VIFM(1)VIFM(1)NAMEvifm - vi file manager
SYNOPSISvifm [OPTION]...
vifm [OPTION]... LWIN_DIR
vifm [OPTION]... LWIN_DIR RWIN_DIR
DESCRIPTION
Vifm is an ncurses based file manager with vi like keybindings. If you
use vi, vifm gives you complete keyboard control over your files with‐
out having to learn a new set of commands.
OPTIONSvifm starts in the current directory unless it is given a different
directory on the command line.
<lwinpath>
Starts Vifm in the specified path.
<lwinpath> <rwinpath>
Starts Vifm in the specified paths.
Specifying two directories triggers split view even when vifm was in
single-view mode on finishing previous session. To suppress this be‐
haviour :only command can be put in the vifmrc file.
When only one path argument is found on command-line, the left/top pane
is automatically set as the current view.
Paths to files are also allowed in case you want vifm to start with
some archive opened. If you want to select file, prepend its path with
--select.
-f Makes vifm instead of opening files write selection to
$VIFM/vimfiles and quit.
--choose-files <path>|-
Sets output file to write selection into on exit instead of
opening files. "-" means standard output. Use empty value to
disable it.
--choose-dir <path>|-
Sets output file to write last visited directory into on exit.
"-" means standard output. Use empty value to disable it.
--delimiter <delimiter>
Sets separator for list of file paths written out by vifm.
Empty value means null character. Default is new line charac‐
ter.
--on-choose <command>
Sets command to be executed on selected files instead of opening
them. The command may use any of macros described in "Command
macros" section below. The command is executed once for whole
selection.
--logging
Log some errors to $VIFM/log. Also /var/log/vifm-startup-log
(on *nix) and startup-log in the directory of executable (on
Windows) is used to log startup process (when configuration
directory isn't determined).
--remote
Sends the rest of command line to the active vifm server (one of
already running instances if any). When there is no server,
quits silently. There is no limit on how many arguments can be
processed. One can combine --remote with -c <command> or +<com‐
mand> to execute command in already running instance of vifm.
See also "Client-Server" section below.
-c <command> or +<command>
Run command-line mode <command> on startup. Commands in such
arguments are executed in the order they appear in command line.
Commands with spaces or special symbols must be enclosed in dou‐
ble or single quotes or all special symbols should be escaped
(the exact syntax strongly depends on shell).
--help, -h
Show a brief command summary and exit vifm.
--version, -v
Show version information and quit.
--no-configs
Skip reading vifmrc and vifminfo.
See "Startup" section below for the explanations on $VIFM.
General keys
Ctrl-C or Escape
cancel most operations (see "Cancellation" section below), clear
all selected files.
Ctrl-L clear and redraw the screen.
Basic Movement
The basic vi key bindings are used to move through the files and pop-up
windows.
k, gk, or Ctrl-P
move cursor up one line.
j, gj or Ctrl-N
move cursor down one line.
h when 'lsview' is off move up one directory, otherwise move left
one file.
l when 'lsview' is off move into a directory or launches a file,
otherwise move right one file.
gg move to the first line of the file list.
G move to the last line in the file list.
gh go up one directory.
gl or Enter
enter directory or launch a file.
H move to the first file in the window.
M move to the file in the middle of the window.
L move to the last file in the window.
Ctrl-F or Page Down
move forward one page.
Ctrl-B or Page Up
move back one page.
Ctrl-D jump back one half page.
Ctrl-U jump forward one half page.
n% move to the file that is n percent from the top of the list (for
example 25%).
0 or ^ move cursor to the first column. See 'lsview' option descrip‐
tion.
$ move cursor to the last column. See 'lsview' option descrip‐
tion.
Space switch file lists.
Movement with Count
Most movement commands also accept a count, 12j would move down 12
files.
[count]%
move to percent of the file list.
[count]j
move down [count] files.
[count]k
move up [count] files.
[count]G or [count]gg
move to list position [count].
Scrolling panes
zt redraw pane with file in top of list.
zz redraw pane with file in center of list.
zb redraw pane with file in bottom of list.
Ctrl-E scroll pane one line down.
Ctrl-Y scroll pane one line up.
Pane manipulation
Second character can be entered with or without Control key.
Ctrl-W H
move the pane to the far left.
Ctrl-W J
move the pane to the very bottom.
Ctrl-W K
move the pane to the very top.
Ctrl-W L
move the pane to the far right.
Ctrl-W h
switch to the left pane.
Ctrl-W j
switch to the pane below.
Ctrl-W k
switch to the pane above.
Ctrl-W l
switch to the right pane.
Ctrl-W b
switch to bottom-right window.
Ctrl-W t
switch to top-left window.
Ctrl-W p
switch to previous window.
Ctrl-W w
switch to other pane.
Ctrl-W o
leave only one pane.
Ctrl-W s
split window horizontally.
Ctrl-W v
split window vertically.
Ctrl-W x
exchange panes.
Ctrl-W z
quit preview pane or view modes.
Ctrl-W -
decrease size of the view by count.
Ctrl-W +
increase size of the view by count.
Ctrl-W <
decrease size of the view by count.
Ctrl-W >
increase size of the view by count.
Ctrl-W |
maximize current view.
Ctrl-W _
maximize current view.
Ctrl-W =
make size of two views equal.
For Ctrl-W +, Ctrl-W -, Ctrl-W < and Ctrl-W > commands count can be
given before and/or after Ctrl-W. The resulting count is a multiplica‐
tion of those two. So "2 Ctrl-W 2 -" decreases window size by 4 lines
or columns.
Marks
Marks are set the same way as they are in vi.
You can use this characters for marks [a-z][A-Z][0-9].
m[a-z][A-Z][0-9]
set a mark for the file at the current cursor position.
'[a-z][A-Z][0-9]
navigate to the file set for the mark.
