1FEH(1) BSD General Commands Manual FEH(1)
2
4 feh — image viewer and cataloguer
5
7 feh [options] [--] [files | directories | URLs ...]
8
10 This manual documents feh 3.9.1
11 Compile-time switches in this build:
13 • libcurl remote file support enabled
14 • Xinerama multi-monitor support enabled
15 • libexif builtin EXIF reader available
16 • inotify-based auto-reload of changed files disabled
17 • libmagic disabled
18
20 feh is a light-weight, configurable and versatile image viewer. It is
21 aimed at command line users, but can also be started from graphical file
22 managers. Apart from viewing images, it can compile text and thumbnail
23 listings, show (un)loadable files, set X11 backgrounds, and more.
24 Features include filelists, various image sorting modes, custom action
26 scripts, and image captions. feh can be controlled by configurable key‐
27 board and mouse shortcuts, terminal input and signals. When no file ar‐
28 guments or filelists are specified and --start-at is not used, feh dis‐
29 plays all files in the current directory.
30 EXIF tags are supported either using exiv2 / exifgrep via --info (see the
32 USAGE EXAMPLES section), or as a builtin feature by compiling feh with
33 exif=1. In this build of feh, builtin EXIF support is available.
34
36 feh is based on various modes, which are selected at startup by command
37 line options.
38 Slideshow mode is the default. It opens a window and displays the first
40 image in it; the slideshow position can be advanced (or otherwise
41 changed) using keyboard and mouse shortcuts. In slideshow mode, images
42 can be deleted either from the filelist or from the disk, a changed
43 filelist can also be saved to the disk and reopened at a later time. An
44 image can also be read from stdin via "feh -".
45 Montage mode forms a montage from the filelist. The resulting image can
47 be viewed or saved, and its size can be limited by height, width or both.
48 Index mode forms an index print from the filelist. Image thumbnails are
50 shown along with the filename, size and dimensions, printed using a true‐
51 type font of your choice. The resulting image can be viewed or saved,
52 and its size can be limited by height, width or both.
53 Thumbnail mode is like index mode, but the mini-images are clickable and
55 open the selected image in a new window.
56 Multiwindow mode shows images in multiple windows, instead of as a
58 slideshow in one window. Don't use with a large filelist ;)
59 List mode doesn't display images. Instead, it outputs an ls-style list‐
61 ing of the files in the filelist, including image info such as size, num‐
62 ber of pixels, type, etc. There is also a Customlist mode which prints
63 image info in a custom format specified by a printf-like format string.
64 feh can also list either all the loadable files in a filelist or all the
66 unloadable files. This is useful for preening a directory.
67
69 feh can open any format supported by imlib2, most notably jpeg, png, pnm,
70 tiff, and bmp. The gif format is also supported, but only for static im‐
71 ages. In case of animations, only the first frame will be shown. If the
72 convert binary (supplied by ImageMagick) is available, it also has lim‐
73 ited support for many other file types, such as svg, xcf and otf. If
74 dcraw is available, feh also supports RAW files provided by cameras and
75 will display the embedded thumbnails. Use --conversion-timeout timeout
76 with a non-negative value to enable support for these formats.
77 (optional feature, disabled in this build) feh can use libmagic to only
79 pass image files to Imlib2. This feature is disabled in this build.
80 When using feh with lots of non-image files (especially with Imlib2
81 version 1.6.x or 1.7.0), this can speed up the detection of non-image
82 files significantly. If you think that Imlib2 can load a file which feh
83 has determined to be likely not an image, set the environment variable
84 "FEH_SKIP_MAGIC" to pass all files directly to Imlib2, bypassing this
85 check. The environment variable's value does not matter, it just needs
86 to be set.
87
89 -A, --action [flag][[title]]action
90 Specify a shell command as an action to perform on the image. In
91 slideshow or multiwindow mode, the action will be run when the
92 action_0 key is pressed, in list mode, it will be run for each
93 file. In loadable/unloadable mode, it will be run for each load‐
94 able/unloadable file, respectively. In thumbnail mode, clicking
95 on an image will cause the action to run instead of opening the
96 image.
97 If flag is ";", feh will reload the current image instead of
99 switching to the next one (slideshow mode) or closing the window
100 (multiwindow mode) after executing the action. If [title] is
101 specified (note the literal "[" and "]"), --draw-actions will
102 display title instead of action in the action list. Note that
103 title must not start with a space. If it does, the action is
104 handled as if it did not have a title. This special case exists
105 for backwards compatibility reasons and makes sure that actions
106 like "[ -L %F ] && foo" still work.
107 The action will be executed by /bin/sh. Use format specifiers to
109 refer to image info, see FORMAT SPECIFIERS for details. Example
110 usage: "feh -A "mv %F ~/images/%N" *".
111 --action1 .. --action9 [flag][[title]]action
113 Extra actions which can be set and triggered using the appropri‐
114 ate number key.
115 --auto-reload
117 (optional feature, disabled in this build) automatically reload
118 image when the underlying file changes. Note that auto-reload
119 (if enabled in the build) is on by default. This option is only
120 useful to re-enable auto-reload after it has been disabled by a
121 preceding --reload=0 option.
122 Automatic reload is not supported in montage, index, or thumbnail
124 mode.
125 --auto-rotate
127 (optional feature, available in this build) (deprecated in favor
128 of Imlib2's auto-orientation support) Automatically rotate images
129 based on EXIF data. Does not alter the image files.
130 Note that Imlib2 version 1.7.5+ performs auto-rotation by itself,
132 so this option is obsolete on systems with Imlib2 version 1.7.5
133 or later. feh currently cannot detect this at runtime.
134 -Z, --auto-zoom
136 Zoom pictures to screen size in fullscreen / fixed geometry mode.
137 -x, --borderless
139 Create borderless windows.
140 --cache-size size
142 Set imlib2 in-memory cache to size MiB. A higher cache size can
143 significantly improve performance especially for small slide
144 shows, however at the cost of increased memory consumption. size
145 must be between 0 and 2048 MiB and defaults to 4.
