Fzf - File Search From Linux Terminal

Fzf is a command-line general-purpose fuzzy finder tool. It is somewhat like grep. It is a cross-platform command-line tool, that helps you to search and open files quickly. Furthermore, it is open-sourced portable with no dependencies. It has supports for Vim/Neo vim plugin, key bindings, and fuzzy auto-completion. It can be used with any list; files, command history, processes, hostnames, bookmarks, git commits, etc.

Installation on the various platform through package manager

Install fzf via package managers or Git on Linux, macOS, Windows, or BSD.

Installation using Git

In this we install the fzf using the git:

Step 1: Open up the terminal and run the following command to see if git is installed on your machine or not.

git --version

If the output looks like this, then you are good to go, or else you need to install git first on your system. You can install git by running the following command:

 sudo apt install git-all

Step 2: Clone the fzf repository using the following command:

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/junegunn/fzf.git

Step 3: Navigate to the cloned folder.

cd fzf

Step 4: Run the installation script using the following command.

./install

Using fzf to search and open a file

nano is a text editor, and we are going to open the searched file in nano. And (fzf --height 40%) will open a fuzzy finder window within 40% of the screen.

nano  $(fzf --height 40% ) 

Note: we can replace nano with other utility commands like cat(used to view a file), rm(used to remove a file), kill(used to kill a running process), cd( to change directory),etc. 

In this example, we are opening a file called geeks.sh using a fuzzy finder prompt. We can use the keys to navigate through, or we can just type the name of the file that we are looking for. 

We can use the keyboard key to navigate through the list of items/files.

• CTRL-J / CTRL-N to the move cursor down and  CTRL-K/ CTRL-P to move the cursor up.
• Use any of these CTRL-C / CTRL-G / ESC  key combinations to exit from the finder.
• To select multiple files run fzf  as fzf -m i.e. multi-select mode (-m), and use TAB to mark multiple items/files.
• Use  Mouse: scroll to scroll through items/files, right-click to multi-select the file, left-click/double-click to open the file.

Using multi-select mode

To select multiple files in finder, we open fzf in multi-select mode using -m argument. The red triangle in front of the items/files shows that these files are selected. After selecting desired files hit ENTER to display their path location.

fzf -m

Steps to Uninstall fzf

If you want to uninstall the fzf than follow the below steps:

Step 1: Navigate to fzf directory using following command:

cd fzf

Step 2: Use ls command to list all the items in that directory.

ls

Step 3: Run the uninstallation file i.e. uninstall, from this fzf directory to remove the fuzzy finder from your system.

./uninstall

Conclusion

fzf is the command-line fuzzy finder, revolutionizing the way developers, sysadmins, and Linux users work with their terminal processes. The open-source gem combines lightning-fast speed, fuzzy search wizardry, and easy integrations with applications like Vim, bash, zsh, and Git, all of which make it an indispensable tool for terminal productivity. Whether finding files with nano $(fzf --height 40%), handling processes, or batch editing with multi-select mode (fzf -m), fzf saves time and effort. Its cross-platform compatibility—Ubuntu, Fedora, macOS, Windows, and BSD included—and dependency-free nature.