19 KiB
nnn
Noice is Not Noice, a noicer fork...
nnn in action!
nnn is probably the fastest and most resource-sensitive (with all its capabilities) file browser you have ever used. It's extremely flexible too - integrates with your DE and favourite GUI utilities, works with the desktop opener, supports bookmarks, has smart navigation shortcuts, navigate-as-you-type mode, disk usage analyzer mode, comprehensive file details and much more. nnn was initially forked from noice but is significantly different today.
Cool things you can do with nnn:
- open any file in the default desktop application or a custom one
- navigate-as-you-type (search-as-you-type enabled even on directory switch)
- check disk usage with number of files in current directory tree
- run desktop search utility (gnome-search-tool or catfish) in any directory
- copy absolute file paths to clipboard, spawn a terminal and use the paths
- navigate instantly using shortcuts like
~,-,&or handy bookmarks - use
cd .....at chdir prompt to go to a parent directory - detailed file stats, media info, list and extract archives
- pin a directory you may need to revisit and jump to it anytime
- lock the current terminal after a specified idle time
- change directory on exit
If you want to edit a file in vi with some soothing music in the background while referring to a spec in your GUI PDF viewer, nnn got it! Quickstart and see how nnn simplifies those long desktop sessions...
Have fun with it! PRs are welcome. Check out #1.
Love smart and efficient terminal utilities? Explore my repositories. Buy me a cup of coffee if they help you.
Table of Contents
- Features
- Performance
- Installation
- Shell completion
- Usage
- Quickstart
- How to
- Why fork?
- Mentions
- Developers
Features
- Navigation
- Familiar shortcuts
- Navigate-as-you-type mode
- Bookmarks support; pin and visit a directory
- Open a bookmarked directory on start
- Jump HOME or to the last visited directory (as usual!)
- Jump to initial dir, chdir prompt, cd ..... (with . as PWD)
- Roll-over at edges, page through entries
- Show directories in custom color (default: enabled in blue)
- Disk usage analyzer (du) mode
- Search
- Filter directory contents with search-as-you-type
- Desktop search (default gnome-search-tool, customizable) integration
- Mimes
- Desktop opener integration
- Open file with a custom application
- Optionally open text files in EDITOR (fallback vi)
- Customizable bash script nlay to handle actions
- Information
- Basic and detail view
- Detailed stat-like file information
- Media information (needs mediainfo or exiftool, if specified)
- Ordering
- Numeric order (1, 2, ... 10, 11, ...) for numeric names
- Sort by file name, modification time, size
- Convenience
- Create, rename files and directories
- Batch rename/move/delete current directory entries in vidir (from moreutils)
- Spawn SHELL (fallback sh) in the current directory
- Copy absolute file paths with/without X (easy shell integration)
- Change directory at exit (easy shell integration)
- Open any file in EDITOR (fallback vi) or PAGER (fallback less)
- List and extract archives (needs atool)
- Open current directory in a custom GUI file browser
- Terminal screensaver (default vlock, customizable) integration
- Unicode support
- Highly optimized code, minimal resource usage
Performance
nnn vs. ncdu memory usage in disk usage analyzer mode (401385 files on disk):
PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
5034 vaio 20 0 70360 58764 2244 S 0.0 0.7 0:00.80 ncdu /
4949 vaio 20 0 17520 4224 2584 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.54 nnn -S /
nnn vs. midnight commander vs. ranger memory usage while viewing a directory with 13790 files, sorted by size:
PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
16255 vaio 20 0 101392 59304 7928 S 0.0 0.7 0:00.68 /usr/bin/python -O /usr/bin/ranger
15971 vaio 20 0 65732 11784 6848 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.56 mc
16198 vaio 20 0 18520 4900 2536 S 0.3 0.1 0:00.14 nnn
Intrigued? Find out HOW.
Installation
Dependencies
nnn needs libreadline, libncursesw (on Linux or ncurses on OS X) and standard libc.
From a package manager
- AUR
- Debian
- FreeBSD (
pkg install nnn) - Gentoo (
emerge nnn) - Homebrew
- NixOS (
sudo nix-env -i nnn) - openSUSE (and packages for several other distros)
- Slackware
- Source Mage (
cast nnn) - Ubuntu
- Ubuntu PPA
- Void Linux (
sudo xbps-install -S nnn)
Release packages
Packages for Arch Linux, CentOS, Debian, Fedora and Ubuntu are available with the latest stable release.
