGoldenrod1
2129 56 Purple3 142 Gold3 228 Khaki1
2130 57 BlueViolet 143 DarkKhaki 229 Wheat1
2131 58 Orange4 144 NavajoWhite3 230 Cornsilk1
2132 59 Grey37 145 Grey69 231 Grey100
2133 60 MediumPurple4 146 LightSteelBlue3 232 Grey3
2134 61 SlateBlue3 147 LightSteelBlue 233 Grey7
2135 62 SlateBlue3_2 148 Yellow3 234 Grey11
2136 63 RoyalBlue1 149 DarkOliveGreen3_3 235 Grey15
2137 64 Chartreuse4 150 DarkSeaGreen3_2 236 Grey19
2138 65 DarkSeaGreen4 151 DarkSeaGreen2 237 Grey23
2139 66 PaleTurquoise4 152 LightCyan3 238 Grey27
2140 67 SteelBlue 153 LightSkyBlue1 239 Grey30
2141 68 SteelBlue3 154 GreenYellow 240 Grey35
2142 69 CornflowerBlue 155 DarkOliveGreen2 241 Grey39
2143 70 Chartreuse3 156 PaleGreen1_2 242 Grey42
2144 71 DarkSeaGreen4_2 157 DarkSeaGreen2_2 243 Grey46
2145 72 CadetBlue 158 DarkSeaGreen1 244 Grey50
2146 73 CadetBlue_2 159 PaleTurquoise1 245 Grey54
2147 74 SkyBlue3 160 Red3_2 246 Grey58
2148 75 SteelBlue1 161 DeepPink3 247 Grey62
2149 76 Chartreuse3_2 162 DeepPink3_2 248 Grey66
2150 77 PaleGreen3 163 Magenta3_2 249 Grey70
2151 78 SeaGreen3 164 Magenta3_3 250 Grey74
2152 79 Aquamarine3 165 Magenta2 251 Grey78
2153 80 MediumTurquoise 166 DarkOrange3_2 252 Grey82
2154 81 SteelBlue1_2 167 IndianRed_2 253 Grey85
2155 82 Chartreuse2 168 HotPink3_2 254 Grey89
2156 83 SeaGreen2 169 HotPink2 255 Grey93
2157 84 SeaGreen1 170 Orchid
2158 85 SeaGreen1_2 171 MediumOrchid1
2159 There are two colors (foreground and background) and only one bold at‐
2161 tribute. Thus single bold attribute affects both colors when "reverse"
2162 attribute is used in vifm run inside terminal emulator. At the same
2163 time linux native console can handle boldness of foreground and back‐
2164 ground colors independently, but for consistency with terminal emula‐
2165 tors this is available only implicitly by using light versions of col‐
2166 ors. This behaviour might be changed in the future.
2167 Although vifm supports 256 colors in a sense they are supported by UI
2169 drawing library, whether you will be able to use all of them highly de‐
2170 pends on your terminal. To set up terminal properly, make sure that
2171 $TERM in the environment you run vifm is set to name of 256-color ter‐
2172 minal (on *nixes it can also be set via X resources), e.g.
2173 xterm-256color. One can find list of available terminal names by list‐
2174 ing /usr/lib/terminfo/. Number of colors supported by terminal with
2175 current settings can be checked via "tput colors" command.
2176 In order to use 24-bit colors one needs a terminal that supports them,
2178 corresponding terminfo record (probably ends in "-direct" like in
2179 "xterm-direct") and $TERM pointing to it. When vifm detects direct
2180 color support "cterm*" values are ignored for groups which have at
2181 least one of "gui*" values set, otherwise they are used after translat‐
2182 ing via a builtin palette.
2183 Here is the hierarchy of highlight groups, which you need to know for
2185 using transparency:
2186 JobLine
2187 SuggestBox
2188 StatusLine
2189 WildMenu
2190 User1..User9
2191 Border
2192 CmdLine
2193 ErrorMsg
2194 Win
2195 OtherWin
2196 AuxWin
2197 OddLine
2198 File name specific highlights
2199 Directory
2200 Link
2201 BrokenLink
2202 HardLink
2203 Socket
2204 Device
2205 Fifo
2206 Executable
2207 Selected
2208 CurrLine
2209 LineNr (in active pane)
2210 OtherLine
2211 LineNr (in inactive pane)
2212 TopLine
2213 TopLineSel
2214 TabLineSel (for pane tabs)
2215 User1..User9
2216 TabLine
2217 TabLineSel
2218 User1..User9
2219 "none" means default terminal color for highlight groups at the first
2221 level of the hierarchy and transparency for all others.
2222 Here file name specific highlights mean those configured via globs ({})
2224 or regular expressions (//). At most one of them is applied per file
2225 entry, namely the first that matches file name, hence order of :high‐
2226 light commands might be important in certain cases.
2227 :history
2229 :his[tory]
2231 display a menu with list of visited directories. See "Menus and
2232 dialogs" section for controls.
2233 :his[tory] x
2235 x can be:
2236 d[ir] or . show directory history.
2237 c[md] or : show command line history.
2238 s[earch] or / show search history and search forward on l
2239 key.
2240 f[search] or / show search history and search forward on l
2241 key.
2242 b[search] or ? show search history and search backward on l
2243 key.
2244 i[nput] or @ show prompt history (e.g. on one file renam‐
2245 ing).
2246 fi[lter] or = show filter history (see description of the "="
2247 normal mode command).
2248 See "Menus and dialogs" section for controls.
2249 :histnext
2251 :histnext
2253 same as <c-i>. The main use case for this command is to work
2254 around the common pain point of <tab> and <c-i> being the same
2255 ASCII character: one could alter the terminal emulator settings
2256 to emit, for example, the `F1` keycode when Ctrl-I is pressed,
2257 then `:noremap <f1> :histnext<cr>` in vifm, add "t" flag to the
2258 'cpoptions', and thus have both <c-i> and <tab> working as ex‐
2259 pected.
2260 :histprev
2262 :histprev
2264 same as <c-o>.
2265 :if
2267 :if {expr1}
2269 start conditional block. Commands are executed until next
2270 matching :elseif, :else or :endif command if {expr1} evaluates
2271 to non-zero, otherwise they are ignored. See also help on :else
2272 and :endif commands.
2273 Example:
2275 if $TERM == 'screen.linux'
2277 highlight CurrLine ctermfg=lightwhite ctermbg=lightblack
2278 elseif $TERM == 'tmux'
2279 highlight CurrLine cterm=reverse ctermfg=black ctermbg=white
2280 else
2281 highlight CurrLine cterm=bold,reverse ctermfg=black ctermbg=white
2282 endif
2283 :invert
2285 :invert [f]
2287 invert file name filter.
2288 :invert? [f]
2290 show current filter state.
2291 :invert s
2293 invert selection.
2294 :invert o
2296 invert sorting order of the primary sorting key.
2297 :invert? o
2299 show sorting order of the primary sorting key.
2300 :jobs
2302 :jobs display menu of current backgrounded processes. See "Menus and
2304 dialogs" section for controls.
2305 :let
2307 :let $ENV_VAR = <expr>
2309 set an environment variable. Warning: setting environment vari‐
2310 able to an empty string on Windows removes it.
2311 :let $ENV_VAR .= <expr>
2313 append value to environment variable.
2314 :let &[l:|g:]opt = <expr>
2316 sets option value.
2317 :let &[l:|g:]opt .= <expr>
2319 append value to string option.
2320 :let &[l:|g:]opt += <expr>
2322 increasing option value, adding sub-values.
2323 :let &[l:|g:]opt -= <expr>
2325 decreasing option value, removing sub-values.
2326 Where <expr> could be a single-quoted string, double-quoted string, an
2328 environment variable, function call or a concatanation of any of them
2329 in any order using the '.' operator. Any whitespace is ignored.
2330 :locate
2332 :locate filename
2334 use "locate" command to create a menu of filenames. Selecting a
2335 file from the menu will reload the current file list in vifm to
2336 show the selected file. By default the command relies on the
2337 external "locate" utility (it's assumed that its database is al‐
2338 ready built), which can be customized by altering value of the
2339 'locateprg' option. See "Menus and dialogs" section for con‐
2340 trols.
2341 :locate
2343 repeat last :locate command.
2344 :ls
2346 :ls lists windows of active terminal multiplexer (only when terminal
2348 multiplexer is used). This is achieved by issuing proper com‐
2349 mand for active terminal multiplexer, thus the list is not han‐
2350 dled by vifm.
2351 :lstrash
2353 :lstrash
2355 display a menu with list of files in trash. Each element of the
2356 list is original path of a deleted file, thus the list can con‐
2357 tain duplicates. See "Menus and dialogs" section for controls.
2358 :mark
2360 :[range]ma[rk][?] x [/full/path] [filename]
2362 Set mark x (a-zA-Z0-9) at /full/path and filename. By default
2363 current directory is being used. If no filename was given and
2364 /full/path is current directory then last file in [range] is
2365 used. Using of macros is allowed. Question mark will stop com‐
2366 mand from overwriting existing marks.
2367 :marks
2369 :marks create a pop-up menu of marks. See "Menus and dialogs" section
2371 for controls.
2372 :marks list ...
2374 display the contents of the marks that are mentioned in list.
2375 :media
2377 :media only for *nix
2379 display media management menu. See "Menus and dialogs" section
2380 for controls. See also 'mediaprg' option.
2381 :messages
2383 :mes[sages]
2385 shows previously given messages (up to 50).
2386 :mkdir
2388 :[line]mkdir[!] dir ...
2390 create directories at specified paths. The [line] can be used
2391 to pick node in a tree-view. "!" means make parent directories
2392 as needed. Macros are expanded.
2393 :move
2395 :[range]m[ove][!?][ &]
2397 move files to directory of other view. With "?" prompts for
2398 destination file names in an editor. "!" forces overwrite.
2399 :[range]m[ove][!] path[ &]
2401 move files to directory specified with the path (absolute or
2402 relative to directory of other view). "!" forces overwrite.
2403 :[range]m[ove][!] name1 name2...[ &]
2405 move files to directory of other view giving each next file a
2406 corresponding name from the argument list. "!" forces over‐
2407 write.
2408 :nohlsearch
2410 :noh[lsearch]
2412 clear selection in current pane.
2413 :normal
2415 :norm[al][!] commands
2417 execute normal mode commands. If "!" is used, user defined map‐
2418 pings are ignored. Unfinished last command is aborted as if
2419 <esc> or <c-c> was typed. A ":" should be completed as well.
2420 Commands can't start with a space, so put a count of 1 (one) be‐
2421 fore it.
2422 :only
2424 :on[ly]
2426 switch to a one window view.
2427 :plugin
2429 :plugin load
2431 loads all plugins. To be used in configuration file to manually
2432 load plugins at an earlier point. The plugins can be loaded
2433 only once, additional calls will do nothing.
2434 :plugin blacklist {plugin}
2437 adds {plugin} to the list of plugins to be ignored.
2438 :plugin whitelist {plugin}
2440 adds {plugin} to the list of plugins to be loaded while ignoring
2441 all other plugins. This list should normally be empty.
2442 :plugins
2444 :plugins
2446 open plugins menu. See "Menus and dialogs" section for con‐
2447 trols.
2448 :popd
2450 :popd remove pane directories from stack.
2452 :pushd
2454 :pushd[!] /curr/dir [/other/dir]
2456 add pane directories to stack and process arguments like :cd
2457 command.
2458 :pushd exchange the top two items of the directory stack.
2460 :put
2462 :[line]pu[t][!] [reg] [ &]
2464 put files from specified register (" by default) into current
2465 directory. The [line] can be used to pick node in a tree-view.
2466 "!" moves files "!" moves files from their original location in‐
2467 stead of copying them. During this operation no confirmation
2468 dialogs will be shown, all checks are performed beforehand.
2469 :pwd
2471 :pw[d] show the present working directory.
2473 :qall
2475 :qa[ll][!]
2477 exit vifm (add ! to skip saving changes and checking for active
2478 backgrounded commands).
2479 :quit
2481 :q[uit][!]
2483 if there is more than one tab, close the current one, otherwise
2484 exit vifm (add ! to skip saving state and checking for active
2485 backgrounded commands).
2486 :redraw
2488 :redr[aw]
2490 redraw the screen immediately.
2491 :registers
2493 :reg[isters]
2495 display menu with registers content.
2496 :reg[isters] list ...
2498 display the contents of the numbered and named registers that
2499 are mentioned in list (for example "az to display "", "a and "z
2500 content).
2501 :regular
2503 :regular
2505 switch to regular view leaving custom view.
2507 :rename
2508 :[range]rename[!]
2510 rename files by editing their names in an editor. "!" renames
2511 files recursively in subdirectories. See "External Renaming"
2512 section.
2513 :[range]rename name1 name2...
2515 rename each of selected files to a corresponding name.
2516 :restart
2518 :restart
2520 free a lot of things (histories, commands, etc.), reread
2521 vifminfo, vifmrc and session files and run startup commands
2522 passed in the argument list, thus losing all unsaved changes
2523 (e.g. recent history or keys mapped after starting this in‐
2524 stance). Session that wasn't yet stored gets reset.
2525 While many things get reset, some basic UI state and current lo‐
2527 cations are preserved, including tabs.
2528 :restart full
2530 variation of :restart that makes no attempt to preserve any‐
2531 thing.
2532 :restore
2534 :[range]restore
2536 restore file from trash directory, doesn't work outside one of
2537 trash directories. See "Trash directory" section below.
2538 :rlink
2540 :[range]rlink[!?]
2542 create relative symbolic links to files in directory of other
2543 view. With "?" prompts for destination file names in an editor.
2544 "!" forces overwrite.
2545 :[range]rlink[!] path
2547 create relative symbolic links of files in directory specified
2548 with the path (absolute or relative to directory of other view).
2549 "!" forces overwrite.
2550 :[range]rlink[!] name1 name2...
2552 create relative symbolic links of files in directory of other
2553 view giving each next link a corresponding name from the argu‐
2554 ment list. "!" forces overwrite.
2555 :screen
2557 :screen
2559 toggle whether to use the terminal multiplexer or not.
2560 A terminal multiplexer uses pseudo terminals to allow multiple
2561 windows to be used in the console or in a single xterm. Start‐
2562 ing vifm from terminal multiplexer with appropriate support
2563 turned on will cause vifm to open a new terminal multiplexer
2564 window for each new file edited or program launched from vifm.
2565 This requires screen version 3.9.9 or newer for the screen -X
2566 argument or tmux (1.8 version or newer is recommended).
2567 :screen!
2569 enable integration with terminal multiplexers.
2570 :screen?
2572 display whether integration with terminal multiplexers is en‐
2573 abled.
2574 Note: the command is called screen for historical reasons (when tmux
2576 wasn't yet supported) and might be changed in future releases, or get
2577 an alias.
2578 :select
2580 :[range]select
2582 select files in the given range (current file if no range is
2583 given).
2584 :select {pattern}
2586 select files that match specified pattern. Possible {pattern}
2587 forms are described in "Patterns" section below. Trailing slash
2588 for directories is taken into account, so `:select! */ | invert
2589 s` selects only files.
2590 :select //[iI]
2592 same as item above, but reuses last search pattern.
2593 :select !{external command}
2595 select files from the list supplied by external command. Files
2596 are matched by full paths, relative paths are converted to abso‐
2597 lute ones beforehand.
2598 :[range]select! [{pattern}]
2600 same as above, but resets previously selected items before pro‐
2601 ceeding.
2602 :session
2604 :session?
2606 print name of the current session.
2607 :session
2609 detach current session without saving it. Resets v:session.
2610 :session name
2612 create or load and switch to a session with the specified name.
2613 Name can't contain slashes. Session active at the moment is
2614 saved before the switch. Session is also automatically saved
2615 when quiting the application in usual ways. Sets v:session.
2616 :set
2618 :se[t] display all options that differ from their default value.
2620 :se[t] all
2622 display all options.
2623 :se[t] opt1=val1 opt2='val2' opt3="val3" ...
2625 sets given options. For local options both values are set.
2626 You can use following syntax:
2627 - for all options - option, option? and option&
2628 - for boolean options - nooption, invoption and option!
2629 - for integer options - option=x, option+=x and option-=x
2630 - for string options - option=x and option+=x
2631 - for string list options - option=x, option+=x, option-=x and
2632 option^=x
2633 - for enumeration options - option=x, option+=x and option-=x
2634 - for set options - option=x, option+=x, option-=x and op‐
2635 tion^=x
2636 - for charset options - option=x, option+=x, option-=x and op‐
2637 tion^=x
2638 the meaning:
2640 - option - turn option on (for boolean) or print its value (for
2641 all others)
2642 - nooption - turn option off
2643 - invoption - invert option state
2644 - option! - invert option state
2645 - option? - print option value
2646 - option& - reset option to its default value
2647 - option=x or option:x - set option to x
2648 - option+=x - add/append x to option
2649 - option-=x - remove (or subtract) x from option
2650 - option^=x - toggle x presence among values of the option
2651 Option name can be prepended and appended by any number of
2653 whitespace characters.
2654 :setglobal
2656 :setg[lobal]
2658 display all global options that differ from their default value.
2659 :setg[lobal] all
2661 display all global options.
2662 :setg[lobal] opt1=val1 opt2='val2' opt3="val3" ...
