nnn

Noice is Not Noice, a noicer fork...

nnn in action! (Thanks Luke Smith for the video!)

nnn is smooth... like butter. It's also probably the fastest and most lightweight file manager you have ever used.

nnn integrates seamlessly with your DE and favourite GUI utilities, has a unique navigate-as-you-type mode with auto-select, disk usage analyzer mode, bookmarks, contexts, application launcher, familiar navigation shortcuts, subshell spawning, quick notes and much more.

Integrate utilities like sxiv (view images in directory) or fzy (fuzzy search subtree) easily, transfer selected files using lftp or use it as a (neo)vim plugin; nnn supports as many scripts as you need! Refer to the How to section on wiki for more details.

It runs on Linux, macOS, Raspberry Pi, BSD, Cygwin, Linux subsystem for Windows and Termux.

Quickstart and see how nnn simplifies those long desktop sessions.

Love smart and efficient utilities? Explore my repositories. Buy me a cup of coffee if they help you.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Features
• Comparison
• Installation
  • Library dependencies
  • Utility dependencies
  • From a package manager
  • Release packages
  • From source
  • Shell completion
• Usage
  • Cmdline options
  • Keyboard shortcuts
  • Leader key
  • Contexts
    • Context-specific color
  • Selection
  • Filters
  • Navigate-as-you-type
  • File indicators
  • Configuration
  • Help
• Quickstart
• How to
• Why fork?
• Mentions
• Developers
• Contributions

FEATURES

• Modes
  • Basic, detail (default), disk usage analyzer (du)
  • File picker, vim (or neovim) plugin
• Navigation
  • Contexts (aka tabs aka workspaces)
  • Navigate-as-you-type with auto-select directory
  • Bookmarks
  • Familiar, easy shortcuts (arrows, ~, -, &)
  • Pin and visit a directory
• Sorting
  • Directories always listed on top
  • Sort by file name, modification time, size
  • Ordered pure numeric names by default (visit /proc)
  • Version sort
• Search
  • Instant filtering with search-as-you-type
  • Regex and substring match
• Mimes
  • Open with desktop opener or specify a custom app
  • Create, list, extract archives (needs (p)atool)
  • Open all text files in EDITOR (optional)
• Information
  • Detailed stat-like file information
  • Media information (needs mediainfo/exiftool)
• Convenience
  • Create, rename files and directories
  • Select files across dirs; all/range selection
  • Copy, move, delete, archive selection
  • Create sym/hard link(s) to selection
  • Transfer files using lftp
  • Batch rename/move/delete (needs vidir)
  • Show directories in custom color (default: blue)
  • Per-context directory color
  • Spawn a subshell in the current directory
  • Run a command, launch applications
  • Run custom scripts in the current directory
  • Repository of custom scripts
  • Run current file as executable
  • Change directory at exit (easy shell integration)
  • Edit file in EDITOR or open in PAGER
  • Take quick notes
  • Terminal locker integration
  • Shortcut reference a keypress away
• Unicode support
• Highly optimized, static analysis integrated code
• Available on many distros

COMPARISON

Stripped binary (or script) size and memory usage of nnn and some other similar utilities while viewing a directory with 13.5K files (0 directories), sorted by size/du:

BINSZ    VIRT    RES    SHR S  %MEM   COMMAND
 650K  139720  91220   8460 S   1.1   ranger
   1M   50496  15328   4076 S   0.2   vifm
   1M   72152  12468   7336 S   0.2   mc
  55K   15740   4348   2460 S   0.1   nnn -S

Intrigued? Find out HOW.

INSTALLATION

Library dependencies

nnn needs a curses library with wide character support (like ncursesw), libreadline and standard libc.

Utility dependencies

External dependency	Operation
xdg-open (Linux), open(1) (macOS), cygstart (Cygwin)	desktop opener
file	determine file type
cp, mv, rm, xargs (from findutils on Linux)	copy, move and remove files
mediainfo, exiftool	multimedia file details
atool, patool (integration)	create, list and extract archives
vidir (from moreutils)	batch rename, move, delete dir entries
vlock (Linux), bashlock (macOS), lock(1) (BSD)	terminal locker
$EDITOR (overridden by $VISUAL, if defined)	edit files (fallback vi)
$PAGER (less, most)	page through files (fallback less)
$SHELL (single coombined argument)	spawn a shell, run script (fallback sh)

