nnn

Noice is Not Noice, a noicer fork...

nnn in action! (click to play video)

nnn is probably the fastest and most resource-sensitive file manager you have ever used. It 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 and much more.

Integrate utilities like sxiv or fzy easily; nnn supports as many scripts as you need!

It runs on Linux, OS X, Raspberry Pi, Cygwin, Linux subsystem for Windows and Termux.

Quickstart and see how nnn simplifies those long desktop sessions... Missing a feature? Want to contribute? Head to the rolling ToDo list.

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

Table of Contents

• Features
• Performance
• Installation
  • Dependencies
  • From a package manager
  • Release packages
  • From source
• Shell completion
• Usage
  • Cmdline options
  • Keyboard shortcuts
  • Key prompt
  • Contexts
  • Filters
  • Navigate-as-you-type mode
  • File indicators
  • File handling
  • Help
• Quickstart
• How to
  • add bookmarks
  • copy file paths
    • selection shortcuts
    • default copy
    • to clipboard
  • copy, move, delete files
  • cd on quit
  • run custom scripts
    • sample scripts
  • change dir color
  • integrate patool
  • work faster at rename prompt
  • set idle timeout
  • show hot plugged drives
  • tmux config
• Why fork?
• Mentions
• Developers

Features

• Modes - basic, detail (default), disk usage analyzer (du)
• Navigation
  • Familiar, easy shortcuts (arrows, ~, -, &)
  • Navigate-as-you-type mode with dir auto-select for the maverick
  • Handy bookmarks, start at bookmark, pin and visit directory
  • Multiple contexts
  • Roll-over at edges, page through entries
  • Show directories in custom color (default: enabled in blue)
• Sorting
  • Directories always listed on top
  • Sort by file name, modification time, size
  • Numeric order (1, 2, ... 10, 11, ...) for numeric names
• Search
  • Superfast directory content filtering with search-as-you-type
• Mimes
  • Open with desktop opener (default) or specify a custom app
  • Create, list and extract archives (needs atool/patool)
  • Optionally open text files in EDITOR (fallback vi)
  • Customizable script to handle actions (sparsely used)
• Information
  • Detailed stat-like file information
  • Media information (needs mediainfo or exiftool, if specified)
• 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
  • Run custom scripts in the current directory
  • Copy absolute file paths with quotes
  • Change directory at exit (easy shell integration)
  • Open any file in EDITOR (fallback vi) or PAGER (fallback less)
  • GUI app launcher (maximum 2 space-separated arguments)
  • Terminal screensaver/locker integration
• Unicode support
• Highly optimized code, minimal resource usage

Performance

nnn vs. ncdu memory usage in disk usage analyzer mode (400K files on disk):

  PID USER      PR  NI    VIRT    RES    SHR S  %CPU %MEM     TIME+ COMMAND
 5034 vaio      20   0   71628  59932   2412 S   0.0  0.7   0:01.22 ncdu /
 4949 vaio      20   0   14812   3616   2560 S   0.0  0.0   0:00.83 nnn -S /

nnn vs. midnight commander vs. ranger memory usage while viewing a directory with 13.5K files, sorted by size:

  PID USER      PR  NI    VIRT    RES    SHR S  %CPU %MEM     TIME+ COMMAND
31885 vaio      20   0  139720  91220   8460 S   0.0  1.1   0:02.96 /usr/bin/python -O /usr/bin/ranger
30108 vaio      20   0   72152  12468   7336 S   0.0  0.2   0:00.06 mc
30168 vaio      20   0   16476   5072   2640 S   0.0  0.1   0:00.22 nnn -c 1 -i

Intrigued? Find out HOW.

Installation

Dependencies

nnn needs libncursesw (on Linux or ncurses on OS X) and standard libc.

From a package manager

• Arch Linux (pacman -S nnn)
• Debian (apt-get install nnn)
• Fedora (dnf install nnn)
• FreeBSD (pkg install nnn)
• Gentoo (emerge nnn)
• Homebrew (brew install nnn)
• NixOS (nix-env -i nnn)
• OpenBSD (pkg_add nnn)
• openSUSE (and packages for several other distros) (zypper in nnn)
• Raspbian Testing (apt-get install nnn)
• Slackware (slackpkg 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 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
$ 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 manager for X.

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

optional args:
 -b key  bookmark key to open
 -c N    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
 -p nlay path to custom nlay
 -S      start in disk usage analyser mode
 -v      show program version
 -h      show this help

> indicates the currently selected entry in nnn.

Keyboard shortcuts

            Key  Function
              ----
       ↑, k, ^P  Up
       ↓, j, ^N  Down
       PgUp, ^U  Scroll up
       PgDn, ^D  Scroll down
 Home, g, ^, ^A  First entry
  End, G, $, ^E  Last entry
    →, ↵, l, ^M  Open file/enter dir
 ←, Bksp, h, ^H  Parent dir
             ^O  Open with...
     Insert, ^I  Toggle nav-as-you-type
              ~  Go HOME
              &  Start dir
              -  Last visited dir
              /  Filter entries
              .  Toggle show hidden
             ^B  Key prompt
              b  Pin current dir
             ^V  Go to pinned dir
              d  Toggle detail view
              D  File details
           m, M  Brief/full media info
              n  Create new
             ^R  Rename entry
              r  Open dir in vidir
              s  Toggle sort by size
              S  Toggle apparent size
             ^J  Toggle du mode
              t  Toggle sort by mtime
          !, ^]  Spawn SHELL in dir
              R  Run custom script
              e  Edit in EDITOR
              p  Open in PAGER
              f  Archive entry
              F  List archive
             ^F  Extract archive
      Space, ^K  Copy file path
             ^Y  Toggle multi-copy
              y  Show copy buffer
             ^T  Toggle path quote
             ^L  Redraw, clear prompt
            Esc  Exit prompt
              L  Lock terminal
              o  Launch GUI app
              ?  Help, settings
              q  Quit context
             ^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.