2664 same as :set, but changes/prints only global options or global
2665 values of local options. Changes to the latter might be not
2666 visible until directory is changed.
2667 :setlocal
2669 :setl[ocal]
2671 display all local options that differ from their default value.
2672 :setl[ocal] all
2674 display all local options.
2675 :setl[ocal] opt1=val1 opt2='val2' opt3="val3" ...
2677 same as :set, but changes/prints only local values of local op‐
2678 tions.
2679 :shell
2681 :sh[ell][!]
2683 start a shell in current directory. "!" suppresses spawning
2684 dedicated window of terminal multiplexer for a shell. To make
2685 vifm adaptive to environment it uses $SHELL if it's defined,
2686 otherwise 'shell' value is used.
2687 :siblnext
2690 :[count]siblnext[!]
2692 change directory to [count]th next sibling directory after cur‐
2694 rent path using value of global sort option of current pane.
2695 "!" enables wrapping.
2696 For example, say, you're at /boot and root listing starts like
2698 this:
2699 bin/
2701 boot/
2702 dev/
2703 ...
2704 Issuing :siblnext will navigate to /dev.
2706 :siblprev
2709 :[count]siblprev[!]
2711 same as :siblnext, but in the opposite direction.
2712 :sort
2714 :sor[t]
2716 display dialog with different sorting methods, where one can se‐
2717 lect the primary sorting key. When 'viewcolumns' options is
2718 empty and 'lsview' is off, changing primary sorting key will
2719 also affect view look (in particular the second column of the
2720 view will be changed). See "Menus and dialogs" section for con‐
2721 trols.
2722 :source
2724 :so[urce] file
2726 read command-line commands from the file.
2727 :split
2729 :sp[lit]
2731 switch to a two window horizontal view.
2732 :sp[lit]!
2734 toggle horizontal window splitting.
2735 :sp[lit] path
2737 splits the window horizontally to show both file directories.
2738 Also changes other pane to path (absolute or relative to current
2739 directory of active pane).
2740 :stop
2742 :st[op]
2744 suspend vifm (same as pressing Ctrl-Z). Does nothing if this
2745 instance isn't running in a shell. The command exists to allow
2746 mapping to the action of Ctrl-Z.
2747 :substitute
2749 :[range]s[ubstitute]/pattern/string/[flags]
2751 for each file in range replace a match of pattern with string.
2752 String can contain \0...\9 to link to capture groups (\0 - all match,
2754 \1 - first group, etc.).
2755 Pattern is stored in search history.
2757 Available flags:
2759 - i - ignore case (the 'ignorecase' and 'smartcase' options are not
2761 used)
2762 - I - don't ignore case (the 'ignorecase' and 'smartcase' options are
2764 not used)
2765 - g - substitute all matches in each file name (each g toggles this)
2767 :[range]s[ubstitute]/pattern
2769 substitute pattern with an empty string.
2770 :[range]s[ubstitute]//string/[flags]
2772 use last pattern from search history.
2773 :[range]s[ubstitute]
2775 repeat previous substitution command.
2776 :sync
2778 :sync [relative path]
2780 change the other pane to the current pane directory or to some
2781 path relative to the current directory. Using macros is al‐
2782 lowed.
2783 :sync! change the other pane to the current pane directory and synchro‐
2785 nize cursor position. If current pane displays custom list of
2786 files, position before entering it is used (current one might
2787 not make any sense).
2788 :sync! [location | cursorpos | localopts | filters | filelist | tree |
2791 all]...
2792 change enumerated properties of the other pane to match corre‐
2793 sponding properties of the current pane. Arguments have the
2794 following meanings:
2795 - location - current directory of the pane;
2797 - cursorpos - cursor position (doesn't make sense without "lo‐
2799 cation");
2800 - localopts - all local options;
2802 - filters - all filters;
2804 - filelist - list of files for custom view (implies "loca‐
2806 tion");
2807 - tree - tree structure for tree view (implies "location");
2809 - all - all of the above.
2811 :tabclose
2813 :tabc[lose]
2815 close current tab, unless it's the only one open at current
2816 scope.
2817 :tabmove
2819 :tabm[ove] [N]
2821 without the argument or with `$` as the argument, current tab
2822 becomes the last tab. With the argument, current tab is moved
2823 after the tab with the specified number. Argument of `0` moves
2824 current tab to the first position.
2825 :tabname
2827 :tabname [name]
2829 set, update or reset (when no argument is provided) name of the
2830 current tab.
2831 :tabnew
2833 :tabnew [path]
2835 create new tab. Accepts optional path for the new tab. Macros
2836 and environment variables are expanded.
2837 :tabnext
2839 :tabn[ext]
2841 switch to the next tab (wrapping around).
2842 :tabn[ext] {n}
2844 go to the tab number {n}. Tab numeration starts with 1.
2845 :tabonly
2847 :tabo[nly]
2849 close all tabs but the current one. Closes pane tabs only at
2850 the active side.
2851 :tabprevious
2853 :tabp[revious]
2855 switch to the previous tab (wrapping around).
2856 :tabp[revious] {n}
2858 go to the {n}-th previous tab. Note that :tabnext handles its
2859 argument differently.
2860 :touch
2862 :[line]touch file...
2864 create files at specified paths. Aborts on errors. Doesn't up‐
2865 date time of existing files. The [line] can be used to pick
2866 node in a tree-view. Macros are expanded.
2867 :tr
2869 :[range]tr/pattern/string/
2871 for each file in range transliterate the characters which appear
2872 in pattern to the corresponding character in string. When
2873 string is shorter than pattern, it's padded with its last char‐
2874 acter.
2875 :trashes
2877 :trashes
2879 lists all valid trash directories in a menu. Only non-empty and
2880 writable trash directories are shown. This is exactly the list
2881 of directories that are cleared when :empty command is executed.
2882 :trashes?
2884 same as :trashes, but also displays size of each trash direc‐
2885 tory.
2886 :tree
2888 :tree turn pane into tree view with current directory as its root.
2890 The tree view is implemented on top of a custom view, but is au‐
2891 tomatically kept in sync with file system state and considers
2892 all the filters. Thus the structure corresponds to what one
2893 would see on visiting the directories manually. As a special
2894 case for trees built out of custom view file-system tracking
2895 isn't performed.
2896 To leave tree view go up from its root or use gh at any level of
2898 the tree. Any command that changes directory will also do, in
2899 particular, `:cd ..`.
2900 Tree structure is incompatible with alternative representations,
2902 so values of 'lsview' and 'millerview' options are ignored.
2903 The "depth" argument specifies nesting level on which loading of
2905 subdirectories won't happen (they will be folded). Values start
2906 at 1.
2907 :tree! toggle current view in and out of tree mode.
2909 :undolist
2911 :undol[ist]
2913 display list of latest changes. Use "!" to see actual commands.
2914 See "Menus and dialogs" section for controls.
2915 :unlet
2917 :unl[et][!] $ENV_VAR1 $ENV_VAR2 ...
2919 remove environment variables. Add ! to omit displaying of warn‐
2920 ings about nonexistent variables.
2921 :unselect
2923 :[range]unselect
2925 unselect files in the given range (current file if no range is
2926 given).
2927 :unselect {pattern}
2929 unselect files that match specified pattern. Possible {pattern}
2930 forms are described in "Patterns" section below. Trailing slash
2931 for directories is taken into account, so `:unselect */` unse‐
2932 lects directories.
2933 :unselect !{external command}
2935 unselect files from the list supplied by external command.
2936 Files are matched by full paths, relative paths are converted to
2937 absolute ones beforehand.
2938 :unselect //[iI]
2940 same as item above, but reuses last search pattern.
2941 :version
2943 :ve[rsion]
2945 show menu with version information.
2946 :vifm
2948 :vifm same as :version.
2950 :view
2952 :vie[w]
2954 toggle on and off the quick file view (preview of file's con‐
2955 tents). See also 'quickview' option.
2956 :vie[w]!
2958 turn on quick file view if it's off.
2959 :volumes
2961 :volumes
2963 only for MS-Windows
2964 display menu with volume list. Hitting l (or Enter) key opens
2965 appropriate volume in the current pane. See "Menus and dialogs"
2966 section for controls.
2967 :vsplit
2969 :vs[plit]
2971 switch to a two window vertical view.
2972 :vs[plit]!
2974 toggle window vertical splitting.
2975 :vs[plit] path
2977 split the window vertically to show both file directories. And
2978 changes other pane to path (absolute or relative to current di‐
2979 rectory of active pane).
2980 :wincmd
2982 :[count]winc[md] {arg}
2984 same as running Ctrl-W [count] {arg}.
2985 :windo
2987 :windo [command...]
2989 execute command for each pane (same as :winrun % command).
2990 :winrun
2992 :winrun type [command...]
2994 execute command for pane(s), which is determined by type argu‐
2995 ment:
2996 - ^ - top-left pane
2997 - $ - bottom-right pane
2998 - % - all panes
2999 - . - current pane
3000 - , - other pane
3001 :write
3003 :w[rite]
3005 write current state to vifminfo and session files (if a session
3006 is active).
3007 :wq
3009 :wq[!] same as :quit, but ! disables only the check of backgrounded
3011 commands, while state of the application is always written.
3012 :wqall
3013 :wqa[ll][!]
3015 same as :qall, but ! disables only the check of backgrounded
3016 commands, while state of the application is always written.
3017 :xall
3019 :xa[ll][!]
3021 same as :qall.
3022 :xit
3024 :x[it][!]
3026 same as :quit.
3027 :yank
3029 :[range]y[ank] [reg] [count]
3031 will yank files to the reg register.
3032 :map lhs rhs
3034 :map lhs rhs
3036 map lhs key sequence to rhs in normal and visual modes.
3037 :map! lhs rhs
3039 map lhs key sequence to rhs in command line mode.
3040 :cmap :dmap :mmap :nmap :qmap
3043 :vmap
3044 :cm[ap] lhs rhs
3046 map lhs to rhs in command line mode.
3047 :dm[ap] lhs rhs
3049 map lhs to rhs in dialog modes.
3050 :mm[ap] lhs rhs
3052 map lhs to rhs in menu mode.
3053 :nm[ap] lhs rhs
3055 map lhs to rhs in normal mode.
3056 :qm[ap] lhs rhs
3058 map lhs to rhs in view mode.
3059 :vm[ap] lhs rhs
3061 map lhs to rhs in visual mode.
3062 :*map
3065 :cm[ap]
3067 list all maps in command line mode.
3068 :dm[ap]
3070 list all maps in dialog modes.
3071 :mm[ap]
3073 list all maps in menu mode.
3074 :nm[ap]
3076 list all maps in normal mode.
3077 :qm[ap]
3079 list all maps in view mode.
3080 :vm[ap]
3082 list all maps in visual mode.
3083 :*map beginning
3085 :cm[ap] beginning
3087 list all maps in command line mode that start with the begin‐
3088 ning.
3089 :dm[ap] beginning
3091 list all maps in dialog modes that start with the beginning.
3092 :mm[ap] beginning
3094 list all maps in menu mode that start with the beginning.
3095 :nm[ap] beginning
3097 list all maps in normal mode that start with the beginning.
3098 :qm[ap] beginning
3100 list all maps in view mode that start with the beginning.
3101 :vm[ap] beginning
3103 list all maps in visual mode that start with the beginning.
3104 :noremap
3106 :no[remap] lhs rhs
3108 map the key sequence lhs to rhs for normal and visual modes, but
3109 don't expand user mappings in rhs.
3110 :no[remap]! lhs rhs
3112 map the key sequence lhs to rhs for command line mode, but don't
3113 expand user mappings in rhs.
3114 :cnoremap :dnoremap :mnoremap :nnoremap :qnoremap
3116 :vnoremap
3117 :cno[remap] lhs rhs
3119 map the key sequence lhs to rhs for command line mode, but don't
3120 expand user mappings in rhs.
3121 :dn[oremap] lhs rhs
3123 map the key sequence lhs to rhs for dialog modes, but don't ex‐
3124 pand user mappings in rhs.
3125 :mn[oremap] lhs rhs
3127 map the key sequence lhs to rhs for menu mode, but don't expand
3128 user mappings in rhs.
3129 :nn[oremap] lhs rhs
3131 map the key sequence lhs to rhs for normal mode, but don't ex‐
3132 pand user mappings in rhs.
3133 :qn[oremap] lhs rhs
3135 map the key sequence lhs to rhs for view mode, but don't expand
3136 user mappings in rhs.
3137 :vn[oremap] lhs rhs
3139 map the key sequence lhs to rhs for visual mode, but don't ex‐
3140 pand user mappings in rhs.
3141 :unmap
3143 :unm[ap] lhs
3145 remove user mapping of lhs from normal and visual modes.
3146 :unm[ap]! lhs
3148 remove user mapping of lhs from command line mode.
3149 :cunmap :dunmap :munmap :nunmap :qunmap
3151 :vunmap
3152 :cu[nmap] lhs
3154 remove user mapping of lhs from command line mode.
3155 :du[nmap] lhs
3157 remove user mapping of lhs from dialog modes.
3158 :mu[nmap] lhs
3160 remove user mapping of lhs from menu mode.
3161 :nun[map] lhs
3163 remove user mapping of lhs from normal mode.
3164 :qun[map] lhs
3166 remove user mapping of lhs from view mode.
3167 :vu[nmap] lhs
3169 remove user mapping of lhs from visual mode.
3170
3172 The ranges implemented include:
3173 2,3 - from second to third file in the list (including it)
3174 % - the entire directory.
3175 . - the current position in the filelist.
3176 $ - the end of the filelist.
3177 't - the mark position t.
3178 Examples:
3180 :%delete
3182 would delete all files in the directory.
3184 :2,4delete
3186 would delete the files in the list positions 2 through 4.
3188 :.,$delete
3190 would delete the files from the current position to the end of the
3192 filelist.
3193 :3delete4
3195 would delete the files in the list positions 3, 4, 5, 6.
3197 If a backward range is given :4,2delete - an query message is given and
3199 user can chose what to do next.
3200 The builtin commands that accept a range are :d[elete] and :y[ank].
3202
3204 The command macros may be used in user commands.
3205 %a User arguments. When user arguments contain macros, they are
3207 expanded before preforming substitution of %a.
3208 %c %"c The current file under the cursor.
3210 %C %"C The current file under the cursor in the other directory.
3212 %f %"f All of the selected files, but see "Selection" section below.
3214 %F %"F All of the selected files in the other directory list, but see
3216 "Selection" section below.
3217 %b %"b Same as %f %F.
3219 %d %"d Full path to current directory.
3221 %D %"D Full path to other file list directory.
3223 %rx %"rx
3225 Full paths to files in the register {x}. In case of invalid
3226 symbol in place of {x}, it's processed with the rest of the line
3227 and default register is used.
3228 %m Show command output in a menu.
3230 %M Same as %m, but l (or Enter) key is handled like for :locate and
3232 :find commands.
3233 %u Process command output as list of paths and compose custom view
3235 out of it.
3236 %U Same as %u, but implies less list updates inside vifm, which is
3238 absence of sorting at the moment.
3239 %Iu Same as %u, but gives up terminal before running external com‐
3241 mand.
3242 %IU Same as %U, but gives up terminal before running external com‐
3244 mand.
3245 %S Show command output in the status bar.
3247 %q Redirect command output to quick view, which is activated if
3249 disabled.
3250 %s Execute command in horizontally split window of active terminal
3252 multiplexer (ignored if not running inside one).
3253 %v Same as %s, but splits vertically.
3255 %n Forbid use of terminal multiplexer to run the command.
3257 %i Completely ignore command output. For background jobs this sup‐
3259 presses error dialogs, while still storing errors internally for
3260 viewing via :jobs menu.
3261 %Pl Pipe list of files to standard input of a command.
3263 %Pz Same as %Pz, but separates paths by null ('\0') character.
3265 %pc Marks the end of the main command and the beginning of the clear
3267 command for graphical preview, which is invoked on closing pre‐
3268 view of a file.
3269 %pd Marks a preview command as one that directly communicates with
3271 the terminal. Beware that this is for things like sixel which
3272 are self-contained sequences that depend only on current cursor
3273 position, using this with anything else is likely to mangle ter‐
3274 minal state.
3275 The following dimensions and coordinates are in characters:
3277 %px x coordinate of top-left corner of preview area.
3279 %py y coordinate of top-left corner of preview area.
3281 %pw width of preview area.
3283 %ph height of preview area.
3285 Use %% if you need to put a percent sign in your command.
3288 Note that %i, %Iu, %IU, %m, %M, %n, %q, %s, %S, %u, %U and %v macros
3290 are mutually exclusive. Only the last one of them on the command will
3291 take effect.
3292 Note that %Pl and %Pz are mutually exclusive. Only the last one of
3294 them on the command will take effect.
3295 You can use file name modifiers after %c, %C, %f, %F, %b, %d and %D
3297 macros. Supported modifiers are:
3298 - :p - full path
3300 - :u - UNC name of path (e.g. "\\server" in
3302 "\\server\share"), Windows only. Expands to current computer name
3303 for not UNC paths.
3304 - :~ - relative to the home directory
3306 - :. - relative to current directory
3308 - :h - head of the file name
3310 - :t - tail of the file name
3312 - :r - root of the file name (without last extension)
3314 - :e - extension of the file name (last one)
3316 - :s?pat?sub? - substitute the first occurrence of pat with sub.