146 -P, --cache-thumbnails
148 Enable thumbnail caching. Thumbnails are saved in
149 $XDG_CACHE_HOME/thumbnails, which defaults to
150 ~/.cache/thumbnails. Note that thumbnails are only cached if the
151 configured thumbnail size does not exceed 256x256 pixels.
152 -K, --caption-path path
154 Path to directory containing image captions. This turns on cap‐
155 tion viewing, and if captions are found in path, which is rela‐
156 tive to the directory of each image, they are overlayed on the
157 displayed image. E.g. with caption path "captions/", and viewing
158 image "images/foo.jpg", the caption will be looked for in
159 "images/captions/foo.jpg.txt".
160 --conversion-timeout timeout
162 feh can use ImageMagick to try converting unloadable files into a
163 supported file format. As this can take a long time, it is dis‐
164 abled by default. Set timeout to a non-negative value to enable
165 it. A positive value specifies after how many seconds conversion
166 attempts should be aborted, zero causes feh to try indefinitely.
167 Negative values restore the default by disabling conversion alto‐
168 gether.
169 --class class
171 Set the X11 class hint to class. Default: feh
172 -L, --customlist format
174 Don't display images, print image info according to format in‐
175 stead. See FORMAT SPECIFIERS.
176 -G, --draw-actions
178 Draw the defined actions and what they do at the top-left of the
179 image.
180 --draw-exif
182 (optional feature, available in this build) display some EXIF in‐
183 formation in the bottom left corner, similar to using --info with
184 exiv2 / exifgrep.
185 -d, --draw-filename
187 Draw the file name at the top-left of the image.
188 --draw-tinted
190 Show overlay texts (as created by --draw-filename et al) on a
191 semi-transparent background to improve their readability.
192 --edit Enable basic editing of files. This makes rotation and mirroring
194 (bound to "<", ">", "|", and "_" by default) change the underly‐
195 ing file and not just its displayed content.
196 -f, --filelist file
198 This option is similar to the playlists used by music software.
199 If file exists, it will be read for a list of files to load, in
200 the order they appear. The format is a list of image file names,
201 absolute or relative to the current directory, one file name per
202 line.
203 If file doesn't exist, it will be created from the internal
205 filelist at the end of a viewing session. This is best used to
206 store the results of complex sorts (-Spixels for example) for
207 later viewing.
208 Any changes to the internal filelist (such as deleting a file or
210 it being pruned for being unloadable) will be saved to file when
211 feh exits. You can add files to filelists by specifying them on
212 the command line when also specifying the list.
213 If file is "-", feh will read the filelist from its standard in‐
215 put.
216 -e, --font font
218 Set global font. Should be a truetype font, resident in the cur‐
219 rent directory or the font directory, and should be defined in
220 the form fontname/size, like "yudit/12" (which is the default).
221 -C, --fontpath path
223 Specify path as extra directory in which to search for fonts; can
224 be used multiple times to add multiple paths.
225 --force-aliasing
227 Disable anti-aliasing for zooming, background setting etc.
228 -I, --fullindex
230 Same as index mode, but with additional information below the
231 thumbnails. Works just like "feh --index --index-info
232 "%n\n%S\n%wx%h"". Enables MONTAGE MODE OPTIONS.
233 Note: This option needs to load all images to calculate the di‐
235 mensions of the feh window, so when using it with many files it
236 will take a while before a feh window is visible. Use --preload
237 to get a progress bar.
238 -F, --fullscreen
240 Make the window fullscreen. Note that in this mode, large images
241 will always be scaled down to fit the screen, and --zoom zoom
242 only affects smaller images and never scales larger than neces‐
243 sary to fit the screen size. The only exception is a zoom of
244 100, in which case images will always be shown at 100% zoom.
245 When combined with --thumbnails, this option only affects images
247 opened from the thumbnail overview. The thumbnail list itself
248 will still be windowed.
249 -g, --geometry width x height | + x + y | width x height + x + y
251 Use a fixed window size as specified in the X-style geometry
252 string, e.g. 640x480. An optional +x+y window offset can be
253 specified. Combine with --scale-down to scale down larger images
254 like in fullscreen mode. Note that this option does not enforce
255 the window size; changing it by a tiling WM or manually is still
256 possible. However, auto-resize remains disabled.
257 -Y, --hide-pointer
259 Hide the pointer (useful for slideshows).
260 -B, --image-bg style
262 Use style as background for transparent image parts and the like.
263 Accepted values: default, checks, or an XColor (e.g. "black" or
264 "#428bdd"). Note that some shells treat the hash symbol as a
265 special character, so you may need to quote or escape it for the
266 XColor code to work. In windowed mode, the default is checks (a
267 checkered background so transparent image parts are easy to see).
268 In fullscreen and background setting mode, checks is not accepted
269 and the default is black.
270 -i, --index
272 Enable Index mode. Index mode is similar to montage mode, and
273 accepts the same options. It creates an index print of thumb‐
274 nails, printing the image name beneath each thumbnail. Index
275 mode enables certain other options, see INDEX AND THUMBNAIL MODE
276 OPTIONS and MONTAGE MODE OPTIONS.
277 --info [flag]command_line
279 Execute command_line and display its output in the bottom left
280 corner of the image. Can be used to display e.g. image dimen‐
281 sions or EXIF information. Supports FORMAT SPECIFIERS. If flag
282 is set to ";", the output will not be displayed by default, but
283 has to be enabled by the toggle_info key.
284 --insecure
286 When viewing files with HTTPS, this option disables all certifi‐
287 cate checks. It allows images on sites with self-signed or ex‐
288 pired certificates to be opened, but is no more secure than plain
289 HTTP.
290 -k, --keep-http
292 When viewing files using HTTP, feh normally deletes the local
293 copies after viewing, or, if caching, on exit. This option per‐
294 manently stores them on disk, either in the directory specified
295 by --output-dir, or in the current working directory.