From source
To cook yourself, download the latest stable release or clone this repository (risky). Then install the dependencies and compile (e.g. on Ubuntu 16.04):
$ sudo apt-get install libncursesw5-dev libreadline6-dev
$ make
$ sudo make install
PREFIX is supported, in case you want to install to a different location.
Shell completion
Search keyword and option completion scripts for Bash, Fish and Zsh can be found in respective subdirectories of scripts/auto-completion/. Please refer to your shell's manual for installation instructions.
Usage
Cmdline options
usage: nnn [-b key] [-c N] [-e] [-i] [-l]
[-p nlay] [-S] [-v] [-h] [PATH]
The missing terminal file browser for X.
positional arguments:
PATH start dir [default: current dir]
optional arguments:
-b key specify bookmark key to open
-c N specify dir color, disables if N>7
-e use exiftool instead of mediainfo
-i start in navigate-as-you-type mode
-l start in light mode (fewer details)
-p nlay path to custom nlay
-S start in disk usage analyzer mode
-v show program version and exit
-h show this help and exit
> indicates the currently selected entry in nnn.
Keyboard shortcuts
Key | Function
- + -
↑, k, ^P | Previous entry
↓, j, ^N | Next entry
PgUp, ^U | Scroll half page up
PgDn, ^D | Scroll half page down
Home, g, ^, ^A | First entry
End, G, $, ^E | Fast entry
→, ↵, l, ^M | Open file or enter dir
←, Bksp, h, ^H | Go to parent dir
^O | Open with...
Insert, ^I | Toggle navigate-as-you-type
~ | Go HOME
& | Go to initial dir
- | Go to last visited dir
/ | Filter dir contents
^/ | Open desktop search tool
. | Toggle hide . files
^B | Bookmark prompt
b | Pin current dir
^V | Go to pinned dir
c | Change dir prompt
d | Toggle detail view
D | File details
m | Brief media info
M | Full media info
n | Create new
^R | Rename entry
R | Rename dir entries
s | Toggle sort by size
S, ^J | Toggle du mode
t | Toggle sort by mtime
! | Spawn SHELL in dir
e | Edit entry in EDITOR
o | Open dir in file manager
p | Open entry in PAGER
F | List archive
^F | Extract archive
^K | Invoke file path copier
^Y | Toggle multi-copy mode
^T | Toggle path quote
^L | Redraw, clear prompt
? | Help, settings
Q, ^G | Quit and cd
q, ^X | Quit
Help & settings, file details, media info and archive listing are shown in the PAGER. Please use the PAGER-specific keys in these screens.
Filters
Filters support regexes to instantly (search-as-you-type) list the matching entries in the current directory.
There are 3 ways to reset a filter:
- pressing ^L (at the new/rename prompt ^L followed by Enter discards all changes and exits prompt)
- a search with no matches
- an extra backspace at the filter prompt (like vi)
Common use cases:
- to list all matches starting with the filter expression, start the expression with a
^(caret) symbol - type
\.mkvto list all MKV files
If nnn is invoked as root the default filter will also match hidden files.
Navigate-as-you-type mode
In this mode directories are opened in filter mode, allowing continuous navigation. Works best with the arrow keys.
File type abbreviations
The following abbreviations are used in the detail view:
| Symbol | File Type |
|---|---|
/ |
Directory |
* |
Executable |
| |
Fifo |
= |
Socket |
@ |
Symbolic Link |
b |
Block Device |
c |
Character Device |
File handling
| External dependency | Operation |
|---|---|
| xdg-open (Linux), open(1) (OS X) | desktop opener |
| mediainfo, exiftool | multimedia file details |
| gnome-search-tool, catfish | desktop search utility |
| atool | list and extract archives |
| vidir from moreutils | batch rename, move, delete dir entries |
| vlock (Linux) | terminal locker |
| $EDITOR | edit files (fallback vi) |
| $PAGER | page through files (fallback less) |
| $SHELL | spawn a shell in dir (fallback sh) |
-
To edit all text files in EDITOR (preferably CLI, fallback vi):
export NNN_USE_EDITOR=1 -
To enable the desktop file manager key, set
NNN_DE_FILE_MANAGER. E.g.:export NNN_DE_FILE_MANAGER=thunar export NNN_DE_FILE_MANAGER=nautilus
Help
$ nnn -h
$ man nnn
To lookup keyboard shortcuts at runtime, press ?.