3318 You can use any character for '?', but it must not occur in pat or
3319 sub.
3320 - :gs?pat?sub? - like :s, but substitutes all occurrences of pat with
3322 sub.
3323 See ':h filename-modifiers' in Vim's documentation for the detailed de‐
3325 scription.
3326 Using %x means expand corresponding macro escaping all characters that
3328 have special meaning. And %"x means using of double quotes and escape
3329 only backslash and double quote characters, which is more useful on
3330 Windows systems.
3331 Position and quantity (if there is any) of %m, %M, %S or %s macros in
3333 the command is unimportant. All their occurrences are removed from the
3334 resulting command.
3335 %c and %f macros are expanded to file names only, when %C and %F are
3337 expanded to full paths. %f and %F follow this in %b too.
3338 :com move mv %f %D
3340 set the :move command to move all of the files selected in the
3341 current directory to the other directory.
3342 The %a macro is replaced with any arguments given to an alias command.
3344 All arguments are considered optional.
3345 :com lsl !!ls -l %a - set the lsl command to execute ls -l with
3346 or without an argument.
3347 :lsl<Enter>
3349 will list the directory contents of the current directory.
3350 :lsl filename<Enter>
3352 will list only the given filename.
3353 The macros can also be used in directly executing commands. ":!mv %f
3355 %D" would move the current directory selected files to the other direc‐
3356 tory.
3357 Appending & to the end of a command causes it to be executed in the
3359 background. Typically you want to run two kinds of external commands
3360 in the background:
3361 - GUI applications that doesn't fork thus block vifm (:!sxiv %f &);
3363 - console tools that do not work with terminal (:!mv %f %D &).
3365 You don't want to run terminal commands, which require terminal input
3367 or output something in background because they will mess up vifm's TUI.
3368 Anyway, if you did run such a command, you can use Ctrl-L key to update
3369 vifm's TUI.
3370 Rewriting the example command with macros given above with background‐
3372 ing:
3373 %m, %M, %s, %S, %u and %U macros cannot be combined with background
3375 mark (" &") as it doesn't make much sense.
3376
3378 Copy and move operation can take a lot of time to proceed. That's why
3379 vifm supports backgrounding of this two operations. To run :copy,
3380 :move or :delete command in the background just add " &" at the end of
3381 a command.
3382 For each background operation a new thread is created. Job cancella‐
3384 tion can be requested in the :jobs menu via dd shortcut.
3385 You can see if command is still running in the :jobs menu. Back‐
3387 grounded commands have progress instead of process id at the line be‐
3388 ginning.
3389 Background operations cannot be undone.
3391
3393 Note that cancellation works somewhat different on Windows platform due
3394 to different mechanism of break signal propagation. One also might
3395 need to use Ctrl-Break shortcut instead of Ctrl-C.
3396 There are two types of operations that can be cancelled:
3398 - file system operations;
3400 - mounting with FUSE (but not unmounting as it can cause loss of
3402 data);
3403 - calls of external applications.
3405 Note that vifm never terminates applications, it sends SIGINT signal
3407 and lets the application quit normally.
3408 When one of set of operations is cancelled (e.g. copying of 5th file of
3410 10 files), further operations are cancelled too. In this case undo
3411 history will contain only actually performed operations.
3412 Cancelled operations are indicated by "(cancelled)" suffix appended to
3414 information message on statusbar.
3415 File system operations
3417 Currently the following commands can be cancelled: :alink, :chmod,
3419 :chown, :clone, :copy, :delete, :mkdir, :move, :restore, :rlink,
3420 :touch. File putting (on p/P key) can be cancelled as well. It's not
3421 hard to see that these are mainly long-running operations.
3422 Cancelling commands when they are repeated for undo/redo operations is
3424 allowed for convenience, but is not recommended as further undo/redo
3425 operations might get blocked by side-effects of partially cancelled
3426 group of operations.
3427 These commands can't be cancelled: :empty, :rename, :substitute, :tr.
3429 Mounting with FUSE
3431 It's not considered to be an error, so only notification on the status
3433 bar is shown.
3434 External application calls
3436 Each of this operations can be cancelled: :apropos, :find, :grep, :lo‐
3438 cate.
3439
3441 If there is a selection, it's stashed before proceeding further unless
3442 file under the cursor is part of that selection. This means that when
3443 macros are expanded for :filetype or :filextype programs, `%f` and `%F`
3444 become equivalent to `%c` and `%C` respectively if current file is not
3445 selected. So you run selection by running one of selected files, oth‐
3446 erwise you're running a single file even if there are other selected
3447 entries.
3448 When running a selection it must not include broken symbolic links, has
3450 to be consistent and set of file handlers must be compatible. Consis‐
3451 tency means that selection contains either only directories (including
3452 links to them) or only files, but not their mix.
3453 Compatibility is a more sophisticated check, but it's defined in a nat‐
3455 ural way so that you get what you'd expect. The following properties
3456 of selection are taken into account while checking it for compatibility
3457 and deciding how to handle it:
3458 1. If there any files for which handler isn't defined, then all files
3461 are opened using 'vicmd' or 'vixcmd'.
3462 2. If all handlers match the following criteria:
3465 - backgrounded
3466 - include `%c` and/or `%C`
3467 - include neither `%f` nor `%F`
3468 then each file is executed independently of the rest.
3469 3. If all handlers are equal, the common handler is executed. This
3472 handler might ignore selection and process only file under the
3473 cursor.
3474 4. Otherwise, an error is reported, because handlers differ and they
3477 don't support parallel execution.
3478
3480 :highlight, :filetype, :filextype, :fileviewer commands and 'classify'
3481 option support globs, regular expressions and mime types to match file
3482 names or their paths.
3483 There are six possible ways to write a single pattern:
3485 1. [!]{comma-separated-name-globs}
3487 2. [!]{{comma-separated-path-globs}}
3489 3. [!]/name-regular-expression/[iI]
3491 4. [!]//path-regular-expression//[iI]
3493 5. [!]<comma-separated-mime-type-globs>
3495 6. undecorated-pattern
3497 First five forms can include leading exclamation mark that negates pat‐
3499 tern matching.
3500 The last form is implicitly refers to one of others. :highlight does
3502 not accept undecorated form, while :filetype, :filextype, :fileviewer,
3503 :select, :unselect and 'classify' treat it as list of name globs.
3504 Path patterns receive absolute path of the file that includes its name
3506 component as well.
3507 To combine several patterns (AND them), make sure you're using one of
3509 the first five forms and write patterns one after another, like this:
3510 <text/plain>{*.vifm}
3511 Mind that if you make a mistake the whole string will be treated as the
3512 sixth form.
3513 :filetype, :filextype and :fileviewer commands accept comma-separated
3515 list of patterns instead of a single pattern, thus effectively handling
3516 OR operation on them:
3517 <text/plain>{*.vifm},<application/pdf>{*.pdf}
3518 Forms that accept comma-separated lists of patterns also process them
3519 as lists of alternatives.
3520 Patterns with regular expressions
3522 Regular expression patterns are case insensitive by default, see de‐
3524 scription of commands, which might override default behaviour.
3525 Flags of regular expressions mean the following:
3527 - "i" makes filter case insensitive;
3528 - "I" makes filter case sensitive. They can be repeated multiple
3529 times, but the later one takes precedence (e.g. "iiiI" is equivalent
3530 to "I" and "IiIi" is the same as "i").
3531 There are no implicit `^` or `$`, so make sure to specify them explic‐
3533 itly if the pattern should match the whole name or path.
3534 Patterns with globs
3536 "Globs" section below provides short overview of globs and some impor‐
3538 tant points that one needs to know about them.
3539 Patterns with mime-types
3541 Mime type matching is essentially globs matching applied to mime type
3543 of a file instead of its name/path. Note: mime types aren't detected
3544 on Windows.
3545 Examples
3547 Associate `evince` to PDF-files only inside `/home/user/downloads/` di‐
3549 rectory (excluding its subdirectories):
3550 :filextype //^/home/user/downloads/[^/]*.pdf$// evince %f
3552
3555 Globs are always case insensitive as it makes sense in general case.
3556 `*`, `?`, `[` and `]` are treated as special symbols in the pattern.
3558 E.g.
3559 :filetype * less %c
3561 matches all files. One can use character classes for escaping, so
3563 :filetype [*] less %c
3565 matches only one file name, the one which contains only asterisk sym‐
3567 bol.
3568 `*` means any number of any characters (possibly an empty substring),
3570 with one exception: asterisk at the pattern beginning doesn't match dot
3571 in the first position. E.g.
3572 :fileviewer *.zip,*.jar zip -sf %c
3574 associates using of `zip` program to preview all files with `zip` or
3576 `jar` extensions as listing of their content, but `.file.zip` won't be
3577 matched.
3578 `?` means any character at this position. E.g.
3580 :fileviewer ?.out file %c
3582 calls `file` tool for all files which have exactly one character before
3584 their extension (e.g. a.out, b.out).
3585 Square brackets designate character class, which means that whole char‐
3587 acter class matches against any of characters listed in it. For exam‐
3588 ple
3589 :fileviewer *.[ch] highlight -O xterm256 -s dante --syntax c %c
3591 makes vifm call `highlight` program to colorize source and header files
3593 in C language for a 256-color terminal. Equal command would be
3594 :fileviewer *.c,*.h highlight -O xterm256 -s dante --syntax c %c
3596 Inside square brackets `^` or `!` can be used for symbol class negotia‐
3599 tion and the `-` symbol to set a range. `^` and `!` should appear
3600 right after the opening square bracket. For example
3601 :filetype *.[!d]/ inspect_dir
3603 associates `inspect_dir` as additional handler for all directories that
3605 have one character extension unless it's "d" letter. And
3606 :filetype [0-9].jpg sxiv
3608 associates `sxiv` picture viewer only for JPEG-files that contain sin‐
3610 gle digit in their name.
3611 If you need to include literal comma, which is normally separates mul‐
3613 tiple globs, double it.
3614
3616 Local options
3617 These are kind of options that are local to a specific view. So
3618 you can set ascending sorting order for left pane and descending
3619 order for right pane.
3620 In addition to being local to views, each such option also has
3622 two values:
3623 - local to current directory (value associated with current
3625 location);
3626 - global to current directory (value associated with the
3628 pane).
3629 The idea is that current directory can be made a temporary ex‐
3631 ception to regular configuration of the view, until directory
3632 change. Use :setlocal for that. :setglobal changes view value
3633 not affecting settings until directory change. :set applies
3634 changes immediately to all values.
3635 'aproposprg'
3638 type: string
3639 default: "apropos %a"
3640 Specifies format for an external command to be invoked by the
3641 :apropos command. The format supports expanding of macros, spe‐
3642 cific for a particular *prg option, and %% sequence for insert‐
3643 ing percent sign literally. This option should include the %a
3644 macro to specify placement of arguments passed to the :apropos
3645 command. If the macro is not used, it will be implicitly added
3646 after a space to the value of this option.
3647 'autochpos'
3649 type: boolean
3650 default: true
3651 When disabled vifm will set cursor to the first line in the view
3652 after :cd and :pushd commands instead of saved cursor position.
3653 Disabling this will also make vifm clear information about cur‐
3654 sor position in the view history on :cd and :pushd commands (and
3655 on startup if 'autochpos' is disabled in the vifmrc). l key in
3656 the ":history ." and ":trashes" menus are treated like :cd com‐
3657 mand. This option also affects marks so that navigating to a
3658 mark doesn't restore cursor position.
3659 When this option is enabled, more fine grained control over cur‐
3661 sor position is available via 'histcursor' option.
3662 'columns' 'co'
3664 type: integer
3665 default: terminal width on startup
3666 Terminal width in characters.
3667 'caseoptions'
3669 type: charset
3670 default: ""
3671 This option gives additional control over case sensitivity by
3672 allowing overriding default behaviour to either always be case
3673 sensitive or always be case insensitive. Possible values form
3674 pairs of lower and upper case letters that configure specific
3675 aspect of behaviour:
3676 p - always ignore case of paths during completion.
3677 P - always match case of paths during completion.
3678 g - always ignore case of characters for f/F/;/,.
3679 G - always match case of characters for f/F/;/,.
3680 At most one item of each pair takes affect, if both or more are
3682 present, only the last one matters. When none of pair's ele‐
3683 ments are present, the behaviour is default (depends on operat‐
3684 ing system for path completion and on values of 'ignorecase' and
3685 'smartcase' options for file navigation).
3686 'cdpath' 'cd'
3688 type: string list
3689 default: value of $CDPATH with commas instead of colons
3690 Specifies locations to check on changing directory with relative
3691 path that doesn't start with "./" or "../". When non-empty,
3692 current directory is examined after directories listed in the
3693 option.
3694 This option doesn't affect completion of :cd command.
3696 Example:
3698 set cdpath=~
3700 This way ":cd bin" will switch to "~/bin" even if directory
3702 named "bin" exists in current directory, while ":cd ./bin" com‐
3703 mand will ignore value of 'cdpath'.
3704 'chaselinks'
3706 type: boolean
3707 default: false
3708 When enabled path of view is always resolved to real path (with
3709 all symbolic links expanded).
3710 'classify'
3712 type: string list
3713 default: ":dir:/"
3714 Specifies file name prefixes and suffixes depending on file type
3715 or name. The format is either of:
3716 - [{prefix}]:{filetype}:[{suffix}]
3717 - [{prefix}]::{pattern}::[{suffix}]
3718 Possible {pattern} forms are described in "Patterns" section
3719 above.
3720 Priority rules:
3722 - file name patterns have priority over type patterns
3723 - file name patterns are matched in left-to-right order of
3724 their appearance in this option
3725 Either {prefix} or {suffix} or both can be omitted (which is the
3727 default for all unspecified file types), this means empty {pre‐
3728 fix} and/or {suffix}. {prefix} and {suffix} should consist of
3729 at most eight characters. Elements are separated by commas.
3730 Neither prefixes nor suffixes are part of file names, so they
3731 don't affect commands which operate on file names in any way.
3732 Comma (',') character can be inserted by doubling it. List of
3733 file type names can be found in the description of filetype()
3734 function.
3735 'confirm' 'cf'
3737 type: set
3738 default: delete,permdelete
3739 Defines which operations require confirmation:
3740 - delete - moving files to trash (on d or :delete);
3741 - permdelete - permanent deletion of files (on D or :delete!
3742 command or on undo/redo operation).
3743 'cpoptions' 'cpo'
3745 type: charset
3746 default: "fst"
3747 Contains a sequence of single-character flags. Each flag en‐
3748 ables behaviour of older versions of vifm. Flags:
3749 - f - when included, running :filter command results in not in‐
3750 verted (matching files are filtered out) and :filter! in in‐
3751 verted (matching files are left) filter, when omitted, meaning
3752 of the exclamation mark changes to the opposite;
3753 - s - when included, yy, dd and DD normal mode commands act on
3754 selection, otherwise they operate on current file only;
3755 - t - when included, <tab> (thus <c-i>) behave as <space> and
3756 switches active pane, otherwise <tab> and <c-i> go forward in
3757 the view history. It's possible to make both <tab> and <c-i> to
3758 work as expected by setting up the terminal to emit a custom se‐
3759 quence when <c-i> is pressed; see :histnext for details.
3760 'cvoptions'
3762 type: set
3763 default:
3764 Specifies whether entering/leaving custom views triggers events
3765 that normally happen on entering/leaving directories:
3766 - autocmds - trigger autocommands on entering/leaving custom
3767 views;
3768 - localopts - reset local options on entering/leaving custom
3769 views;
3770 - localfilter - reset local filter on entering/leaving custom
3771 views.
3772 'deleteprg'
3774 type: string
3775 default: ""
3776 Specifies program to run on files that are permanently removed.
3777 When empty, files are removed as usual, otherwise this command
3778 is invoked on each file by appending its name. If the command
3779 doesn't remove files, they will remain on the file system.
3780 'dirsize'
3782 type: enumeration
3783 default: size
3784 Controls how size of directories is displayed in file views.
3785 The following values are possible:
3786 - size - size of directory (i.e., size used to store list of
3787 files)
3788 - nitems - number of entries in the directory (excluding . and
3789 ..)
3790 Size obtained via ga/gA overwrites this setting so seeing count
3792 of files and occasionally size of directories is possible.
3793 'dotdirs'
3795 type: set
3796 default: nonrootparent,treeleafsparent
3797 Controls displaying of dot directories. The following values
3798 are possible:
3799 - rootparent - show "../" in root directory of file system
3800 - nonrootparent - show "../" in non-root directories of file
3801 system
3802 - treeleafsparent - show "../" in empty directories of tree
3803 view
3804 Note that empty directories always contain "../" entry regard‐
3806 less of value of this option. "../" disappears at the moment at
3807 least one file is created.
3808 'dotfiles'
3810 type: boolean
3811 default: false
3812 Whether dot files are shown in the view. Can be controlled with
3813 z* bindings.
3814 'fastrun'
3816 type: boolean
3817 default: false
3818 With this option turned on you can run partially entered com‐
3819 mands with unambiguous beginning using :! (e.g. :!Te instead of
3820 :!Terminal or :!Te<tab>).