296 --keep-zoom-vp
298 When switching images, keep zoom and viewport settings (zoom
299 level and X, Y offsets)
300 -l, --list
302 Don't display images. Analyze them and display an ls(1) - style
303 listing. Useful in scripts to hunt out images of a certain
304 size/resolution/type etc.
305 -U, --loadable
307 Don't display images. Just print out their names if imlib2 can
308 successfully load them. Returns false if at least one image
309 failed to load.
310 --max-dimension width x height
312 Only show images with width <= width and height <= height. If
313 you only care about one parameter, set the other to 0 (or a
314 negative value).
315 -M, --menu-font font
317 Use font (truetype, with size, like "yudit/12") as menu font.
318 --min-dimension width x height
320 Only show images with width >= width and height >= height. If
321 you only care about one parameter, set the other to 0.
322 -m, --montage
324 Enable montage mode. Montage mode creates a new image consisting
325 of a grid of thumbnails of the images in the filelist. When mon‐
326 tage mode is selected, certain other options become available.
327 See MONTAGE MODE OPTIONS.
328 -w, --multiwindow
330 Disable slideshow mode. With this setting, instead of opening
331 multiple files in slideshow mode, multiple windows will be
332 opened; one per file.
333 --no-conversion-cache
335 When loading images via HTTP, ImageMagick or dcraw, feh will only
336 load/convert them once and re-use the cached file on subsequent
337 slideshow passes. This option disables the cache. It is also
338 disabled when --reload is used. Use it if you rely on frequently
339 changing files loaded via one of these sources. Note that it
340 will impair performance.
341 --no-jump-on-resort
343 Don't jump to the first image after resorting the filelist.
344 -N, --no-menus
346 Don't load or show any menus.
347 --no-screen-clip
349 By default, window sizes are limited to the screen size. With
350 this option, windows will have the size of the image inside them.
351 Note that they may become very large this way, making them unman‐
352 ageable in certain window managers.
353 --no-xinerama
355 (optional feature, enabled in this build) Disable Xinerama sup‐
356 port.
357 --on-last-slide hold | quit | resume
359 Select behaviour when trying to select the next image on the last
360 slide (or the previous image on the first slide) in a slide show.
361 With hold, feh will stop advancing images in this case and con‐
363 tinue displaying the first/last image, respectively. This is in‐
364 tended for linear slide shows. Behaviour is unspecified when us‐
365 ing other navigation commands than previous and next image.
366 quit will cause feh to quit when trying to advance past the last
368 image in the slide show.
369 resume is the default behaviour: On the last (first) image, feh
371 will wrap around to the first (last) image.
372 -j, --output-dir directory
374 Save files to directory when using --keep-http or the save_image
375 or save_filelist command. By default, files are saved in the
376 current working directory.
377 -p, --preload
379 Preload images. This doesn't mean hold them in RAM, it means run
380 through them and eliminate unloadable images first. Otherwise
381 they will be removed as you flick through. This also analyses
382 the images to get data for use in sorting, such as pixel size,
383 type etc. A preload run will be automatically performed if you
384 specify one of these sort modes.
385 -q, --quiet
387 Don't report non-fatal errors for failed loads. Verbose and
388 quiet modes are not mutually exclusive, the first controls infor‐
389 mational messages, the second only errors.
390 -z, --randomize
392 When viewing multiple files in a slideshow, randomize the file
393 list before displaying. The list is re-randomized whenever the
394 slideshow cycles (that is, transitions from last to first image).
395 -r, --recursive
397 Recursively expand any directories in the command line arguments
398 to the content of those directories, all the way down to the bot‐
399 tom level.
400 --no-recursive
402 Don't recursively expand any directories. This is the default,
403 but this option is useful to override themes containing
404 --recursive.
405 -R, --reload int
407 Reload filelist and current image after int seconds. Useful for
408 viewing HTTP webcams or frequently changing directories. (Note
409 that filelist reloading is still experimental.) Set to zero to
410 disable any kind of automatic reloading.
411 If an image is removed, feh will either show the next one or
413 quit. However, if an image still exists, but can no longer be
414 loaded, feh will continue to try loading it.
415 Setting this option causes inotify-based auto-reload to be dis‐
417 abled. Reload is not supported in montage, index, or thumbnail
418 mode.
419 -n, --reverse
421 Reverse the sort order. Use this to invert the order of the
422 filelist. E.g. to sort in reverse width order, use -nSwidth.
423 -., --scale-down
425 Scale images to fit window geometry (defaults to screen size when
426 no geometry was specified). Note that the window geometry is not
427 updated when changing images at the moment. This option is rec‐
428 ommended for tiling window managers. This option is ignored when
429 in fullscreen and thumbnail list mode.
430 In tiling environments, this also causes the image to be centered
432 in the window.
433 --scroll-step count
435 Scroll count pixels whenever scroll_up, scroll_down, scroll_left
436 or scroll_right is pressed. Note that this option accepts nega‐
437 tive numbers in case you need to reverse the scroll direction.
438 See KEYS CONFIG SYNTAX for how to reverse it permanently. De‐
439 fault: 20
440 -D, --slideshow-delay float
442 For slideshow mode, wait float seconds between automatically
443 changing slides. Useful for presentations. Specify a negative
444 number to set the delay (which will then be float * (-1)), but
445 start feh in paused mode.
446 -S, --sort sort_type
448 Sort file list according to image parameters. Allowed sort types
449 are: name, filename, dirname, mtime, width, height, pixels, size,
450 format. For sort modes other than name, filename, dirname, or
451 mtime, a preload run is necessary, causing a delay proportional
452 to the number of images in the list.
453 mtime starts with the most recently modified image. width,
455 height, pixels and size start with the smallest. Use --reverse
456 to sort by oldest or largest first.
