nnn

Noice is Not Noice, a noicer fork...

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Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Why fork?
• Original features
• nnn toppings
• Installation
• Usage
• Keyboard shortcuts
• Filters
• File type abbreviations
• Help
• Copy current file path to clipboard
• Change file associations

Introduction

nnn is a fork of noice, a blazing-fast terminal file browser with easy keyboard shortcuts for navigation, opening files and running tasks. It is developed with terminal based systems in mind. However, the incredible user-friendliness and speed make it a perfect utility on modern distros.

The only issue with noice is hard-coded file associations. There is no config file (better performance and simpler to maintain) and one has to modify the source to change associations (see how to change file associations). nnn solves the problem by adding the flexibility of using the default desktop opener at runtime. There are several other improvements too (see fork-toppings).

You can try

alias n='nnn -d'

and see how nnn simplifies those long desktop sessions.

Have fun with it! PRs are welcome. Check out #1.

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.

Original features

• Super-easy navigation
• Pre-defined associaitons for different file types
• Jump to home directory
• Filter contents in current directory
• Show/hide hidden files
• Sort entries by modification time (newest to oldest)
• Spawn a SHELL in current directory (fallback sh)
• Run top
• Edit a file with EDITOR (fallback vi)
• Page through a file in PAGER (fallback less)

nnn toppings

• Behaviour and navigation
  • Detail view (default: disabled) with:
    • file type (directory, regular, symlink etc.)
    • modification time
    • human-readable file size
    • current item in reverse video
    • number of items in current directory
    • full name of currently selected file in 'bar'
  • Show details of the currently selected file (stat, file)
  • Directories first
  • Sort numeric names in numeric order
  • Case-insensitive alphabetic content listing instead of upper case first
  • Roll over at the first and last entries of a directory (with Up/Down keys)
  • Removed navigation restriction with relative paths (and let permissions handle it)
  • Sort entries by file size (largest to smallest)
  • Shortcut to invoke file name copier (set using environment variable NNN_COPIER)
• File associations

  • Environment variable NNN_OPENER to let desktop opener handle it all. E.g.:

    export NNN_OPENER=xdg-open
    export NNN_OPENER=gnome-open
    export NNN_OPENER=gvfs-open
    

  • Selective file associations (ignored if NNN_OPENER is set):

    • Associate plain text files (determined using file) with vi
    • Associate common audio and video mimes with mpv
    • Associate PDF files with zathura
    • Removed less as default file opener (there is no universal standalone opener utility)

  • Environment variable NNN_FALLBACK_OPENER is the last line of defense:

    • If the executable in static file association is missing
    • If a file type was not handled in static file association
    • This may be the best option to set your desktop opener to
• Optimizations
  • All redundant buffer removal
  • All frequently used local chunks now static
  • No runtime surprises (0 malloc/free)
  • Removed some redundant string allocation and manipulation
  • Simplified some roundabout procedures
  • -O3 level optimization, warning fixes
  • Added compilation flag -march=native
  • Remove generated config.h on make clean
  • strip the final binary

Installation

nnn needs a curses implementation and standard libc.

Download the latest master or clone this repository. Compile and install:

$ make
$ sudo make install

No plans of packaging at the time.

Usage

Start nnn (default: current directory):

$ nnn [-d] [path_to_dir]

-d: open in detail view mode

> indicates the currently selected entry in nnn.

Keyboard shortcuts

Key	Function
Up, k, ^P	Previous entry
Down, j, ^N	Next entry
PgUp, ^U	Scroll half page up
PgDn, ^D	Scroll half page down
Home, g, ^, ^A	Jump to first entry
End, G, $, ^E	Jump to last entry
Right, Enter, l, ^M	Open file or enter dir
Left, Backspace, h, ^H	Go to parent dir
~	Jump to HOME dir
/, &	Filter dir contents
c	Show change dir prompt
d	Toggle detail view
D	Show details of selected file
.	Toggle hide .dot files
s	Toggle sort by file size
t	Toggle sort by modified time
!	Spawn SHELL in PWD (fallback sh)
z	Run top
e	Edit entry in EDITOR (fallback vi)
p	Open entry in PAGER (fallback less)
^K	Invoke file name copier
^L	Force a redraw
?	Show help
q	Quit

Filters

Filters support regexes to display only the matched entries in the current directory view. This effectively allows searching through the directory tree for a particular entry.

Filters do not stack on top of each other. They are applied anew every time.

An empty filter expression resets the filter.

If nnn is invoked as root the default filter will also match hidden files.

File type abbreviations

The following abbreviations are used in the detail view:

Symbol	File Type
/	Directory
*	Executable
`	`
=	Socket
@	Symbolic Link
b	Block Device
c	Character Device

Help

$ man nnn

Copy current file path to clipboard

nnn can pipe the absolute path of the current file to a copier script. For example, you can use xsel on Linux or pbcopy on OS X.

Sample Linux copier script:

#!/bin/sh

echo -n $1 | xsel --clipboard --input

export NNN_OPENER:

export NNN_COPIER="/home/vaio/copier.sh"

Start nnn and use Ctrl-k to copy the absolute path (from /) of the file under the cursor to clipboard.

Change file associations

If you want to set custom applications for certain mime types, or change the ones set already (e.g. vi, mpv, zathura), modify the assocs structure in config.def.h (it's easy). Then re-compile and install.