Key prompt

The key prompt, invoked by ^B, provides a powerful multi-functional navigation mechanism. It understands contexts, bookmarks and handy location shortcuts.

Key	Function
1-4	Go to 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

If all the configured bookmark keys are single character, the prompt is not shown and Enter is not required; just press ^B followed by the key.

Contexts

Contexts (aka tabs aka workspaces) 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

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.

Filters

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

Ways to exit filter prompt:

• press ^L to clear filter followed by Bksp (to clear the filter symbol, like vi)
  • at other prompts ^L followed by Enter discards all changes and exits prompt
• run a search with no matches and press Enter

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)

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 mode

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

File handling

External dependency	Operation
xdg-open (Linux), open(1) (OS X), cygstart (Cygwin)	desktop opener
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 (OS X), lock(1) (BSD)	terminal locker
$EDITOR (overridden by $VISUAL, if defined)	edit files (fallback vi)
$PAGER	page through files (fallback less)
$SHELL	spawn a shell, run script (fallback sh)

• To edit all text files in EDITOR (preferably CLI, fallback vi):

  export NNN_USE_EDITOR=1
  

Customizable script nlay is used to run terminal locker.

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

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/'

copy file paths

selection shortcuts

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.
• list the currently copied file paths by pressing y.

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.

Note that the filename is not escaped. So copying may still fail for filenames having quote(s) in them.

default copy

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

$HOME or,
$TMPDIR or,
/tmp

To see the path to the temporary copy file, run nnn, press ? and look up copy file.

Use ^Y and/or ^K to copy file paths as usual. To use the copied paths from the cmdline, use command substitution. For example, if DIR above is /home/user:

# bash/zsh
ls -ltr `cat /home/user/.nnncp`
ls -ltr $(cat /home/user/.nnncp)

# fish
ls -ltr (cat /home/user/.nnncp)

An alias may be handy:

alias ncp='cat /home/user/.nnncp'

so you can easily copy, move or delete multiple files together:

# bash/zsh
ls -ltr `ncp`
ls -ltr $(ncp)
cp -rvf `ncp` .
mv `ncp` .
rm `ncp` -rf

# fish
ls -ltr (ncp)
cp -rvf (ncp) .
mv (ncp) .
rm (ncp) -rf

Note that you may want to keep quotes disabled (as it is by default) in this case.

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"

copy, move, delete files

The nnn workflow to copy, move or delete files is:

1. Copy the absolute paths using ^Y and/or ^K
2. To copy or move files navigate to the destination directory. You can also fire a new instance of nnn in another tab of your terminal emulator and open the destination directory.
3. Spawn a subshell in the destination directory (!)
4. While typing the desired command, copy the file paths (usually ^-Shift-V) from the clipboard. If X is unavailable, refer to this section.

In addition, nnn integrates with vidir. vidir supports batch file move and delete.

cd on quit

To quit nnn and switch to the directory last opened follow the instructions below.

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). To change directory on quit press Q (it's capital) or ^G while exiting.

As you might notice, nnn uses the environment variable NNN_TMPFILE to write the last visited directory path. You can change it.

run custom scripts

nnn can invoke custom scripts with the currently selected file name as argument 1.

Export the path to the custom executable script:

export NNN_SCRIPT=/usr/local/bin/nscript

Press R to run the script in the current directory.

It's possible to run multiple scripts with nnn as long as the scripts are in the same location and share the same prefix. To enable multiple scripts,

export NNN_MULTISCRIPT=1

With the example of NNN_SCRIPT above, some more scripts could be:

/usr/local/bin/nscript1
/usr/local/bin/nscript2
/usr/local/bin/nscriptcustom1
/usr/local/bin/nscriptcustom2
and so on...

Type the correct suffix when prompted on pressing the keybind R. To use the base script (NNN_SCRIPT), just press Enter.

sample scripts

• Open image files in current dir in sxiv:

  #!/usr/bin/env sh
  
  sxiv -q * >/dev/null 2>&1
  

• Fuzzy find files in fzy and open with xdg-open:

  #!/usr/bin/env sh
  
  xdg-open $(find -type f | fzy) >/dev/null 2>&1
  

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.

integrate patool

On systems where atool is not available but patool is, drop two copies of the Python3 script natool as atool and apack somewhere in $PATH.

work faster at rename prompt

The rename prompt supports some bash-like command-line shortcuts - ^A, ^E, ^U. ^L clears the name.

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.

tmux config

nnn might not handle keypresses correctly when used with tmux (see issue #104 for more details). Set TERM=xterm-256color to address it.

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. 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
• It's FOSS
• LinuxLinks
• Ubuntu Full Circle Magazine - Issue 135

Developers

1. Copyright © 2014-2016 Lazaros Koromilas
2. Copyright © 2014-2016 Dimitris Papastamos
3. Copyright © 2016-2018 Arun Prakash Jana