457 For name, filename, and dirname you can use --version-sort to
459 sort numbers naturally, so that e.g. 10.jpg comes after 2.jpg.
460 -|, --start-at filename
462 Start the filelist at filename. If no other files or filelists
463 were specified on the command line, feh will first load all files
464 from the directory in which filename resides. This way, it's
465 possible to look at a specific image and use the next / prev keys
466 to browse through the directory. See USAGE EXAMPLES for exam‐
467 ples. If filename is a remote URL and no files or filelists were
468 specified, feh will show filename and not attempt to load addi‐
469 tional files or directories.
470 Note: If you use relative paths in your filelist, filename should
472 also be a relative path. If you use absolute paths, it should
473 also be an absolute path. If feh cannot find an exact match, it
474 will compare basenames (filenames without the directory suffix).
475 This may lead to mismatches if several files in your filelist
476 have the same basename.
477 -T, --theme theme
479 Load options from config file with name theme - see THEMES CONFIG
480 SYNTAX for more info. Note that command line options always
481 override theme options. The theme can also be set via the pro‐
482 gram name (e.g. with symlinks), so by default feh will look for a
483 "feh" theme.
484 -t, --thumbnails
486 Same as Index mode, but the thumbnails are clickable image
487 launchers. Note that --fullscreen and --scale-down do not affect
488 the thumbnail window. They do, however, work for image windows
489 launched from thumbnail mode. Also supports INDEX AND THUMBNAIL
490 MODE OPTIONS as well as MONTAGE MODE OPTIONS.
491 -~, --thumb-title string
493 Set title for windows opened from thumbnail mode. See also
494 FORMAT SPECIFIERS.
495 -^, --title title
497 Set window title. Applies to all windows except those opened
498 from thumbnail mode. See FORMAT SPECIFIERS.
499 -u, --unloadable
501 Don't display images. Just print out their names if imlib2 can
502 NOT successfully load them. Returns false if at least one image
503 was loadable.
504 -V, --verbose
506 output useful information, progress bars, etc.
507 -v, --version
509 output version information and exit.
510 --version-sort
512 When combined with --sort name, --sort filename, or --sort
513 dirname: use natural sorting for file and directory names. In
514 this mode, filenames are sorted as an ordinary human would ex‐
515 pect, e.g. "2.jpg" comes before "10.jpg". Note that this option
516 only has an effect when a sort mode is set using --sort.
517 --window-id windowid
519 Draw to an existing X11 window by its ID windowid. This option
520 is intended for use with software such as xcreensaver or xsecure‐
521 lock, which provide a window for other applications to draw into.
522 Unexpected things will happen if you specify a window belonging
523 to software which does not expect feh to draw into it or attempt
524 to use options or keybindings which affect window attributes,
525 such as full-screen mode.
526 --xinerama-index monitor
528 (optional feature, enabled in this build) Override feh's idea of
529 the active Xinerama monitor. May be useful in certain circum‐
530 stances where the window manager places the feh window on Xin‐
531 erama monitor A while feh assumes that it will be placed on moni‐
532 tor B.
533 In background setting mode: When used with any option other than
535 --bg-tile: Only set wallpaper on monitor. All other monitors
536 will be filled black/white. This is most useful in a Xinerama
537 configuration with overlapping monitors. For instance, assume
538 you have two overlapping displays (index 0 and 1), where index 0
539 is smaller. To center a background on the display with index 0
540 and fill the extra space on index 1 black/white, use
541 "--xinerama-index 0" when setting the wallpaper.
542 Use xrandr --listmonitor to determine how Xinerama monitor IDs
544 map to screens/monitors in your setup.
545 --zoom percent | max | fill
547 Zoom images by percent when in full screen mode or when window
548 geometry is fixed. When combined with --auto-zoom, zooming will
549 be limited to the specified percent. Specifying max is like set‐
550 ting --auto-zoom, using fill makes feh zoom the image like the
551 --bg-fill mode.
552 --zoom-step percent
554 Zoom images in and out by percent (default: 25) when using the
555 zoom keys and buttons.
556
558 These additional options can be used for index, montage and (partially)
559 thumbnail mode.
560 -a, --alpha int
562 When drawing thumbnails onto the background, set their transpar‐
563 ency level to int (0 - 255).
564 -b, --bg file | trans
566 Use file as background for your montage. With this option speci‐
567 fied, the montage size will default to the size of file if no
568 size restrictions were specified. Alternatively, if file is
569 "trans", the background will be made transparent.
570 -X, --ignore-aspect
572 By default, the montage thumbnails will retain their aspect ra‐
573 tios, while fitting into thumb-width/-height. This options
574 forces them to be the size set by --thumb-width and
575 --thumb-height. This will prevent any empty space in the final
576 montage.
577 -H, --limit-height pixels
579 Limit the height of the montage.
580 -W, --limit-width pixels
582 Limit the width of the montage, defaults to 800 pixels.
583 If both --limit-width and --limit-height are specified, the mon‐
585 tage will be exactly width x height pixels in dimensions.
586 -o, --output file
588 Save the created montage to file.
589 -O, --output-only file
591 Just save the created montage to file without displaying it.
592 -s, --stretch
594 Normally, if an image is smaller than the specified thumbnail
595 size, it will not be enlarged. If this option is set, the image
596 will be scaled up to fit the thumbnail size. Aspect ratio will
597 be maintained unless --ignore-aspect is specified.
598 -E, --thumb-height pixels
600 Set thumbnail height.
601 -y, --thumb-width pixels
603 Set thumbnail width.
604
606 In addition to MONTAGE MODE OPTIONS --alpha, --bg, --limit-height,
607 --limit-width, --output, --output-only, --thumb-height, --thumb-width,
608 the following options can be used.
609 --index-info format
611 Show image information based on format below thumbnails in index
612 / thumbnail mode. See FORMAT SPECIFIERS. May contain newlines.
