1CLIFM(1) CLIFM Manual CLIFM(1)
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6 clifm - The Command Line File Manager
7
9 clifm [OPTION]... [PATH]
10
13 1. Getting help
14 2. Description
16 3. Parameters
18 . Positional parameters
19 . Options
20 4. Commands
22 5. File Filters (by file name, file type, and MIME type)
24 6. Keyboard shortcuts
26 7. Theming
28 8. Built-in expansions
30 9. Resource opener (third-party openers are also supported)
32 10. Shotgun, a built-in files previewer
34 11. Auto-suggestions (including a warning prompt for invalid command
36 names)
37 12. Shell functions
39 13. Plugins
41 14. Autocommands
43 15. File tags
45 16. Virtual directories
47 17. Note on speed
49 18. Kangaroo frecency algorithm
51 19. Environment
53 20. Security
55 21. Miscellaneous notes
57 22. Files
59 23. Examples
61
64 There are several ways of getting help in clifm. Once in the program,
65 enter ? or help for some basic usage examples, or press F1 to access
66 this manpage, F2 to go to the COMMANDS section of this very manpage, or
67 F3 to jump to the KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS section.
68 To get help about some specific topic, type help <TAB> to get a list of
70 available help topics. Choose the topic you want and then press Enter.
71 For a list of available commands and a brief description type cmd<TAB>.
73 Help for all internal commands can be accessed via the -h or --help
75 flags. For example, to get help about the selection function, s -h or s
76 --help.
77 A convenient way of getting full information about clifm commands is
79 via the ih action, bound by default to the interactive help plugin
80 (ihelp.sh). Enter ih to run the plugin (it depends on fzf(1)) and se‐
81 lect the command you want to obtain information about.
82 For a quick introduction jump to the EXAMPLES section at the bottom of
84 this document.
85
88 Clifm is a Command Line Interface File Manager. This is its main fea‐
89 ture and strength: all input and interacion is performed via commands
90 typed in a prompt. In other words, clifm is a REPL, since it's basic
91 structure is simply this: Read (user input via a command line), Evalu‐
92 ate/Execute the command, Print the results, Loop (start all over
93 again).
94 Unlike most terminal file managers out there, indeed, clifm replaces
96 the traditional TUI interface (also known as curses or text-menu based
97 interface) by a simple command-line interface (REPL). In this sense, it
98 is a file manager, but also a shell extension: search for files, copy,
99 rename, and trash some of them, but, at the same time, update/upgrade
100 your system, add some cronjob, stop a service, and run nano (or vi, or
101 emacs, if you like).
102 Simply put, with clifm the command-line is still there, never hidden,
104 but enriched with file management oriented functionalities.
105
109 If the first non-option parameter is a directory, clifm will start in
110 this directory. For example, the command clifm /etc instructs clifm to
111 start in the directory /etc. If not specified, the first workspace will
112 be used. To start in a different workspace use the -w option. For in‐
113 stance: clifm -w4 /etc.
114
117 Note: If compiled in POSIX mode, the following list of options does not
118 apply. In this case, run clifm -h to get the actual list of options.
119 (To make sure run clifm -v: if compiled in POSIX mode the version num‐
120 ber is followed by "-POSIX").
121 -a, --no-hidden
123 ignore entries starting with . (default)
124 -A, --show-hidden
126 do not ignore entries starting with .
127 -b, --bookmarks-file=FILE
129 set an alternative bookmarks file
130 -c, --config-file=FILE
132 set an alternative configuration file
133 -D, --config-dir=DIR
135 use DIR as an alternative configuration directory. If configura‐
136 tion files do not exist already, they will be created anew here
137 -e, --no-eln
139 do not print ELN's (entry list number) at the left of file
140 names. Bear in mind, however, that though ELN's are not printed,
141 they are still there and can be used as always
142 -E, --eln-use-workspace-color
144 ELN's use the current workspace color
145 -f, --no-dirs-first
147 do not list directories first
148 -F, --dirs-first
150 list directories first (default)
151 -g, --pager
153 enable Mas, the built-in pager for files listing
154 -G, --no-pager
156 disable the pager (default)
157 -h, --help
159 show this help and exit
160 -H, --horizontal-list
162 list files horizontally instead of vertically
163 -i, --no-case-sensitive
165 no case-sensitive files listing (default)
166 -I, --case-sensitive
168 case-sensitive files listing
169 -k, --keybindings-file=FILE
171 set an alternative keybindings file
172 -l, --no-long-view
174 disable the long view mode (default)
175 -L, --long-view
177 enable the long-view mode to list files and their properties. By
178 default, the following information is provided for each file:
179 file name, file permissions (symbolic notation), owner and pri‐
180 mary group, last modification time, and size. These fields can
181 be customized using the PropFields option in the configuration
182 file (use TimeStyle to customize timestamp format). To get more
183 detailed information about files use the p command (see below).
184 -m, --dirhist-map
186 enable the directory history map to keep in view previous, cur‐
187 rent and next entries in the directory history list
188 -o, --no-autols
190 the internal cd command works like the shell cd command: change
191 directory but do not list files automatically
192 -O, --autols
194 the cd command changes directory AND lists files automatically
195 (default)
196 -p, --path=PATH
198 use PATH as clifm starting path. Default starting path is the
199 current working directory. If no workspace is specified via the
200 --workspace option (see below), the first workspace (1) is used.
201 This option is deprecated: use positional parameters instead.
202 -P, --profile=PROFILE
204 use PROFILE as profile. If PROFILE does not exist, it will be
205 created. Default profile is ´default´
206 -r, --no-refresh-on-empty-line
208 do not refresh the current list of files when pressing the Enter
209 key on an empty line
210 -s, --splash
212 enable the splash screen
213 -S, --stealth-mode
215 in stealth mode (also known as incognito or private mode) no
216 trace is left on the host system. Nothing is read from files nor
217 any file is created: all settings are set to the default values.
218 However, most settings can still be controlled via command line
219 options and dedicated environment variables (see the ENVIRONMENT
220 section below). Take a look as well to the history command and
221 the --no-history command line switch.
222 -t, --disk-usage-analyzer
224 run in disk usage analyzer mode. Equivalent to --sort=size
225 --long-view --full-dir-size --no-dirs-first. The total size of
226 the current directory, plus the name and size of the largest
227 file will be printed after the list of files. Press Ctrl-Alt-i
228 (or Alt-TAB) to toggle this mode on/off in-place.
229 -v, --version
231 show version details and exit
232 -w, --workspace=NUM
234 start in workspace NUM. By default, clifm will recover the last
235 visited directory for each workspace. However, you can override
236 this behaviour using positional parameters, as described above,
237 to start in workspace NUM and in path PATH.
238 -x, --no-ext-cmds
240 disallow the use of external, shell commands
241 -y, --light-mode
243 enable the light mode to speed up clifm. See the NOTE ON SPEED
244 section below.
245 -z, --sort=METHOD
247 sort files by METHOD, where METHOD could be one of: 0 = none, 1
248 = name, 2 = size, 3 = atime, 4 = btime (ctime if not available),
249 5 = ctime, 6 = mtime, 7 = version (name if not available), 8 =
250 extension, 9 = inode, 10 = owner, 11 = group. Both numbers and
251 strings are allowed. E.g: --sort=9, --sort=inode.
252 --bell=TYPE
254 Choose the terminal bell type, where TYPE could be: 0 = none, 1
255 = audible, 2 = visual (requires readline >= 8.1), 3 = flash. De‐
256 faults to ´visible´, and, if not possible, ´none´.
257 --case-sens-dirjump
259 do not ignore case when consulting the jump database (via the j
260 command)
261 --case-sens-path-comp
263 enable case sensitive path completion
264 --cd-on-quit
266 write last visited directory to $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/clifm/.last to
267 be later accessed by the corresponding shell function at program
268 exit. See the SHELL FUNCTIONS section below.
269 --color-scheme=NAME
271 set NAME as color scheme
272 --cwd-in-title
274 print current working directory in terminal window title. Other‐
275 wise, only the program name is printed
276 --data-dir=DIR
278 load data files, such as plugins, color schemes, and default
279 configuration files, from DIR
280 --desktop-notifications
282 enable desktop notifications. Enter help desktop-notifications
283 in clifm for more information
284 --disk-usage
286 show disk usage for the file system the current directory be‐
287 longs to (in the form "free/total (free_percentage) fs_type
288 dev_name")
289 --full-dir-size
291 if running in long view, print directories size and their con‐
292 tents
293 --fuzzy-algo=VER
295 fuzzy matching algorithm, where VER is either 1 (faster, but not
296 Unicode aware), or 2 (slower, Unicode aware)
297 --fuzzy-matching
299 enable fuzzy matches for filename/path completions and sugges‐
300 tions
301 --fzfpreview-hidden
303 enable file previews for TAB completion (fzf mode only) with the
304 preview window hidden (toggle it via Alt-p)
305 --fzftab
307 use fzf to display completion matches
308 --fnftab
310 use fnf to display completion matches
311 --icons
313 enable icons
314 --icons-use-file-color
316 instead of a specific color, icons take the color of the corre‐
317 sponding file name (specified either via file type or via file
318 extension). Useful when building custom color schemes. This op‐
319 tion implies --icons. Only if compiled with support for either
320 icons-in-terminal or Nerdfonts. The default build is compiled
321 with emoji-icons support, in which case this option is ignored
322 (Unicode icons has their own color built-in)
323 --int-vars
325 allow the use of internal variables (ex: VAR=/bin; cd $VAR)
326 --list-and-quit
328 list files and quit. It may be used in conjunction parameter
329 substitution. Ex: ´clifm --list-and-quit /etc´
330 --max-dirhist
332 maximum number of visited directories to remember
333 --max-files=NUM
335 list only up to NUM files. Use -1 or ´unset´ to remove the files
336 limit (default). See the mf command for a more detailed descrip‐
337 tion.
338 --max-path=NUM
340 set the maximum number of characters after which the current di‐
341 rectory in the prompt line will be abbreviated to the directory
342 base name (if \z is used in the prompt)
343 --mnt-udisks2
345 use udisks2 instead of udevil (default), for the media command
346 --no-apparent-size
348 print file sizes as used blocks instead of used bytes (apparent
349 size)
350 --no-bold
352 disable bold colors (applies to all color schemes)
353 --no-cd-auto
355 by default, clifm changes directories by just specifying the
356 corresponding ELN (e.g. ´12´ instead of ´cd 12´). This option
357 forces the use of cd
358 --no-classify
360 by default, clifm appends a file type indicator character to
361 file names when running with no colors (see the --no-color op‐
362 tion below) and a directory indicator (plus a files counter)
363 when running with colors. Classification characters are:
364 /n: directories (n = files counter)
365 @: symbolic links
366 !: broken symbolic links
367 |: fifo/pipes
368 =: sockets
369 *: executable files
370 +: block devices
371 -: character devices
372 ?: unknown file type Use this option to disable file type
373 classification.
374 --no-clear-screen
376 do not clear the screen before listing files
377 --no-color
379 disable colors
380 --no-columns
382 disable columns for files listing
383 --no-dir-jumper
385 disable the directory jumper function
386 --no-file-cap
388 do not check files capabilities when listing files
389 --no-file-ext
391 do not check files extension when listing files
392 --no-files-counter
394 disable the files counter for directories. This option is espe‐
395 cially useful to speed up the listing process; counting files in
396 directories is particularly expensive
397 --no-follow-symlinks
399 do not follow symbolic links when listing files
400 --no-fzfpreview
402 disable file previews for TAB completion (fzf mode only)
403 --no-highlight
405 disable syntax highlighting. To customize highlighting colors
406 see the COLOR CODES section below
407 --no-history
409 do not write commands into the history file (see also the
410 HistIgnore option in the configuration file)
411 --no-open-auto
413 same as no-cd-auto, but for files instead of directories
414 --no-refresh-on-resize
416 do not attempt to refresh the list of files upon window's resize
417 --no-restore-last-path
419 by default, clifm saves the last visited directory for each
420 workspace to be restored in the next session. Use this option to
421 disable this behavior.
422 --no-suggestions
424 disable the auto-suggestions system
425 --no-tips
427 disable startup tips
428 --no-trim-names
430 do not trim file names (see MaxFilenameLen in the configuration
431 file)
432 --no-warning-prompt
434 disable the warning prompt (used to highlight invalid command
435 names)
436 --no-welcome-message
438 disable the welcome message
439 --only-dirs
441 list only directories
442 --open=FILE
444 run as a standalone resource opener: open FILE and exit, where
445 FILE could be a regular file or a directory, using either stan‐
446 dard notation (/dir/file) or the URI file scheme
447 (file:///dir/file]), or a URL (www.domain or https://domain).
448 --opener=APPLICATION
450 specify a resource opener to use (say rifle or xdg-open). If
451 opener is not set, Lira is used instead
452 --preview=FILE
454 display a preview of FILE (via Shotgun) and exit. If running as
455 a standalone files previewer, you can set an alternative confi‐
456 uguration file via --shotgun-file. Consult the SHOTGUN section
457 below for more information
458 --print-sel
460 always print the list of selected files. Since this list could
461 be quite extensive, the maximum number of selected files to
462 print could be specified via the MaxPrintSelfiles option in the
463 configuration file. Defaults to 0 (auto, i.e. never take more
464 than half terminal height). Use -1 to remove the limit or any
465 other positive value.
466 --readonly
468 run in read-only mode (internal commands able to modify the file
469 system are disabled). Disabled commands are: ac, ad, bb,
470 bl/bleach, br/bulk, c, dup, l, le, m, md, n/new, oc, paste, pc,
471 r, rr, t/trash, tag, te, u/undel/untrash, and vv, plus the shell
472 commands cp, rm, mv, ln, mkdir, rmdir, link, and unlink.
473 --rl-vi-mode
475 set readline to vi editing mode (defaults to emacs editing mode)
476 --secure-cmds
478 Filter commands passed to the OS to mitigate command injection
479 attacks (--secure-env is implied). Consult the SECURITY section
480 below
481 --secure-env
483 run clifm in a secure environment (regular mode). Consult the
484 SECURITY section below
485 --secure-env-full
487 run clifm in a secure environment (full mode). Consult the SECU‐
488 RITY section below
489 --sel-file=FILE
491 set FILE as selections file
492 --share-selbox
494 make the Selection Box common (that is, accessible) to different
495 profiles. By default, each profile has a private Selection Box.
496 --shotgun-file=FILE
498 Set FILE as shotgun´s configuration file. Only effective if run‐
499 ning as a standalone files previewer via the --preview switch.
500 See the SHOTGUN section below for more information
501 --si print sizes in powers of 1000, as defined in the International
503 System of Units (SI), instead of 1024
504 --smenutab
506 use smenu to display completion matches
507 --sort-reverse
509 sort in reverse order, for example: z-a instead of a-z, which is
510 the default order
511 --stat=FILE
513 run the p command on FILE and exit
514 --stat-full=FILE
516 run the pp command on FILE and exit
517 --stdtab
519 use the standard mode (readline´s built-in) for TAB completion
520 --trash-as-rm
522 the r command executes the built-in ´trash´ (see the t command)
523 instead of rm(1) to prevent accidental deletions
524 --virtual-dir=PATH
526 use PATH as CliFM´s virtual directory
527 --virtual-dir-full-paths
529 print file names in virtual directories as full paths instead of
530 just base names
531 --vt100
533 run in VT100 compatibility mode
534 Options precedence order: 1) command line flags; 2) configuration file;
536 3) default values.
537
540 Help for all commands listed here can be accessed via the -h or --help
541 options. For example: p --help to get help about the properties func‐
542 tion.
543 NOTE: ELN = Entry List Number. Example: in the line "12 openbox" (when
545 listing files), 12 is the ELN corresponding to the file named "open‐
546 box". The slash followed by a number (/xx) after directories and sym‐
547 bolic links to directories (the files counter) indicates the amount of
548 files contained by the corresponding directory, excluding self and par‐
549 ent directories ("." and ".." respectively).
550 NOTE 2: In case of ELN-filename conflict the backslash can be used to
552 prevent ELN expansion. For example, if we have at least two files and
553 one of them is named "2", then clifm cannot know in advance if the com‐
554 mand refers to the ELN 2 or to the file name "2". In we want the ELN,
555 we just write the ELN number, for example: s 2. But if we want the file
556 name, we need to escape the file name using the backlash character:
557 s \2.
558 NOTE 3: clifm supports fused parameters for internal commands taking an
560 ELN or range of ELN´s as parameters. Much like short options for com‐
561 mand line programs, you can drop or omit the space between internal
562 commands and the corresponding ELN passed as argument. In general, you
563 can write CMDELN instead of CMD ELN. For example: o12 or s1-5 instead
564 of o 12 and s 1-5 respectively. Bear in mind, however, that in thus
565 omitting the space char TAB completion for ELN's will not be available.
566 If there is a file named o12 (more generally, CMDELN), and if you want
567 to refer to this file instead of a clifm command, escape the file name
568 to prevent the split; for example: s \o12.
569 NOTE 4: clifm implements a fastback function, that is to say, the con‐
571 version of "... n" or "cmd ... n" into "../.. n" or "cmd ../.. n". In
572 other words, subsequent dots after ".." will be converted each into
573 "/..". For example, if you are in your home directory and type "..." or
574 "cd ...", and since "..." amounts to "../..", you will be taken to the
575 root directory. TAB completion is available for the fastback function:
576 "....bin" -> TAB -> "../../../bin".
577 FILE/DIR
580 if the autocd and auto-open functions are enabled, which is the
581 default value, open FILE or change directory to DIR. In other
582 words, FILE amounts to open FILE or o FILE, and DIR to cd DIR.
583 ELN's, of course, are allowed. Example: 12.
584 /PATTERN [-filetype] [-x] [DIR]
586 this is the quick search function. Type / followed by a glob or
587 regular (or extended regular) expression, and clifm will list
588 all matches in the current working directory. For example, both
589 /*.pdf and /.pdf$ expressions will list all PDF files in the
590 current working directory, the former using wildcards, and the
591 second a regular expression.
592 You can list previously used search patterns via TAB: /*<TAB>.
594 Note: By default, the search function attempts to resolve a pat‐
596 tern first as glob, and then, if no matches are found, as a reg‐
597 ular expression. This behavior can be customizad however in the
598 configuration file, via the SearchStrategy option.
599 Note 2: If no further parameter is provided, but only a glob
601 pattern (wildcards), you can expand the pattern into the corre‐
602 sponding matches via the TAB key. For example, to list all C
603 files in the current directory: /*.c<TAB>.
604 Note 3: Expressions containing no pattern metacharacter are au‐
606 tomatically transformed into a glob/regular expression (depend‐
607 ing on the value of the SearchStrategy option). For example,
608 /test becomes *test* or /.*test.*.
609 1. Case sensitivity
611 By default, regular expressions are case insensitive (glob ex‐
613 pressions, by contrast, are always case sensitive). However, you
614 can enable case sensitive search by setting the CaseSensi‐
615 tiveSearch option to true in the configuration file.
616 2. Destiny directory
618 To search for files in any directory other than the current di‐
620 rectory, specify the directory name as a further parameter. This
621 parameter (DIR) could be an absolute path, a relative path, or
622 an ELN. For example, enter /^A 7 to search for all files start‐
623 ing with ´A´ in the directory corresponding to the ELN 7.
624 3. File type filter
626 The result of the search could be further filtered by specifying
628 a filter type: -b, -c, -d, -f, -l, -p, -s, -D, and -P (block de‐
629 vice, character device, directory, regular file, symbolic link,
630 FIFO/pipe, socket, door (Solaris), and port (Solaris) respec‐
631 tively. For example, /[.-].*d$ -d Documents/ will list all di‐
632 rectories containing a dot or a dash and ending with ´d´ in the
633 directory named Documents.
634 4. Negate a pattern
636 The quick search function also supports invert search: prepend
638 the exclamation mark (!) to negate a given search pattern. For
639 example: !.*s$ -d /etc will match all directories in /etc NOT
640 ending with ´s´, just as !D* will match all files in the current
641 directory NOT starting with ´D´.
642 5. Recursive search
644 To perform a recursive search use the -x parameter, and, option‐
646 ally, a search path (DIR) (file type filter is not allowed). The
647 search will be performed using find as follows: find DIR MODE
648 PATTERN. If no search path is provided, the search is executed
649 starting in the current directory. Otherwise, the search starts
650 in DIR. MODE is one of:
651 -name: SearchStrategy is not regex-only and CaseSensitiveSearch
653 is set to true
654 -iname: SearchStrategy is not regex-only and CaseSensi‐
656 tiveSearch is set to false
657 -regex: SearchStrategy is regex-only and CaseSensitiveSearch is
659 set to true
660 -iregex: SearchStrategy is regex-only and CaseSensitiveSearch
662 is set to false
663 ;[CMD], :[CMD]
665 If no CMD, run the system shell in the current working direc‐
666 tory. If CMD is specified, skip all clifm expansions (see the
667 BUILT-IN EXPANSIONS section below) and run the input string
668 (CMD) as is via the default system shell.
669 ac, ad ELN/FILE...
671 archive/compress and dearchive/decompress one or multiple files
672 and/or directories. The archiver function brings two modes: ac,
673 to generate archives or compressed files, and ad, to decompress
674 or dearchive files, either just listing, extracting, recompress‐
675 ing, or mounting their content. In this latter case, the mount‐
676 point used automatically is $HOME/.config/clifm/PRO‐
677 FILE/mounts/ARCHIVE_NAME.
678 The function accepts single and multiple file names, wildcards,
680 ELN ranges, and the 'sel' keyword. For example: ac sel,
681 ac 4-25 myfile, or ad *.tar.gz. Multiple archive/compression
682 formats are supported, including Zstandard. When it comes to ISO
683 9660 files only single files are supported.
684 The archive mount function for non ISO files depends on archive‐
686 mount, while the remaining functions depend on atool and other
687 third-party utilities for achive formats support, for example,
688 p7zip. p7zip is also used to manage most decompressing options
689 for ISO 9660 files, except for mount, in which case mount(8) is
690 used. Creation of ISO files is done via genisoimage(1). For more
691 information consult atool(1), archivemount(1), zstd(1), and
692 7z(1).
693 acd, autocd [on, off, status]
695 toggle the autocd function on/off. If set to on, DIR amounts to
696 cd DIR.
697 actions [list] [edit [APP]]
699 to list available actions (or plugins) use the list subcommand.
700 Note that, since list is the default action, it can be omitted.
701 Use the edit subcommand to add, remove or modify custom actions
703 (using APP if specified or the default associated application
704 otherwise).
705 The aim of this function is to allow the user to easily add cus‐
707 tom commands and functions to clifm. In other words, the actions
708 function is a plugins capability.
709 The general procedure is quite simple: a) bind a custom action
711 name to an executable file written in any language you want, be
712 it a shell or Python script, a C program or whatever you like
713 (using the actions.clifm file located in the configuration di‐
714 rectory). Example: "myaction=myscript.sh". b) Now, drop the cor‐
715 responding script (in our example, myscript.sh) into the plugins
716 directory (see the FILES section below). 3) Once this is done,
717 you can call the script using the custom action name defined be‐
718 fore as if it were any other command: run myaction, and
719 myscript.sh will be executed.
720 All arguments passed to the action command are passed to the
722 script or program as well (which is run via the system shell).
723 The plugins provided with clifm (take a look at the plugins di‐
725 rectory) could be used as a starting point to create custom
726 plugins.
727 alias [import FILE] [ls,list] [NAME]
729 with no argument (or with ls,list parameters), it prints the
730 list of available aliases, if any. To get the description of a
731 specific alias enter alias followed by the alias name. To write
732 a new alias simply enter edit (or press F10) to open the config‐
733 uration file and add a line like this: "alias name=´command
734 args...´" or "alias name=´directory´".