There are also several special marks that can't be set manually:
- ' (single quote) - previously visited directory of the view, thus
hitting '' allows switching between two last locations
- < - the first file of the last visually selected block
- > - the last file of the last visually selected block
Searching
/regular expression pattern
search for files matching regular expression in forward direc‐
tion and advance cursor to next match.
/ perform forward search with top item of search pattern history.
?regular expression pattern
search for files matching regular expression in backward direc‐
tion and advance cursor to previous match.
? perform backward search with top item of search pattern history.
Matches are automatically selected if 'hlsearch' is set. Enabling
'incsearch' makes search interactive. 'ignorecase' and 'smartcase'
options affect case sensitivity of search queries.
[count]n
go to the next file matching last search pattern. Takes last
search direction into account.
[count]N
go to the previous file matching last search pattern. Takes
last search direction into account.
If 'hlsearch' option is set, hitting n/N to perform search and go to
the first matching item resets current selection in normal mode. It is
not the case if search was already performed on files in the directory,
thus selection is not reset after clearing selection with escape key
and hitting n/N key again.
Note: vifm uses extended regular expressions for / and ?.
[count]f[character]
search forward for file with [character] as first character in
name. Search wraps around the end of the list.
[count]F[character]
search backward for file with [character] as first character in
name. Search wraps around the end of the list.
[count];
find the next match of f or F.
[count],
find the previous match of f or F.
Note: f, F, ; and , wrap around list beginning and end when they are
used alone and they don't wrap when they are used as selectors.
File Filters
There are three basic file filters:
- dot files filter (excluding "." and ".." special directories, which
appearance is controlled by the 'dotdirs' option);
- manual filter for file names;
- automatic filter for file names;
- local filter for file names (see description of the "=" normal mode
command).
Performing operations on manual filter for file names automatically
does the same on automatic one. The file name filter is separated
mainly for convenience purpose and to get more deterministic behaviour.
The basic vim folding key bindings are used for filtering files.
Each file list has its own copy of each filter.
Filtered files are not checked in / search or :commands.
Files and directories are filtered separately. For this a slash is
appended to a directory name before testing whether it matches the fil‐
ter. Examples:
" filter directories which names end with '.files'
:filter /^.*\.files\/$/
" filter files which names end with '.d'
:filter /^.*\.d$/
" filter files and directories which names end with '.o'
:filter /^.*\.o\/?$/
za toggle visibility of dot files.
zo show dot files.
zm hide dot files.
zf add selected files to file name filter.
zO show files hidden by file name filter.
zM restore all filters.
zR remove all filters.
zd exclude selection or current file from custom view. Does noth‐
ing for regular view.
=regular expression pattern
filter out files that don't match regular expression. Whether
view is updated as regular expression is changed depends on the
value of the 'incsearch' option. This kind of filter is auto‐
matically reset when directory is changed.
Other Normal Mode Keys
[count]:
enter command line mode. [count] generates range.
q: open external editor to prompt for command-line command. See
"Command line editing" section for details.
q/ open external editor to prompt for search pattern to be searched
in forward direction. See "Command line editing" section for
details.
q? open external editor to prompt for search pattern to be searched
in backward direction. See "Command line editing" section for
details.
q= open external editor to prompt for filter pattern. See "Command
line editing" section for details. Unlike other q{x} commands
this one doesn't work in Visual mode.
[count]!! and [count]!<selector>
enter command line mode with entered ! command. [count] modi‐
fies range.
Ctrl-O go backwards through directory history of current view. Nonex‐
istent directories are automatically skipped.
Ctrl-I if 'cpoptions' contains "t" flag, <tab> and <c-i> switch active
pane just like <space> does, otherwise it goes forward through
directory history of current view. Nonexistent directories are
automatically skipped.
Ctrl-G create a window showing detailed information about the current
file.
Shift-Tab
enters view mode (works only after activating view pane with
:view command).
ga calculate directory size. Uses cached directory sizes when pos‐
sible for better performance.
gA like ga, but force update. Ignores old values of directory
sizes.
If file under cursor is selected, each selected item is processed, oth‐
erwise only current file is updated.
gf find link destination (like l with 'followlinks' off, but also
finds directories).
gr only for MS-Windows
same as l key, but tries to run program with administrative
privileges.
av go to visual mode into selection amending state preserving cur‐
rent selection.
gv go to visual mode restoring last selection.
gs restore last t selection, like gv for visual mode selection.
gu<selector>
make names of selected files lowercase.
[count]guu and [count]gugu
make names of [count] files starting from the current one lower‐
case. Without [count] only current file is affected.
gU<selector>
make names of selected files uppercase.
[count]gUU and [count]gUgU
make names of [count] files starting from the current one upper‐
case. Without [count] only current file is affected.
e explore file in the current pane.
i handle file (even if it's an executable and 'runexec' option is
set).
cw change word is used to rename a file or files.
cW change WORD is used to change only name of file (without exten‐
sion).
cl change link target.
co only for *nix
change file owner.
cg only for *nix
change file group.
cp change file attributes (permission on *nix and properties on
Windows).
[count]C
clone file [count] times.
[count]dd or d[count]selector
move selected file or files to trash directory (if 'trash'
option is set, otherwise delete). See "Trash directory" section
below.
[count]DD or D[count]selector
like dd and d<selector>, but omitting trash directory (even when
'trash' option is set).
Y, [count]yy or y[count]selector
yank selected files.
p copy yanked files to the current directory or move the files to
the current directory if they were deleted with dd or :d[elete]
or if the files were yanked from trash directory. See "Trash
directory" section below.
P move the last yanked files. The advantage of using P instead of
d followed by p is that P moves files only once. This isn't
important in case you're moving files in the same file system
where your home directory is, but using P to move files on some
other file system (or file systems, in case you want to move
files from fs1 to fs2 and your home is on fs3) can save your
time.
al put symbolic links with absolute paths.
rl put symbolic links with relative paths.
t select or unselect (tag) the current file.
u undo last change.