613 Use "--index-info ''" to display thumbnails without any info text
614 Note: If you specify image-related formats (such as %w or %s),
616 feh needs to load all images to calculate the dimensions of its
617 own window. So when using them with many files, it will take a
618 while before a feh window becomes visible. Use --preload to get
619 a progress bar.
620 -@, --title-font font
622 Set font to print a title on the index, if no font is specified,
623 no title will be printed.
624 -J, --thumb-redraw n
626 Redraw thumbnail window every n images while generating thumb‐
627 nails. Redrawing takes quite long, so the default is 10. Set n
628 = 1 to update the thumbnail window immediately. With n = 0,
629 there will only be one redraw once all thumbnails are loaded.
630
632 In many desktop environments, feh can also be used as a background set‐
633 ter. Unless you pass the --no-fehbg option, it will write a script to
634 set the current background to ~/.fehbg. So to have your background re‐
635 stored every time you start X, you can add "~/.fehbg &" to your X startup
636 script (such as ~/.xinitrc). Note that the commandline written to
637 ~/.fehbg always includes the --no-fehbg option to ensure that it is not
638 inadvertently changed by differences in X11 screen layout or similar.
639 Note that feh does not support setting the wallpaper of GNOME shell desk‐
641 tops. In this environment, you can use "gsettings set
642 org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri file:///path" instead.
643 For --bg-center, --bg-fill, and --bg-max, you can use --geometry to spec‐
645 ify an offset from one side of the monitor instead of centering the im‐
646 age. Positive values will offset from the left/top side, negative values
647 from the bottom/right. +0 and -0 are both valid and distinct values.
648 Note that all options except --bg-tile support Xinerama. For instance,
650 if you have multiple monitors connected and use e.g. --bg-center, feh
651 will center or appropriately offset the image on each monitor. You may
652 even specify more than one file, in that case, the first file is set on
653 monitor 0, the second on monitor 1, and so on. Use xrandr --listmonitor
654 to determine how Xinerama monitor IDs map to screens / monitors in your
655 setup.
656 Use --no-xinerama to treat the whole X display as one monitor when set‐
658 ting wallpapers. You may also use --xinerama-index to use feh as a back‐
659 ground setter for a specific monitor.
660 --bg-center
662 Center the file on the background. If it is too small, it will
663 be surrounded by a border as specified by --image-bg.
664 --bg-fill
666 Like --bg-scale, but preserves aspect ratio by zooming the image
667 until it fits. Either a horizontal or a vertical part of the im‐
668 age will be cut off
669 --bg-max
671 Like --bg-fill, but scale the image to the maximum size that fits
672 the screen with borders on one side. The border color can be set
673 using --image-bg.
674 --bg-scale
676 Fit the file into the background without repeating it, cutting
677 off stuff or using borders. But the aspect ratio is not pre‐
678 served either
679 --bg-tile
681 Tile (repeat) the image in case it is too small for the screen
682 --no-fehbg
684 Do not write a ~/.fehbg file
685
687 %a Information about slideshow state (playing/paused)
688 %f Image path/filename
690 %F Escaped image path/filename (for use in shell commands)
692 %g w,h window dimensions in pixels (mnemonic: geometry)
694 %h Image height
696 %l Total number of files in filelist
698 %L Temporary copy of filelist. Multiple uses of %L within the same
700 format string will return the same copy.
701 %m Current mode
703 %n Image name
705 %N Escaped image name
707 %o x,y offset of top-left image corner to window corner in pixels
709 %p Number of image pixels
711 %P Number of image pixels in human-readable format with k/M
713 (kilopixels / megapixels) suffix
714 %r Image rotation. A half right turn equals pi.
716 %s Image size in bytes
718 %S Human-readable image size (kB / MB)
720 %t Image format
722 %u Number of current file
724 %w Image width
726 %v feh version
728 %V Process ID
730 %z Current image zoom, rounded to two decimal places
732 %Z Current image zoom, higher precision
734 %% A literal %
736
738 feh has three config files: themes for theme definitions, keys for key
739 bindings and buttons for mouse button bindings. It will try to read them
740 from $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/feh/, which (when XDG_CONFIG_HOME is unset) de‐
741 faults to ~/.config/feh/. If the files are not found in that directory,
742 it will also try /etc/feh/.
743 All config files treat lines starting with a "#" character as comments.
745 Comments at the end of a line are not supported.
746
748 .config/feh/themes allows the naming of option groups, called themes.
749 It takes entries of the form "theme options ...", where theme is the name
751 of the entry and options are the options which will be applied when the
752 theme is used.
753 Note that the option parser does not behave like a normal shell: filename
755 expansion and backslash escape sequences are not supported and passed to
756 feh's option parser as-is. However, quoting of arguments is respected
757 and can be used for arguments with whitespace. So, the sequence "--info
758 "foo bar"" works as intended (that is, it display the string "foo bar"),
759 whereas the option string "--info foo\ bar" will only display "foo\" and
760 complain about the file bar not existing. Please keep this in mind when
761 writing theme files.
762 An example entry is "imagemap -rVq --thumb-width 40 --thumb-height 30
764 --index-info '%n\n%wx%h'".
765 You can use this theme in two ways. Either call "feh -Timagemap *.jpg",
767 or create a symbolic link to feh with the name of the theme you want it
768 to use. For the example above, this would be "ln -s `which feh `
769 ~/bin/imagemap". Now just run "imagemap *.jpg" to use these options.
770 Note that you can split a theme over several lines by placing a backslash
772 at the end of an unfinished line. A single option-argument-pair must not
773 span multiple lines. A single line must not be longer than 1023 charac‐
774 ters, but there's no upper limit for the length of a theme.
775 Command line options always override theme options.
777
779 .config/feh/keys defines key bindings. It has entries of the form
780 "action [key1 [key2 [key3]]]".