From a package manager

• Alpine Linux (apk add nnn)
• Arch Linux (pacman -S nnn)
• Debian (apt-get install nnn)
• Fedora (dnf install nnn)
• FreeBSD (pkg install nnn)
• Gentoo (emerge nnn)
• macOS/Homebrew (brew install nnn)
• Milis Linux (mps kur nnn)
• NixOS (nix-env -i nnn)
• OpenBSD (pkg_add nnn)
• openSUSE (and packages for several other distros) (zypper in nnn)
• pkgrsc (pkg_add nnn)
• Raspbian Testing (apt-get install nnn)
• Slackware (slackpkg install nnn)
• Solus (eopkg install nnn)
• Source Mage (cast nnn)
• Termux (pkg in nnn)
• Ubuntu (apt-get install nnn)
• Ubuntu PPA (apt-get install nnn)
• Void Linux (xbps-install -S nnn)

Release packages

Packages for Arch Linux, CentOS, Debian, Fedora, Solus, 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 pkg-config libncursesw5-dev libreadline6-dev
$ make
$ sudo make install

PREFIX is supported, in case you want to install to a different location.

• Compilation information for Raspberry Pi
• Instructions for Cygwin

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] [-e] [-i] [-l] [-n]
           [-p file] [-s] [-S] [-v] [-h] [PATH]

The missing terminal file manager for X.

positional args:
  PATH   start dir [default: current dir]

optional args:
 -b key  open bookmark key
 -C      disable directory color
 -e      use exiftool for media info
 -i      nav-as-you-type mode
 -l      light mode
 -n      use version compare to sort
 -p file selection file (stdout if '-')
 -s      string filters [default: regex]
 -S      disk usage mode
 -v      show version
 -h      show help

> indicates the currently selected entry in nnn.

Keyboard shortcuts

Press ? in nnn to see the list anytime.

 NAVIGATION
          ↑ k  Up          PgUp ^U  Scroll up
          ↓ j  Down        PgDn ^D  Scroll down
          ← h  Parent dir        ~  Go HOME
        ↵ → l  Open file/dir     &  Start dir
    Home g ^A  First entry       -  Last visited dir
     End G ^E  Last entry        .  Toggle show hidden
            /  Filter       Ins ^T  Toggle nav-as-you-type
            b  Pin current dir  ^B  Go to pinned dir
       Tab ^I  Next context      d  Toggle detail view
         , ^/  Leader key  N LeadN  Go to/create context N
          Esc  Exit prompt      ^L  Redraw/clear prompt
           ^G  Quit and cd       q  Quit context
         Q ^Q  Quit              ?  Help, config
 FILES
           ^O  Open with...      n  Create new/link
            D  File details     ^R  Rename entry
         ⎵ ^K  Select entry      r  Open dir in vidir
           ^Y  Toggle selection  y  List selection
            Y  Select all
            P  Copy selection    X  Delete selection
            V  Move selection   ^X  Delete entry
            f  Archive files   m M  Brief/full media info
           ^F  Extract archive   F  List archive
            e  Edit in EDITOR    p  Open in PAGER
 ORDER TOGGLES
           ^J  Disk usage        S  Apparent du
            t  Time modified     s  Size
 MISC
         ! ^]  Spawn SHELL       C  Execute entry
         R ^V  Run/pick script   L  Lock terminal
           ^P  Command prompt   ^N  Take note

Help & settings, file details, media info and archive listing are shown in the PAGER. Please use the PAGER-specific keys in these screens.

The option open with supports a combined argument.

Leader key

The Leader key (` or ^/) provides a powerful multi-functional navigation mechanism. It is case-sensitive and understands contexts, bookmarks and handy location shortcuts.

Key	Function
1-4	Go to/create selected context
>, .	Go to next active context
<, ,	Go to previous active context
key	Go to bookmarked location
~	Go to HOME directory
-	Go to last visited directory
&	Go to start directory
q	Quit context

Contexts

Contexts serve the purpose of exploring multiple directories simultaneously. 4 contexts are available. The status of the contexts are shown in the top left corner:

• the current context is in reverse
• other used contexts are underlined
• rest are unused

To switch to a context press the Leader key followed by the context number (1-4).

The first time a context is entered, it copies the state of the last visited context. Each context remembers its start directory and last visited directory.

