nnn/plugins

nnn plugins

read ebooks with plugin gutenread (Android)

image preview with plugin imgthumb

Introduction

Plugins extend the capabilities of nnn. They are executable scripts (or binaries) nnn can communicate with and trigger. This mechanism fits perfectly with the fundamental design to keep the core file manager lean and fast, by delegating repetitive (but not necessarily file manager-specific) tasks to the plugins which can be run with custom hotkeys.

nnn is language-agnostic when it comes to plugins. You can write a plugin in any (scripting) language you are comfortable in!

Installing plugins

The following command installs or updates (after backup) all plugins:

curl -Ls https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jarun/nnn/master/plugins/getplugs | sh

Plugins are installed to ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-$HOME/.config}/nnn/plugins.

List of plugins

Plugin (a-z)	Description	Lang	Dependencies
autojump	Navigate to dir/path	sh	autojump
bookmarks	Use named bookmarks managed with symlinks	sh	fzf
boom	Play random music from dir	sh	moc
dups	List non-empty duplicate files in current dir	sh	find, md5sum, sort uniq xargs
chksum	Create and verify checksums	sh	md5sum, sha256sum
diffs	Diff for selection (limited to 2 for directories)	sh	vimdiff
dragdrop	Drag/drop files from/into nnn	sh	dragon
finder	Run custom find command and list	sh	-
fzcd	Change to the directory of a fuzzy-selected file/dir	sh	fzf
fzhist	Fuzzy-select a cmd from history, edit in $EDITOR and run	sh	fzf
fzopen	Fuzzy find a file in dir subtree and edit or open	sh	fzf, xdg-open
fzz	Change to any directory in the z database with fzf	sh	fzf, z
getplugs	Update plugins to installed nnn version	sh	curl
gutenread	Browse, download, read from Project Gutenberg	sh	curl, unzip, w3m epr (optional)
hexview	View a file in hex in $PAGER	sh	xxd
imgresize	Resize images in dir to screen resolution	sh	imgp
imgthumb	View thumbnail of an image or dir of images	sh	lsix
imgur	Upload an image to imgur (from imgur-screenshot)	bash	-
imgview	Browse images, set wallpaper, copy path (config), rename	sh	sxiv/viu, less
ipinfo	Fetch external IP address and whois information	sh	curl, whois
kdeconnect	Send selected files to an Android device	sh	kdeconnect-cli
launch	GUI application launcher	sh	fzf
mediainf	Show media information	sh	mediainfo
mimelist	List files by mime in subtree	sh	fd/find
moclyrics	Show lyrics of the track playing in moc	sh	ddgr, moc
mocplay	Append (and/or play) selection/dir/file in moc	sh	moc
mp3conv	Extract audio from multimedia as mp3	sh	ffmpeg
nbak	Backs up nnn config	sh	tar, awk
nmount	Toggle mount status of a device as normal user	sh	pmount, udisks2
nuke	Sample file opener (CLI-only by default)	sh	see in-file docs
oldbigfile	List large files by access time	sh	find, sort
organize	Auto-organize files in directories by file type	sh	file
pdfread	Read a PDF or text file aloud	sh	pdftotext, mpv, pico2wave
pdfview	View PDF file in $PAGER	sh	pdftotext/ mupdf-tools
picker	Pick files and list one per line (to pipe)	sh	nnn
preview-kitty	File previewer in a kitty terminal pane	sh	kitty, optional: exa bat mediainfo
preview-tabbed	tabbed/xembed based file previewer	bash	see in-file docs
preview-tui	Simple TUI file previewer (needs NNN_FIFO)	sh	tmux (>= 3.0)/xterm/ $TERMINAL, file, tree
pskill	Fuzzy list by name and kill process or zombie	sh	fzf, ps, sudo/doas
renamer	Batch rename selection or files in dir	sh	qmv/vidir
ringtone	Create a variable bitrate mp3 ringtone from file	sh	date, ffmpeg
splitjoin	Split file or join selection	sh	split, cat
suedit	Edit file using superuser permissions	sh	sudoedit/sudo/doas
treeview	Informative tree output in $EDITOR	sh	tree
uidgid	List user and group of all files in dir	sh	ls, less
upgrade	Upgrade nnn manually on Debian 9 Stretch	sh	curl
upload	Paste text to ix.io, upload binary to file.io	sh	curl, jq, tr
vidthumb	Show video thumbnails in terminal	sh	ffmpegthumbnailer, lsix
wall	Set wallpaper or change colorscheme	sh	nitrogen/pywal
x2sel	Copy \n-separated file list from system clipboard to sel	sh	see in-file docs

Invoking a plugin

Press the plugin shortcut (;) followed by the assigned key character. E.g., with the below config:

export NNN_PLUG='f:finder;o:fzopen;p:mocplay;d:diffs;t:nmount;v:imgview'

Plugin finder can be run with the keybind ;f, fzopen can be run with ;o and so on... The key vs. plugin pairs are shown in the help and config screen.

Alternatively, combine with Alt (i.e. Alt+key).

To select and invoke a plugin from the plugin directory, press Enter (to enter the plugin dir) after the plugin shortcut.

Skip directory refresh after running a plugin

nnn refreshes the directory after running a plugin to reflect any changes by the plugin. To disable this (say while running the mediainf plugin on some filtered files), add a - before the plugin name:

export NNN_PLUG='m:-mediainf'

Now nnn will not refresh the directory after running the mediainf plugin.