735 To import aliases from a file, provided it contains aliases in
737 the specified form, use the import parameter. Aliases conflict‐
738 ing with some of the internal commands won´t be imported.
739 However, a neat usage for the alias function is not so much to
741 bind short keys to commands, but to files and directories vis‐
742 ited regularly. In this way, it is possible to bind as many
743 files or directories, no matter how deep they are in the file
744 system, to very short strings, even single characters. For exam‐
745 ple, "alias w=´/some/file/deep/in/the/filesystem´. Now, no mat‐
746 ter where we are, we can just enter ´w´, provided autocd and/or
747 auto-open function is enabled, to access the file or directory
748 we want. Theoretically at least, this procedure could be re‐
749 peated until the system memory is exhausted.
750 To create multiple aliases for files at once, this is the recom‐
752 mended procedure: 1) Select all files you want to alias with the
753 sel function: s file1 file2 file3 .... 2) Export the selected
754 files into a temporary file running exp sel; 3) Edit this file
755 to contain only valid alias lines:
756 alias a1=´file1´
758 alias b1=´file2´
759 alias c1=´file3´
760 NOTE: Make sure alias names do not conflict with other commands,
762 either internal or external. To bypass the conflicts check, per‐
763 formed automatically by the ´alias import´ command, you can edit
764 the aliases file manually (F10).
765 4) Finally, import this file with the alias function: alias im‐
767 port tmp_file. Now, you can access any of these files by enter‐
768 ing just a few characters: a1, b1, and c1.
769 ao, auto-open [on, off, status]
771 toggle the auto-open function on/off. If set to on, FILE amounts
772 to open FILE.
773 b, back [h, hist] [clear] [W!ELN]
775 unlike cd .., which sends you to the parent directory of the
776 current directory, this command (with no argument) sends you
777 back to the previously visited directory.
778 clifm keeps a record of all visited directories (to prevent a
780 directory from being added to the directory history list use the
781 DirhistIgnore option in the main configuration file). You can
782 see this list by typing b hist or b h, and you can access any
783 element in this list by simply passing the corresponding ELN in
784 this list to the back command. Example:
785 :) > ~ $ bh
786 1 /home/user
787 2 /etc
788 3 /proc
789 :) > ~ $ b !3
790 :) > /proc $
791 NOTE: the line printed in green indicates the current position
793 of the back function in the directory history list.
794 Finally, you can also clear this history list by typing b clear.
796 The best way of navigating the directory history list, however,
798 is via the directory jumper function. See the j command below.
799 You can take a look at the dh command as well.
800 bb, bleach ELN/FILE...
802 Bleach is a built-in file names cleaner (based on detox
803 [https://github.com/dharple/detox]), whose main aim is to rename
804 file names using only safe characters. Bleach cleans file names
805 up either by removing unsafe (extended-ASCII/Unicode) characters
806 without an ASCII alternative/similar character, or by translat‐
807 ing these unsafe characters into an alternative ASCII character
808 based on familiarity/similarity.
809 These following simple rules are used to compose clean/safe file
811 names:
812 - NUL (\0) and slash (/) characters are completely disal‐
813 lowed
814 - Only characters from the Portable Filename Characters Set
815 (a-zA-Z0-9._-) are allowed
816 - { [ ( ) ] } are replaced by a dash (-). Everything else is
817 replaced by an underscore (_)
818 - Unicode characters are translated, whenever possible, into
819 an ASCII replacement. Otherwise, they are just ignored. For ex‐
820 ample, an upper case A with diacritic (accent, umlaut, diaresis,
821 and so on) will be replaced by an ASCII A, but the smiley face
822 emoji will be simply ignored. A few special signs will be trans‐
823 lated into text, for instance, the pound sign will be replaced
824 by "_pound_" and the Euro symbol by "EUR". Translations are made
825 via a translation table (cleaner_table.h)
826 - File names never start with a dash (-)
827 - Files named . and .. are not allowed
828 - Append .bleach to one character long file names
829 - Do not let a replacement file name start with a dot (hid‐
830 den) if the original does not
831 - Max file name length is NAME_MAX (usually 255)
832 Modified file names will be listed on screen asking the user for
834 confirmation, allowing besides to edit (by pressing 'e') the
835 list of modified file names via a text editor.
836 If the replacement file name already exists, a dash and a number
838 (starting from 1) will be appended. Ex: file-3.
839 bd [NAME]
841 bd is the backdir function: it takes you back to the parent di‐
842 rectory matching NAME.
843 With no arguments, bd prints a menu with all parent directories
845 relative to the current directory, allowing the user to select
846 an entry. Otherwise, it checks the absolute current directory
847 against the provided query string (NAME): if only one match is
848 found, it automatically changes to that directory; if multiple
849 matches are found, the list of matches is presented to the user
850 in a selection menu. If NAME is a directory name, bd just
851 changes to that directory, be it a parent of the current direc‐
852 tory or not.
853 TAB completion and suggestions are available for this function.
855 Example:
857 Provided that the current directory is /home/user/git/reposito‐
859 ries/lambda, entering bd git will take you immediatelly to
860 /home/user/git.
861 Note that there is no need to type the entire directory name; if
863 the query is unambiguous, only a few characters, and even just
864 one, suffices to match the appropriate directory. In our exam‐
865 ple, bd g is enough to take you to /home/user/git, just as bd h
866 will take you to /home.
867 The query string could match any part of a directory name: bd
869 er, for instance, will take you to /home/user, since it is an
870 unambiguous query.
871 bl ELN/FILE...
873 Create symbolic links (in the current directory) for each speci‐
874 fied file. The user will be asked to enter a specific suffix for
875 the symlinks. If none is specified, the basename of the corre‐
876 sponding file is used.
877 bm, bookmarks [a, add FILENAME NAME [SHORTCUT]] [d, del [NAME]] [e,
879 edit [APP]] [NAME, SHORTCUT]
880 Bookmarks can be manager either from the bookmarks manager
881 screen or from the command line.
882 1. The bookmarks manager screen
884 To access the bookmarks manager screen simply enter bm. Here you
886 can cd into the desired bookmark by entering either its ELN or
887 name (regular files can be bookmarked as well). In this screen
888 you can also add, remove, or edit your bookmarks by simply en‐
889 tering 'e' to edit the bookmarks file (which is simply a list of
890 lines with this format: name:path. Ex: "docs:/home/user/docu‐
891 ments"). Make your changes, save, and exit.
892 2. The command line
894 ┌────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────────────┐
896 │Command │ Description │
897 ├────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────┤
898 │bm add /media/mount mnt │ Bookmark the /media/mount directory as "mnt" │
899 ├────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────┤
900 │bm mnt │ Change to/open the bookmark named "mnt" │
901 ├────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────┤
902 │bm del mnt │ Delete the bookmark named "mnt" │
903 ├────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────┤
904 │bm edit │ Edit your bookmarks │
905 └────────────────────────┴──────────────────────────────────────────────┘
906 A handy use for the bookmarks function is to create bookmarks
908 using short names, which will be later easily accessible via TAB
909 completion.
910 The b: construct
912 The b: construct is used as a way to quickly access/operate on
914 bookmarks. A few examples:
915 ┌──────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
917 │Command │ Description │
918 ├──────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
919 │b:<TAB> │ List available bookmarks │
920 ├──────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
921 │b:net │ Change to the bookmark named "net" [1m(1) │
922 ├──────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
923 │p b:bm1 b:bm2 │ Print file properties of the bookmarks named "bm1" and "bm2" │
924 ├──────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
925 │s b: │ Select all bookmarks at once │
926 └──────────────┴──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
927 [1m(1) If your are not sure about where a bookmark points to, type
929 b:NAME<TAB>.
930 br, bulk ELN/FILE...
932 rename at once all files passed as arguments to the function. It
933 accepts single and multiple file names, wildcards, ELN ranges,
934 and the sel keyword. Example: br myfile 4-10 sel.
935 Each file name will be copied into a temporary file, which will
937 be opened with the default text editor (via the mime function),
938 letting the user modify it. Once the file has been modified and
939 saved, the modifications are printed on the screen and the user
940 is asked whether to proceed with the actual bulk renaming or
941 not.
942 This built-in bulk rename function won´t deal with deletions,
944 replacements, file name conflicts and the like. For a smarter
945 alternative use qmv(1).
946 c, m, md, r
948 short for the following commands respectively: cp -iRp, mv -i,
949 mkdir -p, and rm (for files) or rm -r (for directories).
950 Note that the r command prompts the user for confirmation
952 (printing the list of files to be removed) if the list of files
953 contains: 1. at least one directory, 2. three or more files, 3.
954 at least one non-explicitly-expanded ELN (ex: r 12).
955 By default, the c, m, and r commands ask for confirmation before
957 operations. Since this might sometimes be quite intrusive (spe‐
958 cially when operating on large amount of files), it is possible
959 to turn interactivity off in two different ways:
960 a) For the current command only: via the -f, --force switch.
962 Example: c -f sel, m -f sel, or r -f *.
963 b) Permanently. Use the cpCmd, mvCmd, and rmForce options in
965 the configuration file to permanently set any of these commands
966 to non-interactive mode.
967 To use these commands without any of these arguments, or with
969 any other argument you want, use the non-abbreviated (shell)
970 command, for instance, cp instead of c. Of course, you can also
971 create aliases to use you preferred commands, for example,
972 "c=´cp -adp´". Consult the alias command above for more informa‐
973 tion.
974 The l command allows the use of the e, edit option to modify the
976 destination of a symbolic link. Example: l edit 12 (or le 12)
977 to relink the symbolic link corresponding to the file whose ELN
978 is 12.
979 When using the sel keyword and no destiny is provided, c and m
981 will copy/move selected files into the current directory. When‐
982 ever sel is not used, but just a source file name (and no des‐
983 tiny is provided), the m command behaves much like the imv(1)
984 shell command (from the ´renameutils´ package), providing an in‐
985 teractive renaming function: it prompts the user to enter a new
986 name using the source file name as base, so that it does not
987 need to be typed twice. For this alternative prompt, only TAB
988 completion for file names is available.
989 clifm supports advcp(1), wcp, and rsync(1) to copy files (they
991 include a progress bar). To use them instead of cp(1) set the
992 corresponding option (cpCmd) in the configuration file. If advcp
993 is selected, the command used is advcp -giRp (or advcp -gRp, for
994 non-interactive mode). If rsync, the command is rsync -avP. wcp
995 takes no argument.
996 advmv(1) is also supported to move files (to add a progress bar
998 to the move command). Use the mvCmd option in the configuration
999 file to choose this alternative implementation of mv. In this
1000 case, the command used is advmv -gi (or advmv -g for non-inter‐
1001 active mode).
1002 cd [ELN/DIR]
1005 Change the current working directory to ELN/DIR.
1006 Directories check order:
1008 1. If no argument, change to the home directory (HOME, or, if
1009 HOME is not set, the sixth field of the entry corresponding to
1010 the current user in /etc/passwd)
1011 2. If argument is an absolute path (begins with a slash char‐
1012 acter), or the first component is dot (.) or dot-dot (..), con‐
1013 vert to canonical form (via realpath(3)) and, if a valid direc‐
1014 tory, change into that directory.
1015 3. Check CDPATH environment variable and append /DIR to each
1016 of the paths specified here. If the result of the concatenation
1017 is a valid directory, change into it.
1018 4. Check directories in the current working directory. If a
1019 matching directory is found, change to it.
1020 You can use either ELN´s or a string to indicate the directory
1022 you want. Ex: cd 12 or cd ~/media. If autocd is enabled (de‐
1023 fault), cd 12 and cd ~/media could be written as 12 and ~/media
1024 respectively as well.
1025 Unlike the shell cd(1) command, clifm's built-in cd function not
1027 only changes the current directory, but also lists its content
1028 (provided the option CdListsAutomatically is enabled, which is
1029 the default) according to a comprehensive list of color codes.
1030 By default, the output of cd is much like this shell command:
1031 cd DIR && ls --color=auto --group-directories-first.
1032 Automatic files listing can be disabled by either setting AutoLs
1034 to "false" in the configuration file or running clifm with the
1035 -o or --no-autols option.
1036 cl, columns [on, off]
1038 toggle columns on/off.
1039 cmd, commands
1041 show this list of commands. A more convenient way of getting in‐
1042 formation about clifm commands is via the interactive help
1043 plugin (depends on fzf), by default bound to the "ihelp" action
1044 name.
1045 colors print the list of currently used color codes
1047 config [edit [APP]] [reset, dump]
1049 Manage the main configuration file.
1050 To edit the configuration file use the edit subcommand. If an
1052 application is specified (config edit APP), APP will be used to
1053 open the file (otherwise, the default associated program will be
1054 used). Edit settings to your liking if necessary, save, and quit
1055 the editor. Changes are automatically applied. Note that, since
1056 edit is the default action, it can be omitted. Enter just config
1057 to open the configuration file, or config APP to open it using
1058 APP.
1059 Use the reset subcommand to generate a fresh configuration file
1061 and create a backup copy of the old one (named clifmrc.YYYYM‐
1062 MDD@HH:MM:SS).
1063 The dump subcommand prints the list of settings (as defined in
1065 the main configuration file) with their current value. Those
1066 differing from the default values are highlighted, and the de‐
1067 fault value for the corresponding option is displayed in brack‐
1068 ets.
1069 NOTE: The edit command (though deprecated) can be used as well
1071 instead of config.
1072 cs, colorschemes [edit [APP]] [n, name] [NAME]
1074 with no arguments, list available color schemes (cs name (or cs
1075 n) to print the current color scheme name).
1076 Use the edit subcommand to open/edit the configuration file of
1078 the current color scheme (open with APP if specified or via the
1079 default associated application).
1080 To switch color schemes, specify the color scheme name: cs NAME.
1082 (TAB completion is available: cs <TAB>).
1083 d, dup FILE...
1085 Duplicate files passed as parameters, either directories or reg‐
1086 ular files. The user will be asked for a destiny directory. Du‐
1087 plicated file names are generated by appending ".copy" to the
1088 basename of each source file. For example: d /my/file will copy
1089 /my/file into the directory selected by the user as file.copy.
1090 If file.copy already exists, an extra suffix will be added as
1091 follows: file.copy-N, where N is a positive integer (starting at
1092 1).
1093 If rsync(1) is found, it will be used as follows: rsync -acz‐
1095 vAXHS --progress. Else, cp(1) will be used: cp -a.
1096 dh [STRING] [PATH] [!ELN]
1098 With no parameters, it prints the directory history list. To
1099 filter this list just pass a query string: only entries matching
1100 this query will be displayed. In both cases, TAB completion is
1101 available. For example: dh down<TAB> will list only those en‐
1102 tries matching down (fuzzily, if fuzzy-matching is enabled).
1103 To access a specific entry, you can pass the entry number pre‐
1105 ceded by an exclamation mark. For example, if you want the entry
1106 number 12, enter dh !12 to change to the corresponding direc‐
1107 tory.
1108 Finally, if an absolute path is passed as first parameter, dh
1110 works just as the cd command.
1111 Note: Take a look at the j command as well. Both commands deal
1113 with the list of visited directories, but in slightly different
1114 ways: while dh deals with the list of the last MaxDirhist en‐
1115 tries (see the configuration file), the j command deals with the
1116 ranked list of visited directories.
1117 ds, desel [*, a, all] [FILE]...
1119 deselect one or more selected files.
1120 If no parameter is passed, the user is prompted to either mark
1122 selected files to be deselected or to edit the selections file
1123 (entering ´e´) via a text editor to manually deselect files.
1124 Use *, a or all to deselect all selected entries at once. Ex:
1126 ds *.
1127 You can also pass the file name(s) (or ELN´s) to be deselected
1129 as a parameter. For example: ds myfile 24.
1130 TAB completion is available for this command.
1132 exp [FILE]...
1134 with no argument, export the list of files in the current work‐
1135 ing directory to a temporary file. Otherwise, export only those
1136 specified as further arguments: they could be directories, file
1137 names, ELN´s or some search expression like "*.c".
1138 ext [on, off, status]
1140 toggle external commands on/off.
1141 f, forth [h, hist] [clear] [!ELN]
1143 it works just like the back function, but it goes forward in the
1144 history record. Of course, you can use f hist, f h, and f !ELN.
1145 fc [on, off, status]
1147 By default, clifm prints the amount of files contained by listed
1148 directories next to directories name. However, since this is an
1149 expensive feature, it might be desirable (for example, when
1150 listing files in a remote machine) to disable this feature. Use
1151 the off subcommand to disable it. To permanently disable it, use
1152 the FilesCounter option in the configuration file.
1153 ff, dirs-first [on, off, status]
1155 toggle list directories first on/off.
1156 fs print an extract from 'What is Free Software?', written by
1158 Richard Stallman.
1159 ft, filter [unset] [[!]REGEX,=FILE-TYPE-CHAR]
1161 filter the current list of files, either by file name (via a
1162 regular expression) or file type (via a file type character).
1163 With no argument, ft prints the current filter. To remove the
1165 current filter use the unset option. To set a new filter enter
1166 ft followed by a filter expression (use the exclamation mark to
1167 reverse the meaning of a filter). Examples:
1168 Exclude hidden files:
1170 ft !^.
1171 List only files ending with .pdf:
1173 ft .*\.pdf$
1174 List only symbolic links:
1176 ft =l
1177 Exclude socket files:
1179 ft !=s
1180 The list of file type characters is included in the FILE FILTERS
1182 section below.
1183 The filter will be lost at program exit. To permanently set a
1185 filter use the Filter option (in the configuration file) or the
1186 CLIFM_FILTER environment variable (consult the ENVIRONMENT and
1187 the FILE FILTERS sections below).
1188 fz [on, off]
1190 Toggle full directory size on/off (only for long view mode).
1191 hf, hh, hidden [on, off, status]
1193 toggle hidden files on/off.
1194 history [edit [APP]] [clear] [-n] [on, off, status, show-time]
1196 with no arguments, it prints the commands history list (use
1197 show-time to print timestamps as well). If clear is passed as
1198 argument, it will delete all entries in the history file. Use
1199 edit to open the history file and modify it if needed (the file
1200 will be opened with APP, if specified, or with the default asso‐
1201 ciated application otherwise). -n tells the history command to
1202 list only the last 'n' commands in the history list. Finally,
1203 you can disable history (subsequent entries won´t be written to
1204 the history file) via history off (you can also use the HistIg‐
1205 nore option in the configuration file to prevent specific com‐
1206 mand lines from being added to the history list).
1207 You can use the exclamation mark (!) to perform some history
1209 commands:
1210 !<TAB>: List history entries
1211 !!: Execute the last command.
1212 !n: Execute the command number ´n´ in the history list.
1213 !-n: Execute the ´last - n´ command in the history list.
1214 !STRING: Execute the command starting with STRING. TAB comple‐
1215 tion is available in this case: !STRING<TAB>.
1216 icons [on, off]
1218 toggle icons on/off
1219 j [--purge [NUM]] [--edit], jc, jl, jp [STR]..., je
1221 j is the fastest way of using Kangaroo, a directory jumper func‐
1222 tion used to quickly navigate through the jump database (i.e. a
1223 database of visited directories).
1224 With no argument, j just lists the entries in the jump database
1226 [1m(1), printing: a) order number of the corresponding entry, b)
1227 total sum of visits, c) days since the first visit, d) hours
1228 since the last visit, e) the rank value, and f) the directory
1229 name itself. An asterisk next to the rank value means that the
1230 corresponding directory will not be removed from the database,
1231 despite its rank, either becuase it has been visited in the
1232 lasat 24 hours, or because it is bookmarked, pinned, or cur‐
1233 rently active in some workspace.
1234 [1m(1) To prevent a directory from being added to the jump database
1236 use the DirhistIgnore option in the main configuration file.
1237 Otherwise, if a query string is provided as parameter, j
1239 searches for this string in the database and cd into the best
1240 ranked matching entry. Example: j Down will probably take you to
1241 /home/user/Downloads, provided this directory has been already
1242 visited and is the best ranked match in the database. For a more
1243 detailed description of the matching algorithm see the KANGAROO
1244 FRECENCY ALGORITHM section below.
1245 Multiple query strings could be passed to the function. For ex‐
1247 ample, j et mo will first check for "et" in the jump database
1248 and then will further filter the search using the second parame‐
1249 ter: "mo". It will most probably take you (again, provided the
1250 directory has been already visited and is the best ranked match)
1251 to /etc/modprobe.d directory. Bear in mind that if STR is an ac‐
1252 tual directory, jump will just cd into it without performing any
1253 query.
1254 The backslash (\) and the slash (/) could be used to instruct
1256 Kangaroo to search for the string query only in the first or
1257 last path segment of each entry in the database respectively.
1258 Let´s suppose we have two entries matching src in the database:
1259 /media/src/images and /home/user/Downloads/clifm/src. If the
1260 first entry is better ranked than the second, j src will match
1261 this first entry. However, if what we really want is the second
1262 entry, appending a slash to the query string instructs Kangaroo
1263 to only match entries having src in the last path segment, here
1264 /home/user/Downloads/clifm/src.
1265 Since it is not always obvious or easy to know where exactly a
1267 query string will take you, clifm (if the suggestions system is
1268 enabled) will print, at the right of the cursor, the path
1269 matched by Kangaroo. If that is the actually intended path,
1270 press the Right arrow key to accept the suggestion. Otherwise,
1271 it will be ignored. You can also use TAB completion to print the
1272 list of matches for the current query string. For example: j -
1273 c<TAB> to list all entries in the directory history list con‐
1274 taining a dash (-) and a ´c´.
1275 j accepts four modifiers: ´e´, ´p´ ´c´, and ´l´, the first
1277 standing for "edit", the second for "parent", the third for
1278 "child", and the last one for "list". Thus, je (or j --edit)
1279 will open the jump database to be edited if needed; jc will
1280 search for files querying only child directories relative to the
1281 current working directory, while jp will do the same but for
1282 parent directories. Finally, jl just prints the matches for the
1283 given query string(s), but without changing the current direc‐
1284 tory. Examples:
1285 ┌────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
1288 │Command │ Description │
1289 ├────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
1290 │jp foo │ Change to the best ranked parent directory containing the string "foo". │
1291 ├────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
1292 │jc bar test │ Change to the best ranked child directory containing the string "bar" and "test" │
1293 ├────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
1294 │jl foo │ Print all entries in the database containing the word "foo" │
1295 └────────────┴──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
1296 [1m(1) TAB completion is available to expand order numbers into
1298 the corresponding paths.
1299 Use the --purge option to shrink the database. Without further
1301 parameters, --purge removes all non-existent (un-stat´able) di‐
1302 rectories from the database. If a numeric parameter is passed,
1303 by contrast, all entries ranked below this number will be re‐
1304 moved from the database. For example, j --purge 100 will remove
1305 all entries ranked below 100.
1306 You can also manually edit the database file using the je (or j
1308 --edit) command: edit whatever needs to be edited, save changes,
1309 and close the editor. This is useful, for example, to remove a
1310 specific entry/directory from the database.
1311 An alternative way of navigating the jump database is using the
1313 jumper plugin (located in the plugins directory and bound by de‐
1314 fault to the "++" action name), which uses fzf to enable fuzzy
1315 searches. Enter ++ to perform a fuzzy search over the jump data‐
1316 base.
1317 Take a look at the dh command as well.
1319 kb, keybinds [list] [edit [APP]] [reset] [readline]
1321 with no argument (or if the argument is list), prints the cur‐
1322 rent keyboard codes and their associated functions. To edit the
1323 keybindings file, use the edit option (the file will be opened
1324 with APP, if specified, or with the default associated applica‐
1325 tion otherwise). If you somehow messed up your keybindings, use
1326 the ´reset´ option to create a fresh keybindings file with the
1327 default values. To list readline keybindings, use the readline
1328 option. Bear in mind that these keybindings are not provided by
1329 clifm, but by readline itself, and as such depend on the system
1330 settings (they can be customized however via the ~/.inputrc
1331 file).