Ctrl-R redo last change.
v or V enter visual mode, clears current selection.
[count]Ctrl-A
increment first number in file name by [count] (1 by default).
[count]Ctrl-X
decrement first number in file name by [count] (1 by default).
ZQ same as :quit!.
ZZ same as :quit.
. repeat last command-line command (not normal mode command) of
this session (does nothing right after startup or :restart com‐
mand). The command doesn't depend on command-line history and
can be used with completely disabled history.
( goto previous group. Groups are defined by primary sorting key.
For name and iname members of each group have same first letter,
for all other sorting keys vifm uses size, uid, ...
) goto next group. See ( key description above.
Using Count
You can use count with commands like yy.
[count]yy
yank count files starting from current cursor position downward.
Or you can use count with motions passed to y, d or D.
d[count]j
delete (count + 1) files starting from current cursor position
upward.
Registersvifm supports multiple registers for temporary storing list of yanked
or deleted files.
Registers should be specified by hitting double quote key followed by a
register name. Count is specified after register name. By default
commands use unnamed register, which has double quote as its name.
Though all commands accept registers, most of commands ignores them
(for example H or Ctrl-U). Other commands can fill register or append
new files to it.
Presently vifm supports ", _, a-z and A-Z characters as register names.
As mentioned above " is unnamed register and has special meaning of the
default register. Every time when you use named registers (a-z and A-
Z) unnamed register is updated to contain same list of files as the
last used register.
_ is black hole register. It can be used for writing, but its list is
always empty.
Registers with names from a to z and from A to Z are named ones. Low‐
ercase registers are cleared before adding new files, while uppercase
aren't and should be used to append new files to the existing file list
of appropriate lowercase register (A for a, B for b, ...).
Registers can be changed on :empty command if they contain files under
trash directory (see "Trash directory" section below).
Registers do not contain one file more than once.
Example:
"a2yy
puts names of two files to register a (and to the unnamed register),
"Ad
removes one file and append its name to register a (and to the unnamed
register),
p or "ap or "Ap
inserts previously yanked and deleted files into current directory.
Selectors
y, d, D, !, gu and gU commands accept selectors. You can combine them
with any of selectors below to quickly remove or yank several files.
Most of selectors are like vi motions: j, k, gg, G, H, L, M, %, f, F,
;, comma, ', ^, 0 and $. But there are some additional ones.
a all files in current view.
s selected files.
S all files except selected.
Examples:
- dj - delete file under cursor and one below;
- d2j - delete file under cursor and two below;
- y6gg - yank all files from cursor position to 6th file in the list.
When you pass a count to whole command and its selector they are multi‐
plied. So:
- 2d2j - delete file under cursor and four below;
- 2dj - delete file under cursor and two below;
- 2y6gg - yank all files from cursor position to 12th file in the
list.
Visual Mode
Visual mode has to generic operating submodes:
- plain selection as it is in Vim;
- selection editing submode.
Both modes select files in range from cursor position at which visual
mode was entered to current cursor position (let's call it "selection
region"). Each of two borders can be adjusted by swapping them via "o"
or "O" keys and updating cursor position with regular cursor motion
keys. Obviously, once initial cursor position is altered this way,
real start position becomes unavailable.
Plain Vim-like visual mode starts with cleared selection, which is not
restored on rejecting selection ("Escape", "Ctrl-C", "v", "V"). Con‐
trary to it, selection editing doesn't clear previously selected files
and restores them after reject. Accepting selection by performing an
operation on selected items (e.g. yanking them via "y") moves cursor to
the top of current selection region (not to the top most selected file
of the view).
In turn, selection editing supports three types of editing (look at
statusbar to know which one is currently active):
- append - amend selection by selecting elements in selection region;
- remove - amend selection by deselecting elements in selection
region;
- invert - amend selection by inverting selection of elements in
selection region.
No matter how you activate selection editing it starts in "append".
One can switch type of operation (in the order given above) via "Ctrl-
G" key.
Almost all normal mode keys work in visual mode, but instead of accept‐
ing selectors they operate on selected items.
Enter save selection and go back to normal mode not moving cursor.
av leave visual mode if in amending mode (restores previous selec‐
tion), otherwise switch to amending selection mode.
gv restore previous visual selection.
v, V, Ctrl-C or Escape
leave visual mode if not in amending mode, otherwise switch to
normal visual selection.
Ctrl-G switch type of amending by round robin scheme: append -> remove
-> invert.
: enter command line mode. Selection is cleared on leaving the
mode.
o switch active selection bound.
O switch active selection bound.
gu, u make names of selected files lowercase.
gU, U make names of selected files uppercase.
View Mode
This mode tries to imitate the less program. List of builtin shortcuts
can be found below. Shortcuts can be customized using :qmap, :qnoremap
and :qunmap command-line commands.
Shift-Tab, Tab, q, Q, ZZ
return to normal mode.
[count]e, [count]Ctrl-E, [count]j, [count]Ctrl-N, [count]Enter
scroll forward one line (or [count] lines).
[count]y, [count]Ctrl-Y, [count]k, [count]Ctrl-K, [count]Ctrl-P
scroll backward one line (or [count] lines).
[count]f, [count]Ctrl-F, [count]Ctrl-V, [count]Space
scroll forward one window (or [count] lines).
[count]b, [count]Ctrl-B, [count]Alt-V
scroll backward one window (or [count] lines).
[count]z
scroll forward one window (and set window to [count]).
[count]w
scroll backward one window (and set window to [count]).
[count]Alt-Space
scroll forward one window, but don't stop at end-of-file.
[count]d, [count]Ctrl-D
scroll forward one half-window (and set half-window to [count]).
[count]u, [count]Ctrl-U
scroll backward one half-window (and set half-window to
[count]).
r, Ctrl-R, Ctrl-L
repaint screen.
R reload view preserving scroll position.