3821 'fillchars' 'fcs'
3823 type: string list
3824 default: ""
3825 Sets characters used to fill borders.
3826 item default used for
3828 vborder:c ' ' left, middle and right vertical bor‐
3829 ders
3830 If value is omitted, its default value is used. Example:
3832 set fillchars=vborder:.
3834 'findprg'
3836 type: string
3837 default: "find %s %a -print , -type d \( ! -readable -o ! -exe‐
3838 cutable \) -prune"
3839 Specifies format for an external command to be invoked by the
3840 :find command. The format supports expansion of macros specific
3841 for this particular option and %% sequence for inserting percent
3842 sign literally. The macros are:
3843 macro value/meaning
3845 %s literal arguments of :find or
3846 list of paths to search in
3847 %A empty or
3849 literal arguments of :find
3850 %a empty or
3851 literal arguments of :find or
3852 predicate followed by escaped arguments of :find
3853 %p empty or
3854 literal arguments of :find or
3855 escaped arguments (parameters) of :find
3856 %u redirect output to custom view instead of showing a
3858 menu
3859 %U redirect output to unsorted custom view instead of
3860 showing a menu
3861 Predicate in %a is "-name" on *nix and "-iname" on Windows.
3863 If both %u and %U are specified, %U is chosen.
3865 Some macros can be added implicitly:
3867 - if %s isn't present, it's appended
3868 - if neither of %a, %A and %p is present, %a is appended
3869 - if neither of %s, %a, %A and %p is present, %s and %a are ap‐
3870 pended in this order
3871 The macros slightly change their meaning depending on format of
3873 :find's arguments:
3874 - if the first argument points to an existing directory, %s is
3875 assigned all arguments while %a, %A and %p are left empty
3876 - otherwise:
3877 - %s is assigned a dot (".") meaning current directory or
3878 list of selected file names, if any
3879 - %a, %A and %p are assigned literal arguments when first
3880 argument starts with a dash ("-"), otherwise %a gets an escaped
3881 version of the arguments with a predicate and %p contains es‐
3882 caped version of the arguments
3883 Starting with Windows Server 2003 a `where` command is avail‐
3885 able. One can configure vifm to use it in the following way:
3886 set findprg="where /R %s %A"
3888 As the syntax of this command is rather limited, one can't use
3890 :find command with selection of more than one item because the
3891 command ignores all directory paths except for the last one.
3892 When using find port on Windows, another option is to setup
3894 'findprg' like this:
3895 set findprg="find %s %a"
3897 'followlinks'
3900 type: boolean
3901 default: true
3902 Follow links on l or Enter. That is navigate to destination
3903 file instead of treating the link as if it were target file.
3904 Doesn't affects links to directories, which are always entered
3905 (use gf key for directories).
3906 'fusehome'
3908 type: string
3909 default: "($XDG_DATA_HOME/.local/share | $VIFM)/fuse/"
3910 Directory to be used as a root dir for FUSE mounts. Value of
3911 the option can contain environment variables (in form "$en‐
3912 vname"), which will be expanded (prepend it with a slash to pre‐
3913 vent expansion). The value should expand to an absolute path.
3914 If you change this option, vifm won't remount anything. It af‐
3916 fects future mounts only. See "Automatic FUSE mounts" section
3917 below for more information.
3918 'gdefault' 'gd'
3920 type: boolean
3921 default: false
3922 When on, 'g' flag is on for :substitute by default.
3923 'grepprg'
3925 type: string
3926 default: "grep -n -H -I -r %i %a %s"
3927 Specifies format for an external command to be invoked by the
3928 :grep command. The format supports expanding of macros, spe‐
3929 cific for a particular *prg option, and %% sequence for insert‐
3930 ing percent sign literally. This option should include the %i
3931 macro to specify placement of "-v" string when inversion of re‐
3932 sults is requested, %a or %A macro to specify placement of argu‐
3933 ments passed to the :grep command and the %s macro to specify
3934 placement of list of files to search in. If some of the macros
3935 are not used, they will be implicitly added after a space to the
3936 value of the 'grepprg' option in the following order: %i, %a,
3937 %s. Note that when neither %a nor %A are specified, it's %a
3938 which is added implicitly.
3939 Optional %u or %U macro could be used (if both specified %U is
3941 chosen) to force redirection to custom or unsorted custom view
3942 respectively.
3943 See 'findprg' option for description of difference between %a
3945 and %A.
3946 Example of setup to use ack (http://beyondgrep.com/) instead of
3948 grep:
3949 set grepprg='ack -H -r %i %a %s'
3951 or The Silver Searcher (https://github.com/ggreer/the_sil‐
3953 ver_searcher):
3954 set grepprg='ag --line-numbers %i %a %s'
3956 'histcursor'
3960 type: set
3961 default: startup,dirmark,direnter
3962 Defines situations when cursor should be moved according to di‐
3963 rectory history:
3964 - startup - on loading file lists during startup
3965 - dirmark - after navigating to a mark that doesn't specify
3966 file
3967 - direnter - on opening directory from a file list
3968 This option has no effect when 'autochpos' is disabled.
3970 Note that the list is not exhaustive and there are other situa‐
3972 tions when cursor is positioned automatically.
3973 'history' 'hi'
3975 type: integer
3976 default: 15
3977 Maximum number of stored items in all histories.
3978 'hlsearch' 'hls'
3980 type: boolean
3981 default: true
3982 Automatically select files that are search matches.
3983 'iec' type: boolean
3985 default: false
3986 Use KiB, MiB, ... suffixes instead of K, M, ... when printing
3987 size in human-friendly format.
3988 'ignorecase' 'ic'
3990 type: boolean
3991 default: false
3992 Ignore case in search patterns (:substitute, / and ? commands),
3993 local filter (but not the rest of filters) and other things de‐
3994 tailed in the description of 'caseoptions'.
3995 'incsearch' 'is'
3997 type: boolean
3998 default: false
3999 When this option is set, search and view update for local filter
4000 is be performed starting from initial cursor position each time
4001 search pattern is changed.
4002 'iooptions'
4004 type: set
4005 default:
4006 Controls details of file operations. The following values are
4007 available:
4008 - fastfilecloning - perform fast file cloning (copy-on-write),
4009 when available
4010 (available on Linux and btrfs file system).
4011 'laststatus' 'ls'
4013 type: boolean
4014 default: true
4015 Controls if status bar is visible.
4016 'lines'
4018 type: integer
4019 default: terminal height on startup
4020 Terminal height in lines.
4021 'locateprg'
4023 type: string
4024 default: "locate %a"
4025 Specifies format for an external command to be invoked by the
4026 :locate command. The format supports expanding of macros, spe‐
4027 cific for a particular *prg option, and %% sequence for insert‐
4028 ing percent sign literally. This option should include the %a
4029 macro to specify placement of arguments passed to the :locate
4030 command. If the macro is not used, it will be implicitly added
4031 after a space to the value of this option.
4032 Optional %u or %U macro could be used (if both specified %U is
4034 chosen) to force redirection to custom or unsorted custom view
4035 respectively.
4036 'mediaprg'
4038 type: string
4039 default: path to bundled script that supports udevil, udisks and
4040 udisks2
4041 (using udisks2 requires python with dbus module in‐
4042 stalled)
4043 OS X: path points to a python script that uses diskutil
4044 {only for *nix}
4045 Specifies command to be used to manage media devices. Used by
4046 :media command.
4047 The command can be passed the following parameters:
4049 - list -- list media
4050 - mount {device} -- mount a device
4051 - unmount {path} -- unmount given mount point
4052 The output of `list` subcommand is parsed in search of lines
4054 that start with one of the following prefixes:
4055 - device= - specifies device path (e.g., "/dev/sde")
4056 - label= - specifies optional device label (e.g., "Memory
4057 card")
4058 - info= - specifies arbitrary text to display next to
4059 device (by
4060 default "[label]" is used, if label is pro‐
4061 vided)
4062 - mount-point= - specifies a mount point (can be absent or ap‐
4063 pear more than once)
4064 All other lines are ignored. Each `device=` starts a new sec‐
4066 tion describing a device which should include two other possible
4067 prefixes.
4068 `list` subcommand is assumed to always succeed, while exit code
4070 of `mount` and `unmount` is taken into account to determine
4071 whether operation was performed successfully.
4072 'lsoptions'
4074 type: string list
4075 default: ""
4076 scope: local
4077 Configures ls-like view.
4079 item used for
4081 transposed filling view grid by columns rather than by
4082 lines
4083 'lsview'
4086 type: boolean
4087 default: false
4088 scope: local
4089 When this option is set, directory view will be displayed in
4090 multiple columns with file names similar to output of `ls -x`
4091 command. See "ls-like view" section below for format descrip‐
4092 tion. This option has no effect if 'millerview' is on.
4093 'milleroptions'
4095 type: string list
4096 default: "lsize:1,csize:1,rsize:1,rpreview:dirs"
4097 scope: local
4098 Configures miller view.
4100 item default used for
4102 lsize:num 0 left column
4103 csize:num 1 center column (can't be disabled)
4104 rsize:num 0 right column
4105 rpreview:str dirs right column
4106 *size specifies ratios of columns. Each ratio is in the range
4108 from 0 to 100 and values are adjusted to fit the limits. Zero
4109 disables a column, but central (main) column can't be disabled.
4110 rpreview specifies what file-system objects should be previewed
4112 in the right column and can take two values: dirs (only directo‐
4113 ries) or all. Both options don't include parent directory
4114 ("..").
4115 Example of two-column mode which is useful in combination with
4117 :view command:
4118 set milleroptions=lsize:1,csize:2
4120 'millerview'
4123 type: boolean
4124 default: false
4125 scope: local
4126 When this option is set, directory view will be displayed in
4127 multiple cascading columns. Ignores 'lsview'.
4128 'mintimeoutlen'
4130 type: integer
4131 default: 150
4132 The fracture of 'timeoutlen' in milliseconds that is waited be‐
4133 tween subsequent input polls, which affects various asynchronous
4134 operations (detecting changes made by external applications,
4135 monitoring background jobs, redrawing UI). There are no strict
4136 guarantees, however the higher this value is, the less is CPU
4137 load in idle mode.
4138 'number' 'nu'
4140 type: boolean
4141 default: false
4142 scope: local
4143 Print line number in front of each file name when 'lsview' op‐
4144 tion is turned off. Use 'numberwidth' to control width of line
4145 number. Also see 'relativenumber'.
4146 'numberwidth' 'nuw'
4148 type: integer
4149 default: 4
4150 scope: local
4151 Minimal number of characters for line number field.
4152 'previewoptions'
4154 type: string list
4155 default: "graphicsdelay:50000"
4156 Tweaks how previewing is done (in quick view, miller view's col‐
4158 umn and view mode).
4159 item default meaning
4161 graphicsdelay:num 0 delay before drawing graphics (mi‐
4162 croseconds)
4163 hardgraphicsclear unset redraw screen to get rid of graph‐
4164 ics
4165 toptreestats unset show file counts before the tree
4166 graphicsdelay is needed if terminal requires some timeout before
4168 it can draw graphics (otherwise it gets lost).
4169 hardgraphicsclear seems to be necessary to get rid of sixel
4171 graphics in some terminals, where it otherwise lingers. This
4172 can cause flicker on the screen due to erasure followed by re‐
4173 drawing.
4174 'previewprg'
4176 type: string
4177 default: ""
4178 scope: local
4179 External command to be used instead of preview programs config‐
4181 ured via :fileviewer command.
4182 Example:
4184 " always show git log in preview of files inside some repository
4186 au DirEnter '~/git-repo/**/*' setl previewprg='git log --color -- %c 2>&1'
4187 'quickview'
4189 type: boolean
4190 default: false
4191 Whether quick view (:view) is currently active or not.
4192 'relativenumber' 'rnu'
4194 type: boolean
4195 default: false
4196 scope: local
4197 Print relative line number in front of each file name when
4198 'lsview' option is turned off. Use 'numberwidth' to control
4199 width of line number. Various combinations of 'number' and
4200 'relativenumber' lead to such results:
4201 nonumber number
4203 norelativenumber | first | 1 first
4205 | second | 2 second
4206 | third | 3 third
4207 relativenumber | 1 first | 1 first
4209 | 0 second |2 second
4210 | 1 third | 1 third
4211 'rulerformat' 'ruf'
4214 type: string
4215 default: "%l/%S "
4216 Determines the content of the ruler. Its minimal width is 13
4217 characters and it's right aligned. Following macros are sup‐
4218 ported:
4219 %= - separation point between left and right aligned halves of
4220 the line
4221 %l - file number
4222 %L - total number of files in view (including filtered out
4223 ones)
4224 %x - number of files excluded by filters
4225 %0- - old name for %x macro
4226 %P - percentage through file list (All, Top, xx% or Bot), al‐
4227 ways 3 in length
4228 %S - number of displayed files
4229 %= - separation point between left and right align items
4230 %% - literal percent sign
4231 %[ - designates beginning of an optional block
4232 %] - designates end of an optional block
4233 Percent sign can be followed by optional minimum field width.
4235 Add '-' before minimum field width if you want field to be right
4236 aligned.
4237 Optional blocks are ignored unless at least one macro inside of
4239 them is expanded to a non-empty value.
4240 Example:
4242 set rulerformat='%2l-%S%[ +%x%]'
4244 'runexec'
4246 type: boolean
4247 default: false
4248 Run executable file on Enter, l or Right Arrow key. Behaviour
4249 of the last two depends on the value of the 'lsview' option.
4250 'scrollbind' 'scb'
4252 type: boolean
4253 default: false
4254 When this option is set, vifm will try to keep difference of
4255 scrolling positions of two windows constant.
4256 'scrolloff' 'so'
4258 type: integer
4259 default: 0
4260 Minimal number of screen lines to keep above and below the cur‐
4261 sor. If you want cursor line to always be in the middle of the
4262 view (except at the beginning or end of the file list), set this
4263 option to some large value (e.g. 999).
4264 'sessionoptions' 'ssop'
4266 sessionoptions ssop
4267 type: set
4268 default: tui,state,tabs,savedirs,dhistory
4269 An equivalent of 'vifminfo' for sessions, uses the same values.
4270 When both options include the same value, data from session file
4271 has higher priority (data from vifminfo isn't necessarily com‐
4272 pletely discarded, instead it's merged with the state of a ses‐
4273 sion the same way state of multiple instances is merged on
4274 exit).
4275 'shell' 'sh'
4277 type: string
4278 default: $SHELL or "/bin/sh" or "cmd" (on MS-Windows)
4279 Full path to the shell to use to run external commands. On *nix
4280 a shell argument can be supplied.
4281 'shellcmdflag' 'shcf'
4283 type: string
4284 default: "-c" or "/C" (for cmd.exe on MS-Windows)
4285 Command-line option used to pass a command to 'shell'. It's
4286 used in contexts where command comes from the user.
4287 Note that using this option to force interactive mode of the
4289 shell is most likely a BAD IDEA. In general interactive host
4290 and interactive child shell can't share the same terminal ses‐
4291 sion. You can't even run such a shell in background. Consider
4292 writing a wrapper for your shell that preloads aliases and com‐
4293 mands without making the shell interactive and ending up using
4294 it in a way it was not meant to be used.
4295 Note that this option is ignored when 'shell' is set to Power‐
4297 Shell due to the internal use of `-encodedCommand`.
4298 'shortmess' 'shm'
4300 type: charset
4301 default: "p"
4302 Contains a sequence of single-character flags. Each flag en‐
4303 ables shortening of some message displayed by vifm in the TUI.
4304 Flags:
4305 - L - display only last directory in tab line instead of full
4306 path.
4307 - M - shorten titles in windows of terminal multiplexers cre‐
4308 ated by vifm down to file name instead of using full path.
4309 - T - truncate status-bar messages in the middle if they are
4310 too long to fit on the command line. "..." will appear in the
4311 middle.
4312 - p - use tilde shortening in view titles.
4313 'showtabline' 'stal'
4316 type: enumeration
4317 default: multiple
4318 Specifies when tab line should be displayed. Possible values:
4319 - never - never display tab line
4320 - multiple - show tab line only when there are at least two
4321 tabs
4322 - always - display tab line always
4323 Alternatively 0, 1 and 2 Vim-like values are also accepted and
4325 correspond to "never", "multiple" and "always" respectively.
4326 'sizefmt'
4329 type: string list
4330 default: "units:iec"
4331 Configures the way size is formatted in human-friendly way.
4332 item value meaning
4334 units: iec Use 1024 byte units (K or KiB,
4335 etc.).
4336 See 'iec' option.
4337 si Use 1000 byte units (KB, etc.).
4338 precision: i > 0 How many fraction digits to con‐
4339 sider.
4340 {not set} Precision of 1 for integer part
4341 < 10,
4342 0 otherwise (provides old behav‐
4343 iour).
4344 space {present} Insert space before unit sym‐
4345 bols.
4346 This is the default.
4347 nospace {present} Do not insert space before unit
4348 symbols.