1332 l, le Create (l) or edit (le) symbolic links.
1334 The syntax for the l command is: l TARGET [LINK_NAME]. Note that
1336 if LINK_NAME is omitted, the symbolic link is created as TAR‐
1337 GET_BASENAME.link in the current directory.
1338 To edit the target of a symbolic link use the le command fol‐
1340 lowed by the desired link name. The user will be prompted to en‐
1341 ter a new link target, using the current one as template.
1342 ll, lv [on, off]
1344 Toggle long/detail view mode
1345 lm [on, off]
1347 Toggle the light mode on/off. This option, aimed at making files
1348 listing faster than the default mode, is especially useful for
1349 really old hardware or when working on remote machines (for more
1350 information see the NOTE ON SPEED section below).
1351 log [cmd [list, on, off, status, clear]] [msg [list, on, off, status,
1353 clear]]
1354 Enable, disable, clear, list or check the status of the program
1355 logs, either message (errors and warnings) or command logs. Ex‐
1356 ample: log cmd on, to enable command logs, or log msg clear, to
1357 clear/remove message logs.
1358 Consult the FILES section below for information about how logs
1360 are written into the logs file.
1361 media
1363 NOTE: This command is Linux-specific
1365 List available storage devices and mount/unmount the selected
1367 one using either udevil or udisks2 (at least one of these must
1368 be installed. udevil will be preferred over udisks2). If the de‐
1369 vice is unmounted, it will be automatically mounted, and if
1370 mounted, it will be automatically unmounted.
1371 Though mountpoints are determined by the mounting application
1373 itself (udevil or udisks2), clifm will automatically cd into the
1374 corresponding mountpoint whenever the mount operation was suc‐
1375 cesfull.
1376 When unmounting, and if the current directory is inside the
1378 mountpoint, clifm will attempt to cd into the previous visited
1379 directory, and, if none, into the home directory, before un‐
1380 mounting the device.
1381 To get information about a device, enter iELN, for example, i12,
1383 provided ´12´ is the ELN of the device you want.
1384 mf [NUM, unset]
1386 List only up to NUM files (valid range: >= 0). Use unset to list
1387 all files (default). An indicator (listed_files/total_files)
1388 will be printed below the list of files whenever some file is
1389 excluded from the current list (e.g. 20/310). Note however that
1390 though some files are excluded, all of them are loaded anyway,
1391 so that you can still perform any valid operation on them. For
1392 example, even if only 10 files are listed, you can still search
1393 for ALL symbolic links in the corresponding directory using the
1394 appropriate command: /* -l.
1395 mm, mime [open FILE] [info FILE] [edit [APP]] [import]
1397 This is Lira, clifm's resource opener.
1398 Use the open subcommand to open a file with the default associ‐
1400 ated application. Note that, since open is the default action,
1401 it can be omitted. For example: mm file.pdf. The same can be
1402 achieved more easily via the open command: open file.pdf (or us‐
1403 ing the short command, o file.pdf). Or, even shorter, just
1404 file.pdf.
1405 The info option prints MIME information about FILE: its MIME
1407 type, and, if any, the application associated to this file name
1408 or to the file's MIME type.
1409 The edit option allows you to edit and customize the MIME list
1411 file. So, if a file has no default associated application, first
1412 get its MIME info or its file extension (running mm info FILE),
1413 and then add a value for it to the MIME list file using the edit
1414 option (mm edit or F6). Check the RESOURCE OPENER section below
1415 for information about the mimelist file syntax.
1416 Finally, via the import option clifm will try to import MIME as‐
1418 sociations from the system looking for mimeapps.list files in
1419 those paths specified by the Freedesktop specification (see
1420 https://specifications.freedesk‐
1421 top.org/mime-apps-spec/mime-apps-spec-latest.html). If at least
1422 one MIME association is successfuly imported, it will be stored
1423 as mimelist.clifm.XXXXXX (where XXXXXX is a random six digits
1424 alphanumerical string). You can add these new associations to
1425 your mimelist file using the mime edit command.
1426 mp, mountpoints
1428 list available mountpoints and change the current working direc‐
1429 tory to the selected mountpoint.
1430 msg, messages [clear]
1432 with no arguments, prints the list of messages in the current
1433 session. The clear option tells clifm to empty the messages
1434 list.
1435 n, new [FILE]... [DIR/]...
1437 create new empty files and/or directories.
1438 If a file name ends with a slash (/), it will be taken as a di‐
1440 rectory name. Else, it will be created as a regular file. Ex:
1441 n myfile mydir/, to create a file named myfile and a directory
1442 named mydir. If no file name is provided, the user will be asked
1443 to enter one.
1444 File name validation is performed over names before creation. In
1446 case of an unsafe name, the user is warned and asked for confir‐
1447 mation.
1448 A name (namely, any component of a path) is considered unsafe
1450 if:
1451 1. Starts with a dash (-): command option flags collision
1452 2. Is a reserved keyword/expression (internal): fastback
1453 (...), ELN/range (12, 1-45), and MIME/file type expansion
1454 (@query, =x)
1455 3. Is a reserved system/shell keyword (´~´, ´.´ ,´..´)
1456 4. Contains embedded control characters (0x00-0x1f in the
1457 ASCII table)
1458 5. Contains embedded shell meta-characters
1459 (*?:[]"<>|(){}&'!\;$)
1460 6. It is too long (larger than NAME_MAX, usually 255 bytes)
1461 For more information about unsafe file names consult
1463 https://dwheeler.com/essays/fixing-unix-linux-filenames.html.
1464 net [NAME] [list] [edit] [m, mount NAME] [u, unmount NAME]
1466 1. The configuration file
1467 The net command manages connections to remote systems via a sim‐
1469 ple samba-like configuration file ($HOME/.config/clifm/pro‐
1470 files/PROFILE/nets.clifm). Here you can specify multiple remotes
1471 and options for each of these remotes. Syntax example for this
1472 file:
1473 [remote_name]
1475 Comment=A nice descriptive comment
1476 Mountpoint=/path/to/mountpoint
1477 MountCmd=sudo mount.cifs //192.168.0.12/share %m -o OPTIONS
1478 UnmountCmd=sudo umount %m
1479 AutoUnmount=true (Auto-unmount this remote at exit)
1480 AutoMount=false (Auto-mount this remote at startup)
1481 Note: %m could be used as a placeholder for Mountpoint. %m will
1483 be replaced by the value of Mountpoint.
1484 1.a. Mounting remote file systems
1486 A Samba share:
1488 [samba_share]
1489 Comment=My samba share
1490 Mountpoint="~/.config/clifm/mounts/smb_share"
1491 MountCmd=sudo mount.cifs //192.168.0.26/samba_share %m -o
1492 mapchars,credentials=/etc/samba/credentials/samba_share
1493 UnmountCmd=sudo umount %m
1494 AutoUnmount=false
1495 AutoMount=false
1496 A SSH file system (sshfs):
1498 [ssh_share]
1499 Comment=My ssh share
1500 Mountpoint="/media/ssh"
1501 MountCmd=sshfs user@192.168.0.26: %m -C -p 22
1502 UnmountCmd=fusermount3 -u %m
1503 AutoUnmount=true
1504 AutoMount=false
1505 1.b. Mounting local file systems
1507 Though originally intended to manage remote file systems, net
1509 can also manage local file systems. Just provide the appropriate
1510 mount and unmount commands. Since the device name assigned by
1511 the kernel might change accross reboots (specially when it comes
1512 to removable drives), it is recommended to mount using the de‐
1513 vice´s UUID (Universal Unique Identifier) instead of the drive
1514 name. For example:
1515 MountCmd=sudo mount -U c98d91g4-6781... %m
1517 Here´s an example of how to set up net to mount USB devices, one
1519 with a FAT file system, and another with an ISO9660 file system:
1520 [Sandisk USB]
1522 Comment=Sandisk USB drive
1523 Mountpoint="/media/usb"
1524 MountCmd=sudo mount -o gid=1000,fmask=113,dmask=002 -U
1525 5847-xxxx %m
1526 UnmountCmd=sudo umount %m
1527 AutoUnmount=false
1528 AutoMount=false
1529 [Kingston USB]
1531 Comment=Kingston USB drive
1532 Mountpoint="/media/usb2"
1533 MountCmd=sudo mount -t iso9660 -U 2020-10-01-15-xx-yy-zz %m
1534 UnmountCmd=sudo umount %m
1535 AutoUnmount=false
1536 AutoMount=false
1537 NOTE: The gid, fmask, and dmask options are used to allow the
1539 user to access the mountpoint without elevated privileges.
1540 If the device data is unknown, as it often happens when it comes
1542 to removable devices, you should use the media command instead.
1543 2. Command syntax
1545 Without arguments (or via the list subcommand), net lists the
1547 configuration for each remote available in the configuration
1548 file.
1549 Use the edit option to edit the remotes configuration file. If
1551 no further argument is specified, the file will be opened with
1552 the current resource opener. However, you can pass an applica‐
1553 tion as second parameter to open to configuration file. Example:
1554 ´net edit nano´.
1555 If not already mounted, the m, mount option mounts the specified
1557 remote using the mount command and the mounpoint specified in
1558 the confifuration file and automatically cd into the correspond‐
1559 ing mountpoint. Example: net m smb_work. Since mount is the de‐
1560 fault action, it can be omitted: net smb_work.
1561 The u, unmount option unmounts the specified remote using the
1563 unmount command specified in the configuration file. For exam‐
1564 ple: net u smb_work. TAB completion is also available for this
1565 function.
1566 NOTE: If you only need to copy some files to a remote location
1568 (including mobile phones) without the need to mount the re‐
1569 source, you can make use of the cprm.sh plugin, bound by default
1570 to the cr action. Set up your remotes (cr --edit) and then send
1571 the file you want (cr FILE).
1572 o, open ELN/FILE [APPLICATION]
1574 open FILE, which can be either a directory, in which case it
1575 works just like the cd command (see above), a regular file, or a
1576 symbolic link to either of the two. For example: o 12, o file‐
1577 name, o /path/to/filename.
1578 By default, the open function will open files with the default
1580 application associated to them via Lira, the built-in resource
1581 opener (see the mime command above). However, if you want to
1582 open a file with a different application, add the application
1583 name as second argument, e.g. o 12 leafpad or o12 leafpad.
1584 If you want to run the program in the background, simply add the
1586 ampersand character, as usual: o 12 &, o 12&, o12& or (if
1587 auto-open is enabled) just 12&.
1588 If the file to be opened is an archive/compressed file, the ar‐
1590 chive function (see the ad command above) will be executed in‐
1591 stead.
1592 oc ELN/FILE...
1594 Interactively change files ownership
1595 A new prompt is displayed using user and primary group common to
1597 all files passed as parameters as ownership template.
1598 Ownership (both user and primary group, if specified) is changed
1600 for all files passed as parameters. If the file is a symbolic
1601 link, the operation is performed on the target file, and not on
1602 the symbolic link itself. Bear in mind that recursion is not
1603 supported: use chown(1) (with the -R option) instead.
1604 Both names and ID numbers are allowed (TAB completion for names
1606 is available).
1607 If only a name/number is entered, it is taken as the user who
1609 owns the file(s).
1610 Use the pc command to edit files permissions.
1612 opener [default] [APPLICATION]
1614 with no argument, prints the currently used resource opener (by
1615 default, Lira, clifm´s built-in opener). Otherwise, set APPLICA‐
1616 TION (say rifle or xdg-open) as opener or, if default is passed
1617 instead, use Lira.
1618 ow ELN/FILE [APPLICATION]
1620 If APPLICATION is specified, open ELN/FILE with APPLICATION. In
1621 case you need to add parameters to APPLICATION, it is recom‐
1622 mended to quote the expression: ow FILE "APP ARG...".
1623 If no APPLICATION is specified, the list of available applica‐
1625 tions associated to ELN/FILE (either via its MIME type or its
1626 file extension) is printed, allowing the user to choose one of
1627 these applications, and then open the file with the selected ap‐
1628 plication.
1629 This command supports TAB completion. Type "ow filename <TAB>"
1631 and those applications able to open ELN/FILE will be listed.
1632 p, pp, prop ELN/FILE...
1634 print file properties for ELN/FILE. The output of this function
1635 is much like the combined output of ls -l and stat.
1636 By default, directories size is not shown. Use pp instead of
1638 just p to print directories size as well (it could take longer
1639 depending on the directory's content). On the other side, and
1640 unlike p, pp provides information about the dereferenced sym‐
1641 links (namely, the symlink target) instead of the symlink it‐
1642 self. However, note that, in case of symbolic links to directo‐
1643 ries, p provides information about the link target if the pro‐
1644 vided file name ends with a slash. Otherwise, information about
1645 the link itself is displayed.
1646 The time format used to display time information can be custom‐
1648 ized via the PTimeStyle option in the configuration file (de‐
1649 faults to "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S.%N %z", where %N stands for
1650 nano-second precision).
1651 If you need to list the properties of all files in the current
1653 directory, try the long view mode (ll or Alt-l). Fields dis‐
1654 played in this mode can be customized using the PropFields op‐
1655 tion in the configuration file. For custom timestamp formats use
1656 the TimeStyle option.
1657 For more information about file details consult the file-details
1659 help topic: help file-details.
1660 pc ELN/FILE...
1662 Interactively change files permissions (only traditional Unix
1663 permissions are supported).
1664 A new prompt is displayed using actual permissions (in symbolic
1666 notation) of the file to be edited as template. If editing mul‐
1667 tiple files with different sets of permissions, only shared per‐
1668 mission bits are set in the permissions template.
1669 Bear in mind that, if editing multiple files at once, say pc sel
1671 or pc *.c, the new permissions set will be applied to all of
1672 them.
1673 Both symbolic and octal notation for the new permissions set are
1675 allowed.
1676 Recursivelly setting file permissions is not supported. Use
1678 chmod(1) with the -R flag instead.
1679 If you just need to toggle the executable permission bit on a
1681 file, you can use the te command.
1682 Use the oc command to edit files ownership.
1684 pf, profile [ls, list] [set, add, del PROFILE] [rename PROFILE
1686 NEW_NAME]
1687 with no arguments, prints the name of the currently used pro‐
1688 file. Use the ls or list option to list available profiles. To
1689 switch, add, delete, or rename a profile, use the set, add, del,
1690 and rename options respectively.
1691 pg, pager [on, off, status, [NUM]]
1693 toggle Mas, the built-in pager, on/off. Useful to list directo‐
1694 ries with hundreds or thousands of files, the pager will start
1695 working, if set to on, whenever the screen is not enough to list
1696 all files.
1697 Set it to any positive integer greater than 1 to run the pager
1699 whenever the amount of files in the current directory is greater
1700 than or equal to this value, say 1000 (0 amounts to off and 1 to
1701 on).
1702 Once in the pager, press the Down arrow key, Space or Enter to
1704 move downwards one line, or PageDown to move downwards an entire
1705 page. To go upwards, use the shortcuts provided by your terminal
1706 emulator, for example, Alt-PageUp or Alt-Up. Press ´c´, ´p´, or
1707 ´q´ keys to stop the pager, and ´h´ or ´?´ for help.
1708 pin [FILE/DIR]
1710 pin a file or a directory to be accessed later via the comma (,)
1711 keyword. For example, run pin mydir and then access mydir as
1712 follows: cd where the comma is automatically expanded to the
1713 pinned file, in this case mydir. The comma keyword could be used
1714 with any command, either internal or external, e.g, ls .
1715 With no arguments, the pin command prints the current pinned
1717 file, if any. If an argument is given, it will be taken as a
1718 file name to be pinned. Running this command again, frees the
1719 previous pinned file and sets a new one. In other words, only
1720 one pin is supported at a time.
1721 An easy alternative to create as many pins or shortcuts as you
1723 want, and how you want, is to use the alias function. Bookmarks
1724 could also be used to achieve a very similar result.
1725 At program exit, the pinned file is written to a file in the
1727 configuration directory (as .pin) to be loaded in the next ses‐
1728 sion.
1729 prompt [set NAME] [list] [edit [APP]] [unset] [reload]
1731 Manage clifm's prompts. Use the set subcommand to temporarily
1732 change the current prompt to the prompt named NAME (use the un‐
1733 set subcommand to unset the current prompt and set the default
1734 one). Available prompts (which can be listed via prompt list or
1735 prompt set <TAB>) are defined in the prompts file ($HOME/.con‐
1736 fig/clifm/prompts.clifm). To permanently set a prompt, edit your
1737 color scheme file (via the cs edit command) and set Prompt to
1738 either a prompt code or a prompt name (as defined in the prompts
1739 file).
1740 q, quit, exit, Q
1742 Gracefully quit clifm. Use Q to gracefully quit and enable the
1743 CD on quit functionality (write last visited directory to
1744 $XDG_CONFIG/clifm/.last to be later read by a shell function.
1745 See the SHELL FUNCTIONS section below).
1746 rf, refresh
1748 refresh the screen, that is, reprint files in the current direc‐
1749 tory and update the prompt. If the current directory is not ac‐
1750 cessible for any reason, rf will go up until it finds an acces‐
1751 sible one and then will change to that directory.
1752 rl, reload
1754 Reload all settings, except those passed as command line argu‐
1755 ments, from the configuration file.
1756 rr [DIR] [EDITOR]
1758 Remove files and/or directories in bulk using a text editor.
1759 rr sends all files in DIR (or in the current directory if DIR is
1761 omitted) to a temporary file and opens it using EDITOR (or the
1762 default associated application for text/plain MIME type, if EDI‐
1763 TOR is omitted).
1764 Once in the editor, remove the lines corresponding to the files
1766 you want to delete. Save changes and close the editor. Removed
1767 files will be listed and the user asked for confirmation.
1768 s, sel ELN/FILE... [[!]PATTERN] [-filetype] [:PATH]
1770 send one or multiple files (either regular files or directories)
1771 to the Selection Box. sel accepts individual elements, range of
1772 elements, say 1-6, file names and paths, just as wildcards
1773 (globbing) and regular expressions. Example: s 1 4-10 ^r file*
1774 filename /path/to/filename.
1775 If not in light mode, once a file is selected, and if the file
1777 is in the current working directory, the corresponding file name
1778 will be marked with an asterisk (colored according to the value
1779 of li in the color scheme file (by default bold green)), at the
1780 left of the file name (and at the right of its ELN).
1781 Just as in the search function, it is also possible to further
1783 filter the list of matches indicating the desired file type. For
1784 instance, s ^ -d will select all directories in the current
1785 working directory. For available file type filters see the
1786 search function above.
1787 By default, the selection function operates on the current work‐
1789 ing directory. To select files in any other directory use the
1790 ":PATH" expression. For example, to select all regular files
1791 with a .conf extension in the /etc directory, the command would
1792 be: s .*\.conf$ -f :/etc, or using wildcards: s *.conf -f :/etc.
1793 Of course, you can also do just s -f /etc/*.conf.
1794 Just as in the case of the search function, inverse matching is
1796 supported for patterns, either wildcards or regular expressions.
1797 To invert the meaning and action of a pattern, prepend an excla‐
1798 mation mark (!). E.g., to select all non-hidden regular files in
1799 the Documents directory, issue this command: s !^. -f :Docu‐
1800 ments, or, to select all directories in /etc, except those end‐
1801 ing with ".d": s !*.d -d :/etc.
1802 Glob and regular expressions could be used together. For exam‐
1804 ple: s ^[r|R].*d$ /etc/*.conf will select all files starting
1805 with either 'r' or 'R' and ending with 'd' in the current work‐
1806 ing directory, plus all .conf files in the /etc directory. How‐
1807 ever, this use is discouraged if both patterns refer to the same
1808 directory, since the second one will probably override the re‐
1809 sult of the first one.
1810 It is important to note that glob expressions are evaluated be‐
1812 fore regular expressions, in such a way that any pattern that
1813 could be understood by both kinds of pattern matching mechanisms
1814 will be evaluated first according to the former, that is, as a
1815 glob expression. For example, '.*', as regular expression,
1816 should match all files. However, since glob expressions are
1817 evaluated first, it will only match hidden files. To select all
1818 files using a glob expression, try ´.* *´, or, with a regular
1819 expression: ´^´ or ´(.*?)´. The keyboard shortcut Alt-a is also
1820 available to perform the same operation.
1821 The Selection Box is accessible from different instances of the
1823 program, provided they use the same profile (see the profile
1824 command below). By default, indeed, each profile keeps a private
1825 Selection Box, being thus not accessible to other profiles. You
1826 can nonetheless modify this behavior via the ShareSelbox option
1827 in the configuration file. If ShareSelbox is enabled, selected
1828 files are stored in /tmp/clifm/username/.selbox.clifm. Other‐
1829 wise, /tmp/clifm/username/.selbox_profilename.clifm is used
1830 (this is the default).
1831 Operating on selected files
1833 To operate on one or more selected files use the sel keyword (s:
1835 can be used as well). For example, to print the file properties
1836 of all selected files: p sel (or p s:). Use s:<TAB> to list se‐
1837 lected files (multi-selection is available if running in FZF
1838 mode).
1839 Listing selected files
1841 To list selected files use the sb command (standing for Selec‐
1843 tion Box). You can also type s:<TAB>.
1844 Deselecting files
1846 To deselect files use the ds command. See above. You can also
1848 press Alt-d to deselect all files at once.
1849 Note: If there is a file named sel in the current directory,
1851 use ./sel to distinguish it from the sel keyword. For example,
1852 enter p ./sel to tell CliFM that you want to get the properties
1853 of the file named sel rather than the properties of the cur‐
1854 rently selected files.
1855 For more information consult the BUILT-IN EXPANSIONS section be‐
1857 low.
1858 sb, selbox
1860 show the elements currently contained in the Selection Box.
1861 splash show the splash screen.
1863 st, sort [METHOD] [rev]
1865 with no argument, print the current sorting order. Else, set
1866 sorting order to METHOD, where METHOD could be one of: 0 = none,
1867 1 = name, 2 = size, 3 = atime, 4 = btime (ctime, if btime is not
1868 available), 5 = ctime, 6 = mtime, 7 = version (name, if ctime is
1869 not available), 8 = extension, and 9 = inode, 10 = owner, and 11
1870 = group. Both numbers and names are allowed. Bear in mind that
1871 methods 10 and 11 sort by owner and group ID number, not by
1872 owner and group names. The default is version.
1873 By default, files are sorted from less to more (ex: from ´a´ to
1875 ´z´ if using the "name" method). Use the rev option to invert
1876 this order. Ex: st rev or st 3 rev. Switch back to the previous
1877 ordering running st rev again.
1878 stats print statistics about files in the current directory (not
1880 available in light mode).
1881 t, trash [ELN/FILE]... [ls, list] [clear, empty] [del [FILE]...]]
1883 with no argument (or by passing the ls option), it prints the
1884 list of currently trashed files. The clear or empty parameter
1885 removes all files from the trash can, while the del parameter
1886 lists trashed files allowing the user to remove one or more of
1887 them. If using del, TAB completion to list/select currently
1888 trashed files is available.
1889 The trash directory is $XDG_DATA_HOME/Trash, usually ~/.lo‐
1891 cal/share/Trash. Since this trash system follows the Freedesktop
1892 specification, it is able to handle files trashed by different
1893 Trash implementations.
1894 To undelete/untrash trashed files see the undel command below.
1896 tag [add, del, list, list-full, new, merge, rename, untag] [FILE]...
1898 [[:]TAG]
1899 tag is the main Etiqueta command, clifm's built-in files tagging
1900 system. See the FILE TAGS section for a complete description of
1901 this command.