Quickstart
Add the following to your shell's rc file for the best experience:
-
Use a shorter and sweeter alias:
alias n=nnn -
Optionally open all text files in EDITOR (fallback vi):
export NNN_USE_EDITOR=1 -
Set a desktop file manager to open directories with (if you ever need to). E.g.:
export NNN_DE_FILE_MANAGER=thunar -
Run
n. -
Press ? for help on keyboard shortcuts anytime.
How to
add bookmarks
Set environment variable NNN_BMS as a string of key:location pairs (max 10) separated by semicolons (;):
export NNN_BMS='doc:~/Documents;u:/home/user/Cam Uploads;D:~/Downloads/'
The bookmark prompt also understands the ~ (HOME), - (last visited directory) and & (start directory) shortcuts.
use cd .....
To jump to the nth level parent, with PWD at level 0, use n + 1 dots. For example, to jump to the 6 parent of the current directory, use 7 dots. If the number of dots would take you beyond / (which isn't possible), you'll be placed at /.
cd on quit
Pick the appropriate file for your shell from scripts/quitcd and add the contents to your shell's rc file. You'll need to spawn a new shell for the change to take effect. You should start nnn as n (or modify the function name to something else).
As you might notice, nnn uses the environment variable NNN_TMPFILE to write the last visited directory path. You can change it.
copy file paths to clipboard
nnn can pipe the absolute path of the current file or multiple files to a copier script. For example, you can use xsel on Linux or pbcopy on OS X.
Sample Linux copier script:
#!/bin/sh
# comment the next line to convert newlines to spaces
IFS=
echo -n $1 | xsel --clipboard --input
export NNN_COPIER:
export NNN_COPIER="/path/to/copier.sh"
Use ^K to copy the absolute path (from /) of the file under the cursor to clipboard.
To copy multiple file paths, switch to the multi-copy mode using ^Y. In this mode you can
- select multiple files one by one by pressing ^K on each entry; or,
- navigate to another file in the same directory to select a range of files.
Pressing ^Y again copies the paths to clipboard and exits the multi-copy mode.
To wrap each file path within single quotes, export NNN_QUOTE_ON:
export NNN_QUOTE_ON=1
This is particularly useful if you are planning to copy the whole string to the shell to run a command. Quotes can be toggled at runtime using ^T.
copy file paths when X is missing
A very common scenario on headless remote servers connected via SSH. As the clipboard is missing, nnn copies the path names to the tmp file /tmp/nnncp$USER.
nnn needs to know X is unavailable:
export NNN_NO_X=1
Use ^Y and/or ^K to copy file paths as usual. To use the copied paths from the cmdline, use command substitution:
# bash/zsh
ls -ltr `cat /tmp/nnncpuser`
ls -ltr $(cat /tmp/nnncpuser)
# fish
ls -ltr (cat /tmp/nnncpuser)
An alias may be handy:
alias ncp='cat /tmp/nnncpuser'
so you can -
# bash/zsh
ls -ltr `ncp`
ls -ltr $(ncp)
# fish
ls -ltr (ncp)
Note that you may want to keep quotes disabled in this case.
change dir color
The default color for directories is blue. Option -c accepts color codes from 0 to 7 to use a different color:
0-black, 1-red, 2-green, 3-yellow, 4-blue, 5-magenta, 6-cyan, 7-white
Any other value disables colored directories.
file copy, move, delete
nnn doesn't support file copy, move, delete natively. However, it simplifies the workflow:
- copy the absolute paths using ^Y and/or ^K
- spawn a shell in the current directory (!)
- while typing the desired command, copy the file paths (usually ^-Shift-V)
In addition, nnn integrates with vidir. vidir supports batch file move and delete.
boost chdir prompt
nnn uses libreadline for the chdir prompt input. So all the fantastic features of readline (e.g. case insensitive tab completion, history, reverse-i-search) are available to you based on your readline configuration.
set idle timeout
The terminal screensaver is disabled by default. To set the wait time in seconds, use environment variable NNN_IDLE_TIMEOUT.
show hot plugged drives
Enable volume management in your DE file manager and set removable drives or media to be auto-mounted when inserted. Then visit the usual mount point location (/mnt or /media/user) in nnn.
Why fork?
I chose to fork because:
- one can argue my approach deviates from the goal of the original project - keep the utility
suckless. In my opinion evolution is the taste of time. - I would like to have a bit of control on what features are added in the name of desktop integration. A feature-bloat is the last thing in my mind. Check out nnn design considerations for more details.
Mentions
Developers
- Copyright © 2014-2016 Lazaros Koromilas
- Copyright © 2014-2016 Dimitris Papastamos
- Copyright © 2016-2018 Arun Prakash Jana