4349 Numbers are rounded from zero. Trailing zeros are dropped.
4351 Example:
4353 set sizefmt=units:iec,precision:2,nospace
4355 'slowfs'
4358 type: string list
4359 default: ""
4360 only for *nix
4361 A list of mounter fs name beginnings (first column in /etc/mtab
4362 or /proc/mounts) or paths prefixes for fs/directories that work
4363 too slow for you. This option can be used to stop vifm from
4364 making some requests to particular kinds of file systems that
4365 can slow down file browsing. Currently this means don't check
4366 if directory has changed, skip check if target of symbolic links
4367 exists, assume that link target located on slow fs to be a di‐
4368 rectory (allows entering directories and navigating to files via
4369 gf). If you set the option to "*", it means all the systems are
4370 considered slow (useful for cygwin, where all the checks might
4371 render vifm very slow if there are network mounts).
4372 Example for autofs root /mnt/autofs:
4374 set slowfs+=/mnt/autofs
4376 'smartcase' 'scs'
4378 type: boolean
4379 default: false
4380 Overrides the ignorecase option if a pattern contains at least
4381 one upper case character. Only used when 'ignorecase' option is
4382 enabled.
4383 'sort' type: string list
4385 default: +name on *nix and +iname on Windows
4386 scope: local
4387 Sets list of sorting keys (first item is primary key, second is
4388 secondary key, etc.):
4389 [+-]ext - extension of files and directories
4390 [+-]fileext - extension of files only
4391 [+-]name - name (including extension)
4392 [+-]iname - name (including extension, ignores case)
4393 [+-]type - file type
4394 (dir/reg/exe/link/char/block/sock/fifo)
4395 [+-]dir - directory grouping (directory < file)
4396 [+-]gid - group id (*nix only)
4397 [+-]gname - group name (*nix only)
4398 [+-]mode - file type derived from its mode (*nix only)
4399 [+-]perms - permissions string (*nix only)
4400 [+-]uid - owner id (*nix only)
4401 [+-]uname - owner name (*nix only)
4402 [+-]nlinks - number of hard links (*nix only)
4403 [+-]inode - inode number (*nix only)
4404 [+-]size - size
4405 [+-]nitems - number of items in a directory (zero for files)
4406 [+-]groups - groups extracted via regexps from 'sortgroups'
4407 [+-]target - symbolic link target (empty for other file
4408 types)
4409 [+-]atime - time accessed (e.g., read, executed)
4410 [+-]ctime - time changed (changes in metadata, like mode)
4411 [+-]mtime - time modified (when file contents is changed)
4412 Note: look for st_atime, st_ctime and st_mtime in "man 2 stat"
4414 for more information on time keys.
4415 '+' means ascending sort for this key, and '-' means descending
4417 sort.
4418 "dir" key is somewhat similar in this regard but it's added im‐
4420 plicitly: when "dir" is not specified, sorting behaves as if it
4421 was the first key in the list. That's why if one wants sorting
4422 algorithm to mix directories and files, "dir" should be appended
4423 to sorting option, for example like this:
4424 set sort+=dir
4426 or
4428 set sort=-size,dir
4430 Value of the option is checked to include dir key and default
4432 sorting key (name on *nix, iname on Windows). Here is what hap‐
4433 pens if one of them is missing:
4434 - type key is added at the beginning;
4436 - default key is added at the end;
4438 all other keys are left untouched (at most they are moved).
4440 This option also changes view columns according to primary sort‐
4442 ing key set, unless 'viewcolumns' option is not empty.
4443 'sortnumbers'
4445 type: boolean
4446 default: false
4447 scope: local
4448 Natural sort of (version) numbers within text.
4449 'sortgroups'
4451 type: string
4452 default: ""
4453 scope: local
4454 Sets comma-separated list of regular expressions for group type
4455 of sorting. Double the comma to insert it literally.
4456 The regular expressions are used to extract substrings of file
4458 names to serve as keys for sorting. It is essentially a way to
4459 ignore uninteresting parts of file names during sorting by name.
4460 Each expression should contain at least one group or its value
4462 will be considered to be always empty. Also, only the first
4463 match of regular expression is processed.
4464 The first group divides list of files into sub-groups, each of
4466 which is then sorted by substrings extracted using second regu‐
4467 lar expression and so on recursively.
4468 Example:
4470 set sortgroups=-(todo|done).*
4471 this would group files with "-done" in their names and files
4472 with "-todo" separately. On ascending sorting, group containing
4473 "-done" would appear before the other one.
4474 'sortorder'
4476 type: enumeration
4477 default: ascending
4478 Sets sort order for primary key: ascending, descending.
4479 'statusline' 'stl'
4481 type: string
4482 default: ""
4483 Determines the content of the status line (the line right above
4484 command-line). Empty string means use same format like in pre‐
4485 vious versions. Following macros are supported:
4486 - %N - line break (increases height of the status line accord‐
4488 ingly), ignores %[ %] blocks
4489 - %t - file name (considering value of the 'classify' option)
4491 - %T - symbolic link target (empty for other filetypes)
4493 - %f - file name relative to current directory (considers 'clas‐
4495 sify')
4496 - %A - file attributes (permissions on *nix or properties on
4498 Windows)
4499 - %u - user name or uid (if it cannot be resolved)
4501 - %g - group name or gid (if it cannot be resolved)
4503 - %s - file size in human readable format
4505 - %E - size of selected files in human readable format, same as
4507 %s when no files are selected, except that it will never show
4508 size of ../ in visual mode, since it cannot be selected
4509 - %d - file modification date (uses 'timefmt' option)
4511 - %D - path of the other pane for single-pane layout
4513 - %a - amount of free space available on current FS
4515 - %c - size of current FS
4517 - %z - short tips/tricks/hints that chosen randomly after one
4519 minute period
4520 - %{<expr>} - evaluate arbitrary vifm expression '<expr>', e.g.
4522 '&sort'
4523 - %* - resets or applies one of User1..User9 highlight groups;
4525 reset happens when width field is 0 or not specified, one of
4526 groups gets picked when width field is in the range from 1 to
4527 9
4528 - all 'rulerformat' macros
4530 Percent sign can be followed by optional minimum field width.
4532 Add '-' before minimum field width if you want field to be right
4533 aligned.
4534 On Windows file properties include the following flags (upper
4536 case means flag is on):
4537 A - archive
4538 H - hidden
4539 I - content isn't indexed
4540 R - readonly
4541 S - system
4542 C - compressed
4543 D - directory
4544 E - encrypted
4545 P - reparse point (e.g. symbolic link)
4546 Z - sparse file
4547 Example without colors:
4549 set statusline=" %t%= %A %10u:%-7g %15s %20d %{&sort} "
4551 Example with colors:
4553 highlight User1 ctermbg=yellow
4555 highlight User2 ctermbg=blue ctermfg=white cterm=bold
4556 set statusline="%1* %-26t %2* %= %1* %A %2* %7u:%-7g %1* %-5s %2* %d "
4557 'suggestoptions'
4560 type: string list
4561 default:
4562 Controls when, for what and how suggestions are displayed. The
4563 following values are available:
4564 - normal - in normal mode;
4565 - visual - in visual mode;
4566 - view - in view mode;
4567 - otherpane - use other pane to display suggestions, when
4568 available;
4569 - delay[:num] - display suggestions after a small delay (to
4570 do not annoy if you just want to type a fast shortcut consisting
4571 of multiple keys), num specifies the delay in ms (500 by de‐
4572 fault), 'timeoutlen' at most;
4573 - keys - include shortcuts (commands and selectors);
4574 - foldsubkeys - fold multiple keys with common prefix;
4575 - marks - include marks;
4576 - registers[:num] - include registers, at most num files (5 by
4577 default).
4578 'syncregs'
4580 type: string
4581 default:
4582 Specifies identifier of group of instances that share registers
4583 between each other. When several instances of vifm have this
4584 option set to identical value, they automatically synchronize
4585 contents of their registers on operations which use them.
4586 'syscalls'
4588 type: boolean
4589 default: false
4590 When disabled, vifm will rely on external applications to per‐
4591 form file-system operations, otherwise system calls are used in‐
4592 stead (much faster and supports progress tracking). The option
4593 should eventually be removed. Mostly *nix-like systems are af‐
4594 fected.
4595 'tablabel'
4597 type: string
4598 default: ""
4599 When non-empty, determines format of the main part of a single
4600 tab's label.
4601 When empty, tab label is set to either tab name for named tabs
4603 or to view title (usually current path) for unnamed tabs.
4604 The following macros can appear in the format (see below for
4606 what a flag is):
4607 - %C - flag of a current tab
4609 - %N - number of the tab
4611 - %T - flag of a tree mode
4613 - %c - description of a custom view
4615 - %n - name of the tab
4617 - %p - path of the view (handles filename modifiers)
4619 - %t - title of the view (affected by 'shortmess' flags)
4621 - %% - literal percent sign
4623 - %[ - designates beginning of an optional block
4625 - %] - designates end of an optional block
4627 - %*, %0* - resets highlighting
4629 - %1-%9 - applies one of User1..User9 highlight groups
4631 In global tabs the view in bullets above refers to currently ac‐
4633 tive view of that tab.
4634 Flag macros are a special kind of macros that always expand to
4636 an empty value and are ment to be used inside optional blocks to
4637 control their visibility.
4638 Optional blocks are ignored unless at least one macro inside of
4640 them is expanded to a non-empty value or is a set flag macro.
4641 " %[(%n)%] -- optional name of the tab
4643 " %[ -- optional description of the view
4644 " %[%T{tree}%] -- mark of tree mode
4645 " %[{%c}%] -- description of custom view
4646 " @ -- just an extra separator before the path
4647 ' %]
4648 " %p:t -- tail part of view's location
4649 set tablabel=%[(%n)%]%[%[%T{tree}%]%[{%c}%]@%]%p:t
4650 'tabprefix'
4652 type: string
4653 default: "[%N:"
4654 Determines prefix of a tab's label. Formatting is done as for
4655 'tablabel' option.
4656 'tabscope'
4658 type: enumeration
4659 default: global
4660 Picks style of tabs, which defines what a single tab contains.
4661 Possible values:
4662 - global - tab describes complete UI of two views and how they
4663 are arranged
4664 - pane - tab is located "inside" a pane and manages it and
4665 quick view
4666 'tabstop' 'ts'
4668 type: integer
4669 default: value from curses library
4670 Number of spaces that a Tab in the file counts for.
4671 'tabsuffix'
4673 type: string
4674 default: "]"
4675 Determines suffix of a tab's label. Formatting is done as for
4676 'tablabel' option.
4677 'timefmt'
4679 type: string
4680 default: "%m/%d %H:%M"
4681 Format of time in file list. See "man 1 date" or "man 3 strf‐
4682 time" for details.
4683 'timeoutlen' 'tm'
4685 type: integer
4686 default: 1000
4687 The time in milliseconds that is waited for a mapped key in case
4688 of already typed key sequence is ambiguous.
4689 'title'
4691 type: boolean
4692 default: true when title can be restored, false otherwise
4693 When enabled, title of the terminal or terminal multiplexer's
4694 window is updated according to current location. Because not
4695 all terminals support setting title, this works only if `$TERM`
4696 value matches one of the following conditions:
4697 - equals "xterm" or starts with "xterm-"
4698 - equals "rxvt" or starts with "rxvt-"
4699 - equals "screen" or starts with "screen-"
4700 - equals "aterm"
4701 - equals "Eterm"
4702 'trash'
4704 type: boolean
4705 default: true
4706 Use trash directory. See "Trash directory" section below.
4707 'trashdir'
4709 type: string
4710 default: on *nix:
4711 "%r/.vifm-Trash-%u,$VIFM/Trash,%r/.vifm-Trash"
4712 or if $VIFM/Trash doesn't exist
4713 "%r/.vifm-Trash-%u,$XDG_DATA_HOME/vifm/Trash,%r/.vifm-Trash"
4714 on Windows:
4715 "%r/.vifm-Trash,$XDG_DATA_HOME/vifm/Trash"
4716 List of trash directory path specifications, separated with com‐
4717 mas. Each list item either defines an absolute path to trash
4718 directory or a path relative to a mount point root when list el‐
4719 ement starts with "%r/". Value of the option can contain envi‐
4720 ronment variables (of form "$envname"), which will be expanded
4721 (prepend $ with a slash to prevent expansion). Environment
4722 variables are expanded when the option is set.
4723 On *nix, if element ends with "%u", the mark is replaced with
4725 real user ID and permissions are set so that only that only
4726 owner is able to use it.
4727 Note that even this setup is not completely secure when combined
4728 with "%r/" and it's overall safer to keep files in home direc‐
4729 tory, but that implies cost of copying files between partitions.
4730 When new file gets cut (deleted) vifm traverses each element of
4732 the option in the order of their appearance and uses first trash
4733 directory that it was able to create or that is already
4734 writable.
4735 Default value tries to use trash directory per mount point and
4737 falls back to ~/.vifm/Trash on failure.
4738 Will attempt to create the directory if it does not exist. See
4740 "Trash directory" section below.
4741 'tuioptions' 'to'
4743 type: charset
4744 default: "psv"
4745 Each flag configures some aspect of TUI appearance. The flags
4746 are:
4747 p - when included:
4748 * file list inside a pane gets additional single character
4749 padding on left and right sides;
4750 * quick view and view mode get single character padding.
4751 s - when included, left and right borders (side borders, hence
4752 "s" character) are visible.
4753 u - use Unicode characters in the TUI (Unicode ellipsis instead
4754 of "...").
4755 v - vary width of middle border to equalize view sizes.
4756 Each pane title contains the path of the listed directory. If
4758 too large, the path is truncated on the left for the active pane
4759 and on the right for the other pane. This can be modified with:
4760 l - truncation is always on the left.
4762 r - truncation is always on the right.
4763 'undolevels' 'ul'
4765 type: integer
4766 default: 100
4767 Maximum number of changes that can be undone. Note that here
4768 single file operation is used as a unit, not operation, i.e.
4769 deletion of 101 files will exceed default limit.
4770 'vicmd'
4772 type: string
4773 default: "vim"
4774 Command used to edit files in various contexts. Ampersand sign
4775 at the end (regardless whether it's preceded by space or not)
4776 means backgrounding of command.
4777 Background flag is ignored in certain context where vifm waits
4779 for the editor to finish. Such contexts include any command
4780 that spawns editor to change list of file names or a command,
4781 with :rename being one example. `-f` is also appended to pre‐
4782 vent forking in such cases, so the command needs to handle the
4783 flag.
4784 Additionally `+{num}` and `+'call cursor()'` arguments are used
4786 to position cursor when location is known.
4787 'viewcolumns'
4789 type: string
4790 default: ""
4791 scope: local
4792 Format string containing list of columns in the view. When this
4793 option is empty, view columns to show are chosen automatically
4794 using sorting keys (see 'sort') as a base. Value of this option
4795 is ignored if 'lsview' is set. See "Column view" section below
4796 for format description.
4797 An example of setting the options for both panes (note :windo
4799 command):
4800 windo set viewcolumns=-{name}..,6{size},11{perms}
4802 'vixcmd'
4804 type: string
4805 default: value of 'vicmd'
4806 Same as 'vicmd', but takes precedence over it when running in‐
4807 side a graphical environment.
4808 'vifminfo'
4810 type: set
4811 default: bookmarks,bmarks
4812 Controls what will be saved in the $VIFM/vifminfo file.
4813 bmarks - named bookmarks (see :bmark command)
4815 bookmarks - marks, except special ones like '< and '>
4816 tui - state of the user interface (sorting, number of
4817 windows, quick
4818 view state, active view)
4819 dhistory - directory history
4820 state - file name and dot filters and terminal multiplex‐
4821 ers integration
4822 state
4823 cs - primary color scheme
4824 savedirs - save last visited directory
4825 chistory - command line history
4826 shistory - search history (/ and ? commands)
4827 phistory - prompt history
4828 fhistory - history of local filter (see description of the
4829 "=" normal mode
4830 command)
4831 dirstack - directory stack overwrites previous stack, unless
4832 stack of
4833 current instance is empty
4834 registers - registers content
4835 tabs - global or pane tabs
4836 options - all options that can be set with the :set command
4837 (obsolete)
4838 filetypes - associated programs and viewers (obsolete)
4839 commands - user defined commands (see :command description)
4840 (obsolete)
4841 'vimhelp'
4843 type: boolean
4844 default: false
4845 Use vim help format.
4846 'wildmenu' 'wmnu'
4848 type: boolean
4849 default: false
4850 Controls whether possible matches of completion will be shown
4851 above the command line.
4852 'wildstyle'
4854 type: enumeration
4855 default: bar
4856 Picks presentation style of wild menu. Possible values:
4857 - bar - one-line with left-to-right cursor
4858 - popup - multi-line with top-to-bottom cursor
4859 'wordchars'
4861 type: string list
4862 default: "1-8,14-31,33-255" (that is all non-whitespace charac‐
4863 ters)
4864 Specifies which characters in command-line mode should be con‐
4865 sidered as part of a word. Value of the option is comma-sepa‐
4866 rated list of ranges. If both endpoints of a range match, sin‐
4867 gle endpoint is enough (e.g. "a" = "a-a"). Both endpoints are
4868 inclusive. There are two accepted forms: character representing
4869 itself or number encoding character according to ASCII table.
4870 In case of ambiguous characters (dash, comma, digit) use numeric
4871 form. Accepted characters are in the range from 0 to 255. Any
4872 Unicode character with code greater than 255 is considered to be
4873 part of a word.