1902 te FILE...
1904 toggle executable bit (on user, group, and others) on FILE(s).
1905 It is equivalent to the -x and +x options for the chmod(1) com‐
1906 mand.
1907 tips print the list of clifm tips
1909 u, undel, untrash [*, a, all] [FILE]...
1911 If file names are passed as parameters, undelete these files,
1912 that is, restore them to their original location. Otherwise,
1913 this function prints a list of currently trashed files allowing
1914 you to choose one or more of these files to be undeleted. Use
1915 the *, a or all parameters to undelete all trashed files at
1916 once. TAB completion to list/select currently trashed files is
1917 available.
1918 unpin this command takes no argument. It just frees the current pin
1920 and, if it exists, deletes the .pin file generated by the pin
1921 command..TP vv FILE... DIR copy FILE(s) into DIR and bulk rename
1922 them at once.
1923 ver, version
1925 show clifm version details.
1926 view [edit [APP]]
1928 preview files in the current directory (full screen). Requires
1929 fzf(1). Alt+- is also available.
1930 To edit the previewer configuration file, enter view edit, or
1932 view edit vi to open it with a specific application, in this
1933 case, vi(1).
1934 By pressing Enter or Right, the currently highlighted file will
1936 be selected and view closed. To select multiple files, mark them
1937 with the TAB key and then press Enter or Right to confirm. To
1938 quit view press Escape or Left.
1939 For image previews consult the Wiki
1941 (https://github.com/leo-arch/clifm/tree/master/misc/tools/img‐
1942 prev).
1943 For further information consult the SHOTGUN section below.
1945 ws [NUM/NAME [unset], +, -]
1947 clifm offers up to eight workspaces, each with its own indepen‐
1948 dent path.
1949 With no argument, the ws command prints the list of workspaces
1951 and its corresponding paths, highlighting the current workspace.
1952 Use NUM to switch to the workspace number NUM, NAME to switch to
1954 the workspace named NAME, the plus sign (+) to switch to the
1955 next workspace, and the minus sign (-) to switch to the previous
1956 workspace.
1957 To unset a workspace use the unset subcommand preceded by the
1959 workspace (either number or name) to be unset. For example: ws 2
1960 unset.
1961 Four keyboard shortcuts are available to easily switch to any of
1963 the first four workspaces: Alt-[1-4].
1964 Every time an empty workspace is created, it starts in the cur‐
1966 rent working directory.
1967 Though by default workspaces are unnamed, you can name them
1969 wathever you like using the WorkspaceNames option in the config‐
1970 uration file.
1971 Use autocommands to persistenly set options per workspace, for
1973 example, to always list files in the third workspace in long
1974 view. See the AUTOCOMMANDS section below for more information.
1975 Make local settings private to the current workspace by setting
1977 the PrivateWorkspaceSettings option to true in the configuration
1978 file: settings changed via either the command line or keyboard
1979 shortcuts (say Alt-l, to toggle the long view) will apply only
1980 to the current workspace and will be remembered even when
1981 switching workspaces.
1982 x, X [DIR]
1984 open DIR, or the current working directory if DIR is not speci‐
1985 fied, in a new instance of clifm (as root if X, as the current
1986 unprivileged user if x) using the value of TerminalCmd (from the
1987 configuration file) as terminal emulator. If this value is not
1988 set, xterm will be used as fallback terminal emulator. This
1989 function is only available for graphical environments.
1990 Shell-builtins implementations
1992 pwd [-LP]
1994 print the current working directory
1996 export NAME=VALUE...
1998 export variables to the environment
2000 umask [VALUE]
2002 print/set the current umask value
2004 unset NAME
2006 remove a variable from the environment
2008
2011 Clifm provides multiple ways to filter the current list of files:
2012 a) Hidden files: via the -A and -a command line flags, the hf command,
2014 and the Alt-. keybinding.
2015 b) Directories: via the --only-dirs command line switch and the Alt-,
2017 keybinding.
2018 c) File names and file types: either via a regular expression or a file
2020 type character (see below) using the ft command (the Filter option in
2021 the configuration file and the CLIFM_FILTER environment variable are
2022 also available). For example, to exclude backup files (ending with a
2023 tilde):
2024 CLIFM_FILTER=´!.*~$´ clifm
2026 or (in the configuration file):
2028 Filter="!.*~$"
2030 or (via the ft command):
2032 ft !.*~$
2034 See the ft command for a few more examples.
2036 d) Filtering files via the TAB key:
2038 You can filter files by name using wildcards. For example: p *.mp3<TAB>
2040 (or /*.mp3<TAB>) to get a list of MP3 files in the current directory.
2041 Files can also be filtered by MIME-type via the ´@´ keyword. Type
2043 @<TAB> to list all MIME-types found in the current directory, or
2044 @query<TAB> to list all files whose MIME-type includes the string
2045 "query". For example, @image<TAB> will list all files in the current
2046 directory whose MIME type includes the string "image".
2047 Finally, files can be filtered as well by file type using the ´=´ key‐
2049 word followed by a file type character (see below). For example,
2050 =l<TAB> to get a list of symbolic links in the current directory.
2051 Note: If using TAB completion in fzf mode, multi-selection is allowed
2053 (except in the case of @<TAB>).
2054 Available file type characters:
2056 b: Block devices
2058 c: Character devices
2059 C: Files with capabilities (1)(2)
2060 d: Directories
2061 f: Regular files
2062 g: SGID files (2)
2063 h: Multi-hardlink files (directories excluded)
2064 l: Symbolic links
2065 o: Other-writable files (2)
2066 p: FIFO/pipes (2)
2067 s: Sockets (2)
2068 D: Doors (Solaris only)
2069 P: Event ports (Solaris only)
2070 t: Files with the sticky bit set (2)
2071 u: SUID files (2)
2072 x: Executable files (2)
2073 (1) Only for TAB completion
2075 (2) Not available in light mode
2076 e) Grouping files (via automatic expansion):
2078 By means of the above features, you can easily group and operate on
2080 groups of files. For example, this command:
2081 vt :b @image =x sel t:work *.txt
2083 opens a virtual directory (see the VIRTUAL DIRECTORIES section below)
2085 automatically expanding the above expressions as follows:
2086 ┌───────────┬────────────────────────────┐
2089 │Expression │ Description │
2090 ├───────────┼────────────────────────────┤
2091 │:b │ All your bookmarks (paths) │
2092 ├───────────┼────────────────────────────┤
2093 │@image │ All image files (CWD) │
2094 ├───────────┼────────────────────────────┤
2095 │=x │ All executable files (CWD) │
2096 ├───────────┼────────────────────────────┤
2097 │sel │ All selected files │
2098 ├───────────┼────────────────────────────┤
2099 │t:work │ All files tagged as work │
2100 ├───────────┼────────────────────────────┤
2101 │*.txt │ All .txt files (CWD) │
2102 └───────────┴────────────────────────────┘
2103
2105 Ctrl-Alt-j: Switch to vi editing mode
2106 Ctrl-Alt-e: Switch back to emacs editing mode (default)
2108 Right, Ctrl-f: Accept the entire current suggestion
2110 Alt-Right, Alt-f: Accept only the first word of the current suggestion
2112 (up to first slash or space)
2113 Alt-c: Clear the current command line buffer
2115 Alt-q: Delete last word (up to last slash or space)
2117 Alt-i, Alt-.: Toggle hidden files on/off
2119 Alt-l: Toggle long view mode on/off
2121 Alt-g: Toggle list-directories-first on/off
2123 Alt-,: Toggle list only directories on/off
2125 Ctrl-Alt-l: Toggle max file name length on/off
2127 Ctrl-Alt-i:, Alt-TAB: Toggle disk usage analyzer on/off
2129 Alt-w: Toggle full path file names in virtual directories
2131 Ctrl-l: Refresh the screen (reprint the list of files in the current
2133 directory)
2134 Alt-t: Clear program messages
2136 Alt-m: List mountpoints
2138 Alt-b: Launch the Bookmarks Manager
2140 Alt-h: Show directory history
2142 Alt-n: Create new file or directory
2144 Alt-s: Open the Selection Box
2146 Alt--: Launch the files previewer (view command)
2148 Alt-a: Select all files in the current working directory
2150 Alt-d: Deselect all selected files
2152 Alt-p: Change to pinned directory
2154 Alt-1: Switch to workspace 1
2156 Alt-2: Switch to workspace 2
2158 Alt-3: Switch to workspace 3
2160 Alt-4: Switch to workspace 4
2162 Alt-r: Change to root directory
2164 Alt-e, Home: Change to home directory
2166 Alt-u, Shift-Up: Change to parent directory
2168 Alt-j, Shift-Left: Change to previous visited directory
2170 Alt-k, Shift-Right: Change to next visited directory
2172 Ctrl-Alt-o: Switch to previous profile
2174 Ctrl-Alt-p: Switch to next profile
2176 Ctrl-Alt-a: Archive selected files
2178 Ctrl-Alt-e: Export selected files
2180 Ctrl-Alt-r: Rename selected files
2182 Ctrl-Alt-d: Remove selected files
2184 Ctrl-Alt-t: Trash selected files
2186 Ctrl-Alt-u: Restore trashed files
2188 Ctrl-Alt-g: Open/change-to last selected file/directory
2190 Ctrl-Alt-n: Move selected files into the current directory
2192 Ctrl-Alt-v: Copy selected files into the current directory
2194 Alt-y: Toggle light mode on/off
2196 Alt-z: Switch to previous sorting method
2198 Alt-x: Switch to next sorting method
2200 Ctrl-x: Launch a new instance of clifm
2202 Ctrl-y: Copy the contents of the line buffer to the clipboard [1m(1)
2204 F1: Go to the manpage
2206 F2: List commands
2208 F3: List keybindings
2210 F6: Open the MIME list file
2212 F7: Open the shotgun configuration file
2214 F8: Open the current color scheme file
2216 F9: Open the keybindings file
2218 F10: Open the main configuration file
2220 F11: Open the bookmarks file
2222 F12: Quit
2224 NOTE 1: Some of these keybindings might not work on your console/termi‐
2226 nal emulator, depending on your system. Some useful tips on this re‐
2227 gard:
2228 [1m(1) This shortcut is bound to the xclip plugin. See the PLUGINS section
2230 below for more information.
2231 Haiku terminal: Most of these keybindings won´t work on the Haiku ter‐
2233 minal, since Alt plays here the role Ctrl usually plays in most other
2234 systems (see the Haiku documentation). To fix this, set your custom
2235 keybindings.
2236 Kernel built-in console: Key sequences involving the Shift key (S-up,
2238 S-left, and S-right in our case) will just not work. Use the alterna‐
2239 tive key sequences instead: M-u, M-j, and M-k respectively
2240 NetBSD (wsvt25) and OpenBSD (vt220) kernel consoles: Key sequences in‐
2242 volving the Alt key won´t work out of the box. Here´s how to make it
2243 work:
2244 On OpenBSD:
2246 1) Copy /etc/examples/wsconsctl.conf to /etc (if it does not
2247 already exist)
2248 2) Add the metaesc flag to your current keyboard enconding. For
2249 example keyboard.encoding=us.metaesc
2250 You might need to reboot the machine for changes to take ef‐
2251 fect.
2252 On NetBSD:
2254 Add the metaesc flag to your current encoding in /etc/ws‐
2255 cons.conf. Example: encoding us.metaesc
2256 You might need to reboot the machine for changes to take ef‐
2257 fect.
2258 Konsole: If Shift+left and Shift+right are not already bound to any
2260 function, you need to bind them manually. Go to Settings -> Edit cur‐
2261 rent profile -> Keyboard -> Default (Xfree4), and add these values:
2262 Left+Shift \E[1;2D
2263 Right+Shift \E[1;2C
2264 If they are already bound, by contrast, you only need to unbound
2266 them. Go to "Settings -> Configure keyboard shortcuts", click on
2267 the corresponding keybinding, and set it to "Custom (none)").
2268 Terminology/Yakuake: Shift+left and Shift+right are already bound to
2270 other functions, so that you only need to unbind them or rebind the
2271 corresponding functions to different key sequences.
2272 Of course, the above two procedures should be similar in case of key‐
2274 binding issues in other terminal emulators.
2275 In case some of these keybindings are already used by your Window Man‐
2277 ager, you only need to unbind the key or rebind the corresponding func‐
2278 tion to another key. Since each Window Manager uses its own mechanisms
2279 to set/unset keybindings, you should consult the appropriate manual.
2280 Customizing keybindings
2282 The above are the default keyboard shortcuts. However, they can be
2284 freely modified using the ´kb edit´ command (or pressing F9), or edit‐
2285 ing the keybindings file (see the FILES section below) to your liking.
2286 Since clifm does not depend on the curses library, keybindings are set
2288 up via ANSI escape codes, for example, "\[17~" for the F6 key. The two
2289 main difficulties with ANSI escape codes are: 1) They are not intuitive
2290 at all, and 2) They vary depending on the terminal emulator used. This
2291 is why we provide a plugin (kbgen) to more easily configure your key‐
2292 bindings.
2293 The plugin can be found in the plugins directory as a C source file.
2295 The first step, therefore, is to compile this source file to produce a
2296 binary file. Compile as follows:
2297 gcc -o kbgen kbgen.c
2299 Note: Depending on your system, you might need to link against the
2301 curses library adding either -lcurses or -lncurses to the above line.
2302 Now, run the plugin by entering ´./kbgen´. Use either octal, hexadeci‐
2304 mal codes or symbols. Example: For F12 'kbgen' will print the following
2305 lines:
2306 Hex | Oct | Symbol
2308 ---- | ---- | ------
2309 \x1b | \033 | ESC (\e)
2310 \x5b | \133 | [
2311 \x32 | \062 | 2
2312 \x34 | \064 | 4
2313 \x7e | \176 | ~
2314 In this case, supposing you want to use F12 to open the configuration
2316 file, the keybinding would be any of the following:
2317 open-config:\x1b\x5b\x32\x34\x7e (Hex)
2319 open-config:\033\133\062\064\176 (Oct)
2320 open-config:\e[24~ (Symbol)
2321 GNU emacs escape sequences are also allowed (ex: "\M-a", Alt-a in most
2323 keyboards, or "\C-r" for Ctrl-r). Some codes, especially those involv‐
2324 ing keys like Ctrl or the arrow keys, vary depending on the terminal
2325 emulator and the system settings. These keybindings should be set up
2326 thus on a per terminal basis. You can also consult the terminfo data‐
2327 base via the infocmp command. See terminfo(5) and infocmp(1).
2328 Readline keybindings
2330 System readline keybindings for command line editing, such as Ctrl-a,
2332 to move the cursor to the beginning of the line, or Ctrl-e, to move it
2333 to the end, should work out of the box. Of course, you can modify read‐
2334 line keybindings using the $HOME/.inputrc file, either globally or for
2335 some specific terminal or application. In this latter case, it is pos‐
2336 sible to set keybindings specifically for clifm using the application
2337 construct, that is, telling readline that the following keybindings ap‐
2338 ply only to clifm. For example, to bind the function "kill-whole-line"
2339 to Ctrl-b, add the following lines to your .inputrc file:
2340 $if clifm
2342 "\C-b": kill-whole-line
2343 $endif
2344 Keybindings for plugins
2346 clifm provides four customizable keybindings for custom plugins. The
2348 procedure for setting a keybinding for a plugin is the following:
2349 1) Copy your plugin to the plugins directory (or use any of the
2350 plugins already in there)
2351 2) Link pluginx (where ´x´ is the plugin number [1-4]) to your
2352 plugin using the ´actions edit´ command. Ex: "plugin1=myplu‐
2353 gin.sh"
2354 3) Set a keybinding for pluginx using the ´kb edit´ command.
2355 Ex: "plugin1:\M-7"
2356
2359 All customization settings (theming) are made from a single configura‐
2360 tion file (the color scheme file), installed by default in
2361 XDG_DATA_DIRS/clifm/colors (usuallly /usr/local/share/clifm/colors or
2362 /usr/share/clifm/colors), though color scheme files found in XDG_CON‐
2363 FIG_HOME/clifm/colors (usually HOME/.config/clifm/colors) take prece‐
2364 dence.
2365 Note: Color scheme files are copied automatically into the local colors
2367 directory when running the cs edit command.
2368 Each color scheme may include any (or all) of the below options:
2370 FiletypeColors = Colors for different file types, such as directory,
2372 regular files, and so on. See the COLORS section below.
2373 InterfaceColors = Colors for clifm's interface, such as ELN's, file
2375 properties bits, suggestions, syntax highlighting, etc. See the COLORS
2376 section below.
2377 ExtColors = Colors for files based of file name's extension. See the
2379 COLORS section below.
2380 DateShades = A comma delimited list of colors used to print timestamps
2382 (long view). Consult the default color scheme file for more informa‐
2383 tion.
2384 SizeShades = A comma delimited list of colors used to print file sizes
2386 (long view). Consult the default color scheme file for more informa‐
2387 tion.
2388 DirIconColor = Color for the directory icon (when icons are enabled).
2390 See the COLORS section below. Only when using icons-in-terminal or Ner‐
2391 fonts. If using rather emoji-icons (default build), this option is ig‐
2392 nored.
2393 Prompt = Define CliFM´s prompt. See the THE PROMPT section below.
2395 DividingLine = The line dividing the current list of files and the
2397 prompt. See the THE DIVIDING LINE below.
2398 FzfTabOptions = Options to be passed to fzf when using the fzf mode
2400 for TAB completion, including colors. See the BUILT-IN EXPANSIONS sec‐
2401 tion below.
2402 The color scheme (or just theme) can be set either via the command line
2404 (--color-scheme=NAME), via the ColorScheme option in the main configu‐
2405 ration file, or using the cs command, for instance, cs mytheme. Enter
2406 just cs to list available color schemes (TAB completion is available).
2407 To edit the current color scheme enter cs edit.
2408 1. COLORS
2410 If 256 colors support is detected for the current terminal, and not set
2412 in any other way (either via the ColorScheme option in the configura‐
2413 tion file or the --color-scheme command line switch), clifm will at‐
2414 tempt to load the 256 colors version of the default color scheme: de‐
2415 fault-256. Otherwise, it falls back to the 16 colors version.
2416 All color codes are specified in the corresponding color scheme file
2418 (by default ~/.config/clifm/colors/default.clifm). You can edit this
2419 file pressing F8 or entering cs edit.
2420 Color codes
2422 Colors are specified using the same format used by dircolors(1) and the
2424 LS_COLORS environment variable, namely, a colon separated list of codes
2425 with this general format: name=value, where name refers to an interface
2426 element, and value to the color to be used by this element.
2427 This is the list of file type codes (you will find them in the File‐
2429 typeColors section of the current color scheme file):
2430 di = directory
2432 ed = empty directory
2433 nd = directory with no read/exec permission
2434 fi = regular file
2435 ef = empty regular file
2436 nf = file with no access permission
2437 ln = symlink
2438 mh = multi-hardlink file
2439 or = orphaned or broken symlink
2440 bd = block device
2441 cd = character device
2442 pi = FIFO, pipe
2443 so = socket
2444 su = SUID file
2445 sg = SGID file
2446 tw = sticky and other writable directory
2447 st = sticky and not other writable directory
2448 ow = other writable directory
2449 ex = executable file
2450 ee = empty executable file
2451 ca = file with capabilities
2452 oo = door/port (Solaris only)
2453 no = unknown file type
2454 uf = unaccessible files (fstatat(3) error)
2455 The following codes are used for different interface elements (in the
2458 InterfaceColors section of the current color scheme file):
2459 Suggestions
2461 sb = shell built-ins
2462 sc = aliases and shell command names
2463 sd = internal commands description
2464 sf = ELN's, bookmarks, tag, and file names
2465 sh = commands history entries
2466 sx = suggestions for clifm's internal commands and parameters
2467 sp = suggestions pointer (ex: 56 > filename, where '>' is the
2468 suggestion pointer)
2469 sz = file names (fuzzy)
2470 Syntax highlighting
2472 hb = brackets ´()[]{}´
2473 hc = comments (lines starting with '#')
2474 hd = slashes
2475 he = expansion chars ´~*´
2476 hn = numbers
2477 hp = option parameters (starting with ´-´)
2478 hq = quoted strings (both single and double quotes)
2479 hr = process redirection (>)
2480 hs = process separators (; & |)
2481 hv = variable names (starting with ´$´)
2482 hw = Backslash (aka whack)
2483 Prompt elements
2485 li = selected files
2486 ti = trash indicator
2487 em = error message indicator
2488 wm = warning message indicator
2489 nm = notice message indicator
2490 ro = read-only mode indicator
2491 si = stealth mode indicator
2492 tx = command line text (regular prompt)
2493 File properties
2495 dd = last access/change/modification time [1m(1)
2496 dg = file ID (UID, GID) whenever the current user owns the
2497 file or is in the file´s group
2498 dn = dash (unset property)
2499 do = octal value for file properties
2500 dp = SUID, SGID, sticky bit
2501 dr = read permission bit
2502 dw = write permission bit
2503 dxd = executable permission bit (directories)
2504 dxr = executable permission bit (regular files)
2505 dz = size [1m(1)
2506 [1m(1) If unset, gradient colors are used (based on file size and
2508 file age). This is the default.
2509 NOTE: For a better graphical representation of file properties,
2511 256 colors are used if possible (otherwise, clifm falls back to
2512 16 colors).
2513 Miscellaneous interface elements
2515 bm = bookmarked directory in the bookmarks screen
2516 fc = files counter
2517 df = default color
2518 dl = dividing line
2519 el = ELN color
2520 lc = Symbolic link indicator (ColorLinksAsTarget only)
2521 mi = misc indicators (disk usage, sort method, bulk rename,
2522 jump database list)
2523 ts = matching suffix for possible TAB completed entries
2524 tt = tilde for trimmed file names
2525 wc = welcome message
2526 wsN = color for workspace N (1-8)
2527 xs = exit code: success
2528 xf = exit code: failure
2529 Supported colors
2531 Colors are basically traditional ANSI color codes less the escape char‐
2533 acter and the final ´m´. Thus, for instance, if you want non-empty di‐
2534 rectories to be bold blue, add this to the FiletypeColors line in the
2535 corresponding color scheme file: di=01;34. If you want ELN's to be red,
2536 add this code to the InterfaceColors line: el=00;31
2537 Color codes can be used for file extensions as well (regular files
2539 only) using this format: *.ext=color. For example, to print C source
2540 files in bold green, add this to the ExtColors line in the correspond‐
2541 ing color scheme file: *.c=01;32
2542 Note: Non-accessible (non-readable by the current user), executable
2544 (including SUID and SGID) files, and files with capabilities take
2545 precedence over file extensions. For example, the file file.mp3, if ex‐
2546 ecutable, will be printed using the color code associated to executable
2547 files (ex) even if there is a color code associated to .mp3 files.
2548 Six digits hexadecimal color codes are supported as well using this
2550 general format: #RRGGBB[-[1-9]], where 1-9 is a display attribute. This
2551 is the list of attributes:
2552 1: Bold or increased intensity
2554 2: Faint, decreased intensity or dim
2555 3: Italic (Not widely supported)
2556 4: Underline
2557 5: Slow blink
2558 6: Rapid blink
2559 7: Reverse video or invert
2560 8: Conceal or hide (Not widely supported)
2561 9: Crossed-out or strike
2562 Note: Some attributes might not be supported by all terminal
2564 emulators.
2565 For example, if you want directories to be bold Spring Green:
2567 di=#00ff7f-1
2568 Finally, Xterm-like color names are also supported. For example:
2570 ex=DodgerBlue2.