F toggle automatic forwarding. Roughly equivalent to periodic
file reload and scrolling to the bottom. The behaviour is simi‐
lar to `tail -F` or F key in less.
[count]/pattern
search forward for ([count]‐th) matching line.
[count]?pattern
search backward for ([count]‐th) matching line.
[count]n
repeat previous search (for [count]‐th occurrence).
[count]N
repeat previous search in reverse direction (for [count]‐th
occurrence).
[count]g, [count]<, [count]Alt-<
scroll to the first line of the file (or line [count]).
[count]G, [count]>, [count]Alt->
scroll to the last line of the file (or line [count]).
[count]p, [count]%
scroll to the beginning of the file (or N percent into file).
v invoke an editor to edit the current file being viewed. The
command for editing is taken from the 'vicmd'/'vixcmd' option
value and extended with middle line number prepended by a plus
sign and name of the current file.
All "Ctrl-W x" keys work the same was as in Normal mode. Active mode
is automatically changed on navigating among windows. When less-like
mode activated on file preview is left using one by "Ctrl-W x" keys,
its state is stored until another file is displayed using preview (it's
possible to leave the mode, hide preview pane, do something else, then
get back to the file and show preview pane again with previously stored
state in it).
Command line Mode
These keys are available in all submodes of the command line mode: com‐
mand, search, prompt and filtering.
Down, Up, Left, Right, Home, End and Delete are extended keys and they
are not available if vifm is compiled with --disable-extended-keys
option.
Esc, Ctrl-C
leave command line mode, cancels input. Cancelled input is
saved into appropriate history and can be recalled later.
Ctrl-M, Enter
execute command and leave command line mode.
Ctrl-I, Tab
complete command or its argument.
Shift-Tab
complete in reverse order.
Ctrl-_ stop completion and return original input.
Ctrl-B, Left
move cursor to the left.
Ctrl-F, Right
move cursor to the right.
Ctrl-A, Home
go to line beginning.
Ctrl-E, End
go to line end.
Alt-B go to the beginning of previous word.
Alt-F go to the end of next word.
Ctrl-U remove characters from cursor position till the beginning of
line.
Ctrl-K remove characters from cursor position till the end of line.
Ctrl-H, Backspace
remove character before the cursor.
Ctrl-D, Delete
remove character under the cursor.
Ctrl-W remove characters from cursor position till the beginning of
previous word.
Alt-D remove characters from cursor position till the beginning of
next word.
Ctrl-T swap the order of current and previous character and move cursor
forward or, if cursor past the end of line, swap the order of
two last characters in the line.
Alt-. insert last part of previous command to current cursor position.
Each next call will insert last part of older command.
Ctrl-G edit command-line content in external editor. See "Command line
editing" section for details.
Ctrl-N recall more recent command-line from history.
Ctrl-P recall older command-line from history.
Up recall more recent command-line from history, that begins as the
current command-line.
Down recall older command-line from history, that begins as the cur‐
rent command-line.
Ctrl-] trigger abbreviation expansion.
Pasting special values
The shortcuts listed below insert specified values into current cursor
position. Last key of every shortcut references value that it inserts:
- c - [c]urrent file
- d - [d]irectory path
- e - [e]xtension of a file name
- r - [r]oot part of a file name
- t - [t]ail part of directory path
- a - [a]utomatic filter
- m - [m]anual filter
- = - local filter, which is bound to "=" in normal mode
Values related to filelist in current pane are available through Ctrl-X
prefix, while values from the other pane have doubled Ctrl-X key as
their prefix (doubled Ctrl-X is presumably easier to type than upper‐
case letters; it's still easy to remap the keys to correspond to names
of similar macros).
Ctrl-X c
name of the current file of the active pane.
Ctrl-X d
path to the current directory of the active pane.
Ctrl-X e
extension of the current file of the active pane.
Ctrl-X r
name root of current file of the active pane.
Ctrl-X t
the last component of path to the current directory of the
active pane.
Ctrl-X Ctrl-X c
name of the current file of the inactive pane.
Ctrl-X Ctrl-X d
path to the current directory of the inactive pane.
Ctrl-X Ctrl-X e
extension of the current file of the inactive pane.
Ctrl-X Ctrl-X r
name root of current file of the inactive pane.
Ctrl-X Ctrl-X t
the last component of path to the current directory of the inac‐
tive pane.
Ctrl-X a
value of automatic filter of the active pane.
Ctrl-X m
value of manual filter of the active pane.
Ctrl-X =
value of local filter of the active pane.
Ctrl-X /
last pattern from search history.
Command line editingvifm provides a facility to edit several kinds of data, that is usually
edited in command-line mode, in external editor (using command speci‐
fied by 'vicmd' or 'vixcmd' option). This has at least two advantages
over built-in command-line mode:
- one can use full power of Vim to edit text;
- finding and reusing history entries becomes possible.
The facility is supported by four input submodes of the command-line:
- command;
- forward search;
- backward search;
- file rename (see description of cw and cW normal mode keys).
Editing command-line using external editor is activated by the Ctrl-G
shortcut. It's also possible to do almost the same from Normal and
Visual modes using q:, q/ and q? commands.
Temporary file created for the purpose of editing the line has the fol‐
lowing structure:
1. First line, which is either empty or contains text already entered
in command-line.
2. 2nd and all other lines with history items starting with the most
recent one. Altering this lines in any way won't change history
items stored by vifm.
After editing application is finished the first line of the file is
taken as the result of operation, when the application returns zero
exit code. If the application returns an error (see :cquit command in
Vim), all the edits made to the file are ignored, but the initial value
of the first line is saved in appropriate history.
Commands
Commands are executed with :command_name<Enter>
Commented out lines should start with the double quote symbol, which
may be preceded by whitespace characters.
Most of the commands have two forms: complete and the short one. Exam‐
ple:
:noh[lsearch]
This means the complete command is nohlsearch, and the short one is
noh.