781 Each key is an X11 keysym name as shown by xev(1), like "Delete". It may
783 optionally start with modifiers for things like Control, in which case
784 key looks like mod-keysym (for example "C-Delete" for Ctrl+Delete or
785 "C-1-Delete" for Ctrl+Alt+Delete)
786 Available modifiers are C for Control, S for Shift and 1, 4 for Mod1 and
788 Mod4. To match an uppercase letter like "S" instead of "s", the Shift
789 modifier is not required.
790 Specifying an action without any keys unbinds it (i.e. the default bind‐
792 ings are removed).
793 Note: Do not use the same keybinding for multiple actions. When binding
795 an action to a new key (or mouse button), make sure to unbind it from its
796 previous action, if present. feh does not check for conflicting bind‐
797 ings, so their behaviour is undefined.
798 For a list of the action names, see KEYS. Note that not all of the key
800 names used there correspond to X11 keysyms. Most notably, page up (Prior
801 / Page_Up), page down (Next / Page_Down) and the keypad keys (KP_*) do
802 not.
803
805 The following actions and default key bindings can be used in an image
806 window. (The strings in [square brackets] are the config action names).
807 If feh is running inside a terminal and its standard input is not used
808 for images or filelists, key input from the terminal is also accepted.
809 However, terminal input support is currently limited to most alphanumeric
810 characters (0-9 a-z A-Z and some more), arrow keys, return and backspace.
811 The Alt (Mod1) modifier is also supported.
812 a [toggle_actions]
814 Toggle actions display (see --draw-actions)
815 A [toggle_aliasing]
817 Enable/Disable anti-aliasing
818 c [toggle_caption]
820 Caption entry mode. If --caption-path has been specified, then
821 this enables caption editing. The caption at the bottom of the
822 screen will turn yellow and can be edited. Hit return to confirm
823 and save the caption, or escape to cancel editing. Note that you
824 can insert an actual newline into the caption using
825 ⟨Ctrl+return⟩.
826 d [toggle_filenames]
828 Toggle filename display (see --draw-filename)
829 e [toggle_exif]
831 (optional feature, available in this build) Toggle EXIF tag dis‐
832 play
833 f [toggle_fullscreen]
835 Toggle fullscreen
836 g [toggle_fixed_geometry]
838 Enable/Disable automatic window resize when changing images.
839 h [toggle_pause]
841 Pause/Continue the slideshow. When it is paused, it will not au‐
842 tomatically change slides based on --slideshow-delay.
843 i [toggle_info]
845 Toggle info display (see --info)
846 k [toggle_keep_vp]
848 Toggle zoom and viewport keeping. When enabled, feh will keep
849 zoom and X, Y offset when switching images.
850 L [save_filelist]
852 Save the current filelist as "feh_PID_ID_filelist". It is saved
853 in the directory specified by --output-dir, if set, and in the
854 current working directory otherwise.
855 m [toggle_menu]
857 Show menu. Use the arrow keys and return to select items, and
858 ⟨escape⟩ to close the menu.
859 n, ⟨space⟩, ⟨Right⟩ [next_img]
861 Show next image. Selects the next image in thumbnail mode.
862 o [toggle_pointer]
864 Toggle pointer visibility
865 p, ⟨BackSpace⟩, ⟨Left⟩ [prev_img]
867 Show previous image. Selects the previous image in thumbnail
868 mode.
869 q, ⟨Escape⟩ [quit]
871 Quit feh
872 r [reload_image]
874 Reload current image. Useful for webcams
875 s [save_image]
877 Save the current image as "feh_PID_ID_FILENAME". It is saved in
878 the directory specified by --output-dir, if set, and in the cur‐
879 rent working directory otherwise.
880 w [size_to_image]
882 Change window size to fit current image size (plus/minus zoom, if
883 set). In scale-down and fixed-geometry mode, this also updates
884 the window size limits.
885 x [close]
887 Close current window
888 z [jump_random]
890 Jump to a random position in the current filelist
891 Z [toggle_auto_zoom]
893 Toggle auto-zoom.
894 [, ] [prev_dir, next_dir]
896 Jump to the first image of the previous or next sequence of im‐
897 ages sharing a directory name in the current filelist. Use
898 --sort dirname if you would like to ensure that all images in a
899 directory are grouped together.
900 <, > [orient_3, orient_1]
902 rotate the image 90 degrees (counter)clockwise.
903 When --edit is used, this also rotates the image in the underly‐
905 ing file. Rotation is lossless, but may create artifacts in some
906 image corners when used with JPEG images. Rotating in the re‐
907 verse direction will make them go away. See jpegtran(1) for more
908 about lossless JPEG rotation. Note: feh assumes that this fea‐
909 ture is used to normalize image orientation. For JPEG images, it
910 will unconditionally set the EXIF orientation tag to 1 ("0,0 is
911 top left") after every rotation. See jpegexiforient(1) for de‐
912 tails on how to change this flag.
913 _ [flip]
915 Vertically flip image. When --edit is used, this also flips the
916 image in the underlying file (see above).
917 | [mirror]
919 Horizontally flip image. When --edit is used, this also flips
920 the image in the underlying file (see above).
921 0 .. 9 [action_0 .. action_9]
923 Execute the corresponding action (0 = --action, 1 = --action1
924 etc.)
925 ⟨Return⟩ [action_0]
927 Run the command defined by --action
928 ⟨Home⟩ [jump_first]
930 Show first image
931 ⟨End⟩ [jump_last]
933 Show last image
934 ⟨page up⟩ [jump_fwd]
936 Go forward ~5% of the filelist
937 ⟨page down⟩ [jump_back]
939 Go backward ~5% of the filelist
940 + [reload_plus]
942 Increase reload delay by 1 second
943 - [reload_minus]
945 Decrease reload delay by 1 second
946 ⟨Delete⟩ [remove]
948 Remove current file from filelist
949 ⟨Ctrl+Delete⟩ [delete]
951 Remove current file from filelist and delete it
952 ⟨keypad Left⟩, ⟨Ctrl+Left⟩ [scroll_left]
954 Scroll to the left
955 ⟨keypad Right⟩, ⟨Ctrl+Right⟩ [scroll_right]
957 Scroll to the right
958 ⟨keypad up⟩, ⟨Ctrl+Up⟩ [scroll_up]
960 Scroll up
961 ⟨keypad Down⟩, ⟨Ctrl+Down⟩ [scroll_down]
963 Scroll down. Note that the scroll keys work without anti-alias‐
964 ing for performance reasons; hit the render key after scrolling
965 to anti-alias the image.