2571 This is the list of color names (as defined by vifm(1)):
2573 0 Black 86 Aquamarine1 172 Orange3
2575 1 Red 87 DarkSlateGray2 173 Light‐
2576 Salmon3_2
2577 2 Green 88 DarkRed_2 174 Light‐
2578 Pink3
2579 3 Yellow 89 DeepPink4_2 175 Pink3
2580 4 Blue 90 DarkMagenta 176 Plum3
2581 5 Magenta 91 DarkMagenta_2 177 Violet
2582 6 Cyan 92 DarkViolet 178 Gold3_2
2583 7 White 93 Purple 179 Light‐
2584 Goldenrod3
2585 8 LightBlack 94 Orange4_2 180 Tan
2586 9 LightRed 95 LightPink4 181 Misty‐
2587 Rose3
2588 10 LightGreen 96 Plum4 182 Thistle3
2589 11 LightYellow 97 MediumPurple3 183 Plum2
2590 12 LightBlue 98 MediumPurple3_2 184 Yel‐
2591 low3_2
2592 13 LightMagenta 99 SlateBlue1 185 Khaki3
2593 14 LightCyan 100 Yellow4 186 Light‐
2594 Goldenrod2
2595 15 LightWhite 101 Wheat4 187
2596 LightYellow3
2597 16 Grey0 102 Grey53 188 Grey84
2598 17 NavyBlue 103 LightSlateGrey 189 Light‐
2599 SteelBlue1
2600 18 DarkBlue 104 MediumPurple 190 Yellow2
2601 19 Blue3 105 LightSlateBlue 191 DarkO‐
2602 liveGreen1
2603 20 Blue3_2 106 Yellow4_2 192 DarkO‐
2604 liveGreen1_2
2605 21 Blue1 107 DarkOliveGreen3 193 DarkSea‐
2606 Green1_2
2607 22 DarkGreen 108 DarkSeaGreen 194 Honey‐
2608 dew2
2609 23 DeepSkyBlue4 109 LightSkyBlue3 195 Light‐
2610 Cyan1
2611 24 DeepSkyBlue4_2 110 LightSkyBlue3_2 196 Red1
2612 25 DeepSkyBlue4_3 111 SkyBlue2 197 Deep‐
2613 Pink2
2614 26 DodgerBlue3 112 Chartreuse2_2 198 Deep‐
2615 Pink1
2616 27 DodgerBlue2 113 DarkOliveGreen3_2 199 Deep‐
2617 Pink1_2
2618 28 Green4 114 PaleGreen3_2 200 Ma‐
2619 genta2_2
2620 29 SpringGreen4 115 DarkSeaGreen3 201 Magenta1
2621 30 Turquoise4 116 DarkSlateGray3 202 Oran‐
2622 geRed1
2623 31 DeepSkyBlue3 117 SkyBlue1 203 Indi‐
2624 anRed1
2625 32 DeepSkyBlue3_2 118 Chartreuse1 204 Indi‐
2626 anRed1_2
2627 33 DodgerBlue1 119 LightGreen_2 205 HotPink
2628 34 Green3 120 LightGreen_3 206 Hot‐
2629 Pink_2
2630 35 SpringGreen3 121 PaleGreen1 207 Mediu‐
2631 mOrchid1_2
2632 36 DarkCyan 122 Aquamarine1_2 208 DarkOr‐
2633 ange
2634 37 LightSeaGreen 123 DarkSlateGray1 209 Salmon1
2635 38 DeepSkyBlue2 124 Red3 210 LightCo‐
2636 ral
2637 39 DeepSkyBlue1 125 DeepPink4_3 211 PaleVio‐
2638 letRed1
2639 40 Green3_2 126 MediumVioletRed 212 Orchid2
2640 41 SpringGreen3_2 127 Magenta3 213 Orchid1
2641 42 SpringGreen2 128 DarkViolet_2 214 Orange1
2642 43 Cyan3 129 Purple_2 215 Sandy‐
2643 Brown
2644 44 DarkTurquoise 130 DarkOrange3 216 Light‐
2645 Salmon1
2646 45 Turquoise2 131 IndianRed 217 Light‐
2647 Pink1
2648 46 Green1 132 HotPink3 218 Pink1
2649 47 SpringGreen2_2 133 MediumOrchid3 219 Plum1
2650 48 SpringGreen1 134 MediumOrchid 220 Gold1
2651 49 MediumSpringGreen 135 MediumPurple2 221 Light‐
2652 Goldenrod2_2
2653 50 Cyan2 136 DarkGoldenrod 222 Light‐
2654 Goldenrod2_3
2655 51 Cyan1 137 LightSalmon3 223 Nava‐
2656 joWhite1
2657 52 DarkRed 138 RosyBrown 224 Misty‐
2658 Rose1
2659 53 DeepPink4 139 Grey63 225 Thistle1
2660 54 Purple4 140 MediumPurple2_2 226 Yellow1
2661 55 Purple4_2 141 MediumPurple1 227 Light‐
2662 Goldenrod1
2663 56 Purple3 142 Gold3 228 Khaki1
2664 57 BlueViolet 143 DarkKhaki 229 Wheat1
2665 58 Orange4 144 NavajoWhite3 230 Corn‐
2666 silk1
2667 59 Grey37 145 Grey69 231 Grey100
2668 60 MediumPurple4 146 LightSteelBlue3 232 Grey3
2669 61 SlateBlue3 147 LightSteelBlue 233 Grey7
2670 62 SlateBlue3_2 148 Yellow3 234 Grey11
2671 63 RoyalBlue1 149 DarkOliveGreen3_3 235 Grey15
2672 64 Chartreuse4 150 DarkSeaGreen3_2 236 Grey19
2673 65 DarkSeaGreen4 151 DarkSeaGreen2 237 Grey23
2674 66 PaleTurquoise4 152 LightCyan3 238 Grey27
2675 67 SteelBlue 153 LightSkyBlue1 239 Grey30
2676 68 SteelBlue3 154 GreenYellow 240 Grey35
2677 69 CornflowerBlue 155 DarkOliveGreen2 241 Grey39
2678 70 Chartreuse3 156 PaleGreen1_2 242 Grey42
2679 71 DarkSeaGreen4_2 157 DarkSeaGreen2_2 243 Grey46
2680 72 CadetBlue 158 DarkSeaGreen1 244 Grey50
2681 73 CadetBlue_2 159 PaleTurquoise1 245 Grey54
2682 74 SkyBlue3 160 Red3_2 246 Grey58
2683 75 SteelBlue1 161 DeepPink3 247 Grey62
2684 76 Chartreuse3_2 162 DeepPink3_2 248 Grey66
2685 77 PaleGreen3 163 Magenta3_2 249 Grey70
2686 78 SeaGreen3 164 Magenta3_3 250 Grey74
2687 79 Aquamarine3 165 Magenta2 251 Grey78
2688 80 MediumTurquoise 166 DarkOrange3_2 252 Grey82
2689 81 SteelBlue1_2 167 IndianRed_2 253 Grey85
2690 82 Chartreuse2 168 HotPink3_2 254 Grey89
2691 83 SeaGreen2 169 HotPink2 255 Grey93
2692 84 SeaGreen1 170 Orchid
2693 85 SeaGreen1_2 171 MediumOrchid1
2694 Just as with hex colors, a single attribute can be appended to color
2696 names. For example, SteelBlue1-1 to get the bold version of this color.
2697 Color variables
2699 Up to 128 custom color variables can be used via the define keyword to
2701 make it easier to build and read theme files. Example:
2702 define RED=00;31
2704 define MY_SPECIAL_COLOR=04;38;2;255;255;0;48;2;0;14;191
2705 FiletpeColors="di=RED:"
2707 InterfaceColors="el=MY_SPECIAL_COLOR:"
2708 These variables can only be used for FiletypeColors, InterfaceColors,
2710 ExtColors, and DirIconColor. The Prompt line (if using a prompt code)
2711 use full ANSI escape sequences instead.
2712 Though by default clifm uses only 16 colors, you can use 256 and 24-bit
2714 colors as well. For example:
2715 fi=04;38;2;245;76;00;48;2;00;00;255
2717 will print regular files underlined and using a bold orange RGB color
2719 on a blue background. In this case, just make sure to use a terminal
2720 emulator supporting RGB colors. To test your terminal color capabili‐
2721 ties use the colors.sh script (in the plugins directory).
2722 NOTE: It might happen that, for some reason, you need to force clifm to
2724 use colors despite the value of the TERM variable. The OpenBSD console,
2725 for example, sets TERM to vt220 by default, which, according to the
2726 terminfo database, does not support color. However, the OpenBSD console
2727 does actually support color. In this case, you can set the
2728 CLIFM_FORCE_COLOR to either true or 1 to use color even if the value
2729 of TERM says otherwise.
2730 To see a colored list of the currently used file color codes run the
2732 colors command.
2733 To run colorless use the --no-color command line option or set either
2735 CLIFM_NO_COLOR or NO_COLOR environment variables to any value. For more
2736 information about the no-color initiative see https://no-color.org/
2737 For a full no-color experience recall to edit your prompt removing all
2739 color codes.
2740 2. THE PROMPT
2742 clifm's prompt (regular and warning ones) is taken from the Prompt line
2744 in the color scheme file using a prompt name as defined in the prompts
2745 file, for example, Prompt="security-scanner".
2746 Prompts can be customized via the prompt edit command.
2748 Each prompt is built following almost the same escape codes and rules
2750 used by the Bash prompt, except that it does not accept shell functions
2751 (like conditionals and loops). Command substitution (in the form
2752 $(cmd)), string literals, and escape codes can be used to build the
2753 prompt line and its colors. This is a list of supported escape codes:
2754 \e: Escape character
2756 \s: The name of the shell (everything after the last slash) currently
2758 used by clifm
2759 \S: Current workspace number (or name, if named), colored according to
2761 wsN code in the InterfaceColors section in the color scheme file
2762 \l: Print an ´L´ if in light mode
2764 \P: The current profile name
2766 \u: The username
2768 \H: The full hostname
2770 \h: The hostname, up to the first ´.'.TP
2772 \n: A newline character
2773 \r: A carriage return
2775 \a: A bell character
2777 \d: The date, in abbreviated form (ex: ´Tue May 26´)
2779 \t: The time, in 24-hour HH:MM:SS format
2781 \T: The time, in 12-hour HH:MM:SS format
2783 \@: The time, in 12-hour am/pm format
2785 \A: The time, in 24-hour HH:MM format
2787 \w: The full current working directory, with $HOME abbreviated with a
2789 tilde
2790 \W: The basename of $PWD, with $HOME abbreviated with a tilde
2792 \p: A mix of the two above, it abbreviates the current working direc‐
2794 tory only if longer than PathMax (a value defined in the configuration
2795 file).
2796 \z: Exit code of the last executed command (colored according to the xs
2798 (success) and xf (failure) codes in InterfaceColors in the color scheme
2799 file)
2800 \i: The value of CLIFMLVL (number of nested instances of clifm)
2802 \I: Same as \I, but formatted as "(n)" (nothing is printed if CLIFMLVL
2804 is 1)
2805 \$ ´#´, if the effective user ID is 0, and ´$´ otherwise
2807 \nnn: The character whose ASCII code is the octal value nnn
2809 \\: A literal backslash
2811 \[: Begin a sequence of non-printing characters. This is mostly used to
2813 add color to the prompt line
2814 \]: End a sequence of non-printing characters
2816 The following files statistics escape codes are also recognized (not
2818 available in light mode):
2819 \D: Amount of sub-directories in the current directory
2821 \R: Amount of regular files in the current directory
2823 \X: Amount of executable files in the current directory
2825 \.: Amount of hidden files in the current directory
2827 \U: Amount of SUID files in the current directory
2829 \G: Amount of SGID files in the current directory
2831 \F: Amount of FIFO/pipe files in the current directory
2833 \K: Amount of socket files in the current directory
2835 \B: Amount of block device files in the current directory
2837 \C: Amount of character device files in the current directory
2839 \x: Amount of files with capabilities in the current directory
2841 \L: Amount of symbolic links in the current directory
2843 \o: Amount of broken symbolic links in the current directory
2845 \M: Amount of multi-link files in the current directory
2847 \E: Amount of files with extended attributes in the current directory
2849 \O: Amount of other-writable files in the current directory
2851 \>: Amount of door files in the current directory (Solaris only)
2853 \": Amount of files with the sticky bit set in the current directory
2855 \?: Amount of files of unknown file type in the current directory
2857 \!: Amount of unstatable files in the current directory
2859 Escape codes for prompt notifications (mostly used for custom prompts
2861 which need to handle notifications themselves, in which case Notifica‐
2862 tions should be set to false in the color scheme file to prevent auto‐
2863 matic insertion of notifications at the left of the prompt):
2864 \*: ´*´ + amount of selected files
2866 \%: ´T´ + amount of trashed files
2868 \#: ´R´ if root user
2870 \): ´W´ + amount of warning messages
2872 \(: ´E´ + amount of error messages
2874 \=: ´N´ + amount of notice messages
2876 Note: Except for '\#', nothing is printed if the number is zero.
2878 By default, for example, clifm's prompt line is this:
2880 "\[\e[0m\][\S\[\e[0m\]]\l \A \u:\H
2882 \[\e[00;36m\]\w\n\[\e[0m\]<\z\[\e[0m\]>\[\e[0;34m\] \$\[\e[0m\]
2883 "
2884 which once decoded should look something like this:
2887 [1] 13:45 user:hostname /my/path
2889 <0> $
2890 with the workspace number printed in blue, the path in cyan, the last
2892 exit status in green, and the dollar sign in blue.
2893 A more "classic" prompt could be construed as follows:
2895 "\u@\U \w> "
2897 or, using now command substitution:
2899 "$(whoami)@$(hostname) $(pwd)> "
2901 Advanced prompt customization
2904 Besides commands substitution, which allows you to include in the
2906 prompt any information you like via shell scripts or simple shell com‐
2907 mands, the use of Unicode characters allows you to build colorful and
2908 modern prompts.
2909 Inserting Unicode characters in the prompt can be made in two ways:
2911 a) Pasting the character itself using a text editor
2913 b) Entering the octal code corresponding to the character. Use hex‐
2915 dump(1) as follows to get the appropriate hex code:
2916 echo -ne "[paste the char here]" | hexdump -c
2918 The first line of the output will be something along these lines:
2920 00000000 256 234 356 |...|
2922 In this case, the octal code is: "256 234 356". So, to insert this Uni‐
2924 code character in the prompt, add it as follows:
2925 Prompt="... \256\234\356 ..."
2927 Note: Make sure you have installed a font able to display Unicode char‐
2929 acters.
2930 A few advanced prompt examples can be found in the prompts file.
2932 A simple use case for the files statistics escape codes
2934 We all want to keep our systems safe. One of the many ways to get a bit
2936 of safety is by checking that there is not file in our file system that
2937 could somehow endanger our machines. SUID, SGID, executable, and
2938 other-writable files are to be count among these dangers. This is why
2939 it could be useful to build a little files scanner for our prompt using
2940 the above mentioned files statistics escape codes. This is the code for
2941 our scanner:
2942 \[\e[0m\]\[\e[1;31m\]\U\[\e[0m\]:\[\e[1;33m\]\G\[\e[0m\]:
2944 \[\e[1;32m\]\O\[\e[0m\]:\[\e[1;34m\]\X\[\e[0m\]"
2945 By adding this code to our prompt line, we get something like this:
2947 24:2:-:2389
2949 This tells us that in the current directory we have 24 SUID files
2951 (printed in bold red), 2 SGID files (bold yellow), no other-writable
2952 file, and 2389 executable files.
2953 NOTE: A predefined prompt with this files scanner integrated can be
2955 found in the prompts.clifm file.
2956 NOTE 2: Most of the information these escape codes rely on depends on
2958 stat(3). Now, since stat(3) is not used when running in light mode (for
2959 performance reasons), this information won´t be available in light mode
2960 either.
2961 Prompt notifications
2964 A bold red ´R´ at the left of the prompt reminds the user that the pro‐
2966 gram is running as root. A bold green asterisk indicates that there are
2967 elements in the Selection Box. In the same way, a yellow 'T' means that
2968 there are currently files in the trash can, just as a bold blue 'S'
2969 means that the program is running in stealth mode. Finally, clifm makes
2970 use of three kind of messages: errors (a red ´E´ at the left of the
2971 prompt), warnings (a yellow ´W´), and simple notices (a green ´N´).
2972 If Notifications is set to "false" in the prompts file, the above noti‐
2974 fications won´t be printed by the prompt, but is still available to the
2975 user as escape codes (see above) and environment variables (see the EN‐
2976 VIRONMENT section below) to build custom prompts.
2977 The Warning Prompt
2979 The suggestions system includes a secondary, warning prompt, used to
2981 highlight wrong/invalid/non-existent command names. Once an invalid
2982 command is entered, the regular prompt will be switched to the warning
2983 prompt and the whole input line will turn dimmed red (though it can be
2984 customized to your liking).
2985 The wrong command name check is omitted if the input string:
2987 Is quoted (ex: "string" or ´string´)
2989 Is bracketed (ex: (string), [string], or {string})
2990 It starts with a stream redirection character (ex: <string or
2991 >string)
2992 Is a comment (ex: #string)
2993 It starts with one or more spaces
2994 Is an assignment (ex: foo=var)
2995 It is escaped (ex: \string)
2996 The warning prompt could be customized by means of the same rules used
2998 by the regular prompt. To use a custom warning prompt, modify the Warn‐
2999 ingPrompt line in the prompts file (via the prompt edit command). It
3000 defaults to
3001 "\[\e[0;2;31m\](!) > "
3003 the last line of the regular prompt will become "(!) > ", printed in a
3005 dimmed red color, including the input string.
3006 To disable this feature use the --no-warning-prompt command line switch
3008 or set the EnableWarningPrompt option to false in the prompts file.
3009 NOTE: Bear in mind that the warning prompt depends on the suggestions
3011 system, so that it won´t be available if this system is disabled.
3012 3. THE DIVIDING LINE
3015 The line dividing the current list of files and the prompt. It could be
3017 customized via the DividingLine option in the color scheme file to fit
3018 your prompt design and/or color scheme.
3019 DividingLine accepts one or more ASCII or Unicode characters (in both
3021 cases you only need to type/paste here the chosen character(s)). If
3022 only one character is specified (by default, "-"), it will be repeat‐
3023 edly printed to fulfill the current line up to the right edge of the
3024 screen or terminal window. If you don't want to cover the whole line,
3025 specify three or more characters, in which case only these characters
3026 (and no more) will be used as dividing line. For example: "------->".
3027 To use an empty line, set DividingLineChar to "0" (that is, as a char‐
3028 acter, not as a number). Finally, is this value is not set, a special
3029 line drawn with box-drawing characters will be used (box-drawing char‐
3030 acters are not supported by all terminal emulators).
3031 The color of this line is set via the dl color code in the color scheme
3033 file. Consult the COLOR CODE section above for more information.
3034 4. FZF WINDOW
3036 Refer to the TAB completion section below.
3037
3040 The SEL keyword
3041 clifm will automatically expand the sel keyword: sel indeed amounts to
3043 ´file1 file2 file3 ...´ In this way, you can use the sel keyword with
3044 any command. s: can be used interchangeably (with the difference that
3045 s: can be used as first word, and not only as parameter to other com‐
3046 mands).
3047 If you want to set the executable bit on several files, for instance,
3049 simply select the files you want and then run this command: chmod +x
3050 sel. Or, if you want to copy or move several files into some directory:
3051 cp sel 12, or mv sel 12 (provided the ELN 12 corresponds to a direc‐
3052 tory), respectively.
3053 If the destiny directory is omitted, selected files are copied into the
3055 current working directory, that is to say, mv sel amounts to mv sel ..
3056 To trash or remove selected files, simply run tr sel or rm sel respec‐
3058 tively. The same goes for wildcards and braces: chmod +x *, for exam‐
3059 ple, will set the executable bit on all files (excluding hidden files)
3060 in the current working directory, while chmod +x file{1,2,3} will do it
3061 for file1, file2, and file3 respectively.
3062 If using the FZF mode for TAB completion (see below), you can operate
3064 only on some selected files as follows: type CMD sel and, without ap‐
3065 pending any space char, press TAB: the list of selected files will be
3066 displayed. Choose one or more of them (use TAB to mark entries) to op‐
3067 erate only on those specific files. For example, to print the file
3068 properties of some specific selected files: p sel->TAB, select the
3069 files you want via TAB, press Enter or Right (marked files will be in‐
3070 serted in the command line), and the press Enter, as usual.
3071 TAB completion
3073 There are four modes for TAB completion: standard (interface provided
3075 by readline), fzf, which depends on FZF (https://github.com/june‐
3076 gunn/fzf) (version 0.18.0 or later), fnf
3077 (https://github.com/leo-arch/fnf), and smenu
3078 (https://github.com/p-gen/smenu). By default, if the fzf binary is
3079 found in PATH, clifm will attempt to use fzf to display completions.
3080 You can force the use of the remaining modes via the --stdtab, --fn‐
3081 ftab, and --smenutab command line switches. The TabCompletionMode op‐
3082 tion in the configuration file can be used to permanently set the TAB
3083 completion mode.
3084 If using the fzf mode, the completions interface can be customized us‐
3086 ing the FzfTabOptions option in the color scheme file. --height, --mar‐
3087 gin, +i/-i, --read0, --query, and --ansi will be appended to set up
3088 some details of the completions interface. Set this value to none to
3089 pass no option, to the empty string to load the default values, or to
3090 any other custom value. Unless set to none, any option specified here
3091 will override FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS.
3092 Default values for this option are:
3094 --color=16,prompt:6,fg+:-1,pointer:4,hl:5,hl+:5,gut‐
3095 ter:-1,marker:2,border:7:dim --bind tab:accept,right:ac‐
3096 cept,left:abort,alt-p:toggle-preview --inline-info --layout=re‐
3097 verse-list --preview-window=wrap,border-left
3098 Consult fzf(1) for more information.
3100 If set neither in FzfTabOptions nor in FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS (in this or‐
3102 der), the height of the FZF window is set to the default value: 40% of
3103 the current terminal amount of line/rows.
3104 To use FZF global values (defined in FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS), set FzfTabOp‐
3106 tions to none.
3107 File previews are available in FZF mode via shotgun. See the SHOTGUN
3109 section above.
3110 Image previews (X11 only) are available via the clifmimg plugin. Con‐
3112 sult the Wiki for more information:
3113 https://github.com/leo-arch/clifm/wiki/Specifics#tab-comple‐
3114 tion-with-file-previews
3115 If using the smenu mode, the interface can be customized using the
3117 CLIFM_SMENU_OPTIONS environment variable. For example:
3118 export CLIFM_SMENU_OPTIONS="-a t:2,b b:4 c:r ct:2,r sf:6,r
3120 st:5,r mt:5,b"
3121 Consult smenu(1) for more information.
3123 For information about how to customize fnf consult fnf(1).
3125 Clifm can perform fuzzy TAB completion (just as suggestions) for file
3127 names and paths (e.g. "dwn" is completed/suggested as "Downloads"). To
3128 enable this feature use the --fuzzy-matching command line switch or set
3129 FuzzyMatching to true in the configuration file.
3130 Besides the default TAB completion for command names and paths, you can
3132 also expand ELN's using the TAB key. Example: type 'o 12', press TAB,
3133 and it becomes 'o filename ', or, if 12 refers to a directory, 'o
3134 dir/'. clifm uses a Bash-style quoting system, so that this file name:
3135 "this is a test@version{1}" is expanded as follows: this\ is\ a\
3136 test\@version\{1\}
3137 ELN's and ELN ranges will be also automatically expanded, provided the
3139 corresponding ELN's actually exist, that is to say, provided some file
3140 name is listed on the screen under those numbers. For example: 'diff 1
3141 118' will only expand '1', but not '118', if there is no ELN 118. In
3142 the same way, the range 1-118 will only be expanded provided there are
3143 118 or more elements listed on the screen.