4874 The option affects Alt-D, Alt-B and Alt-F, but not Ctrl-W. This
4876 is intentionally to allow two use cases:
4877 - Moving by WORDS and deletion by words.
4879 - Moving by words and deletion by WORDS.
4880 To get the latter use the following mapping:
4882 cnoremap <c-w> <a-b><a-d>
4884 Also used for abbreviations.
4886 'wrap' type: boolean
4888 default: true
4889 Controls whether to wrap text in quick view.
4890 'wrapscan' 'ws'
4892 type: boolean
4893 default: true
4894 Searches wrap around end of the list.
4895
4897 Map arguments
4898 LHS of mappings can be preceded by arguments which take the form of
4900 special sequences:
4901 <silent>
4903 Postpone UI updates until RHS is completely processed.
4904 <wait> In case of builtin mapping causing conflict for a user-defined
4906 mapping (e.g., `t` builtin to a partially typed `ta` user-de‐
4907 fined mapping), ignore the builtin mapping and wait for input
4908 indefinitely as opposed to default behaviour of triggering the
4909 builtin mapping after a delay defined by 'timeoutlen'. Example:
4910 nnoremap <wait> tw :set wrap!<cr>
4912 nnoremap <wait> tn :set number!<cr>
4913 nnoremap <wait> tr :set relativenumber!<cr>
4914 Special sequences
4916 Since it's not easy to enter special characters there are several spe‐
4918 cial sequences that can be used in place of them. They are:
4919 <cr> Enter key.
4921 <esc> Escape key.
4923 <space>
4925 Space key.
4926 <lt> Less-than character (<).
4928 <nop> provides a way to disable a mapping (by mapping it to <nop>).
4930 <bs> Backspace key (see key conflict description below).
4932 <tab> <s-tab>
4934 Tabulation and Shift+Tabulation keys.
4935 <home> <end>
4937 Home/End.
4938 <left> <right> <up> <down>
4940 Arrow keys.
4941 <pageup> <pagedown>
4943 PageUp/PageDown.
4944 <del> <delete>
4946 Delete key. <del> and <delete> mean different codes, but
4947 <delete> is more common.
4948 <insert>
4950 Insert key.
4951 <c-a>,<c-b>,...,<c-z>,<c-[>,<c->,<c-]>,<c-^>,<c-_>
4953 Control + some key (see key conflict description below).
4954 <c-@> only for *nix
4956 Control + Space.
4957 <a-a>,<a-b>,...,<a-z>
4959 <m-a>,<m-b>,...,<m-z> Alt + some key.
4960 <a-c-a>,<a-c-b>,...,<a-c-z>
4962 <m-c-a>,<m-c-b>,...,<m-c-z> only for *nix
4963 Alt + Ctrl + some key.
4964 <f0> - <f63>
4966 Functional keys.
4967 <c-f1> - <c-f12>
4969 only for MS-Windows
4970 functional keys with Control key pressed.
4971 <a-f1> - <a-f12>
4973 only for MS-Windows
4974 functional keys with Alt key pressed.
4975 <s-f1> - <s-f12>
4977 only for MS-Windows
4978 functional keys with Shift key pressed.
4979 Note that due to the way terminals process their input, several key‐
4981 board keys might be mapped to single key code, for example:
4982 - <cr> and <c-m>;
4984 - <tab> and <c-i>;
4986 - <c-h> and <bs>;
4988 - etc.
4990 Most of the time they are defined consistently and don't cause sur‐
4992 prises, but <c-h> and <bs> are treated differently in different envi‐
4993 ronments (although they match each other all the time), that's why they
4994 correspond to different keys in vifm. As a consequence, if you map <c-
4995 h> or <bs> be sure to repeat the mapping with the other one so that it
4996 works in all environments. Alternatively, provide your mapping in one
4997 form and add one of the following:
4998 " if mappings with <c-h> in the LHS work
5000 map <c-h> <bs>
5001 " if mappings with <bs> in the LHS work
5002 map <bs> <c-h>
5003 Whitespace
5005 vifm removes whitespace characters at the beginning and end of com‐
5007 mands. That's why you may want to use <space> at the end of rhs in
5008 mappings. For example:
5009 cmap <f1> man<space>
5011 will put "man " in line when you hit the <f1> key in the command line
5013 mode.
5014
5016 Supported expressions is a subset of what VimL provides.
5017 Expression syntax summary, from least to most significant:
5019 expr1 expr2
5021 expr2 || expr2 .. logical OR
5022 expr2 expr3
5024 expr3 && expr3 .. logical AND
5025 expr3 expr4
5027 expr4 == expr4 equal
5028 expr4 != expr4 not equal
5029 expr4 > expr4 greater than
5030 expr4 >= expr4 greater than or equal
5031 expr4 < expr4 smaller than
5032 expr4 <= expr4 smaller than or equal
5033 expr4 expr5
5035 expr5 + expr5 .. number addition
5036 expr5 - expr5 .. number subtraction
5037 expr5 expr6
5039 expr6 . expr6 .. string concatenation
5040 expr6 expr7
5042 - expr6 unary minus
5043 + expr6 unary plus
5044 ! expr6 logical NOT
5045 expr7 number number constant
5047 "string" string constant, \ is special
5048 'string' string constant, ' is doubled
5049 &option option value
5050 $VAR environment variable
5051 v:var builtin variable
5052 function(expr1, ...) function call
5053 (expr1) nested expression
5054 ".." indicates that the operations in this level can be concatenated.
5056 expr1
5058 -----
5059 expr2 || expr2
5060 Arguments are converted to numbers before evaluation.
5062 Result is non-zero if at least one of arguments is non-zero.
5064 It's right associative and with short-circuiting, so sub-expressions
5066 are evaluated from left to right until result of whole expression is
5067 determined (i.e., until first non-zero) or end of the expression.
5068 expr2
5070 -----
5071 expr3 && expr3
5072 Arguments are converted to numbers before evaluation.
5074 Result is non-zero only if both arguments are non-zero.
5076 It's right associative and with short-circuiting, so sub-expressions
5078 are evaluated from left to right until result of whole expression is
5079 determined (i.e., until first zero) or end of the expression.
5080 expr3
5082 -----
5083 expr4 {cmp} expr4
5084 Compare two expr4 expressions, resulting in a 0 if it evaluates to
5086 false or 1 if it evaluates to true.
5087 equal ==
5089 not equal !=
5090 greater than >
5091 greater than or equal >=
5092 smaller than <
5093 smaller than or equal <=
5094 Examples:
5096 'a' == 'a' == 1
5098 'a' > 'b' == 1
5099 'a' == 'b' == 0
5100 '2' > 'b' == 0
5101 2 > 'b' == 1
5102 2 > '1b' == 1
5103 2 > '9b' == 0
5104 -1 == -'1' == 1
5105 0 == '--1' == 1
5106 expr4
5108 -----
5109 expr5 + expr5 .. number addition expr5 - expr5 .. number sub‐
5110 traction
5111 Examples:
5113 1 + 3 - 3 == 1
5115 1 + '2' == 3
5116 expr5
5118 -----
5119 expr6 . expr6 .. string concatenation
5120 Examples:
5122 'a' . 'b' == 'ab'
5124 'aaa' . '' . 'c' == 'aaac'
5125 expr6
5127 -----
5128 - expr6 unary minus
5130 + expr6 unary plus
5131 ! expr6 logical NOT
5132 For '-' the sign of the number is changed.
5134 For '+' the number is unchanged.
5135 For '!' non-zero becomes zero, zero becomes one.
5136 A String will be converted to a Number first.
5138 These operations can be repeated and mixed. Examples:
5140 --9 == 9
5142 ---9 == -9
5143 -+9 == 9
5144 !-9 == 0
5145 !'' == 1
5146 !'x' == 0
5147 !!9 == 1
5148 expr7
5150 -----
5151 number number constant
5153 -----
5154 Decimal number. Examples:
5156 0 == 0
5158 0000 == 0
5159 01 == 1
5160 123 == 123
5161 10000 == 10000
5162 string
5164 ------
5165 "string" string constant
5166 Note that double quotes are used.
5168 A string constant accepts these special characters:
5170 \b backspace <bs>
5171 \e escape <esc>
5172 \n newline
5173 \r return <cr>
5174 \t tab <tab>
5175 \\ backslash
5176 \" double quote
5177 Examples:
5179 "\"Hello,\tWorld!\""
5181 "Hi,\nthere!"
5182 literal-string
5184 --------------
5185 'string' string constant
5186 Note that single quotes are used.
5188 This string is taken as it is. No backslashes are removed or have a
5190 special meaning. The only exception is that two quotes stand for one
5191 quote.
5192 Examples:
5194 'All\slashes\are\saved.'
5196 'This string contains doubled single quotes ''here'''
5197 option
5199 ------
5200 &option option value (local one is preferred, if exists)
5201 &g:option global option value &l:option local
5202 option value
5203 Examples:
5205 echo 'Terminal size: '.&columns.'x'.&lines
5207 if &columns > 100
5208 Any valid option name can be used here (note that "all" in ":set all"
5210 is a pseudo option). See ":set options" section above.
5211 environment variable
5213 --------------------
5214 $VAR environment variable
5215 The String value of any environment variable. When it is not defined,
5217 the result is an empty string.
5218 Examples:
5220 'This is my $PATH env: ' . $PATH
5222 'vifmrc at ' . $MYVIFMRC . ' is used.'
5223 builtin variable
5225 --------------------
5226 v:var builtin variable
5227 Information exposed by vifm for use in scripting.
5229 v:count
5231 count passed to : command, 0 by default. Can be used in mappings to
5232 passthe count to a different command.
5233 v:count1
5234 same as v:count, but 1 by default.
5235 v:jobcount
5236 number of active jobs (as can be seen in the :jobs menu).
5237 v:session
5238 name of the current session or empty string.
5239 v:servername
5240 See below.
5241 function call
5243 -------------
5244 function(expr1, ...) function call
5245 See "Functions" section below.
5247 Examples:
5249 "'" . filetype('.') . "'"
5251 filetype('.') == 'reg'
5252 expression nesting
5254 ------------------
5255 (expr1) nested expression
5256 Groups any other expression of arbitrary complexity enforcing order in
5258 which operators are applied.
5259
5262 USAGE RESULT DESCRIPTION
5263 chooseopt({opt}) String Queries choose parameters passed on
5265 startup.
5266 executable({expr}) Integer Checks whether {expr} command avail‐
5267 able.
5268 expand({expr}) String Expands special keywords in {expr}.
5269 extcached({cache}, {path}, {extcmd})
5270 String Caches output of {extcmd} per {cache}
5271 and
5272 {path} combination.
5273 filetype({fnum} [, {resolve}])
5274 String Returns file type from position.
5275 fnameescape({expr}) String Escapes {expr} for use in a :command.
5276 getpanetype() String Returns type of current pane.
5277 has({property}) Integer Checks whether instance has {prop‐
5278 erty}.
5279 layoutis({type}) Integer Checks whether layout is of type
5280 {type}.
5281 paneisat({loc}) Integer Checks whether current pane is at
5282 {loc}.
5283 system({command}) String Executes shell command and returns
5284 its output.
5285 tabpagenr([{arg}]) Integer Returns number of current or last
5286 tab.
5287 term({command}) String Like system(), but for interactive
5288 commands.
5289 chooseopt({opt})
5291 Retrieves values of options related to file choosing. {opt} can be one
5293 of:
5294 files returns argument of --choose-files or empty string
5295 dir returns argument of --choose-dir or empty string
5296 cmd returns argument of --on-choose or empty string
5297 delimiter returns argument of --delimiter or the default one (\n)
5298 executable({expr})
5300 If {expr} is absolute or relative path, checks whether path destination
5302 exists and refers to an executable, otherwise checks whether command
5303 named {expr} is present in directories listed in $PATH. Checks for
5304 various executable extensions on Windows. Returns boolean value de‐
5305 scribing result of the check.
5306 Example:
5308 " use custom default viewer script if it's available and installed
5310 " in predefined system directory, otherwise try to find it elsewhere
5311 if executable('/usr/local/bin/defviewer')
5312 fileview * /usr/local/bin/defviewer %c
5313 else
5314 if executable('defviewer')
5315 fileview * defviewer %c
5316 endif
5317 endif
5318 expand({expr})
5320 Expands environment variables and macros in {expr} just like it's done
5322 for command-line commands. Returns a string. See "Command macros"
5323 section above.
5324 Examples:
5326 " percent sign
5328 :echo expand('%%')
5329 " the last part of directory name of the other pane
5330 :echo expand('%D:t')
5331 " $PATH environment variable (same as `:echo $PATH`)
5332 :echo expand('$PATH')
5333 extcached({cache}, {path}, {extcmd})
5335 Caches value of {extcmd} external command automatically updating it as
5337 necessary based on monitoring change date of a {path}. The cache is
5338 invalidated when file or its meta-data is updated. A single path can
5339 have multiple caches associated with it.
5340 {path} value is normalized, but symbolic links in it aren't resolved.
5342 Example:
5344 " display number and size of blocks actually used by a file or directory
5346 set statusline+=" Uses: %{ extcached('uses',
5347 expand('%c'),
5348 expand('stat --format=%%bx%%B %c')) }"
5349 filetype({fnum} [, {resolve}])
5351 The result is a string, which represents file type and is one of the
5353 list:
5354 exe executables
5355 reg regular files
5356 link symbolic links
5357 broken broken symbolic links (appears only when resolving)
5358 dir directories
5359 char character devices
5360 block block devices
5361 fifo pipes
5362 sock *nix domain sockets
5363 ? unknown file type (should not normally happen) or
5364 non-file (pseudo-entries in compare view)
5365 The result can also be an empty string in case of invalid argument.
5367 Parameter {fnum} can have following values:
5369 - '.' to get type of file under the cursor in the active pane
5370 - numerical value base 1 to get type of file on specified line num‐
5371 ber
5372 Optional parameter {resolve} is treated as a boolean and specifies
5374 whether symbolic links should be resolved.
5375 fnameescape({expr})
5377 Escapes parameter to make it suitable for use as an argument of a :com‐
5379 mand. List of escaped characters includes %, which is doubled.
5380 Usage example:
5382 " navigate to most recently modified file in current directory
5384 execute 'goto' fnameescape(system('ls -t | head -1'))
5385 getpanetype()
5387 Retrieves string describing type of current pane. Possible return val‐
5389 ues:
5390 regular regular file listing of some directory
5391 custom custom file list (%u)
5392 very-custom very custom file list (%U)
5393 tree tree view
5394 has({property})
5396 Allows examining internal parameters from scripts to e.g. figure out
5398 environment in which application is running. Returns 1 if property is
5399 true/present, otherwise 0 is returned. Currently the following proper‐
5400 ties are supported (anything else will yield 0):
5401 unix runs in *nix-like environment (including Cygwin)
5402 win runs on Windows
5403 Usage example:
5405 " skip user/group on Windows
5407 if !has('win')
5408 let $RIGHTS = '%10u:%-7g '
5409 endif
5410 execute 'set' 'statusline=" %t%= %A '.$RIGHTS.'%15E %20d "'
5412 layoutis({type})
5414 Checks whether current interface layout is {type} or not, where {type}
5416 can be:
5417 only single-pane mode
5418 split double-pane mode (either vertical or horizontal split)
5419 vsplit vertical split (left and right panes)
5420 hsplit horizontal split (top and bottom panes)
5421 Usage example:
5423 " automatically split vertically before enabling preview
5425 :nnoremap w :if layoutis('only') | vsplit | endif | view!<cr>
5426 paneisat({loc})
5428 Checks whether position of active pane in current layout matches one of
5430 the following locations:
5431 top pane reaches top border
5432 bottom pane reaches bottom border
5433 left pane reaches left border
5434 right pane reaches right border
5435 system({command})
5437 Runs the command in shell and returns its output (joined standard out‐
5439 put and standard error streams). All trailing newline characters are
5440 stripped to allow easy appending to command output. Ctrl-C should in‐
5441 terrupt the command.
5442 Use this function to consume output of external commands that don't re‐
5444 quire user interaction and term() for interactive commands that make
5445 use of terminal and are capable of handling stream redirection.
5446 Usage example:
5448 " command to enter .git/ directory of git-repository (when ran inside one)
5450 command! cdgit :execute 'cd' fnameescape(system('git rev-parse --git-dir'))
5451 tabpagenr([{arg}])
5453 When called without arguments returns number of current tab page base
5455 one.
5456 When called with "$" as an argument returns number of the last tab page
5458 base one, which is the same as number of tabs.
5459 term({command})
5461 Same as system() function, but user interface is shutdown during the
5463 execution of the command, which makes sure that external interactive
5464 applications won't affect the way terminal is used by vifm.
5465 Usage example:
5467 " command to change directory by picking it via fzf
5469 command! fzfcd :execute 'cd'
5470 fnameescape(term('find -type d | fzf 2> /dev/tty'))
5471
5473 When navigating to some path from a menu there is a difference in end
5474 location depending on whether path has trailing slash or not. Files
5475 normally don't have trailing slashes so "file/" won't work and one can
5476 only navigate to a file anyway. On the other hand with directories
5477 there are two options: navigate to a directory or inside of it. To al‐
5478 low both use cases, the first one is used on paths like "dir" and the
5479 second one for "dir/".