966 ⟨Alt+Left [scroll_left_page]⟩
968 Scroll to the left by one page
969 ⟨Alt+Right [scroll_right_page]⟩
971 Scroll to the right by one page
972 ⟨Alt+Up [scroll_up_page]⟩
974 Scroll up by one page
975 ⟨Alt+Down [scroll_down_page]⟩
977 Scroll down by one page
978 R, ⟨keypad begin⟩ [render]
980 Anti-alias the image. Opens the currently selected image in
981 thumbnail mode.
982 ⟨keypad +⟩, ⟨Up⟩ [zoom_in]
984 Zoom in
985 ⟨keypad -⟩, ⟨Down⟩ [zoom_out]
987 Zoom out
988 *, ⟨keypad *⟩ [zoom_default]
990 Zoom to 100%
991 /, ⟨keypad /⟩ [zoom_fit]
993 Zoom to fit the window size
994 ! [zoom_fill]
996 Zoom to fill the window size like --bg-fill
997 MENU KEYS
999 The following keys bindings are used for the feh menu:
1000 ⟨Escape⟩ [menu_close]
1002 Close the menu
1003 ⟨Up⟩ [menu_up]
1005 Highlight previous menu item
1006 ⟨Down⟩ [menu_down]
1008 Highlight next menu item
1009 ⟨Left⟩ [menu_parent]
1011 Highlight parent menu item
1012 ⟨Right⟩ [menu_child]
1014 Highlight child menu item
1015 ⟨Return⟩, ⟨space⟩ [menu_select]
1017 Select highlighted menu item
1018
1020 .config/feh/buttons. This works like the keys config file: the entries
1021 are of the form "action [binding]".
1022 Each binding is a button number. It may optionally start with modifiers
1024 for things like Control, in which case binding looks like mod-button (for
1025 example C-1 for Ctrl + Left button).
1026 Note: Do not use the same button for multiple actions. feh does not
1028 check for conflicting bindings, so their behaviour is undefined. Either
1029 unbind the unwanted action, or bind it to another unused button. The or‐
1030 der in which you bind / unbind does not matter, though.
1031 For the available modifiers, see KEYS CONFIGURATION SYNTAX.
1033 BUTTONS
1035 In an image window, the following buttons may be used (The strings in
1036 [square brackets] are the config action names). Additionally, all ac‐
1037 tions specified in the KEYS section can also be bound to a button.
1038 unbound [reload]
1040 Reload current image
1041 0 ⟨cursor movement while not panning, zooming, or similar⟩
1043 Does not have a default binding. By binding it to quit, you can
1044 turn feh into a simple screensaver.
1045 1 ⟨left mouse button⟩ [pan]
1047 pan the current image
1048 2 ⟨middle mouse button⟩ [zoom]
1050 Zoom the current image
1051 3 ⟨right mouse button⟩ [toggle_menu]
1053 Toggle menu
1054 4 ⟨mousewheel down⟩ [prev_img]
1056 Show previous image
1057 5 ⟨mousewheel up⟩ [next_img]
1059 Show next image
1060 Ctrl+1 [blur]
1062 Blur current image
1063 Ctrl+2 [rotate]
1065 Rotate current image
1066 unbound [zoom_in]
1068 Zoom in
1069 unbound [zoom_out]
1071 Zoom out
1072
1074 Default Bindings: When viewing an image, mouse button 1 pans the image
1075 (moves it around) or, when only clicked, moves to the next image
1076 (slideshow mode only). Quick drags with less than 2px of movement per
1077 axis will be treated as clicks to aid graphics tablet users. Mouse but‐
1078 ton 2 zooms (click and drag left->right to zoom in, right->left to zoom
1079 out, click once to restore zoom to 100%) and mouse button 3 opens the
1080 menu.
1081 Ctrl+Button 1 blurs or sharpens the image (drag left to blur, right to
1083 sharpen); Ctrl+Button 2 rotates the image around the center point.
1084 A note about pan and zoom modes: In pan mode, if you reach a window bor‐
1086 der but haven't yet panned to the end of the image, feh will warp your
1087 cursor to the opposite border so you can continue panning.
1088 When clicking the zoom button and immediately releasing it, the image
1090 will be back at 100% zoom. When clicking it and moving the mouse while
1091 holding the button down, the zoom will be continued at the previous zoom
1092 level. The zoom will always happen so that the pixel on which you en‐
1093 tered the zoom mode remains stationary. So, to enlarge a specific part
1094 of an image, click the zoom button on that part.
1095
1097 In slideshow and multiwindow mode, feh handles the following signals:
1098 SIGUSR1
1100 Slideshow mode: switch to next image; reload current image if the
1101 slideshow consists of a single file. Multiwindow mode: reload
1102 all images.
1103 SIGUSR2
1105 Slideshow mode: switch to previous image; reload current image if
1106 the slideshow consists of a single file. Multiwindow mode:
1107 reload all images.
1108
1110 Here are some examples of useful option combinations. See also:
1111 ⟨https://feh.finalrewind.org/examples/⟩
1112 feh ~/Pictures
1114 Show all images in ~/Pictures
1115 feh -r ~/Pictures
1117 Recursively show all images found in ~/Pictures and subdirecto‐
1118 ries
1119 feh -rSfilename --version-sort ~/Pictures
1121 Same as above, but sort naturally. By default, feh will show
1122 files in the string order of their names, meaning e.g. "foo
1123 10.jpg" will come before "foo 2.jpg". In this case, they are in‐
1124 stead ordered as a human would expect.