3144 Since ranges could be a bit tricky, TAB completion is available to make
3146 sure this range actually includes the desired file names.
3147 If this feature somehow conflicts with the command you want to run,
3149 say, 'chmod 644 ...', because the current amount of files is equal or
3150 larger than 644 (in which case clifm will expand that number), then you
3151 can simply run the command as external: ';chmod 644 ...'
3152 TAB completion for commands, paths, users home directory, workspaces,
3154 wildcards*, file types*, environment variables, bookmarks, profiles,
3155 color schemes, file tags, commands history, directory history (via the
3156 jump command), remote resources, sort methods, ranges*, the 'sel' key‐
3157 word*, trashed files*, plus the deselect* and the open-with commands
3158 (ow) is also available. To make use of the bookmarks completion, make
3159 sure to specify some name for your bookmarks, since these names are
3160 used by the completion function.
3161 * When using FZF mode for TAB completion, multi-selection is available:
3163 Press TAB to expand possible selections, then press TAB again to mark
3164 desired entries. Once desired entries are marked, press Enter or the
3165 Right arrow key: marked entries will be inserted into the command line.
3166 Multi-selection is also available for the following commands, provided
3167 there is no slash in the query string: ac, ad, bb, br, d/dup,
3168 p/pr/prop, r, s, t/tr/trash, and te.
3169 Of course, combinations of all these features is also possible. Exam‐
3171 ple: cp sel file* 2 23-31 . will copy all selected files, plus all
3172 files whose name starts with "file", plus those files corresponding to
3173 the ELN´s 2, and 23 to 31, into the current working directory.
3174 In addition to completions and expansions, an auto-suggestions system
3176 is also available. See the AUTO-SUGGESTIONS section below.
3177
3180 As clifm´s built-in resource opener, Lira takes care of opening files
3181 when no opening application has been specified in the command line. It
3182 does this by automatically parsing a MIME list file (see the FILES sec‐
3183 tion below): it looks first for a matching pattern (either a MIME type
3184 or a file name), then checks the existence of the command associated to
3185 this pattern, and finally executes it.
3186 Lira is controlled via the mime command. File associations are stored
3188 in the MIME list file.
3189 When running for the first time, or whenever the MIME list file cannot
3191 be found, clifm will copy the MIME definitions file from the DATADIR
3192 directory (usually /usr/share/clifm/mimelist.clifm) to the local con‐
3193 figuration directory.
3194 Lira will check the file line by line, and if a matching line is found,
3196 and if at least one of the specified applications exists, this applica‐
3197 tion will be used to open the corresponding associated file. Else, the
3198 next line will be checked. In other words, the precedence order is top
3199 to bottom (for lines) and left to right (for applications).
3200 NOTE: In case of directories (whose MIME type is inode/directory), the
3202 entry will be used only for the open-with command (ow).
3203 This MIME list file follows a few simple syntax rules:
3205 Each line in the MIME list file consists of:
3207 a) ´X´ or ´!X´ to specify GUI and non-GUI environments respectively;
3209 b) ´N´ to instruct Lira to match a file name instead of a MIME type;
3211 c) A left value, containing either a file name or a MIME type to be
3213 matched. Regular expressions are supported;
3214 d) A right value, a list of semicolon separated commands (and option‐
3216 ally the commands parameters) to be associated to the corresponding
3217 left value;
3218 Note that the syntax departs here from the Freedesktop specification in
3220 that we do not rely on desktop files (mostly used by desktop environ‐
3221 ments), but rather on commands and parameters. In general thus, the
3222 syntax is this:
3223 [!]X[:N]:REGEX=CMD [ARGS] [%f];CMD [ARGS] [%f]; ...
3225 Use the %f placeholder to specify the position of the file name to be
3227 opened in the command. For example, ´mpv %f --terminal=no´ will be
3228 translated into ´mpv FILE --terminal=no´. If the placeholder is not
3229 specified, the file name will be appended to command string. Thus,
3230 this: ´mpv --terminal=no´ amounts to this: ´mpv --terminal=no FILE´.
3231 Running the opening application in the background:
3233 For GUI applications:
3235 APP %f &>/dev/null &
3237 For terminal applications:
3239 TERM -e APP %f &>/dev/null &
3241 Replace ´TERM´ and ´APP´ by the corresponding values. The -e option
3243 might vary depending on the terminal emulator used (TERM).
3244 NOTE: In case of archives, the built-in ad command could be used as
3246 opening application.
3247 NOTE 2: Environment variables (e.g. $EDITOR, $VISUAL, $BROWSER, and
3249 even $PAGER) are also recognized by Lira. You can even set custom envi‐
3250 ronment variables to be used exclusively by clifm. For example, you can
3251 set CLIFM_TERM, CLIFM_EDITOR, and CLIFM_PDF, and then use them to de‐
3252 fine some associations:
3253 X:text/plain=$CLIFM_TERM -e $CLIFM_EDITOR %f &
3255 X:N:.*\.pdf$=$CLIFM_PDF %f &
3256 Examples:
3258 Match a full file name:
3260 X:N:some_filename:leafpad;mousepad;kate;gedit
3262 Note: the ´N´ character indicates that this rule is intended to match a
3264 file name instead of a MIME type, just as ´X´ means that this rule is
3265 aimed at graphical environments and ´!X´ that it is aimed rather to
3266 non-graphical environments.
3267 Note 2: If the file name contains a dot, quote it like this: some_file‐
3269 name.ext (to prevent the REGEX parser from interpreting the dot)
3270 Match multiple file names (starting with "str"):
3272 X:N:^str.*:leafpad;mousepad;kate;gedit
3274 Match a single extension:
3276 X:N:.*\.txt$:leafpad;mousepad;kate;gedit
3278 !X:N:.*\.^txt$:nano;vim;vi;emacs
3279 Match multiple extensions:
3281 X:N:.*\.(sh|c|py|pl)$:geany;leafpad;nano
3283 Match single mimetype:
3285 X:^audio/mp3$=mpv %f --terminal=no;ffplay -nodisp -au‐
3287 toexit;mpv;mplayer
3288 Match mutiple mimetypes:
3290 X:^audio/.*=mplayer;mplayer2;vlc;gmplayer;smplayer;totem
3292 In case of MIME types, you can also write the entire expression without
3294 relying on any regular expression. For example:
3295 !X:text/plain=$TERM -e $EDITOR %f &>/dev/null &
3297 For more information take a look at the mimelist file itself (F6 or mm
3299 edit).
3300 Using a third-party opener
3302 Set the Opener option in the configuration file to the desired opener,
3304 e.g. "Opener=xdg-open".
3305 Using clifm as a standalone resource opener
3307 Thought clifm is a file manager, it can be used as a simple resource
3309 opener via the --open command line option. For example:
3310 clifm --open /path/to/my_file.jpg
3312 clifm --open /path/to/my_dir
3313 clifm --open https://some_domain
3314 Note: When opening web resources clifm will query the mimelist file us‐
3316 ing text/html as MIME type. Whatever association it finds for this spe‐
3317 cific MIME type will be used to open the web resource.
3318 Positional parameters could be used as well, provided the parameter
3320 does not point to a directory name, in which case it will be used as
3321 clifm starting path. For instance:
3322 clifm /path/to/my_file.jpg
3324 clifm https://some_domain
3325
3328 1. TAB completion with file previews
3329 Shotgun is clifm´s built-in files previewer. Though, as described be‐
3331 low, it may be used as a standalone and general purpose file previewer
3332 (similar in this regard to pistol(1)), it is mainly intended to be used
3333 by clifm's TAB completion function running in FZF mode: every time TAB
3334 completion is invoked for files, shotgun will be executed with the cur‐
3335 rently highlighted file as argument (as shown below) to generate the
3336 preview. Set the FzfPreview option in the configuration file to false
3337 (or run with --no-fzfpreview) to disable this feature.
3338 Shotgun is also used by the view command to display file previews in
3340 full screen.
3341 2. Running as a standalone files previewer
3343 Executed via the --preview command line switch, shotgun performs file
3345 preview for any file passed as argument. For example:
3346 clifm --preview myfile.txt
3348 This command generates a preview of the file myfile.txt and immediately
3350 afterwards quits clifm.
3351 3. Customization
3353 Previewing applications (based on either MIME type or file name) are
3355 defined in a configuration file ($XDG_CONFIG_HOME/clifm/profiles/PRO‐
3356 FILE/preview.clifm) using the same syntax used by Lira (the built-in
3357 resource opener). See the RESOURCE OPENER section above.
3358 You can set an alternative configuration file via the --shotgun-file
3360 command line switch:
3361 clifm --shotgun-file=/path/to/shotgun/config/file --preview=my‐
3363 file.txt
3364 To customize the appearance of the preview window, use the --pre‐
3366 view-window option in the FzfTabOptions line in the current color
3367 scheme file. For example, if you want the preview window down the files
3368 list (instead of to the right):
3369 --preview-window=down
3371 Default keybindings for the preview window:
3373 Alt-p: Toggle the preview window on/off
3375 Ctrl-Up / Shift-Up: Scroll the preview window up one line
3376 Ctrl-Down / Shift-Down: Scroll the preview window down one line
3377 Alt-Up: Scroll the preview window up one page
3378 Alt-Down: Scroll the preview window down one page
3379 Keybindings can be customized using the --bind option in the FzfTabOp‐
3381 tions field in the color scheme file.
3382 Consult fzf(1) for more information.
3384 4. Image previews
3386 Image previews are available via the clifmimg plugin. Consult the Wiki
3388 for more information: https://github.com/leo-arch/clifm/tree/mas‐
3389 ter/misc/tools/imgprev
3390
3393 Gemini is a built-in suggestions system (similar to that provided by
3394 the Fish shell). As you type, Gemini will suggest possible completions
3395 right after the current cursor position.
3396 The following checks are availabe (the order can be customized, see be‐
3398 low):
3399 a. ELN´s
3401 b. clifm commands and parameters (including the sel keyword)
3403 c. Entries in the command history list (already used commands)
3405 d. File names in the current working directory and paths [1m(1)
3407 e. Entries in the jump database
3409 f. Aliases names
3411 g. Bookmarks names
3413 h. Program names in PATH
3415 i. Shell builtins [1m(2)
3417 [1m(1) Fuzzy suggestions are supported. For example: dwn > Downloads. En‐
3419 able this feature via the --fuzzy-marching command line switch or set‐
3420 ting FuzzyMatching to true in the configuration file.
3421 [1m(2) The shell name is taken from /bin/sh. The following shells are sup‐
3422 ported: bash, dash, fish, ksh, tcsh, and zsh. Command names are checked
3423 in the following order: clifm internal commands, commands in PATH, and
3424 shell builtins.
3425 Note: By default, a brief description for internal commands is sug‐
3427 gested. You can disable this feature via the SuggestCmdDesc option in
3428 the configuration file.
3429 To accept the entire suggestion press Right or Ctrl-f: the cursor will
3431 move to the end of the suggested command and the suggestion color will
3432 change to that of the typed text; next, you can press Enter to execute
3433 the command as usual. Otherwise, if the suggestion is not accepted, it
3434 will be simply ignored and you can continue editing the current command
3435 line however you want.
3436 To accept the first suggested word only (up to first slash or space),
3438 press rather Alt-Right or Alt-f. Not available for ELN´s, aliases and
3439 bookmarks names.
3440 Bear in mind that suggestions for ELN´s, aliases, bookmarks names, the
3442 jump function (invoked by the j command), just as file names and paths
3443 (if fuzzy-suggestions are enabled) do not work as the remaining sugges‐
3444 tions: they do not suggest possible completions for the current input,
3445 but rather the value pointed to by it. For example, if you type "12"
3446 and the current list of files includes a file name whose ELN is '12',
3447 the file name corresponding to this ELN will be printed next to "12" as
3448 follows: 12_ > filename (where the underscore is the current cursor po‐
3449 sition). Press Right or Ctrl-f to accept the suggestion, in which case
3450 the text typed so far will be replaced by the suggestion.
3451 The order of the suggestion checks could be customized via the Sugges‐
3453 tionStrategy option in the configuration file. Each check is assigned a
3454 lowercase letter:
3455 a = Aliases names
3457 b = Bookmark names
3458 c = Possible completions
3459 e = ELN's
3460 f = Files in the current directory
3461 h = Entries in the commands history
3462 j = Entries in the jump database
3463 The value taken by SuggestionStrategy is a string of seven (7) charac‐
3465 ters containing the above letters. The letters order in this string
3466 specifies the order in which the suggestion checks will be performed.
3467 For example, to perform all checks in the same order above, the value
3468 of the string should be abcefhj (without quotes). Or, if you prefer to
3469 run the history check first: habcefj. Finally, you can ignore one or
3470 more checks using a dash (-). So, to ignore the bookmarks and aliases
3471 checks, set SuggestionStrategy to h--cefj. The default value for this
3472 option is ehfjbac.
3473 Note: The check for program names in PATH is always executed at last,
3475 except when the ExternalCommands option is disabled, in which case sug‐
3476 gestions for them are simply not displayed.
3477 Suggestions will be printed using one of the following color codes (see
3479 the COLOR CODES section above):
3480 sf: Used for file and directory names. This includes suggestions for
3482 ELN´s, bookmarks names, files in the current directory, and possible
3483 completions. Default value: 02;04;36 (dimmed underlined cyan)
3484 sh: Used for entries in the commands history. Default value: 02;35
3486 (dimmed magenta)
3487 sc: Used for aliases and program names in PATH. Default value: 02;31
3489 (dimmed red)
3490 sx: Used for clifm internal commands and parameters. Default value:
3492 02;32 (dimmed green)
3493 sp: Greater-than sign (>) used when suggesting ELN´s, bookmarks, and
3495 aliases names. Default value: 02;31 (dimmed red)
3496 You can set SuggestFiletypeColor to true in the configuration file to
3498 use the color of the file type of the current file name (as set in the
3499 color scheme file) instead of the value of sf. For example, if a sug‐
3500 gestion is printed for a file that is a symbolic link, ln or or (if a
3501 broken link) will be used instead of sf.
3502
3505 clifm includes a few shell functions to perform specific actions
3506 (cd-on-quit, file-picker, and subshell-notice). Take a look at the cor‐
3507 responding files, in /usr/share/clifm/functions, and follow the in‐
3508 structions. Needles to say, you can write your own functions.
3509
3512 Plugins are just scripts or programs (written in any language) intended
3513 to add, extend or improve clifm´s functionalities. They are linked to
3514 actions names defined in a dedicated configuration file (XDG_CON‐
3515 FIG_HOME/clifm/profiles/PROFILE/actions.clifm).
3516 Note: In stealth mode, since access to configuration files is not al‐
3518 lowed, plugins are disabled.
3519 To list available actions and the plugins they are linked to, run ac‐
3521 tions.
3522 To execute a given plugin, enter the corresponding action name (plus
3524 parameters if requiered).
3525 To get information about a specific plugin, enter the action name fol‐
3527 lowed by --help.
3528 Though several plugins are provided at installation time (in the plug‐
3530 ins directory), you can write your owns as you like, with any language
3531 you like, and for whatever goal you want. Writing plugins is generally
3532 quite easy; but your mileage may vary depending on what you are trying
3533 to achieve. A good place to start is examining the provide plugins and
3534 reading the actions command description, and the ENVIRONMENT and FILES
3535 sections below.
3536 A convenient helper script is provided to get a consistent look across
3538 all plugins, specially those running FZF. This helper script is located
3539 in DATADIR/clifm/plugins/plugins-helper, but it will be overridden by
3540 XDG_CONFIG_HOME/clifm/plugins/plugins-helper if found. The location of
3541 this file is set by clifm itself in the CLIFM_PLUGINS_HELPER environ‐
3542 ment variable to be used by plugins. Source the file and use any of the
3543 functions and variables provided by it to write a new FZF plugin:
3544 # Source our plugins helper
3546 if [ -z "$CLIFM_PLUGINS_HELPER" ] || ! [ -f "$CLIFM_PLUGINS_HELPER"
3547 ]; then
3548 printf "clifm: Unable to find plugins-helper file\n" >&2
3549 exit 1
3550 fi
3551 # shellcheck source=/dev/null
3552 . "$CLIFM_PLUGINS_HELPER"
3553 Plugins can talk to clifm via a dedicated pipe created for this purpose
3555 and exposed via an environment variable (CLIFM_BUS). Write to the pipe
3556 and clifm will hear and handle the message immediately after the
3557 plugin's execution. If the message is a path, clifm will run the open
3558 function, changing the current directory to the new path, if a direc‐
3559 tory, or opening it with the resource opener, if a file. Otherwise, if
3560 the message is not a path, it will be taken and executed as a command.
3561 Examples:
3562 ´echo "/tmp" > "$CLIFM_BUS"´ tells clifm to change the current di‐
3564 rectory to /tmp
3565 ´echo "s *.png" > "$CLIFM_BUS"´ makes clifm select all files in the
3567 current directory ending with ".png"
3568 The pipe (CLIFM_BUS) is deleted immediately after the execution of its
3570 content and recreated before running any other plugin.
3571 This is a list of available plugins:
3573 ┌────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────────┐
3575 │Action name │ Description │ Dependencies │
3576 ├────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
3577 │bn │ Create files in batch │ - │
3578 ├────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
3579 │bcp │ Copy files in batch │ - │
3580 ├────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
3581 │bmi │ Import bookmarks │ - │
3582 ├────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
3583 │clip │ Interact with the system clipboard │ [1m(1) │
3584 ├────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
3585 │unset │ Test terminal´s colors capability │ [1m(2) │
3586 ├────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
3587 │cr │ Copy files to a remote location │ fzf, and scp, ffsend, or croc │
3588 ├────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
3589 │da │ Disk usage analyzer │ du, fzf │
3590 ├────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
3591 │dr │ Drag and drop files │ dragon or dragon-drag-and-drop │
3592 ├────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
3593 │fdups │ Find/remove file dups │ [1m(3) │
3594 ├────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
3595 │+ │ Find files in the current directory │ fzf or rofi │
3596 ├────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
3597 │_ (underscore) │ Quickly change directory │ fzf │
3598 ├────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
3599 │h │ Browse the commands history │ fzf │
3600 ├────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
3601 │- (yes, just a │ Navigate/select/preview files │ See section below │
3602 │dash) │ │ │
3603 ├────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
3604 │* │ Select files (includes flat view) │ fzf, find │
3605 ├────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
3606 │** │ Deselect files │ fzf │
3607 ├────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
3608 │unset │ Show git repo status │ git [1m(4) │
3609 ├────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
3610 │ih │ Browse clifm's manpage │ fzf │
3611 ├────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
3612 │i │ Image thumbnails previewer │ sxiv, feh or lsix │
3613 ├────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
3614 │++ │ Jump to a directory in the jump database │ fzf or rofi │
3615 ├────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
3616 │kbgen │ Get escape codes for keybindings │ [1m(5) │
3617 ├────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
3618 │kd │ Decrypt a GnuPG encrypted file │ gpg, tar, sed, grep │
3619 ├────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
3620 │ke │ Encrypt files/dirs using GnuPG │ gpg, tar, sed, fzf, awk, xargs │
3621 ├────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
3622 │ml │ List files by a given MIME type │ fzf, file │
3623 ├────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
3624 │music │ Create a music playlist │ mplayer │
3625 ├────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
3626 │gg │ Pipe files in CWD through a pager │ less, column │
3627 ├────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
3628 │ptot │ Preview PDF files as text │ pdftotext │
3629 ├────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
3630 │rrm │ Recursively remove files │ find, fzf │
3631 ├────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
3632 │// │ Search files by content │ fzf, ripgrep │
3633 ├────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
3634 │unset │ Update plugins │ [1m(6) │
3635 ├────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
3636 │vid │ Preview video files thumbnails │ ffmpegthumbnailer │
3637 ├────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
3638 │vt │ Virtual directory for sets of files │ sed │
3639 ├────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
3640 │wall │ Set image as wallpaper │ [1m(7) │
3641 ├────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
3642 │Ctrl-y │ Copy the line buffer to the clipboard │ [1m(8) │
3643 └────────────────────┴──────────────────────────────────────────┴────────────────────────────────┘
3644 [1m(1) xclip or xsel (Xorg), wl-copy/wl-paste (Wayland), clipboard
3646 (Haiku), clip (Cygwin), pbcopy/pbget (MacOS), termux-clipboard-get/ter‐
3647 mux-clipboard-set (Termux), cb (cross-platform:
3648 https://github.com/Slackadays/Clipboard)
3649 [1m(2) colors.sh (by default unset)
3651 [1m(3) find, md5sum, sort, uniq, xargs, sed, stat
3653 [1m(4) The git_status.sh plugin is not intended to be used as a normal
3655 plugin, that is, executed via an action name, but rather to be executed
3656 as a prompt command (it will be executed immediately before each
3657 prompt). Add this line to the main configuration file:
3658 promptcmd /usr/share/clifm/plugins/git_status.sh
3660 Whereas this plugin provides basic Git integration, it could be easily
3662 modified (it is just a few lines long) to include whatever git function
3663 you might need.
3664 [1m(5) It needs to be compiled first: gcc -o kbgen kbgen.c -lcurses
3666 [1m(6) update.sh (by default unset)
3668 [1m(7) feh, xloadimage, hsetroot, or nitrogen (for X); swww or swaybg (for
3670 Wayland)
3671 [1m(8) Dependencies: cb, wl-copy, xclip, xsel, pbcopy, termux-clip‐
3673 board-set, clipboard, or clip. Consult the plugin file itself
3674 (xclip.sh) for more information
3675 Dependencies of the previewer plugin (fzfnav.sh)
3677 archives: atool, bsdtar, or tar
3679 images: kitty terminal, imagemagick, and ueberzug or viu or catimg or
3680 img2txt or pixterm
3681 fonts: fontpreview or fontforge
3682 docs: libreoffice, catdoc, odt2txt, pandoc
3683 PDF: pdftoppm, pdftotext or mutool
3684 epub: epub-thumbnailer
3685 DjVu: djvulibre or djvutxt
3686 postscript: ghostscript
3687 videos: ffmpegthumbnailer
3688 audio: ffmpeg, mplayer, or mpv
3689 web: w3m, links, elinks, or pandoc
3690 markdown: glow
3691 highlight: bat, highlight, or pygmentize
3692 torrent: transmission-cli
3693 json: python or pq
3694 file info: exiftool, mediainfo, or file
3695 To run the pager.sh plugin, for example, you only need to enter the
3698 corresponding action name, in this case gg. In case of need, all plug‐
3699 ins provide a -h,--help switch for a brief usage description.
3700 Note: The fzfnav plugin uses fzf(1) to navigate the file system and BFG
3702 (a script located in the plugins directory) to show previews (to dis‐
3703 play image previews BFG requires ueberzug(1) or the Kitty protocol via
3704 the Kitty terminal). A configuration file (BFG.cfg, in the plugins di‐
3705 rectory itself) is provided to customize the previewer's behavior.
3706 Note 2: An alternative files previewing function (built-in, and thereby
3708 faster than BFG) is provided by shotgun. See the SHOTGUN section above
3709 for more information.
3710 In addition to the built-in BFG previewer, fzfnav supports the use of
3712 both Ranger´s scope.sh script and pistol(1). To use scope, edit the BFG
3713 configuration file and set USE_SCOPE to 1 and SCOPE_FILE to the correct
3714 path to the scope.sh file (normally $HOME/.config/ranger/scope.sh). To
3715 use pistol instead, set USE_PISTOL to 1.