When a context is quit, the next active context is selected. If the last active context is quit, the program quits.

Context-specific color

Each context can have its own color for directories specified:

export NNN_CONTEXT_COLORS='1234'

colors: 0-black, 1-red, 2-green, 3-yellow, 4-blue (default), 5-magenta, 6-cyan, 7-white

Selection

Use ^K to copy the absolute path of the file under the cursor.

To copy multiple absolute file paths:

• press ^Y (or Y) to enter selection mode. In this mode it's possible to
  • cherry-pick individual files one by one by pressing ^K on each entry (works across directories and contexts); or,
  • navigate to another file in the same directory to select a range of files
• press ^Y (or Y) again to copy the paths and exit the selection mode

The files in the list can now be copied (P), moved (V) or removed (X).

To list the file paths copied to memory press y.

File paths are copied to the temporary file DIR/.nnncp, where DIR (by priority) is:

$HOME or,
$TMPDIR or,
/tmp

The path is shown in the help and configuration screen.

Filters

Filters support regexes by default to instantly (search-as-you-type) list the matching entries in the current directory.

Common use cases:

• to list all matches starting with the filter expression, start the expression with a ^ (caret) symbol
• type \.mkv to list all MKV files
• use .* to match any character (sort of fuzzy search)

There is a program opton to filter entries by substring match.

If nnn is invoked as root or the environment variable NNN_SHOW_HIDDEN is set the default filter will also match hidden files.

Navigate-as-you-type

In this mode directories are opened in filter mode, allowing continuous navigation. Works best with the arrow keys.

In case of only one match and it's a directory, nnn auto selects the directory and enters it in this mode. To disable this behaviour,

export NNN_NO_AUTOSELECT=1

File indicators

The following indicators are used in the detail view:

Indicator	File Type
/	Directory
*	Executable
|	Fifo
=	Socket
@	Symbolic Link
@/	Symbolic Link to directory
b	Block Device
c	Character Device
?	Unknown

Configuration

nnn supports the following environment variables for configuration.

Example export	Description
NNN_BMS='d:~/Documents;D:~/Docs archive/'	specify bookmarks (max 10)
NNN_OPENER=mimeopen	custom file opener
NNN_CONTEXT_COLORS='1234'	specify per context color [default: '4444' (all blue)]
NNN_IDLE_TIMEOUT=300	idle time to lock terminal [default: disabled]
NNN_COPIER='copier.sh'	system clipboard copier script [default: none]
NNN_SCRIPT=/home/user/scripts[/script.sh]	path to script dir or a single script
NNN_NOTE=/home/user/Dropbox/Public/notes	path to note file [default: none]
NNN_TMPFILE=/tmp/nnn	file to write current open dir path to for cd on quit
NNN_USE_EDITOR=1	Open text files in $EDITOR ($VISUAL, if defined; fallback vi)
NNN_SHOW_HIDDEN=1	show hidden (.) files [default: do not show hidden if not root ]
NNN_NO_AUTOSELECT=1	do not auto-select matching dir in _nav-as-you-type` mode
NNN_RESTRICT_NAV_OPEN=1	open files on ↵, not → or l
NNN_RESTRICT_0B=1	do not open 0-byte files

Help

$ nnn -h
$ man nnn

To lookup keyboard shortcuts at runtime, press ?.

QUICKSTART

1. Install the utilities required for your regular activities.

2. Configure cd on quit.

3. Optionally open all text files in EDITOR (fallback vi):

   export NNN_USE_EDITOR=1
   

4. Run n.

5. Press ? for help on keyboard shortcuts anytime.

6. For additional functionality setup custom scripts.

HOW TO

Please visit the How to wiki page.

WHY FORK?

nnn was initially forked from noice but is significantly different today. I chose to fork because:

• one can argue my approach deviates from the goal of the original project - keep the utility suckless. noice was rudimentary. 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

• FOSSMint
• Hacker News
• It's FOSS
• LinuxLinks1
• LinuxLinks2
• Suckless Rocks
• Ubuntu Full Circle Magazine - Issue 135

DEVELOPERS

1. Copyright © 2014-2016 Lazaros Koromilas
2. Copyright © 2014-2016 Dimitris Papastamos
3. Copyright © 2016-2019 Arun Prakash Jana

CONTRIBUTIONS

We need contributors. Please visit the ToDo list.