Most of command-line commands completely reset selection in the current
view. However, there are several exceptions:
- ":invert s" most likely leaves some files selected;
- :if and :else commands doesn't affect selection on successful exe‐
cution.
'|' can be used to separate commands, so you can give multiple commands
in one line. If you want to use '|' in an argument, precede it with
'\'.
These commands see '|' as part of their arguments even when it's
escaped:
:[range]!
:cmap
:cnoremap
:command
:filetype
:fileviewer
:filextype
:map
:mmap
:mnoremap
:nmap
:nnoremap
:noremap
:normal
:qmap
:qnoremap
:vmap
:vnoremap
:windo
:winrun
To be able to use another command after one of these, wrap it with the
:execute command. An example:
if filetype('.') == 'reg' | execute '!!echo regular file' | endif
:[count]
:number
move to the file number.
:12 would move to the 12th file in the list.
:0 move to the top of the list.
:$ move to the bottom of the list.
:[count]command
The only builtin :[count]command are :[count]d[elete] and
:[count]y[ank].
:d3 would delete three files starting at the current file position
moving down.
:3d would delete one file at the third line in the list.
:command [args]
:[range]!program
execute command via shell. Accepts macros.
:[range]!command &
same as above, but the command is run in the background using vifm's
means.
Programs that write to stdout like "ls" create an error message showing
partial output of the command.
Note the space before ampersand symbol, if you omit it, command will be
run in the background using job control of your shell.
Accepts macros.
:!!
:[range]!!command
same as :!, but pauses before returning.
:!! repeat the last command.
:alink
:[range]alink[!?]
create absolute symbolic links to files in directory of inactive
view. With "?" prompts for destination file names in an edi‐
tor. "!" forces overwrite.
:[range]alink[!] path
create absolute symbolic links to files in directory specified
by the path (absolute or relative to directory of inactive
view).
:[range]alink[!] name1 name2...
create absolute symbolic links of files in directory of other
view giving each next link a corresponding name from the argu‐
ment list.
:apropos
:apropos manpage
create a menu of items returned by the apropos command. Select‐
ing an item in the menu opens corresponding man page. By
default the command relies on the external "apropos" utility,
which can be customized by altering value of the 'aproposprg'
option.
:apropos
repeat last :apropos command.
:cabbrev
:ca[bbrev]
display menu of command-line mode abbreviations.
:ca[bbrev] lhs-prefix
display command-line mode abbreviations which left-hand side
starts with specified prefix.
:ca[bbrev] lhs rhs
register new or overwrites existing abbreviation for command-
line mode. rhs can contain spaces and any special sequences
accepted in rhs of mappings (see "Mappings" section below).
Abbreviations are expanded non-recursively.
:cnoreabbrev
:cnorea[bbrev]
display menu of command-line mode abbreviations.
:cnorea[bbrev] lhs-prefix
display command-line mode abbreviations which left-hand side
starts with specified prefix.
:cnorea[bbrev] lhs rhs
same as :cabbrev, but mappings in rhs are ignored during expan‐
sion.
:cd
:cd or :cd ~ or :cd $HOME
change to home directory.
:cd - go to the last visited directory.
:cd ~/dir
change directory to ~/dir.
:cd /curr/dir /other/dir
change directory of the current pane to /curr/dir and directory
of the other pane to /other/dir. Relative paths are assumed to
be relative to directory of current view. Command won't fail if
one of directories is invalid. All forms of the command accept
macros.
:cd! /dir
same as :cd /dir /dir.
:change
:c[hange]
create a menu window to alter a files properties.
:chmod
:[range]chmod
display file attributes (permission on *nix and properties on
Windows) change dialog.
:[range]chmod[!] arg...
only for *nix
change permissions for files. See `man 1 chmod` for arg format.
"!" means set permissions recursively.
:chown
:[range]chown
only for *nix
same as co key in normal mode.
:[range]chown [user][:][group]
only for *nix
change owner and/or group of files. Operates on directories
recursively.
:clone
:[range]clone[!?]
clones files in current directory. With "?" vifm will open vi
to edit file names. "!" forces overwrite. Macros are expanded.
:[range]clone[!] path
clones files to directory specified with the path (absolute or
relative to current directory). "!" forces overwrite. Macros
are expanded.
:[range]clone[!] name1 name2...
clones files in current directory giving each next clone a cor‐
responding name from the argument list. "!" forces overwrite.
Macros are expanded.
:colorscheme
:colo[rscheme]?
print current color scheme name on the status bar.
:colo[rscheme]
display a menu with a list of available color schemes. You can
choose primary color scheme here. It is used for view if no
directory specific colorscheme fits current path. It's also
used to set border color (except view titles) and colors in
menus and dialogs.
:colo[rscheme] color_scheme_name
change primary color scheme to color_scheme_name. In case of
errors (e.g. some colors are not supported by terminal) either
nothing is changed or color scheme is reset to builtin colors to
ensure that TUI is left in a usable state.
:colo[rscheme] color_scheme_name directory
associate directory with the color scheme. The directory argu‐
ment can be either absolute or relative path when :colorscheme
command is executed from command line, but mandatory should be
an absolute path when the command is executed in scripts loaded
at startup (until vifm is completely loaded).
:comclear
:comc[lear]
remove all user defined commands.
:command
:com[mand]
display a menu of user commands.
:com[mand] beginning
display user defined commands that start with the beginning.
:com[mand] name action
set a new user command.
Trying to use a reserved command name will result in an error
message.
Use :com[mand]! to overwrite a previously set command.
Unlike vim user commands do not have to start with a capital
letter. User commands are run in a shell by default. To run a
command in the background you must set it as a background com‐
mand with & at the end of the commands action (:com rm rm %f &).
Command name cannot contain numbers or special symbols (except
'?' and '!').
:com[mand] name /pattern
set search pattern.