1125 feh -t -Sfilename -E 128 -y 128 -W 1024 ~/Pictures
1127 Show 128x128 pixel thumbnails, limit window width to 1024 pixels.
1128 feh -t -Sfilename -E 128 -y 128 -W 1024 -P -C
1130 /usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-dejavu/ -e DejaVuSans/8 ~/Pictures
1131 Same as above, but enable thumbnail caching and use a smaller
1132 font.
1133 feh -irFarial/14 -O index.jpg ~/Pictures
1135 Make an index print of ~/Pictures and all directories below it,
1136 using 14 point Arial to write the image info under each thumb‐
1137 nail. Save the image as index.jpg and don't display it, just
1138 exit. Note that this even works without a running X server
1139 feh --unloadable -r ~/Pictures
1141 Print all unloadable images in ~/Pictures, recursively
1142 feh -f by_width -S width --reverse --list .
1144 Write a list of all images in the directory to by_width, sorted
1145 by width (widest images first)
1146 feh -w ~/Pictures/holidays
1148 Open each image in ~/Pictures/holidays in its own window
1149 feh -FD5 -Sname ~/Pictures/presentation
1151 Show the images in .../presentation, sorted by name, in
1152 fullscreen, automatically change to the next image after 5 sec‐
1153 onds
1154 feh -rSwidth -A "mv %F ~/images/%N" ~/Pictures
1156 View all images in ~/Pictures and below, sorted by width, move an
1157 image to ~/image/image_name when enter is pressed
1158 feh --start-at ~/Pictures/foo.jpg
1160 View all images in ~/Pictures, starting with foo.jpg. All other
1161 images are still in the slideshow and can be viewed normally
1162 feh --start-at ~/Pictures/foo.jpg ~/Pictures
1164 Same as above.
1165 feh --info "exifgrep '(Model|DateTimeOriginal|FNumber|ISO|Flash)' %F |
1167 cut -d . -f 4-" .
1168 Show some EXIF information, extracted by exifprobe/exifgrep
1169 feh --action 'rm %F' -rl --max-dimension 1000x800
1171 Recursively remove all images with dimensions below or equal to
1172 1000x800 pixels from the current directory.
1173 feh -L '%w %h %f' | awk '{ if ($1 > $2) { print $0 } }' | cut -d ' ' -f
1175 3- | feh -f -
1176 Show landscape pictures (image width greater than height) in the
1177 current directory.
1178
1180 When --edit is used, feh needs the jpegtran and jpegexiforient binaries
1181 (usually distributed in "libjpeg-progs" or similar) for lossless JPEG ro‐
1182 tation.
1183 To view images from URLs such as "http://", feh must be compiled with
1185 libcurl support. It is enabled in this build
1186
1188 Imlib2 releases prior to 1.7.4 are unable to load gif, tiff, and webp im‐
1189 ages if the filename does not end with gif, tiff, or webp, respectively.
1190 Notably, this means that feh is unable to show gif, tiff, and webp images
1191 from stdin or network URLs on systems using an Imlib2 version older than
1192 1.7.4.
1193 Imlib2 releases 1.7.5+ automatically rotate images based on their EXIF
1195 tags. When combined with the --auto-rotate option, this causes images to
1196 be rotated twice and end up in an incorrect orientation. As a work‐
1197 around, do not use --auto-rotate on systems with Imlib2 version 1.7.5 or
1198 later.
1199 On systems with giflib 5.1.2, feh may be unable to load gif images. For
1201 affected mips, mipsel and arm devices, gif support is completely broken,
1202 while on x86 / x86_64 gifs can usually only be loaded if they are the
1203 first image in the filelist. This appears to be a bug in giflib, see
1204 ⟨https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=813729⟩ for details.
1205 Workaround: Use --conversion-timeout 5 (or some other positive value) to
1206 load gifs with imagemagick instead, or downgrade to giflib 5.1.1, or up‐
1207 grade to giflib 5.1.4.
1208 While loading images using libcurl, feh will not react to key or mouse
1210 actions.
1211 Thumbnail mode is somewhat inefficient, and because of that not nearly as
1213 fast as it could be.
1214 --scale-down does not take window decorations into account and may there‐
1216 fore make the window slightly too large.
1217 REPORTING BUGS
1219 If you find a bug, please report it to ⟨derf+feh@finalrewind.org⟩ or via
1220 ⟨https://github.com/derf/feh/issues⟩.
1221 Please include the feh version ⟨the output of "feh --version"⟩, steps to
1223 reproduce the bug and, if necessary, images to reproduce it. Note that
1224 feh is a hobby project, so bug reports may be addressed with significant
1225 delays.
1226
1228 Copyright (C) 1999, 2000 by Paul Duncan. Copyright (C) 1999, 2000 by Tom
1229 Gilbert and contributors. Copyright (C) 2010-2020 by Daniel Friesel and
1230 contributors.
1231 Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a
1233 copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Soft‐
1234 ware"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without
1235 limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute,
1236 sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to
1237 whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following condi‐
1238 tions:
1239 The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included
1241 in all copies of the Software and its documentation and acknowledgment
1242 shall be given in the documentation and software packages that this Soft‐
1243 ware was used.
1244 THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS
1246 OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABIL‐
1247 ITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT
1248 SHALL THE AUTHORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY,
1249 WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF
1250 OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
1251 SOFTWARE.
1252 Current developer: Daniel Friesel ⟨derf@finalrewind.org⟩
1254 Original author (no longer developing): Tom Gilbert
1256 ⟨feh_sucks@linuxbrit.co.uk⟩
1257 Website: https://feh.finalrewind.org
1259BSD August 22, 2022 BSD