5480 Commands
5482 :range navigate to a menu line.
5484 :exi[t][!] :q[uit][!] :x[it][!]
5486 leave menu mode.
5487 :noh[lsearch]
5489 reset search match highlighting.
5490 :w[rite] {dest}
5492 write all menu lines into file specified by {dest}.
5493 General
5495 j, Ctrl-N - move down.
5497 k, Ctrl-P - move up.
5498 Enter, l - select and exit the menu.
5499 Ctrl-L - redraw the menu.
5500 Escape, Ctrl-C, ZZ, ZQ, q - quit.
5502 In all menus
5504 The following set of keys has the same meaning as in normal mode.
5506 Ctrl-B, Ctrl-F
5508 Ctrl-D, Ctrl-U
5509 Ctrl-E, Ctrl-Y
5510 /, ?
5511 n, N
5512 [count]G, [count]gg
5513 H, M, L
5514 zb, zt, zz
5515 zh - scroll menu items [count] characters to the right.
5517 zl - scroll menu items [count] characters to the left.
5518 zH - scroll menu items half of screen width characters to the right.
5519 zL - scroll menu items half of screen width characters to the left.
5520 : - enter command line mode for menus (currently only :exi[t], :q[uit],
5522 :x[it] and :{range} are supported).
5523 b - interpret content of the menu as list of paths and use it to create
5525 custom view in place of previously active pane. See "Custom views"
5526 section below.
5527 B - same as above, but creates unsorted view.
5528 v - load menu content into quickfix list of the editor (Vim compatible
5530 by assumption) or if list doesn't have separators after file names
5531 (colons) open each line as a file name.
5532 Below is description of additional commands and reaction on selection
5535 in some menus and dialogs.
5536 Apropos menu
5538 Selecting menu item runs man on a given topic. Menu won't be closed
5540 automatically to allow view several pages one by one.
5541 Command-line mode abbreviations menu
5543 Type dd on an abbreviation to remove it.
5545 c leaves menu preserving file selection and inserts right-hand side of
5547 selected command into command-line.
5548 Color scheme menu
5550 Selecting name of a color scheme applies it the same way as if ":col‐
5552 orscheme <name>" was executed on the command-line.
5553 Commands menu
5555 Selecting command executes it with empty arguments (%a).
5557 dd on a command to remove.
5559 Marks menu
5561 Selecting mark navigates to it.
5563 dd on a mark to remove it.
5565 Bookmarks menu
5567 Selecting a bookmark navigates to it.
5569 Type dd on a bookmark to remove it.
5571 gf and e also work to make it more convenient to bookmark files.
5573 Trash (:lstrash) menu
5575 r on a file name to restore it from trash.
5577 dd deletes file under the cursor.
5579 Trashes (:trashes) menu
5581 dd empties selected trash in background.
5583 Directory history and Trashes menus
5585 Selecting directory name will change directory of the current view as
5587 if :cd command was used.
5588 Directory stack menu
5590 Selecting directory name will rotate stack to put selected directory
5592 pair at the top of the stack.
5593 File (:file) menu
5595 Commands from vifmrc or typed in command-line are displayed above empty
5597 line. All commands below empty line are from .desktop files.
5598 c leaves menu preserving file selection and inserts command after :! in
5600 command-line mode.
5601 Grep, find, locate, bookmarks and user menu with navigation (%M macro)
5603 gf - navigate previously active view to currently selected item.
5605 Leaves menu mode except for grep menu. Pressing Enter key has the same
5606 effect.
5607 e - open selected path in the editor, stays in menu mode.
5609 c - leave menu preserving file selection and insert file name after :!
5611 in command-line mode.
5612 User menu without navigation (%m macro)
5614 c leaves menu preserving file selection and inserts whole line after :!
5616 in command-line mode.
5617 Grep menu
5619 Selecting file (via Enter or l key) opens it in editor set by 'vicmd'
5621 at given line number. Menu won't be closed automatically to allow
5622 viewing more than one result.
5623 See above for "gf" and "e" keys description.
5625 Command-line history menu
5627 Selecting an item executes it as command-line command, search query or
5629 local filter.
5630 c leaves menu preserving file selection and inserts line into command-
5632 line of appropriate kind.
5633 Volumes menu
5635 Selecting a drive navigates previously active pane to the root of that
5637 drive.
5638 Fileinfo dialog
5640 Enter, q - close dialog
5642 Sort dialog
5644 h, Space - switch ascending/descending.
5646 q - close dialog
5647 One shortcut per sorting key (see the dialog).
5649 Attributes (permissions or properties) dialog
5651 h, Space - check/uncheck.
5653 q - close dialog
5654 r - (*nix only) (un)set all read bits
5655 w - (*nix only) (un)set all write bits
5656 x - (*nix only) (un)set all execute bits
5657 s - (*nix only) (un)set all special (SetUID, SetGID, Sticky) bits
5658 e - (*nix only) (un)set recursion (for directories only)
5659 Item states:
5661 - * - checked flag.
5663 - X - means that it has different value for files in selection.
5665 - d (*nix only) - (only for execute flags) means u-x+X, g-x+X or o-x+X
5667 argument for the chmod program. If you're not on OS X and want to
5668 remove execute permission bit from all files, but preserve it for di‐
5669 rectories, set all execute flags to 'd' and check 'Set Recursively'
5670 flag.
5671 Jobs menu
5673 dd requests cancellation of job under cursor. The job won't be removed
5675 from the list, but marked as being cancelled (if cancellation was suc‐
5676 cessfully requested). A message will pop up if the job has already
5677 stopped. Note that on Windows cancelling external programs like this
5678 might not work, because their parent shell doesn't have any windows.
5679 e key displays errors of selected job if any were collected. They are
5681 displayed in a new menu, but you can get back to jobs menu by pressing
5682 h.
5683 Undolist menu
5686 r - reset undo position to group under the cursor.
5688 Media menu
5691 Selecting a device either mounts (if it wasn't mounted yet) or navi‐
5693 gates to its first mount point.
5694 Selecting a mount point navigates to it.
5696 Selecting "not mounted" line causes mounting.
5698 Selecting any other line does nothing.
5700 r - reload the list.
5702 m - mount/unmount device (cursor should be positioned on lines under
5704 device information).
5705 [ - put cursor on the previous device.
5707 ] - put cursor on the next device.
5709 Plugins menu
5712 e - display log messages of selected plugin if any were collected.
5714 They are displayed in a new menu, but you can get back to plugins menu
5715 by pressing h.
5716 gf - navigate previously active view to the location of selected
5718 plugin. Leaves menu mode.
5719
5722 Definition
5723 Normally file views contain list of files from a single directory, but
5725 sometimes it's useful to populate them with list of files that do not
5726 belong to the same directory, which is what custom views are for.
5727 Presentation
5729 Custom views are still related to directory they were in before custom
5731 list was loaded. Path to that directory (original directory) can be
5732 seen in the title of a custom view.
5733 Files in same directory have to be named differently, this doesn't hold
5735 for custom views thus seeing just file names might be rather confusing.
5736 In order to give an idea where files come from and when possible, rela‐
5737 tive paths to original directory of the view is displayed, otherwise
5738 full path is used instead.
5739 Custom views normally don't contain any inexistent files.
5741 Navigation
5743 Custom views have some differences related to navigation in regular
5745 views.
5746 gf - acts similar to gf on symbolic links and navigates to the file at
5748 its real
5749 location.
5750 h - go to closes parent node in tree view, otherwise return to the
5752 original directory.
5753 gh - return to the original directory.
5755 Opening ".." entry also causes return to the original directory.
5757 History
5759 Custom list exists only while it's visible, once left one can't return
5761 to it, so there is no appearances of it in any history.
5762 Filters
5764 Only local filter affects content of the view. This is intentional,
5766 presumably if one loads list, precisely that list should be displayed
5767 (except for inexistent paths, which are ignored).
5768 Search
5770 Although directory names are visible in listing, they are not search‐
5772 able. Only file names are taken into account (might be changed in fu‐
5773 ture, searching whole lines seems quite reasonable).
5774 Sorting
5776 Contrary to search sorting by name works on whole visible part of file
5778 path.
5779 Highlight
5781 Whole file name is highlighted as one entity, even if there are direc‐
5783 tory elements.
5784 Updates
5786 Reloads can occur, though they are not automatic due to files being
5788 scattered among different places. On a reload, inexistent files are
5789 removed and meta-data of all other files is updated.
5790 Once custom view forgets about the file, it won't add it back even if
5792 it's created again. So not seeing file previously affected by an oper‐
5793 ation, which was undone is normal.
5794 Operations
5796 All operations that add files are forbidden for custom views. For ex‐
5798 ample, moving/copying/putting files into a custom view doesn't work,
5799 because it doesn't make much sense.
5800 On the other hand, operations that use files of a custom view as a
5802 source (e.g. yanking, copying, moving file from custom view, deletion)
5803 and operations that modify names are all allowed.
5804
5806 Kinds
5807 :compare can produce four different results depending on arguments:
5809 - single compare view (ofone and either listall or listdups);
5810 - single custom view (ofone and listunique);
5811 - two compare views (ofboth and either listall or listdups);
5812 - two custom views (ofboth and listunique).
5813 The first two display files of one file system tree. Here duplicates
5815 are files that have at least one copy in the same tree. The other two
5816 kinds of operation compare two trees, in which duplicates are files
5817 that are found in both trees.
5818 Lists of unique files are presented in custom views because there is no
5820 file grouping to preserve as all file ids are guaranteed to be dis‐
5821 tinct.
5822 Creation
5824 Arguments passed to :compare form four categories each with its own
5826 prefix and is responsible for particular property of operation.
5827 Which files to compare:
5829 - ofboth - compares files of two panes against each other;
5830 - ofone - compares files of the same directory.
5831 How files are compared:
5833 - byname - by their name only;
5834 - bysize - only by their size;
5835 - bycontents - by data they contain (combination of size and hash of
5836 small chunk of contents is used as first approximation, so don't worry
5837 too much about large files).
5838 Which files to display:
5840 - listall - all files;
5841 - listunique - unique files only;
5842 - listdups - only duplicated files.
5843 How results are grouped (has no effect if "ofone" specified):
5845 - groupids - files considered identical are always adjacent in out‐
5846 put;
5847 - grouppaths - file system ordering is preferred (this also enables
5848 displaying identically named files as mismatches).
5849 Which files to omit:
5851 - skipempty - ignore empty files.
5852 Each argument can appear multiple times, the rightmost one of the group
5854 is considered. Arguments alter default behaviour instead of substitut‐
5855 ing it.
5856 Examples
5858 The defaults corresponds to probably the most common use case of com‐
5860 paring files in two trees with grouping by paths, so the following are
5861 equivalent:
5862 :compare
5864 :compare bycontents grouppaths
5865 :compare bycontents listall ofboth grouppaths
5866 Another use case is to find duplicates in the current sub-tree:
5868 :compare listdups ofone
5870 The following command lists files that are unique to each pane:
5872 :compare listunique
5874 Look
5876 The view can't switch to ls-like view as it's unable to display diff-
5878 like data.
5879 Comparison views have second column displaying id of the file, files
5881 with same id are considered to be equal. The view columns configura‐
5882 tion is predefined.
5883 Behaviour
5885 When two views are being compared against each other the following
5887 changes to the regular behaviour apply:
5888 - views are scrolled synchronously (as if 'scrollbind' was set);
5889 - views' cursors are synchronized;
5890 - local filtering is disabled (its results wouldn't be meaningful);
5891 - zd excludes groups of adjacent identical files, 1zd gives usual be‐
5892 haviour;
5893 - sorting is permanently disabled (ordering is fixed);
5894 - removed files hide their counter pairs;
5895 - exiting one of the views terminates the other immediately;
5896 - renaming files isn't blocked, but isn't taken into account and might
5897 require regeneration of comparison;
5898 - entries which indicate absence of equivalent file have empty names
5899 and can be matched as such;
5900 - when unique files of both views are listed custom views can be
5901 empty, this absence of unique files is stated clearly.
5902 One compare view has similar properties (those that are applicable for
5904 single pane).
5905 Files are gathered in this way:
5907 - recursively starting at current location of the view;
5908 - dot files are excluded if view hides them at the moment of compari‐
5909 son, file name filters are obeyed as well so you end up comparing what
5910 you see;
5911 - directories are not taken into account;
5912 - symbolic links to directories are ignored.
5913
5915 On startup vifm determines several variables that are used during exe‐
5916 cution. They are determined in the order they appear below.
5917 On *nix systems $HOME is normally present and used as is. On Windows
5919 systems vifm tries to find correct home directory in the following or‐
5920 der:
5921 - $HOME variable;
5922 - $USERPROFILE variable (on Windows only);
5923 - a combination of $HOMEDRIVE and $HOMEPATH variables (on Windows
5924 only).
5925 vifm tries to find correct configuration directory by checking the fol‐
5927 lowing places:
5928 - $VIFM variable;
5929 - parent directory of the executable file (on Windows only);
5930 - $HOME/.vifm directory;
5931 - $APPDATA/Vifm directory (on Windows only);
5932 - $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/vifm directory;
5933 - $HOME/.config/vifm directory.
5934 vifm tries to find correct configuration file by checking the following
5936 places:
5937 - $MYVIFMRC variable;
5938 - vifmrc in parent directory of the executable file (on Windows only);
5939 - $VIFM/vifmrc file.
5940
5942 See "Startup" section above for the explanations on $VIFM and $MYV‐
5943 IFMRC.
5944 The vifmrc file contains commands that will be executed on vifm
5946 startup. There are two such files: global and local. Global one is at
5947 {prefix}/etc/vifm/vifmrc, see $MYVIFMRC variable description for the
5948 search algorithm used to find local vifmrc. Global vifmrc is loaded
5949 before the local one, so that the later one can redefine anything con‐
5950 figured globally.
5951 Use vifmrc to set settings, mappings, filetypes etc. To use multi line
5953 commands precede each next line with a slash (whitespace before slash
5954 is ignored, but all spaces at the end of the lines are saved). For ex‐
5955 ample:
5956 set
5958 \smartcase
5959 equals "setsmartcase". When
5961 set<space here>
5963 \ smartcase
5964 equals "set smartcase".
5966 The $VIFM/vifminfo file contains generic state of the application. You
5968 can control what is stored in vifminfo by setting 'vifminfo' option.
5969 Vifm always writes this file on exit unless 'vifminfo' option is empty.
5970 Marks, bookmarks, commands, histories, filetypes, fileviewers and reg‐
5971 isters in the file are merged with vifm configuration (which has bigger
5972 priority).
5973 Generally, runtime configuration has bigger priority during merging,
5975 but there are some exceptions:
5976 - directory stack stored in the file is not overwritten unless some‐
5978 thing is changed in vifm instance that performs merge;
5979 - each mark or bookmark is marked with a timestamp, so that newer
5981 value is not overwritten by older one, thus no matter from where it
5982 comes, the newer one wins;
5983 - all histories are marked with timestamps on storing, this means
5985 that last instance to quit puts its elements on top of the list;
5986 - tabs are merged only if both current instance and stored state con‐
5988 tain exactly one tab of any kind.
5989 The $VIFM/scripts directory can contain shell scripts. vifm modifies
5991 its PATH environment variable to let user run those scripts without
5992 specifying full path. All subdirectories of the $VIFM/scripts will be
5993 added to PATH too. Script in a subdirectory overlaps script with the
5994 same name in all its parent directories.
5995 The $VIFM/colors/ and {prefix}/etc/vifm/colors/ directories contain
5997 color schemes. Available color schemes are searched in that order, so
5998 on name conflict the one in $VIFM/colors/ wins.
5999 Each color scheme should have ".vifm" extension. This wasn't the case
6001 before and for this reason the following rules apply during lookup:
6002 - if there is no file with .vifm extension, all regular files are
6004 listed;
6005 - otherwise only files with .vifm extension are listed (with the ex‐
6007 tension being truncated).
6008
6010 Sessions provide a way to have multiple persistent runtime configura‐
6011 tions. Think of them as second-level vifminfo files in addition to the
6012 first-level one used by all sessions. In other words, they aren't a
6013 replacement for vifminfo file that exists without sessions, but an ad‐
6014 dition to it. One can empty 'vifminfo' option and rely solely on ses‐
6015 sions, but in practice one might want to share some state among in‐
6016 stances in different sessions or have an "out-of-sessions" state for
6017 tasks that don't deserve a session of their own.
6018 This leads to a two-level structure where data in session files has
6020 higher priority than data in vifminfo files (where this makes sense)
6021 following the same rules that merging of vifminfo file obeys. In addi‐
6022 tion to that, history items from session files are never ordered before
6023 history items from vifminfo file.
6024 Format
6026 Sessions have the format of vifminfo files, they do not consist of se‐
6028 quence of command-line commands and are not meant to be sourced via
6029 :source command.
6030 Storage and naming
6032 `$VIFM/sessions/` directory serves as a storage for sessions. Conse‐
6034 quently names should be valid filenames. The structure of the storage
6035 is flat meaning that there are no subdirectories, that's why names of
6036 sessions can't contain slashes.
6037 Usage model
6039 Contrary to Vim, vifm automates basic management of sessions. You can
6041 start, switch, stop or delete a session using builtin means.