:com[mand] name =pattern
set local filter value.
:com[mand] name filter{:filter args}
set file name filter (see :filter command description). For
example:
" display only audio files
:command onlyaudio filter/.+.\(mp3|wav|mp3|flac|ogg|m4a|wma|ape\)$/i
" display everything except audio files
:command noaudio filter!/.+.\(mp3|wav|mp3|flac|ogg|m4a|wma|ape\)$/i
:com[mand] cmd :commands
set kind of an alias for internal command (like in a shell).
Passes range given to alias to an aliased command, so running
:%cp after
:command cp :copy %a
equals
:%copy
:copy
:[range]co[py][!?][ &]
copy files to directory of other view. With "?" prompts for
destination file names in an editor. "!" forces overwrite.
:[range]co[py][!] path[ &]
copy files to directory specified with the path (absolute or
relative to directory of other view). "!" forces overwrite.
:[range]co[py][!] name1 name2...[ &]
copy files to directory of other view giving each next file a
corresponding name from the argument list. "!" forces over‐
write.
:cquit
:cq[uit][!]
same as :quit, but also aborts directory choosing via
--choose-dir (empties output file) and returns non-zero exit
code.
:cunabbrev
:cuna[bbrev] lhs
unregister command-line mode abbreviation by its lhs.
:cuna[bbrev] rhs
unregister command-line mode abbreviation by its rhs, so that
abbreviation could be removed even after expansion.
:delete
:[range]d[elete][!][ &]
delete selected file or files. "!" means complete removal
(omitting trash).
:[range]d[elete][!] [reg] [count][ &]
delete selected or [count] files to the reg register. "!" means
complete removal (omitting trash).
:delcommand
:delc[ommand] user_command
remove user defined command named user_command.
:delmarks
:delm[arks]!
delete all marks.
:delm[arks] marks ...
delete specified marks, each argument is treated as a set of
marks.
:display
:di[splay]
display menu with registers content.
:di[splay] list ...
display the contents of the numbered and named registers that
are mentioned in list (for example "az to display "", "a and "z
content).
:dirs
:dirs display directory stack.
:echo
:ec[ho] [<expr>...]
evaluate each argument as an expression and output them sepa‐
rated with a space. See help on :let command for a definition
of <expr>.
:edit
:[range]e[dit] [file...]
open selected or passed file(s) in editor. Accepts macros.
:else
:el[se]
execute commands until next matching :endif if they previously
were not being executed. See also help on :if and :endif com‐
mands.
:empty
:empty permanently remove files from all existing non-empty trash
directories (see "Trash directory" section below). Also remove
all operations from undolist that have no sense after :empty and
remove all records about files located inside directories from
all registers. Removal is performed as background task with
undetermined amount of work and can be checked via :jobs menu.
:endif
:en[dif]
end conditional block. See also help on :if and :else commands.
:execute
:exe[cute] [<expr>...]
evaluate each argument as an expression and join results sepa‐
rated by a space to get a single string which is then executed
as a command-line command. See help on :let command for a defi‐
nition of <expr>.
:exit
:exi[t][!]
same as :quit.
:file
:f[ile][ &]
display menu of programs set for the file type of the current
file. " &" forces running associated program in background.
:f[ile] arg[ &]
run associated command that begins with the arg skipping opening
menu. " &" forces running associated program in background.
:filetype
:filet[ype] pat1,pat2,... [{descr}]def_prog[ &],[{descr}]prog2[ &],...
associate given program list to each of the patterns. Associ‐
ated program (command) is used by handlers of l and Enter keys
(and also in the :file menu). If you need to insert comma into
command just double it (",,"). Space followed by an ampersand
as two last characters of a command means running of the command
in the background. Optional description can be given to each
command to ease understanding of what command will do in the
:file menu. Vifm will try the rest of the programs for an asso‐
ciation when the default isn't found. When program entry
doesn't contain any of vifm macros, name of current file is
appended as if program entry ended with %c macro on *nix and %"c
on Windows. On Windows path to executables containing spaces
can (and should be for correct work with such paths) be double
quoted. See "Patterns" section below for pattern definition.
See also "Automatic FUSE mounts" section below. Example for zip
archives and several actions:
filetype *.zip,*.jar,*.war,*.ear
\ {Mount with fuse-zip}
\ FUSE_MOUNT|fuse-zip %SOURCE_FILE %DESTINATION_DIR,
\ {View contents}
\ zip -sf %c | less,
\ {Extract here}
\ tar -xf %c,
:filet[ype] filename
list (in menu mode) currently registered patterns that match
specified file name. Same as ":filextype filename".
:filextype
:filex[type] pat1,pat2,... [{ description }] def_program,program2,...
same as :filetype, but this command is ignored if not running in
X. In X :filextype is equal to :filetype. See "Patterns" sec‐
tion below for pattern definition. See also "Automatic FUSE
mounts" section below.
For example, consider the following settings (the order might
seem strange, but it's for the demonstration purpose):
filetype *.html,*.htm
\ {View in lynx}
\ lynx
filextype *.html,*.htm
\ {Open with dwb}
\ dwb %f %i &,
filetype *.html,*.htm
\ {View in links}
\ links
filextype *.html,*.htm
\ {Open with firefox}
\ firefox %f &,
\ {Open with uzbl}
\ uzbl-browser %f %i &,
If you're using vifm inside a terminal emulator that is running
in graphical environment (when X is used on *nix; always on Win‐
dows), vifm attempts to run application in this order:
1. lynx
2. dwb
3. links
4. firefox
5. uzbl
If there is no graphical environment (checked presence of $DIS‐
PLAY environment variable on *nix; never happens on Windows),
the list will look like:
1. lynx
2. links
Just as if all :filextype commands were not there.
The purpose of such differentiation is to allow comfortable use
of vifm with same settings in desktop environment/through remote
connection (SSH)/in native console.