Running commands as plugin

To assign keys to arbitrary non-background, non-shell-interpreted cli commands and invoke like plugins, add _ (underscore) before the command.

For example:

export NNN_PLUG='x:_chmod +x $nnn;g:_git log;s:_smplayer $nnn'

Now ;x can be used to make a file executable, ;g can be used to the git log of a git project directory, ;s can be used to preview a partially downloaded media file.

Skip user confirmation after command execution

nnn waits for user confirmation (the prompt Press Enter to continue) after it executes a command as plugin (unlike plugins which can add a read to wait). To skip this, add a * after the command. For example:

export NNN_PLUG='s:_smplayer $nnn*;n:-_vim /home/vaio/Dropbox/Public/synced_note*'

Now there will be no prompt after ;s and ;n.

Note: Do not use * with programs those run and exit e.g. cat.

Run GUI app as plugin

To run a GUI app as plugin, add a | after _. For example:

export NNN_PLUG='m:-_|mousepad $nnn'

Notes:

1. Use single quotes for $NNN_PLUG so $nnn is not interpreted
2. $nnn should be the last argument (IF used)
3. (Again) add _ before the command
4. To disable directory refresh after running a command as plugin, prefix with -_

Some useful key-command examples

Key:Command	Description
g:-_git diff	Show git diff
k:-_fuser -kiv $nnn*	Interactively kill process(es) using hovered file
l:-_git log	Show git log
n:-_vi /home/user/Dropbox/dir/note*	Take quick notes in a synced file/dir of notes
p:-_less -iR $nnn*	Page through hovered file in less
s:-_|smplayer -minigui $nnn	Play hovered media file, even unfinished download
x:_chmod +x $nnn	Make the hovered file executable
y:-_sync*	Flush cached writes

Access level of plugins

When nnn executes a plugin, it does the following:

• Changes to the directory where the plugin is to be run ($PWD pointing to the active directory)
• Passes two arguments to the script:
  1. The hovered file's name.
  2. The working directory (might differ from $PWD in case of symlinked paths; non-canonical).
• Sets the environment variable NNN_PIPE used to control nnn active directory.

Plugins can also read the .selection file in the config directory.

Create your own plugins

Plugins can be written in any scripting language. However, POSIX-compliant shell scripts runnable in sh are preferred.

Drop the plugin in ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-$HOME/.config}/nnn/plugins and make it executable. Optionally add a hotkey in $NNN_PLUG for frequent usage.

Send data to nnn

nnn provides a mechanism for plugins to send data to nnn to control its active directory or invoke the list mode. The way to do so is by writing to the pipe pointed by the environment variable NNN_PIPE. The plugin should write a single string in the format <ctxcode><opcode><data> without a newline at the end. For example, 1c/etc.

The ctxcode indicates the context to change the active directory of.

Context code	Meaning
1-4	context number
0	current context
+	smart context (next inactive else current)

The opcode indicates the operation type.

Opcode	Operation
c	change directory
l	list files in list mode

For convenience, we provided a helper script named .nnn-plugin-helper and a function named nnn_cd to ease this process. nnn_cd receives the path to change to as the first argument, and the context as an optional second argument. If a context is not provided, it is asked for explicitly. To skip this and choose the current context, set the CUR_CTX variable in .nnn-plugin-helper to 1. Usage examples can be found in the Examples section below.

Get notified on file hover

If NNN_FIFO is set, nnn will open it and write every hovered files. This can be used in plugins and external scripts, e.g. to implement file previews.

The easiest way to set NNN_FIFO is to start nnn with the -a option, to automatically setup a temporary FIFO file for this nnn instance.

If a NNN_FIFO environment variable is set globally (and -a is not passed to nnn), each nnn instance will write to the same FIFO, and a process reading from the pipe will get hovered path from every instance, interleaved.

Don't forget to fork in the background to avoid blocking nnn.

Note that nnn does not watch the hovered file and update the path if it's modified while under preview. Press ^L to update the preview without changing the hovered entry.

Examples

There are many plugins provided by nnn which can be used as examples. Here are a few simple selected examples.

• Show the git log of changes to the particular file along with the code for a quick and easy review.

  #!/usr/bin/env sh
  git log -p -- "$1"
  

• Change to directory in clipboard using helper script

  #!/usr/bin/env sh
  . $(dirname $0)/.nnn-plugin-helper
  
  nnn_cd "$(xsel -ob)"
  

• Change directory to the location of a link using helper script with specific context (current)

  #!/usr/bin/env sh
  . $(dirname $0)/.nnn-plugin-helper
  
  nnn_cd "$(dirname $(readlink -fn $1))" 0
  

• Change to arbitrary directory without helper script

  #!/usr/bin/env sh
  printf "cd to: "
  read -r dir
  
  printf "%s" "0c$dir" > "$NNN_PIPE"
  

• Send every hovered file to X selection

  #!/usr/bin/env sh
  if [ -z "$NNN_FIFO" ] ; then
      exit 1
  fi
  
  while read FILE ; do
      printf "%s" "$FILE" | xsel
  done < "$NNN_FIFO" &
  disown
  

Contributing plugins

1. Add informative sections like Description, Notes, Dependencies, Shell, Author etc. in the plugin.
2. Add an entry in the table above.
3. Keep non-portable commands (like notify-send) commented so users from any other OS/DE aren't surprised.
4. The plugin file should be executable.
5. If your plugin stores data, use ${XDG_CACHE_HOME:-$HOME/.cache}/nnn. Document it in-file.