6042 Current session is saved at the same time vifminfo is saved (on normal
6044 exits or explicitly on :write command) and right before switching to
6045 another session. To avoid saving in those cases use :session command
6046 to detach (without saving) from a session before proceeding.
6047 Related topics
6049 Commands: :session, :delsession
6051 Options: 'sessionoptions'
6052 Variables: v:session
6053
6055 vifm has a builtin support of automated FUSE file system mounts. It is
6056 implemented using file associations mechanism. To enable automated
6057 mounts, one needs to use a specially formatted program line in filetype
6058 or filextype commands. These use special macros, which differ from
6059 macros in commands unrelated to FUSE. Currently three formats are sup‐
6060 ported:
6061 1) FUSE_MOUNT This format should be used in case when all information
6063 needed for mounting all files of a particular type is the same. E.g.
6064 mounting of tar files don't require any file specific options.
6065 Format line:
6067 FUSE_MOUNT|mounter %SOURCE_FILE %DESTINATION_DIR [%FOREGROUND]
6068 Example filetype command:
6070 :filetype FUSE_MOUNT|fuse-zip %SOURCE_FILE %DESTINATION_DIR
6072 2) FUSE_MOUNT2 This format allows one to use specially formatted files
6074 to perform mounting and is useful for mounting remotes, for example re‐
6075 mote file systems over ftp or ssh.
6076 Format line:
6078 FUSE_MOUNT2|mounter %PARAM %DESTINATION_DIR [%FOREGROUND]
6079 Example filetype command:
6081 :filetype *.ssh FUSE_MOUNT2|sshfs %PARAM %DESTINATION_DIR
6083 Example file content:
6085 root@127.0.0.1:/
6087 3) FUSE_MOUNT3
6089 This format is equivalent to FUSE_MOUNT, but omits unmounting. It is
6091 useful for cases, when unmounting isn't needed, like when using AVFS.
6092 Example :filetype command:
6094 :filetype *.tar,*.tar.bz2,*.tbz2,*.tgz,*.tar.gz,*.tar.xz,*.txz,*.deb
6096 \ {Mount with avfs}
6097 \ FUSE_MOUNT3|mount-avfs %DESTINATION_DIR %SOURCE_FILE
6098 Example `mount-avfs` helper script:
6100 #!/bin/sh
6102 dest=$1
6104 file=$2
6105 rmdir "$dest"
6107 ln -s "$HOME/.avfs$file#/" "$dest"
6108 All % macros are expanded by vifm at runtime and have the following
6110 meaning:
6111 - %SOURCE_FILE is replaced by full path to selected file;
6112 - %DESTINATION_DIR is replaced by full path to mount directory, which
6113 is created by vifm basing on the value of 'fusehome' option;
6114 - %PARAM value is filled from the first line of file (whole line),
6115 though in the future it can be changed to whole file content;
6116 - %FOREGROUND means that you want to run mount command as a regular
6117 command (required to be able to provide input for communication with
6118 mounter in interactive way).
6119 %FOREGROUND is an optional macro. Other macros are not mandatory, but
6121 mount commands likely won't work without them.
6122 %CLEAR is obsolete name of %FOREGROUND, which is still supported, but
6124 might be removed in future. Its use is discouraged.
6125 Unlike macros elsewhere, these are recognized only if they appear at
6127 the end of a command or are followed by a space. There is no way to
6128 escape % either. These are historical limitations, which might be ad‐
6129 dressed in the future.
6130 The mounted FUSE file systems will be automatically unmounted in two
6132 cases:
6133 - when vifm quits (with ZZ, :q, etc. or when killed by signal);
6135 - when you explicitly leave mount point going up to its parent direc‐
6137 tory (with h, Enter on "../" or ":cd ..") and other pane is not in
6138 the same directory or its child directories.
6139
6141 vifm supports displaying of file list view in two different ways:
6142 - in a table mode, when multiple columns can be set using 'view‐
6144 columns' option (see "Column view" section below for details);
6145 - in a multicolumn list manner which looks almost like `ls -x` com‐
6147 mand output (see "ls-like view" section below for details).
6148 The look is local for each view and can be chosen by changing value of
6150 the 'lsview' boolean option.
6151 Depending on view look some of keys change their meaning to allow more
6153 natural cursor moving. This concerns mainly h, j, k, l and other simi‐
6154 lar navigation keys.
6155 Also some of options can be ignored if they don't affect view display‐
6157 ing in selected look. For example value of 'viewcolumns' when 'lsview'
6158 is set.
6159
6161 When this view look is enabled by setting 'lsview' option on, vifm will
6162 display files in multiple columns. Number of columns depends on the
6163 length of the longest file name present in current directory of the
6164 view. Whole file list is automatically reflowed on directory change,
6165 terminal or view resize.
6166 View looks close to output of `ls -x` command, so files are listed left
6168 to right in rows.
6169 In this mode file manipulation commands (e.g. d) don't work line-wise
6171 like they do in Vim, since such operations would be uncommon for file
6172 manipulation tasks. Thus, for example, dd will remove only current
6173 file.
6174 By default the view is filled by lines, 'lsoptions' can be used to get
6176 filling by columns.
6177 Note that tree-view and compare view inhibit ls-like view.
6179
6181 View columns are described by a comma-separated list of column descrip‐
6182 tions, each of which has the following format
6183 [ '-' | '*' ] [ fw ( [ '.' tw ] | '%' ) ] '{' type | literal '}'
6184 '.'{0,3}
6185 where fw stands for full width, tw stands for text width, bar is logi‐
6186 cal or, square brackets denote optional parts and curly braces define
6187 range of repetitions for a symbol that precedes them.
6188 So it basically consists of four parts:
6190 1. Optional alignment specifier
6191 2. Optional width specifier
6192 3. Mandatory column name
6193 4. Optional cropping specifier
6194 Alignment specifier
6196 It's an optional minus or asterisk sign as the first symbol of the
6198 string.
6199 Specifies type of text alignment within a column. Three types are sup‐
6201 ported:
6202 - left align
6204 set viewcolumns=-{name}
6206 - right align (default)
6208 set viewcolumns={name}
6210 - dynamic align
6212 It's like left alignment, but when the text is bigger than the col‐
6214 umn, the alignment is made at the right (so the part of the field is
6215 always visible).
6216 set viewcolumns=*{name}
6218 Width specifier
6220 It's a number followed by a percent sign, two numbers (second one
6222 should be less than or equal to the first one) separated with a dot or
6223 a single number.
6224 Specifies column width and its units. There are three size types:
6226 - absolute size - column width is specified in characters
6228 set viewcolumns=-100{name},20.15{ext}
6230 results in two columns with lengths of 100 and 20 and a reserved
6232 space of five characters on the left of second column.
6233 - relative (percent) size - column width is specified in percents of
6235 view width
6236 set viewcolumns=-80%{name},15%{ext},5%{mtime}
6238 results in three columns with lengths of 80/100, 15/100 and 5/100 of
6240 view width.
6241 - auto size (default) - column width is automatically determined
6243 set viewcolumns=-{name},{ext},{mtime}
6245 results in three columns with length of one third of view width.
6247 There is no size adjustment to content, since it will slow down ren‐
6248 dering.
6249 Columns of different sizing types can be freely mixed in one view.
6251 Though sometimes some of columns can be seen partly or be completely
6252 invisible if there is not enough space to display them.
6253 Column contents
6255 This is usually a sorting key surrounded with curly braces, e.g.
6257 {name},{ext},{mtime}
6259 {name} and {iname} types are the same and present both for consistency
6261 with 'sort' option.
6262 Following types don't have corresponding sorting keys:
6264 - {root} - display name without extension (as a complement for
6266 {ext})
6267 - {fileroot} - display name without extension for anything except for
6269 directories and symbolic links to directories (as a complement for
6270 {fileext})
6271 Empty curly braces ({}) are replaced with the default secondary column
6273 for primary sort key. So after the next command view will be displayed
6274 almost as if 'viewcolumns' is empty, but adding ellipsis for long file
6275 names:
6276 set viewcolumns=-{name}..,6{}.
6278 The last kind of column value is a string literal. The literal is used
6280 as a column value for every row. The syntax is "{#literal}", for exam‐
6281 ple:
6282 3{#},{#|},{# | }
6284 This can be used to draw column separators. Mind that for convenience
6286 literals have different defaults: truncation and automatically deter‐
6287 mined absolute size, which is what you usually want for them. Example:
6288 set viewcolumns=*{name}..,{#|},6{}.
6290 Cropping specifier
6292 It's from one to three dots after closing curly brace in column format.
6294 Specifies type of text truncation if it doesn't fit in the column.
6296 Currently three types are supported:
6297 - truncation - text is truncated
6299 set viewcolumns=-{name}.
6301 results in truncation of names that are too long too fit in the
6303 view.
6304 - adding of ellipsis - ellipsis on the left or right are added when
6306 needed
6307 set viewcolumns=-{name}..
6309 results in that ellipsis are added at the end of too long file
6311 names.
6312 - none (default) - text can pass column boundaries
6314 set viewcolumns=-{name}...,{ext}
6316 results in that long file names can partially be written on the ext
6318 column.
6319
6321 The color schemes in vifm can be applied in two different ways:
6322 - as the primary color scheme;
6324 - as local to a pane color scheme.
6326 Both types are set using :colorscheme command, but of different forms:
6328 - :colorscheme color_scheme_name - for the primary color scheme;
6330 - :colorscheme color_scheme_name directory - for local color schemes.
6332 Look of different parts of the TUI (Text User Interface) is determined
6334 in this way:
6335 - Border, TabLine, TabLineSel, TopLineSel, TopLine, CmdLine, Er‐
6337 rorMsg, StatusLine, JobLine, SuggestBox and WildMenu are always de‐
6338 termined by the primary color scheme;
6339 - CurrLine, Selected, Directory, Link, BrokenLink, Socket, Device,
6341 Executable, Fifo, CmpMismatch, Win, AuxWin and OtherWin are deter‐
6342 mined by primary color scheme and a set of local color schemes,
6343 which can be empty.
6344 There might be a set of local color schemes because they are structured
6346 hierarchically according to file system structure. For example, having
6347 the following piece of file system:
6348 ~
6350 `-- bin
6351 |
6352 `-- my
6353 Two color schemes:
6355 # ~/.vifm/colors/for_bin
6357 highlight Win cterm=none ctermfg=white ctermbg=red
6358 highlight CurrLine cterm=none ctermfg=red ctermbg=black
6359 # ~/.vifm/colors/for_bin_my
6361 highlight CurrLine cterm=none ctermfg=green ctermbg=black
6362 And these three commands in the vifmrc file:
6364 colorscheme Default
6366 colorscheme for_bin ~/bin
6367 colorscheme for_bin_my ~/bin/my
6368 File list will look in the following way for each level:
6370 - ~/ - Default color scheme
6372 black background
6373 cursor with blue background
6374 - ~/bin/ - mix of Default and for_bin color schemes
6376 red background
6377 cursor with black background and red foreground
6378 - ~/bin/my/ - mix of Default, for_bin and for_bin_my color schemes
6380 red background
6381 cursor with black background and green foreground
6382
6384 vifm has support of trash directory, which is used as temporary storage
6385 for deleted files or files that were cut. Using trash is controlled by
6386 the 'trash' option, and exact path to the trash can be set with
6387 'trashdir' option. Trash directory in vifm differs from the system-
6388 wide one by default, because of possible incompatibilities of storing
6389 deleted files among different file managers. But one can set
6390 'trashdir' to "~/.local/share/Trash" to use a "standard" trash direc‐
6391 tory.
6392 There are two scenarios of using trash in vifm:
6394 1. As a place for storing files that were cut by "d" and may be in‐
6396 serted to some other place in file system.
6397 2. As a storage of files, that are deleted but not purged yet.
6399 The first scenario uses deletion ("d") operations to put files to trash
6401 and put ("p") operations to restore files from trash directory. Note
6402 that such operations move files to and from trash directory, which can
6403 be long term operations in case of different partitions or remote
6404 drives mounted locally.
6405 The second scenario uses deletion ("d") operations for moving files to
6407 trash directory and :empty command-line command to purge all previously
6408 deleted files.
6409 Deletion and put operations depend on registers, which can point to
6411 files in trash directory. Normally, there are no nonexistent files in
6412 registers, but vifm doesn't keep track of modifications under trash di‐
6413 rectory, so one shouldn't expect value of registers to be absolutely
6414 correct if trash directory was modified not by operation that are meant
6415 for it. But this won't lead to any issues with operations, since they
6416 ignore nonexistent files.
6417
6419 vifm supports remote execution of command-line mode commands, remote
6420 changing of directories and expression evaluation. This is possible
6421 using --remote and --remote-expr command-line arguments.
6422 To execute a command remotely combine --remote argument with -c <com‐
6424 mand> or +<command>. For example:
6425 vifm --remote -c 'cd /'
6427 vifm --remote '+cd /'
6428 To change directory not using command-line mode commands one can spec‐
6430 ify paths right after --remote argument, like this:
6431 vifm --remote /
6433 vifm --remote ~
6434 vifm --remote /usr/bin /tmp
6435 Evaluating expression remotely might be useful to query information
6437 about an instance, for example its location:
6438 vifm --remote-expr 'expand("%d")'
6440 If there are several running instances, the target can be specified
6442 with --server-name option (otherwise, the first one lexicographically
6443 is used):
6444 vifm --server-name work --remote ~/work/project
6446 List of names of running instances can be obtained via --server-list
6448 option. Name of the current one is available via v:servername.
6449 v:servername
6452 server name of the running vifm instance. Empty if client-
6453 server feature is disabled.
6454
6456 When an editor is run to edit list of file names, contents of the tem‐
6457 porary file has the following format:
6458 1. Order of lines correspond to the order of files in a view.
6460 2. Lines that start with a "#" are comments and are ignored.
6462 3. Single backslash at the beginning of a line is ignored, so that a
6464 file starting with a backslash will appear like "\#name".
6465 If an operation was rejected due to issues with file names, next time
6467 you'll see the following in this order:
6468 1. Last error (in comments).
6470 2. Original file names (in comments).
6472 3. Failed list of new names.
6474 Mind that Vim plugin will extract list of original names and show them
6476 in a vertical split.
6477 You can cancel renaming by removing all non-comments from the buffer.
6479 This also erases information about previous edits.
6480
6482 Plugin for using vifm in vim as a file selector.
6483 Commands:
6485 :EditVifm select a file or files to open in the current buffer.
6487 :Vifm alias for :EditVifm.
6488 :SplitVifm split buffer and select a file or files to open.
6489 :VsplitVifm vertically split buffer and select a file or files to
6490 open.
6491 :DiffVifm select a file or files to compare to the current file
6492 with
6493 :vert diffsplit.
6494 :TabVifm select a file or files to open in tabs.
6495 Each command accepts up to two arguments: left pane directory and right
6497 pane directory. After arguments are checked, vifm process is spawned
6498 in a special "file-picker" mode. To pick files just open them either
6499 by pressing l, i or Enter keys, or by running :edit command. If no
6500 files are selected, file under the cursor is opened, otherwise whole
6501 selection is passed to the plugin and opened in vim.
6502 The plugin have only two settings. It's a string variable named
6504 g:vifm_term to let user specify command to run GUI terminal. By de‐
6505 fault it's equal to 'xterm -e'. And another string variable named
6506 g:vifm_exec, which equals "vifm" by default and specifies path to
6507 vifm's executable. To pass arguments to vifm use g:vifm_exec_args,
6508 which is empty by default.
6509 To use the plugin copy the vifm.vim file to either the system wide
6511 vim/plugin directory or into ~/.vim/plugin.
6512 If you would prefer not to use the plugin and it is in the system wide
6514 plugin directory add
6515 let loaded_vifm=1
6517 to your ~/.vimrc file.
6519
6521 The following command names are reserved and shouldn't be used for user
6522 commands.
6523 g[lobal]
6525 v[global]
6526
6528 VIFM Points to main configuration directory (usually ~/.vifm/).
6529 MYVIFMRC
6531 Points to main configuration file (usually ~/.vifm/vifmrc).
6532 These environment variables are valid inside vifm and also can be used
6534 to configure it by setting some of them before running vifm.
6535 When $MYVIFMRC isn't set, it's made as $VIFM/vifmrc (exception for Win‐
6537 dows: vifmrc in the same directory as vifm.exe has higher priority than
6538 $VIFM/vifmrc).
6539 See "Startup" section above for more details.
6541 VIFM_FUSE_FILE
6543 On execution of external commands this variable is set to the
6544 full path of file used to initiate FUSE mount of the closest
6545 mount point from current pane's directory up. It's not set when
6546 outside FUSE mount point. When vifm is used inside terminal
6547 multiplexer, it tries to set this variable as well (it doesn't
6548 work this way on its own).
6549
6551 vifm-convert-dircolors(1), vifm-pause(1)
6552 Website: https://vifm.info/
6554 Wiki: https://wiki.vifm.info/
6555 Esperanto translation of the documentation by Sebastian Cyprych:
6557 http://cyprych.neostrada.pl/tekstoj/komputiloj/vifm-help.eo.html
6558
6560 Vifm was written by ksteen <ksteen@users.sourceforge.net>
6561 And currently is developed by xaizek <xaizek@posteo.net>
6562vifm 0.12 September 29, 2021 VIFM(1)