:filext[ype] filename
list (in menu mode) currently registered patterns that match
specified file name. Same as ":filetype filename".
:fileviewer
:filev[iewer] pat1,pat2,... command1,command2,...
register specified list of commands as viewers for each of the
patterns. Viewer is a command which output is captured and dis‐
played in the second pane of vifm after running :view command.
When the command doesn't contain any of vifm macros, name of
current file is appended as if command ended with %c macro.
Comma escaping and missing commands processing rules as for
:filetype apply to this command. See "Patterns" section below
for pattern definition.
Example for zip archives:
fileviewer *.zip,*.jar,*.war,*.ear zip -sf %c, echo "No zip to preview:"
:filev[iewer] filename
list (in menu mode) currently registered patterns that match
specified filename.
:filter
:filter[!] regular_expression_pattern
:filter[!] /regular_expression_pattern/[flags]
will filter all the files out of the directory listing that
match the regular expression. Using second variant you can use
the bar ('|') symbol without escaping. Empty regular expression
(specified by //, "" or '') means using of the last search pat‐
tern. Use '!' to control state of filter inversion after updat‐
ing filter value (also see 'cpoptions' description). Filter is
matched case sensitively on *nix and case insensitively on Win‐
dows.
Supported flags:
- "i" makes filter case insensitive;
- "I" makes filter case sensitive.
Flags might be repeated multiple times, later ones win (e.g.
"iiiI" is equivalent to "I" and "IiIi" is the same as "i").
" filter all files ending in .o from the filelist.
:filter /.o$/
Note: vifm uses extended regular expressions.
:filter
reset filter (set it to empty string) and show all files.
:filter!
same as :invert.
:filter?
show information on local, name and auto filters.
:find
:[range]fin[d] pattern
display results of find command in the menu. Searches among
selected files if any. Accepts macros. By default the command
relies on the external "find" utility, which can be customized
by altering value of the 'findprg' option.
:[range]fin[d] -opt...
same as :find above, but user defines all find arguments.
Searches among selected files if any.
:[range]fin[d] path -opt...
same as :find above, but user defines all find arguments.
Ignores selection and range.
:[range]fin[d]
repeat last :find command.
:finish
:fini[sh]
stop sourcing a script. Can only be used in a vifm script file.
This is a quick way to skip the rest of the file.
:grep
:[range]gr[ep][!] pattern
will show results of grep command in the menu. Add "!" to
request inversion of search (look for lines that do not match
pattern). Searches among selected files if any and no range
given. Ignores binary files by default. By default the command
relies on the external "grep" utility, which can be customized
by altering value of the 'grepprg' option.
:[range]gr[ep][!] -opt...
same as :grep above, but user defines all grep arguments, which
are not escaped. Searches among selected files if any.
:[range]gr[ep][!]
repeats last :grep command. "!" of this command inverts "!" in
repeated command.
:help
:h[elp]
show the help file.
:h[elp] argument
is the same as using ':h argument' in vim. Use vifm-<something>
to get help on vifm (tab completion works). This form of the
command doesn't work when 'vimhelp' option is off.
:highlight
:hi[ghlight]
will show information about all highlight groups in the current
directory.
:hi[ghlight] clear
will reset all highlighting to builtin defaults.
:hi[ghlight] ( group-name | {pat1,pat2,...} | /regexp/ )
will show information on given highlight group or file name pat‐
tern of color scheme used in the active view.
:hi[ghlight] ( group-name | {pat1,pat2,...} | /regexp/[iI] )
cterm=style | ctermfg=color | ctermbg=color
sets style (cterm), foreground (ctermfg) or/and background
(ctermbg) parameters of highlight group or file name pattern for
color scheme used in the active view.
All style values as well as color names are case insensitive.
Available style values (some of them can be combined):
- bold
- underline
- reverse or inverse
- standout
- none
Available group-name values:
- Win - color of all windows (views, dialogs, menus) and default color
for their content (e.g. regular files in views)
- Border - color of vertical parts of the border
- TopLineSel - top line color of the current pane
- TopLine - top line color of the other pane
- CmdLine - the command line/status bar color
- ErrorMsg - color of error messages in the status bar
- StatusLine - color of the line above the status bar
- JobLine - color of job line that appears above the status line
- WildMenu - color of the wild menu items
- CurrLine - line at cursor position in active view
- OtherLine - line at cursor position in inactive view
- Selected - color of selected files
- Directory - color of directories
- Link - color of symbolic links in the views
- BrokenLink - color of broken symbolic links
- Socket - color of sockets
- Device - color of block and character devices
- Executable - color of executable files
- Fifo - color of fifo pipes
Available colors:
- -1 or default or none - default or transparent
- black and lightblack
- red and lightred
- green and lightgreen
- yellow and lightyellow
- blue and lightblue
- magenta and lightmagenta
- cyan and lightcyan
- white and lightwhite
- 0-255 - corresponding colors from 256-color palette
Light versions of colors are regular colors with bold attribute set.
So order of arguments of :highlight command is important and it's bet‐
ter to put "cterm" in front of others to prevent it from overwriting
attributes set by "ctermfg" or "ctermbg" arguments.
For convenience of color scheme authors xterm-like names for 256 color
palette is also supported. The mapping is taken from
http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Xterm256_color_names_for_console_Vim Dupli‐
cated entries were altered by adding an underscore followed by numeri‐
cal suffix.