3716 Take a look at the Wiki for more information:
3719 https://github.com/clifm/wiki/Advanced#plugins
3720
3723 Heavily inspired by Vifm, the autocommands function allows the user a
3724 fine-grained control over clifm settings. It is mostly devised as a way
3725 to improve performance for remote file systems (usually slower than lo‐
3726 cal ones) by allowing you to turn off some features (like the files
3727 counter) that might greatly affect performance under some circumstances
3728 (like remote connections). However, the autocommands function is not
3729 restricted to this specific use case: use it for whatever purpose you
3730 find useful.
3731 Add a line preceded by the autocmd keyword to the config file. The gen‐
3733 eral syntax is:
3734 autocmd TARGET cmd,cmd,cmd
3735 TARGET specifies the object to which subsequent commands will apply. It
3737 can match either directory names (paths) or workspaces.
3738 1. To match directory names use a glob pattern. If no glob metacharac‐
3740 ter is provided, the string will be compared as is to the current work‐
3741 ing directory. To invert the meaning of a pattern, prepend an exclama‐
3742 tion mark. To match all directories under a specific directory (includ‐
3743 ing this directory itself) use the double asterisk (**). A few exam‐
3744 ples:
3745 ~/Downloads Match exactly the Downloads directory (and only this
3747 directory) in your home directory
3748 ~/Downloads/* Match all subdirectories in ~/Downloads (excluding
3749 the Downloads directory itself)
3750 /~/Downloads/** Recursively match all subdirectories in ~/Downloads
3751 (including the Downloads directory itself)
3752 ~/Downloads/*.d Match all subdirectories in ~/Downloads ending with
3753 ".d" (excluding the Downloads directory itself)
3754 !~/Downloads Match everything except the ~/Downloads directory
3755 2. TARGET is also able to match workspaces using the ampersand charac‐
3757 ter (@) followed by the ws keyword and then the workspace number. For
3758 example, to match the third workspace: @ws3, and to match the first
3759 workspace: @ws1.
3760 TARGET is followed by a comma separated list of commands:
3762 !CMD: The exclamation mark allows you to run shell commands, custom bi‐
3764 naries or scripts
3765 The following codes are used to control clifm's files list:
3767 Code Description Example
3769 cs Color scheme cs=zenburn
3770 fc Files counter fc=0
3771 hf Hidden files hf=0
3772 lm Light mode lm=1
3773 lv Long/detail view lv=0
3774 mf Max files mf=100
3775 mn Max file name length mn=20
3776 od Only directories od=1
3777 pg Pager pg=0
3778 st Sort method st=5
3779 sr Reverse sort sr=1
3780 A few example lines:
3782 1. Run in light mode and disable the files counter for the remotes di‐
3784 rectory:[1m(1)
3785 autocmd /media/remotes/** lm=1,fc=0
3786 2. Just a friendly reminder:
3788 autcomd ~/important !printf "Important: keep your fingers outta
3789 here!\n" && read -n1
3790 3. This directory has thousands of files. Show only the first hundred
3792 and enable the pager:
3793 autocmd /usr/bin mf=100,pg=1
3794 4. Lots of media files (with large file names). Trim file names to 20
3796 chars max and run the files previewer:[1m(2)
3797 autocmd ~/Downloads mn=20,!~/.config/clifm/plugins/fzfnav.sh
3798 5. I want the second workspace, no matter what the current directory
3800 is, to list files in long/detail view:
3801 autocmd @ws2 lv=1
3802 6. Mmm, just because I can. Be creative!
3804 autocmd /home/user hf=0,cs=nord,lv=1
3805 autocmd / lv=1,fc=0,cs=solarized,st=5
3806 [1m(1) This is the recommended configuration for remote file systems
3808 [1m(2) As seen here, plugins could be used as well: in this case, we want
3809 to run fzfnav (to make use of the files preview capability) whenever we
3810 enter into the Downloads directory, usually containing videos, music,
3811 and images. NOTE: If you decide to use a plugin, bear in mind that it
3812 won´t be able to communicate with clifm, because the autocommand func‐
3813 tion always executes commands as external applications using the system
3814 shell.
3815 Bear in mind that autocmd directives are evaluated from top to bottom,
3817 so that only the first matching target will be executed. This can be
3818 used to exclude some target from a subsequent directive. For instance,
3819 if you want all subdirectories in ~/Downloads, except mydir, to be
3820 listed in light mode, write the following directives:
3821 autocmd ~/Downloads/mydir/** lm=0
3823 autocmd ~/Downloads/** lm=1
3824 Since the first directive is evaluated before the second one, this lat‐
3826 ter will apply to everything under Downloads, exception made of mydir
3827 (and subdirectories).
3828 Autocommand files: .cfm.in and .cfm.out
3830 Two files are specifically checked by the autocommands function:
3832 .cfm.in and .cfm.out.
3833 The content of these files is a single instruction, either a shell com‐
3835 mand or, if you need more elaborated stuff, a script (or custom bi‐
3836 nary). Note that codes to modify clifm's settings (as described above)
3837 are not available here.
3838 If a directory contains a file named .cfm.in, clifm will execute (via
3840 the system shell) its content when entering this directory (before
3841 listing files). If the file is named rather .cfm.out, its content will
3842 be executed immediately after leaving this directory (and before list‐
3843 ing the new directory's content).
3844 For example, if you want a simple notification whenever you enter or
3846 leave your home directory, create both .cfm.in and .cfm.out files in
3847 the home directory with the following content:
3848 For .cfm.in:
3850 printf "Entering %s ...\n" "$PWD"
3851 For .cfm.out:
3853 printf "Leaving %s ...\n" "$OLDPWD"
3854
3857 Etiqueta is clifm's built-in files tagging system
3858 1. How does Etiqueta work?
3860 File tags are created via symlinks using a specific directory under the
3862 user's profile: ${XDG_CONFIG_DIR:-/home/USER/.config}/clifm/pro‐
3863 files/USER/tags
3864 Every time a new tag is created, a new directory named as the tag it‐
3866 self is created in the tags directory. Tagged files are just symbolic
3867 links to the actual files created in the appropriate directory. For ex‐
3868 ample, if you tag ~/myfile.txt as work, a symbolic link to ~/my‐
3869 file.txt, named myfile.txt will be created in tags/work.
3870 2. Handling file tags
3872 tag is the main Etiqueta command and is used to handle file tags. Its
3874 syntax is as follows:
3875 tag [add, del, list, list-full, new, merge, rename, untag] [FILE]...
3877 [[:]TAG]
3878 NOTE: The :TAG notation is used for commands taking both file and tag
3880 names: 'tag add FILES(s) :TAG ...', to tag files, and 'tag untag :TAG
3881 file1 file2', to untag files. Otherwise, TAG is used (without the lead‐
3882 ing colon). For example: 'tag new docs', to create a new tag named
3883 docs, or 'tag del png', to delete the tag named png.
3884 Both short and long command format can be used:
3886 ┌─────────────┬─────────────┬───────────────────────────┐
3890 │Short format │ Long format │ Description │
3891 ├─────────────┼─────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
3892 │ta │ tag add │ Tag files │
3893 ├─────────────┼─────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
3894 │td │ tag del │ Delete tag(s) │
3895 ├─────────────┼─────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
3896 │tl │ tag list │ List tags or tagged files │
3897 ├─────────────┼─────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
3898 │tm │ tag rename │ Rename tags │
3899 ├─────────────┼─────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
3900 │tn │ tag new │ Create new tag(s) │
3901 ├─────────────┼─────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
3902 │tu │ tag untag │ Untag file(s) │
3903 ├─────────────┼─────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
3904 │ty │ tag merge │ Merge two tags │
3905 └─────────────┴─────────────┴───────────────────────────┘
3906 3. Usage examples
3908 ┌────────────────────┬────────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────────────┐
3912 │Short format │ Long format │ Description │
3913 ├────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────┤
3914 │tl │ tag list │ List available tags │
3915 ├────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────┤
3916 │- │ tag list-full │ List available tags and all tagged files │
3917 ├────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────┤
3918 │tl work │ tag list work │ List all files tagged as work │
3919 ├────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────┤
3920 │tl file.txt │ tag list file.txt │ List tags applied to the file file.txt │
3921 ├────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────┤
3922 │tn dogs cats │ tag new dogs cats │ Create two empty tags: dogs and cats │
3923 ├────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────┤
3924 │ta *.png :images │ tag add *.png :images :png │ Tag PNG files as both images and png [1m(1) (2) │
3925 │:png │ │ │
3926 ├────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────┤
3927 │ta sel :special │ tag add sel :special │ Tag all selected files as special │
3928 ├────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────┤
3929 │tr documents docs │ tag rename documents docs │ Rename the tag documents as docs │
3930 ├────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────┤
3931 │ty png images │ tag merge png images │ Merge the tag png into images [1m(3) │
3932 ├────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────┤
3933 │td images │ tag del images │ Remove the tag images [1m(4) │
3934 ├────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────┤
3935 │tu :work file1 dir2 │ tag untag :work file1 dir2 │ Untag a few files from work [1m(5) │
3936 └────────────────────┴────────────────────────────┴──────────────────────────────────────────────┘
3937 [1m(1) Tags are created if they do not exist
3939 [1m(2) Since add is the default action, it can be omitted: tag *.png :im‐
3940 ages :png.
3941 [1m(3) All files tagged as png will be now tagged as images, and the png
3942 tag will be removed.
3943 [1m(4) Untag all files tagged as images and remove the tag itself
3944 [1m(5) TAB completion is available to complete tagged files. If using the
3945 FZF mode, multiple files can be selected using the the TAB key.
3946 4. Operating on tagged files
3948 The t:TAG construct (or tag expression) is used to operate on tagged
3950 files via any command, be it internal or external. A few examples:
3951 ┌───────────────────┬────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
3955 │Command │ Description │
3956 ├───────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
3957 │p t:docs │ Print properties of files tagged as docs │
3958 ├───────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
3959 │r t:images │ Remove all files tagged as images │
3960 ├───────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
3961 │stat t:docs t:work │ Run stat(1) over all files tagged as docs and all files tagged as work │
3962 └───────────────────┴────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
3963 4.1 Operating on specific tagged files
3965 NOTE: This feature, as always when multi-selection is involved, is only
3967 available when TAB completion mode is set to FZF. See the TAB comple‐
3968 tion subsection of the BUILT-IN-EXPANSIONS section above.
3969 You might not want to operate on all files tagged as some specific tag,
3971 say work, but rather on some files tagged as work. TAB completion is
3972 used to achieve this aim.
3973 Let's suppose you have a tag named work which contains ten tagged
3975 files, but you need to operate (say, print the file properties) only on
3976 two of them, say, work1.odt and work2.odt:
3977 p t:work<TAB>
3979 The list of files tagged as work will be displayed via FZF. Now mark
3981 the two files you need using TAB, press Enter or Right, and the full
3982 path to both files will be inserted into the command line. So, 'p
3983 t:work' will be replaced by 'p /path/to/work1.odt /path/to/work2.odt'.
3984
3987 CliFM is able to read and list files from the standard input stream
3988 (STDIN). Each file in the list should be an absolute path, terminated
3989 with a new line character (\n) and stripped from extra characters not
3990 belonging to the path itself. The size of the input stream buffer is
3991 262MiB (65536 paths, provided each path takes PATH_MAX bytes (4096 by
3992 default)).
3993 Each file passed via standard input is stored as a symbolic link point‐
3995 ing to the original file in a temporary directory (called here virtual
3996 directory) with read-only (0500) permissions. This directory, and all
3997 its contents, will be deleted at program exit. Use the --virtual-dir
3998 command line flag to specify a custom directory (it if does not exist,
3999 it will be created) instead of the default one, created in the system
4000 temporary directory (usually /tmp/clifm/USER/vdir.XXXXXX, where XXXXXX
4001 is a random six digits string).
4002 The user can operate on these files as if they were any other regular
4004 file, since all operations performed on these symbolic links (provided
4005 the current working directory is the virtual directory where all these
4006 files are stored) are performed on the target files and NOT on the sym‐
4007 bolic links themselves.
4008 Once in the virtual directory, files are listed by default using only
4010 the base name of the target file. For example, if the target file is
4011 /home/user/Downloads/myfile.tar.gz, this file will be listed as my‐
4012 file.tar.gz. If this file already exists in the virtual directory (be‐
4013 cause there is another target file with the same base name, say,
4014 /home/user/Documents/tars/myfile.tar.gz), a random six digits suffix
4015 will be appended to the file (for instance, myfile.tar.gz.12Rgj6).
4016 Since this listing mode does not allow the user to get a clear idea of
4018 the actual location of each listed file, a keybinding (by default
4019 Alt-w) is available to toggle short (base names only) and long file
4020 names: in this latter case, file names are listed using the full path
4021 to the target file, replacing slashes by colons (:). For example, if
4022 the target file is /home/user/Downloads/myfile.tar.gz, it will be
4023 listed in the virtual directory as home:user:Downloads:myfile.tar.gz.
4024 If you prefer the long names approach, you can use the --vir‐
4026 tual-dir-full-paths command line flag.
4027 Note: Bear in mind that the restore last path function is disabled when
4029 listing in this way.
4030 CliFM provides to ways of using virtual directories:
4032 1. Reading files from the standard input
4034 2. Listing sets of files via the virtualize.sh plugin (which is in fact
4036 a special use case of point 1)
4037 1. Standard input
4039 Examples:
4041 ls -Ad /var/* | clifm
4043 This command will pass all files in the directory /var to CliFM
4045 If you need to perform more specific queries, you can use find(1) as
4047 follows:
4048 find -maxdepth 1 -size +500k -print0 | tr ´\0´ ´\n´ | sed ´s/.//g´ |
4050 clifm
4051 The above command will pass all files in the current directory bigger
4053 than 500KiB to CliFM.
4054 You can also use stream redirection:
4056 ls -Ad $PWD/* > list.txt
4058 clifm < list.txt
4059 2. The virtualization plugin
4061 The virtualize.sh plugin, bound by default to the vt action name, is
4063 intended to provide an easy way of listing sets or collections of
4064 files, such as selected, tagged, or bookmarked files. For example, to
4065 send all selected files to a virtual directory, you can issue this com‐
4066 mand:
4067 vt sel
4069 and, if you want rather files tagged as PDF:
4071 vt t:PDF
4073 Of course, individual files can also be used:
4075 vt file1 file2 file3
4077 Once executed, the vt plugin will launch a new instance of CliFM (on a
4079 new terminal emulator window) where you can operate on the specified
4080 files as if they were just normal files. Once done, quit this new in‐
4081 stance (via the q command) to return to the primary instance of CliFM.
4082 Note: By default, the terminal emulator used is xterm(1), but it can be
4084 changed by editing the plugin script (virtualize.sh).
4085 If navigating the file system, you can quickly go back to the virtual
4087 directory using the -d option: vt -d. The navigation keys (see the KEY‐
4088 BOARD SHORTCUTS section above) and the CLIFM_VIRTUAL_DIR environment
4089 variable are also available (Shift-Left/Shift-Right or cd $CLIFM_VIR‐
4090 TUAL_DIR).
4091 Tip: Write an alias to make this even easier:
4093 alias vtd=´cd $CLIFM_VIRTUAL_DIR´
4095
4098 clifm is by itself quite fast by default, but if speed is still an is‐
4099 sue, it is possible to get some extra performance.
4100 The two most time consuming features are:
4102 1) The files counter, used to print the amount of files contained by
4104 listed directories. Disabling this option produces a nice performance
4105 boost.
4106 2) In normal mode, fstatat(3) is used to gather information about
4108 listed files. Since this function, especially when executed hundreds
4109 (and even thousands) of times, is quite time consuming, the light mode
4110 was implemented as an alternative listing process omitting all calls to
4111 it.
4112 When running in light mode, however, a few features are lost:
4114 1. Only basic file classification is performed, namely, that provided
4116 by the d_type field of a dirent struct (see readdir(3)). Bear in mind,
4117 nonetheless, that whenever _DIRENT_HAVE_D_TYPE was not set at compile
4118 time, or in case of a DT_UNKNOWN value for a given entry (we might be
4119 facing a file system not returning the d_type value, for example, loop
4120 devices), clifm will fall back to stat(3) to get basic files classifi‐
4121 cation.
4122 2. Color per file extension is disabled for performance reasons.
4124 3. The marker for selected files (*) is lost as well: to keep track of
4126 selected files and thus recognize them in the current list of files, we
4127 make use of files device and inode number, which is provided by fs‐
4128 tatat(3).
4129 Besides these two features, a few more things can be disabled to get
4131 some extra speed (though perhaps unnoticeable): icons (if enabled),
4132 columns, colors, and, if already running without colors, file type in‐
4133 dicators. Because listing lots of files could be expensive and time
4134 consuming, you can also try to limit the amount of files printed for
4135 each visited directory (see the mf command above).
4136 Despite the above, however, it is important to bear in mind that list‐
4138 ing speed does not only depend on the program´s code and enabled fea‐
4139 tures, but also on the terminal emulator used. Old, basic terminal emu‐
4140 lators like Xterm, Aterm, and the kernel built-in console are really
4141 slow compared to more modern ones like Urxvt, Lxterminal, ST, and Ter‐
4142 minator, to name just a few.
4143 If using Xterm, a nice speed boost is provided by the fast scroll op‐
4145 tion: set fastScroll to true in your ~/.Xresources file. See xterm(1).
4146
4149 The directory jumper function is designed to learn the navigation
4150 habits of the user. The information is stored in a database (see the
4151 FILES section below) used to get the best match for a given string pro‐
4152 vided by the user. In this sense, Kangaroo is like a quick, smart, and
4153 evolved cd function.
4154 The information stored in the database, always per directory, is:
4156 a) Number of visits
4157 b) Date of first visit (seconds since the Unix epoch)
4158 c) Date of the last visit (seconds since Unix epoch)
4159 d) The full path to each visited directory
4160 With this information it is possible to build a ranking of directories
4162 to offer the user the most accurate matches for each query string. The
4163 matching algorithm takes into account mainly two factors: frequency and
4164 recency (which is why this kind of algorithm is often called a frecency
4165 algorithm).
4166 After getting an initial list of matches based on the query string(s)
4168 entered by the user, the frequency algorithm is applied on each entry
4169 in the list. The algorithm is quite simple: (visits * VISIT-CREDIT) /
4170 days-since-first-visit. As a result, we get the average of visits per
4171 day since the day of the first visit (what we call the directory rank).
4172 NOTE: VISIT-CREDIT is a hardcoded value: 200.
4174 There are however some further steps in the ranking process: Bonus
4176 points.
4177 Extra credits or penalties are assigned based on the directories last
4179 access time according to the following simple algorithms:
4180 Within last
4181 hour: rank
4182 * 4
4183 Within last
4184 day: rank
4185 * 2
4186 Within last
4187 week: rank
4188 / 2
4189 More than a
4190 week: rank
4191 / 4
4192 If the last query string matches the basename of a directory, the entry
4194 for this directory has 300 extra credits. This is done simply because
4195 users normally use directory basenames as query strings: they are eas‐
4196 ier to remember.
4197 In the same way, pinned directories get 1000 extra credits, bookmarked
4199 directories 500 credits, and directories currently in a workspace 300
4200 credits.
4201 For example: if the query string is "test", /media/data/test will be
4203 matched. Now, if this directory was accessed within the last hour, and
4204 its rank was 200, it becomes 800. But, because the search string
4205 matches its basename, it gets 300 extra credits, and, if this directory
4206 is in addition bookmarked and pinned, it gets 1500 extra credits. In
4207 this way the total rank of this directory in the matching process is
4208 2600. In doing this, we have more chances of matching what the user ac‐
4209 tually wanted to match.
4210 Once all entries in the initial list of matches have been filtered via
4212 the above procedure and ranked, we can return the best ranked entry.
4213 The higher rank a directory has, the more priority it has over the re‐
4214 maining entries in the initial list of matches.
4215 Automatic maintenance is done on the database applying a few simple
4217 procedures:
4218 a) If PurgeJumpDB is set to true (see the main configuration file),
4220 each entry in the database is checked at startup to remove non-existent
4221 directories. This option is set to false by default to avoid removing
4222 paths pointing to unmounted file systems (like removable devices or re‐
4223 mote locations) which you still might want to keep. Non-existent direc‐
4224 tories, however, will be removed soon or later anyway due to their low
4225 rank value (see below).
4226 b) Once the rank of a directory falls below MinJumpRank (by default
4228 10), it is forgotten and deleted from the database. The MinJumpRank
4229 value can be customized in the configuration file. To make non-fre‐
4230 quently visited directories disappear quicker from the database, in‐
4231 crease this value. If set to 0, by contrast, directories will never be
4232 removed from the database.
4233 c) Once the sum total of ranks reaches MaxJumpTotalRank (by default
4235 100000), each individual rank is divided by a dynamic factor so that
4236 the total rank becomes less than or equal to MaxJumpTotalRank. If some
4237 rank falls in the process below MinJumpRank (and provided this latter
4238 is not 0), it is removed from the database. MaxJumpTotalRank can be
4239 modified in the configuration file. The higher the value of MaxJumpTo‐
4240 talRank, the more time directories will be kept in the database.
4241 NOTE: Directories visited in the last 24 hours, just as pinned, book‐
4243 marked directories, and directories currently used in some workspace,
4244 will not be removed from the database, no matter what their rank is. In
4245 other words, if you want to indefinitely keep a given directory in the
4246 jump database, bookmark it.
4247 The idea of 'frecency' was, as far as I know, first devised and de‐
4249 signed by Mozilla. See https://wiki.mozilla.org/User:Mcon‐
4250 nor/Past/PlacesFrecency. However, it is also implemented, though using
4251 different algorithms, by different projects like autojump, z.lua, and
4252 zoxide.
4253
4256 The following variables are read at initialization time:
4257 NO_COLOR
4259 If set to any value, clifm will run colorless
4260 CLIFM_NO_COLOR
4262 Same as NO_COLOR (or CLICOLOR=0), but specific to clifm
4263 COLORTERM
4265 If set to either truecolor or 24bit, clifm assumes the terminal
4266 emulator to be capable of displaying true colors (and thereby
4267 also 256 colors), despite what the terminfo(5) database informs.
4268 CLIFM_FILE_COLORS
4270 A colon separated list of file type color codes in the same form
4271 specified above in the COLOR CODES section
4272 CLIFM_EXT_COLORS
4274 Same as above, but for file extensions
4275 CLIFM_IFACE_COLORS
4277 Same as above, but for different elements of clifm's interface
4278 CLIFM_DATE_SHADES
4280 A comma separated list of colors used to print timetamps based
4281 on age
4282 CLIFM_SIZE_SHADES
4284 Same as CLIFM_DATE_SHADES, but for file sizes
4285 CLIFM_FORCE_COLOR
4287 Force the use of colors, even if the terminal informs that it
4288 does not support colors
4289 CLIFM_HISTFILE
4291 A custom commands history file
4292 CLIFM_FILTER
4294 Define a file filter. If set, this variable overrides the Filter
4295 option in the configuration file
4296 CLIFM_SUDO_CMD
4298 Name of the authenticator program. Used by the X command (to
4299 launch a new instance of CliFM as root), the Alt-v keybinding
4300 (to prepend the authenticator program name to the current com‐
4301 mand line), and for some operations on archives (ISO files). De‐
4302 faults to sudo (or doas if compiled on OpenBSD). Example:
4303 CLIFM_SUDO_CMD=doas clifm.
4304 CLIFM_SHELL
4306 An absolute path to the shell clifm will use to run external
4307 commands. Only values found in /etc/shells are allowed.
4308 SHELL Same as CLIFM_SHELL. Note however that CLIFM_SHELL takes prece‐
4310 dence over SHELL.
4311 TMPDIR Path to a directory where temporary files will be created
4313 CLIFM_TMPDIR
4315 Same as TMPDIR, but specific to clifm (takes precendece over TM‐
4316 PDIR)
4317 TERM Terminal type for which output is to be prepared
4319 FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS
4321 A quoted list of options to be passed to FZF (if used for TAB
4322 completion)
4323 Except when running in stealth mode, clifm sets the following environ‐
4326 ment variables:
4327 CLIFM This variable is set to the path to the configuration directory.
4329 By inspecting this variable other programs can find out if they
4330 were spawned by clifm. It can also be used to quickly jump into
4331 the configuration directory: cd $CLIFM or just $CLIFM
4332 CLIFM_PID
4334 Set to the PID number of clifm's running instance
4335 CLIFM_VERSION
4337 Set to the version number of clifm's running instance
4338 CLIFM_PLUGINS_HELPER
4340 Set to the full path to the plugins-helper script used by many
4341 plugins.
4342 CLIFM_PROFILE
4344 This variable is set to the current profile of clifm (if using
4345 two or more instances of clifm under different profiles, the
4346 last one will be used). Specially useful to develop clifm plug‐
4347 ins on a per profile basis.
4348 CLIFM_SELFILE
4350 The path to the current selection file.
4351 CLIFM_COLORLESS
4353 Set to 1 if running colorless (via the NO_COLOR or
4354 CLIFM_NO_COLOR environment variables, or the --no-color command
4355 line option).
4356 CLIFM_BUS
4358 This variable contains the path to a pipe by means of which
4359 plugins can talk to clifm. See the PLUGINS section for more in‐
4360 formation..TP CLIFM_VIRTUAL_DIR This variable is set to the path
4361 to the currently used virtual directory only if (and while) the
4362 virtual directory function is exectued. See the VIRTUAL DIRECTO‐
4363 RIES section above.
4364 CLIFM_LINE
4366 When running a plugin via a keybinding, this variable holds the
4367 content of the current line buffer. For a usage example see the
4368 xclip.sh plugin.
4369 SHLVL Incremented by one each time a new shell is started.
4371 CLIFMLVL
4373 Same as SHLVL, but specific to clifm.
4374 If Notifications is set to false for the current prompt, the following
4376 variables are exported to the environment to be used, if needed, by
4377 your custom prompt:
4378 CLIFM_STAT_SEL
4380 Current amount of selected files
4381 CLIFM_STAT_TRASH
4383 Current amount of trashed files
4384 CLIFM_STAT_ERROR_MSGS
4386 Current amount of error messages
4387 CLIFM_STAT_WARNING_MSGS
4389 Current amount of warning messages
4390 CLIFM_STAT_NOTICE_MSGS
4392 Current amount of notice messages
4393 CLIFM_STAT_WS
4395 Current workspace number
4396 CLIFM_STAT_EXIT
4398 Exit code of the last executed command
4399 CLIFM_STAT_ROOT
4401 1 if user is root (UID = 0), 0 otherwise
4402 CLIFM_STAT_STEALTH
4404 1 if running in stealth mode, 0 otherwise
4405
4408 Since clifm executes OS commands, it needs to provide a way to securely
4409 run these commands, specially when it comes to untrusted environments.
4410 Two features are provided to achieve this aim: secure environment and
4411 secure commands.
4412 Both features are aimed at protecting the program and the system as
4414 such from malicious input, either coming from environment variables or
4415 from indirect input, that is to say, input coming not from the command
4416 line (in which is assumed that it is the user herself who is executing
4417 the given command), but from files: this is the case of default associ‐
4418 ated applications (the mime command), autocommands, (un)mount commands
4419 (via the net command), just as profile and prompt commands.
4420 In an untrusted environment, an attacker could cause unexpected and in‐
4422 secure behavior (even command injection) using environment variables,
4423 or inject malicious commands via indirect input, commands which will be
4424 later executed by clifm without the user's consent (i.e. automati‐
4425 cally). This is why we provide a mechanism to minimize this danger: if
4426 running in an untrusted environment, the secure environment and secure
4427 commands features are there to prevent (at least as far as possible)
4428 this kind of attacks.
4429 A) Secure environment
4431 Programs inherit the environment from the parent process. However, if
4433 this inherited environment is not trusted, not secure, it is always a
4434 good idea to sanitize it using only sane values, preventing thus unde‐
4435 sired and uncontrolled input that might endanger the program and the
4436 system itself.
4437 The secure-environment function forces clifm to run on a such a sani‐
4439 tized environment.
4440 There are two secure-environment modes, the regular, and the full one.
4442 To enable the regular mode, run clifm with the --secure-env command
4443 line option. Otherwise, enable the full mode using --secure-env-full.
4444 a) Regular: in this mode, the inherited environment is cleared, though
4446 a few variables are preserved to keep clifm running as stable as possi‐
4447 ble. These preserved variables are: TERM, DISPLAY, LANG, TZ, and, if
4448 FZF TAB completion mode is enabled, FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS.
4449 The following variables are set in an environment agnostic way (that
4451 is, securely):
4452 - HOME, SHELL, and USER are retrieved using getpwuid(3)
4453 - PATH is set consulting _PATH_STDPATH (or _CS_PATH if the
4454 former is not available)
4455 - IFS is set to a sane, hard-coded value: " \n\t" (space, new
4456 line char, and horizontal TAB)
4457 As a plus, 1) core dumps are disabled, 2) the umask value is set to
4459 0077 at startup and the creation mode (when using the new command) is
4460 forced to 0700 for directories and 0600 for files, and 3) non-standard
4461 file descriptors (>2) are closed.
4462 b) Full: this mode is just like the regular mode, except that nothing
4464 is imported from the environment at all and only PATH and IFS are set
4465 (as described above). Everything else remains unset, and is the user's
4466 responsibility to set environment variables (via the export function),
4467 as needed. In this case, you might want to set, at least, TERM, and, if
4468 running in a graphical environment, DISPLAY.
4469 Be aware that enabling secure-environment might break some functions,
4471 depending on the system configuration.
4472 B) Secure commands
4474 Some commands are automatically executed by clifm: (un)mount commands
4476 (via the net command), opening applications (via Lira), just as prompt,
4477 profile, and autocommands. These commands are read from a configuration
4478 file and then executed. Now, if an attacker has access to any of these
4479 files, she might force clifm to run any arbitrary command, and thereby
4480 possibly exposing the whole system.
4481 Every time a command is thus automatically executed via the system
4483 shell (i.e. without the user's direct consent), the secure commands
4484 function performs three different, though intrinsically related tasks
4485 intended to mitigate command injection and/or unexpected behavior:
4486 a) Only command base names are allowed: nano, for instance, is allowed,
4488 while /usr/bin/nano is not. In this way we can guarantee that only com‐
4489 mands found in a sanitized PATH (see the point c below) will be exe‐
4490 cuted. This is done in order to prevent the execution of custom bina‐
4491 ries/scripts, for example: /tmp/exec_file.
4492 b) Commands are validated using a whitelist of safe characters (mostly
4494 to prevent stream redirection, conditional execution, and so on, for
4495 example, 'your_command;some_injected_command'). This set of safe char‐
4496 acters slightly vary depending on the command being executed (because
4497 they use different syntaxes):
4498 Net command: a-zA-Z -_.,/=
4500 Prompt, profile, autocommands: a-zA-Z -_.,/"'
4501 Mime command: a-zA-Z -_.,%&
4502 Commands containing at least one unsafe character will be rejected. Of
4504 course, we cannot (and should not) prevent what looks like legitimate,
4505 benign commands from being executed. But we can stop commands that, in
4506 an untrusted environment, look suspicious. This is specially the case
4507 of stream redirection (>), pipes (|), sequential (;) and conditional
4508 execution (&&, ||), command substitution ($(cmd)), and environment
4509 variables ($VAR).
4510 c) A secure environment is set (--secure-env is implied; to run on a
4512 fully sanitized environment run as follows: --secure-cmds --se‐
4513 cure-env-full.
4514
4517 Sequential and conditional execution of commands:
4518 For each of the internal commands (see the COMMANDS section above) you
4520 can use the semicolon to execute them sequentially and/or the double
4521 ampersand to execute them conditionally. Example: cmd1; cmd2 && cmd3.
4522 Though you can use here external commands as well, bear in mind that,
4524 whenever at least one internal command is involved in a chained list of
4525 commands, clifm will take care of executing this list (simply because
4526 the system shell isn't able to understand any of these commands), so
4527 that no shell inter-process function (like pipes), nor any stream redi‐
4528 rection or shell expression (like IF blocks or FOR loops) will be
4529 available. However, the shell is still used to run single external com‐
4530 mands found in the chained list, but in isolation from the remaining
4531 commands in this list.
4532 As a rule of thumb, when using chained commands make sure to always ex‐
4534 pand ELN's to avoid undesired consequences. If, for instance, you issue
4535 this command: touch aaa && r 3, you will end up deleting a file you
4536 were not intended to delete, simple because after the successful execu‐
4537 tion of the first command, the ELN 3 corresponds now to a different
4538 file.
4539 External commands:
4542 clifm is not limited to its own set of internal commands, like open,
4544 sel, trash, etc. It can run any external command as well, provided ex‐
4545 ternal commands are allowed (see the -x option, the ext command, or the
4546 configuration file).
4547 External commands are executed using an actual shell (say, /bin/bash),
4549 which is specified by clifm as follows:
4550 1. If the CLIFM_SHELL environment variable is set, this value is
4551 used.
4552 2. If the SHELL environment variable is set, this value is used.
4553 3. If none of the above, the value will be taken from the passwd
4554 database (via getpwuid(3)).
4555 By beginning the external command by a colon or a semicolon (':', ';')
4557 you tell clifm not to parse the input string, but instead letting this
4558 task to the system shell.
4559 Bear in mind that clifm is not intended to be used as a shell, but as
4561 the file manager it is.
4562 Terminal emulators and non-ASCII characters:
4565 It depends on the terminal emulator you use to correctly display
4567 non-ASCII characters and characters from the extended ASCII charset.
4568 If, for example, you create a file named "ñandú" (the Spanish word for
4569 ´rhea´), it will be correctly displayed by the Linux console, Lxtermi‐
4570 nal, and Urxvt, but not thus by more basic terminal emulators like
4571 Aterm.
4572 Spaces and file names:
4575 When dealing with file names containing spaces, you can use both single
4577 and double quotes (ex: "this file" or 'this file') plus the backslash
4578 character (ex: this\ file).
4579 Starting path:
4582 By default, clifm starts in the current working directory. However, you
4584 can always specify a different path by passing it as positional parame‐
4585 ter. Ex: clifm /home/user/misc. You can also permanently set up the
4586 starting path in the clifm configuration file. If the RestoreLastPath
4587 option is set to true, clifm will start instead in the last visited di‐
4588 rectory (and in the last used workspace), unless the starting path (and
4589 optionally the workspace number) is specified using the appropriate
4590 command line options.
4591 Default profile:
4594 clifm's default profile is default. To create alternative profiles use
4596 the -P command line option or the pf add command (see above).
4597
4600 CONFIGURATION FILE
4601 The main configuration file is $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/clifm/pro‐
4602 files/PROFILE/clifmrc. It will be copied from DATADIR/clifm
4603 (usually /usr/local/share/clifm), and if not found, it will be
4604 created anew with default values. Here you can permanently set
4605 up clifm options, define aliases, prompt commands, and autocom‐
4606 mands. You can access the configuration file either via the con‐
4607 fig command or pressing F10.
4608 A description for each option in the configuration file can be
4610 found in the configuration file itself.
4611 PROFILE FILE
4613 The profile file is $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/clifm/profiles/PROFILE/pro‐
4614 file.clifm. In this file you can add those commands you want to
4615 be executed at startup. You can also permanently set here some
4616 custom variables, ex: 'dir="/path/to/dir"'. This variable may be
4617 used as a shortcut to that directory, for instance: cd $dir.
4618 Custom variables could also be temporarily defined via the com‐
4619 mand prompt: Ex: user@hostname ~ $ var="This is a test". Tempo‐
4620 rary variables will be removed at program exit. Internal vari‐
4621 ables are disabled by default; enable them via the --int-vars
4622 command line switch.
4623 PROMPTS FILE
4625 This file contains prompts definitions and is located in
4626 DATADIR/clifm/prompts.clifm. It will be copied automatically
4627 into $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/clifm/prompts.clifm if it doesn't exist.
4628 The Prompt line in the color scheme file should point to one of
4629 the prompt names defined in this file. See the PROMPT section
4630 for more information.
4631 KEYBINDINGS FILE
4633 The keybindings file is $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/clifm/keybindings,cfm.
4634 It will be copied from DATADIR/clifm (usually /usr/share/clifm),
4635 and if not found, it will be created anew with default values.
4636 This file is used to specify the keyboard shortcuts used for
4637 some ClifM's functions. The format for each keybinding is always
4638 "keyseq:function", where 'keyseq' is an escape sequence in GNU
4639 emacs style. A more detailed explanation can be found in the
4640 keybindings file itself.
4641 PLUGINS DIRECTORY
4643 The directory used to store programs or scripts pointed to by
4644 actions (in other words, plugins) is DATADIR/clifm/plugins (usu‐
4645 ally /usr/share/clifm/plugins). To edit these plugins copy them
4646 to $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/clifm/plugins and edit them to your liking.
4647 Plugins in this local directory take precedence over those in
4648 the system one.
4649 COLORS DIRECTORY
4651 This directory, $DATADIR/clifm/colors, contains available color
4652 schemes (or just themes) as files with a .clifm extension. You
4653 can copy these themes to the local colors directory ($XDG_CON‐
4654 FIG_HOME/clifm/colors) and edit them to your liking (or create
4655 new themes from the ground up). Themes in the local colors di‐
4656 rectory take precedence over those in the system directory. You
4657 can create as many themes as you want by dropping them into the
4658 local colors directory. The default color scheme file (de‐
4659 fault.clifm) can be used as a guide.
4660 ACTIONS FILE
4662 The file used to define custom actions is $XDG_CON‐
4663 FIG_HOME/clifm/profiles/PROFILE/actions.clifm. It will be copied
4664 from DATADIR/clifm (usually /usr/share/clifm), and if not found,
4665 it will be created anew with default values.
4666 MIMELIST FILE
4668 The mimelist file is $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/clifm/profiles/PRO‐
4669 FILE/mimelist.clifm. It is a list of file types and name/exten‐
4670 sions and their associated applications used by lira. It will be
4671 copied from DATADIR/clifm (usually /usr/share/clifm).
4672 PREVIEW FILE
4674 The preview file is $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/clifm/profiles/PROFILE/pre‐
4675 view.clifm and is shotgun's configuration file. It makes use of
4676 the same syntax used by the mimelist file. It will be copied
4677 from DATADIR/clifm (usually /usr/share/clifm).
4678 BOOKMARKS FILE
4680 The bookmarks file is $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/clifm/profiles/PRO‐
4681 FILE/bookmarks.clifm Just the list of the user's bookmarks used
4682 by the bookmarks function.
4683 HISTORY FILE
4686 The history file is ~/.config/clifm/profiles/PROFILE/his‐
4687 tory.clifm. A list of commands entered by the user and used by
4688 the history function.
4689 COMMANDS LOG FILE
4691 The commands log file is $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/clifm/profiles/PRO‐
4692 FILE/cmdlogs.clifm. Command logs keep track of commands entered
4693 in the command line. These logs have this form: "[date] cur‐
4694 rent_working_directory:command".
4695 MESSAGES LOG FILE
4697 The messages log file is $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/clifm/profiles/PRO‐
4698 FILE/msglogs.clifm. Message logs are a record of errors and
4699 warnings and have the following form: "[date] message".
4700 KANGAROO DATABASE
4702 The directory jumper database is stored in $XDG_CON‐
4703 FIG_HOME/clifm/profiles/PROFILE/jump.clifm.
4704 NOTE: If $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is not set, $HOME/.config/ is used instead.
4706
4709 NOTE: Always try TAB. TAB completion is available for many things
4710 NOTE 2: Suggestions for possible completions are printed next to the
4712 text typed so far. To accept the given suggestion press Right (or Alt-f
4713 to accept only the first/next suggested word). Otherwise, the sugges‐
4714 tion is just ignored
4715 Get help: F1: manpage F2: keybindings F3: commands
4717 1. NAVIGATION
4719 ┌────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
4722 │Command │ Description │
4723 ├────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
4724 │/etc │ Change directory to /etc [1m(1) │
4725 ├────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
4726 │5 │ Change to the directory whose ELN is 5 [1m(2) │
4727 ├────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
4728 │j <TAB> (also dh <TAB>) │ Navigate through visited directories │
4729 ├────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
4730 │j xproj │ Jump to ~/media/data/docs/work/mike/xproject [1m(3) │
4731 ├────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
4732 │b (Shift-Left, Alt-j) │ Go back in the directory history list │
4733 ├────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
4734 │f (Shift-Right, Alt-k) │ Go forth in the directory history list │
4735 ├────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
4736 │.. (Shift-Up, Alt-u) │ Change to the parent directory │
4737 ├────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
4738 │... │ Change to the parent directory of the current parent directory [1m(4) │
4739 ├────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
4740 │bd w │ Change to the parent directory matching "w" [1m(5) │
4741 ├────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
4742 │ws2 (Alt-2) │ Swtich to the second workspace [1m(6) │
4743 ├────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
4744 │/*.pdf<TAB> │ List PDF files (current dir) │
4745 ├────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
4746 │=x<TAB> │ List executable files (current dir) [1m(7) │
4747 ├────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
4748 │@gzip<TAB> │ List files (current dir) whose MIME type includes "gzip" │
4749 ├────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
4750 │pin mydir │ Pin the directory named mydir │
4751 ├────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
4752 │, │ Change to pinned directory │
4753 ├────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
4754 │view (Alt+-) │ Preview files (current dir) [1m(8) │
4755 └────────────────────────┴────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
4756 [1m(1) cd /etc also works
4758 [1m(2) Press TAB to make sure 5 is the file you want, or just pay atten‐
4759 tion to the suggestion. Press Right to accept the given suggestion
4760 [1m(3) This depends on the database ranking. For more accuracy: j mike
4761 xproj. TAB completion is available: j xproj<TAB>
4762 [1m(4) This is the fastback function: each susequent dot after the two
4763 first dots is understood as an extra "/.."
4764 [1m(5) Type bd <TAB> to list all parent directories
4765 [1m(6) Alt-[1-4] is available for workspaces 1-4
4766 [1m(7) Type =<TAB> to get the list of available file type characters.
4767 Consult the FILE FILTERS section above for more information
4768 [1m(8) This feature depends on fzf(1)
4769 2. FILE OPERATIONS
4771 ┌─────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
4774 │Command │ Description │
4775 ├─────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
4776 │myfile.txt │ Open myfile.txt (with the default associated application) │
4777 ├─────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
4778 │myfile.txt vi │ Open myfile.txt using vi [1m(1) │
4779 ├─────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
4780 │24& │ Open the file whose ELN is 24 in the background │
4781 ├─────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
4782 │n myfile mydir/ │ Create a new file named myfile and a new directory named mydir [1m(2)(3) │
4783 ├─────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
4784 │p4 │ Print the properties of the file whose ELN is 4 │
4785 ├─────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
4786 │pc myfile.txt │ Edit the permission set of the file myfile.txt (use oc to edit ownership) │
4787 ├─────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
4788 │s *.c │ Select all c files in the current directory │
4789 ├─────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
4790 │s /media/*<TAB> │ Interactively select files in the directory /media [1m(4) │
4791 ├─────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
4792 │s 1-4 8 19-26 │ Select multiple files in the current directory by ELN │
4793 ├─────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
4794 │sb (sel<TAB> or s:<TAB>) │ List selected files [1m(5) │
4795 ├─────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
4796 │ds (ds <TAB>) │ Selectively deselect files using a menu │
4797 ├─────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
4798 │bm add mydir/ mybm │ Bookmark the directory mydir/ as "mybm" │
4799 ├─────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
4800 │bm mybm (b:mybm) │ Access the bookmark named mybm [1m(6) │
4801 ├─────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
4802 │bm del mybm │ Remove the bookmark named mybm │
4803 ├─────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
4804 │bm (Alt-b or b:<TAB>) │ Open the bookmarks manager │
4805 ├─────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
4806 │t 1-3 *.old │ Trash a few files │
4807 ├─────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
4808 │u (u <TAB>) │ Selectively undelete/restore trashed files using a menu │
4809 ├─────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
4810 │t del (t del <TAB>) │ Selectively remove files from the trash can using a menu │
4811 ├─────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
4812 │t empty │ Empty the trash can │
4813 ├─────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
4814 │ta *.pdf :mypdfs │ Tag all PDF files in the current directory as mypdfs │
4815 ├─────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
4816 │p t:mypdfs │ Print the file properties of all files tagged as mypdfs │
4817 ├─────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
4818 │/*.pdf │ Search for all PDF files in the current directory │
4819 ├─────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
4820 │c sel │ Copy selected files into the current directory │
4821 ├─────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
4822 │c *.txt 2 │ Copy all txt file into the directory whose ELN is 2 │
4823 ├─────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
4824 │r sel │ Remove all selected files [1m(7) │
4825 ├─────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
4826 │m4 │ Rename the file whose ELN is 4 [1m(8) │
4827 └─────────────────────────┴───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
4828 [1m(1) Use the ow command to select the opening application from a menu:
4830 ow myfile.txt or ow myfile.txt <TAB>
4831 [1m(2) Note the ending slash in the directory name
4832 [1m(3) Since clifm is integrated to the system shell, you can also use
4833 any of the shell commands you usually use to create new files. Ex:
4834 touch myfile or nano myfile
4835 [1m(4) Only for non-standard TAB completion: fzf, fnf, smenu
4836 [1m(5) You can also TAB expand the sel keyword: p sel<TAB> to list se‐
4837 lected files (and optionally mark multiple selected files to operate
4838 on)
4839 [1m(6) Type bm <TAB> to get the list of available bookmark names
4840 [1m(7) To remove files in bulk use the rr command
4841 [1m(8) To rename files in bulk use the br command
4842 3. MISC
4844 ┌───────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────┐
4847 │Command │ Description │
4848 ├───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
4849 │hh (Alt-.) │ Toggle hidden files │
4850 ├───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
4851 │ll (Alt-l) │ Toggle detail/long view mode │
4852 ├───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
4853 │rf (Enter -on empty line- │ Clear/refresh the screen │
4854 │or Ctrl-l) │ │
4855 ├───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
4856 │Alt-, │ Toggle list-directories-only │
4857 ├───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
4858 │Alt-TAB, Ctrl-Alt-i │ Toggle disk usage analyzer mode │
4859 ├───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
4860 │!<TAB> │ Navigate through the command history │
4861 ├───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
4862 │config (F10) │ View/edit the main configuration file │
4863 ├───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
4864 │pf set test │ Change to profile test │
4865 ├───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
4866 │actions │ List available actions/plugins │
4867 ├───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
4868 │icons on │ Want icons? │
4869 ├───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
4870 │cs (cs <TAB>) │ List available color schemes │
4871 ├───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
4872 │prompt (prompt <TAB>) │ List available prompts │
4873 ├───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
4874 │q │ I´m tired, quit │
4875 └───────────────────────────┴───────────────────────────────────────┘
4876 There is a lot more you can do, but this should be enough to get you
4878 started.
4879
4882 clifm returns the exit status of the last executed command
4883
4886 clifm is C99 compliant, and, if compiled with the _BE_POSIX flag, it is
4887 POSIX.1-2008 compliant as well. If not, just a single non-POSIX func‐
4888 tion is used: statx(2) (Linux specific), to get files birth time.
4889
4892 Report at <https://github.com/leo\-arch/clifm/issues>
4893
4896 L. M. Abramovich <leo.clifm@outlook.com>
4897 For additional contributors, use git shortlog -s on the clifm.git
4899 repository.
4900clifm 1.15 Oct 25, 2023 CLIFM(1)