0 Black 86 Aquamarine1 172 Orange3
1 Red 87 DarkSlateGray2 173 LightSalmon3_2
2 Green 88 DarkRed_2 174 LightPink3
3 Yellow 89 DeepPink4_2 175 Pink3
4 Blue 90 DarkMagenta 176 Plum3
5 Magenta 91 DarkMagenta_2 177 Violet
6 Cyan 92 DarkViolet 178 Gold3_2
7 White 93 Purple 179 LightGoldenrod3
8 LightBlack 94 Orange4_2 180 Tan
9 LightRed 95 LightPink4 181 MistyRose3
10 LightGreen 96 Plum4 182 Thistle3
11 LightYellow 97 MediumPurple3 183 Plum2
12 LightBlue 98 MediumPurple3_2 184 Yellow3_2
13 LightMagenta 99 SlateBlue1 185 Khaki3
14 LightCyan 100 Yellow4 186 LightGoldenrod2
15 LightWhite 101 Wheat4 187 LightYellow3
16 Grey0 102 Grey53 188 Grey84
17 NavyBlue 103 LightSlateGrey 189 LightSteelBlue1
18 DarkBlue 104 MediumPurple 190 Yellow2
19 Blue3 105 LightSlateBlue 191 DarkOliveGreen1
20 Blue3_2 106 Yellow4_2 192 DarkOliveG‐
reen1_2
21 Blue1 107 DarkOliveGreen3 193 DarkSeaGreen1_2
22 DarkGreen 108 DarkSeaGreen 194 Honeydew2
23 DeepSkyBlue4 109 LightSkyBlue3 195 LightCyan1
24 DeepSkyBlue4_2 110 LightSkyBlue3_2 196 Red1
25 DeepSkyBlue4_3 111 SkyBlue2 197 DeepPink2
26 DodgerBlue3 112 Chartreuse2_2 198 DeepPink1
27 DodgerBlue2 113 DarkOliveGreen3_2 199 DeepPink1_2
28 Green4 114 PaleGreen3_2 200 Magenta2_2
29 SpringGreen4 115 DarkSeaGreen3 201 Magenta1
30 Turquoise4 116 DarkSlateGray3 202 OrangeRed1
31 DeepSkyBlue3 117 SkyBlue1 203 IndianRed1
32 DeepSkyBlue3_2 118 Chartreuse1 204 IndianRed1_2
33 DodgerBlue1 119 LightGreen_2 205 HotPink
34 Green3 120 LightGreen_3 206 HotPink_2
35 SpringGreen3 121 PaleGreen1 207 MediumOrchid1_2
36 DarkCyan 122 Aquamarine1_2 208 DarkOrange
37 LightSeaGreen 123 DarkSlateGray1 209 Salmon1
38 DeepSkyBlue2 124 Red3 210 LightCoral
39 DeepSkyBlue1 125 DeepPink4_3 211 PaleVioletRed1
40 Green3_2 126 MediumVioletRed 212 Orchid2
41 SpringGreen3_2 127 Magenta3 213 Orchid1
42 SpringGreen2 128 DarkViolet_2 214 Orange1
43 Cyan3 129 Purple_2 215 SandyBrown
44 DarkTurquoise 130 DarkOrange3 216 LightSalmon1
45 Turquoise2 131 IndianRed 217 LightPink1
46 Green1 132 HotPink3 218 Pink1
47 SpringGreen2_2 133 MediumOrchid3 219 Plum1
48 SpringGreen1 134 MediumOrchid 220 Gold1
49 MediumSpringGreen 135 MediumPurple2 221 LightGolden‐
rod2_2
50 Cyan2 136 DarkGoldenrod 222 LightGolden‐
rod2_3
51 Cyan1 137 LightSalmon3 223 NavajoWhite1
52 DarkRed 138 RosyBrown 224 MistyRose1
53 DeepPink4 139 Grey63 225 Thistle1
54 Purple4 140 MediumPurple2_2 226 Yellow1
55 Purple4_2 141 MediumPurple1 227 LightGoldenrod1
56 Purple3 142 Gold3 228 Khaki1
57 BlueViolet 143 DarkKhaki 229 Wheat1
58 Orange4 144 NavajoWhite3 230 Cornsilk1
59 Grey37 145 Grey69 231 Grey100
60 MediumPurple4 146 LightSteelBlue3 232 Grey3
61 SlateBlue3 147 LightSteelBlue 233 Grey7
62 SlateBlue3_2 148 Yellow3 234 Grey11
63 RoyalBlue1 149 DarkOliveGreen3_3 235 Grey15
64 Chartreuse4 150 DarkSeaGreen3_2 236 Grey19
65 DarkSeaGreen4 151 DarkSeaGreen2 237 Grey23
66 PaleTurquoise4 152 LightCyan3 238 Grey27
67 SteelBlue 153 LightSkyBlue1 239 Grey30
68 SteelBlue3 154 GreenYellow 240 Grey35
69 CornflowerBlue 155 DarkOliveGreen2 241 Grey39
70 Chartreuse3 156 PaleGreen1_2 242 Grey42
71 DarkSeaGreen4_2 157 DarkSeaGreen2_2 243 Grey46
72 CadetBlue 158 DarkSeaGreen1 244 Grey50
73 CadetBlue_2 159 PaleTurquoise1 245 Grey54
74 SkyBlue3 160 Red3_2 246 Grey58
75 SteelBlue1 161 DeepPink3 247 Grey62
76 Chartreuse3_2 162 DeepPink3_2 248 Grey66
77 PaleGreen3 163 Magenta3_2 249 Grey70
78 SeaGreen3 164 Magenta3_3 250 Grey74
79 Aquamarine3 165 Magenta2 251 Grey78
80 MediumTurquoise 166 DarkOrange3_2 252 Grey82
81 SteelBlue1_2 167 IndianRed_2 253 Grey85
82 Chartreuse2 168 HotPink3_2 254 Grey89
83 SeaGreen2 169 HotPink2 255 Grey93
84 SeaGreen1 170 Orchid
85 SeaGreen1_2 171 MediumOrchid1
There are two colors (foreground and background) and only one bold
attribute. Thus single bold attribute affects both colors when
"reverse" attribute is used in vifm run inside terminal emulator. At
the same time linux native console can handle boldness of foreground
and background colors independently, but for consistency with terminal
emulators this is available only implicitly by using light versions of
colors. This behaviour might be changed in the future.
Although vifm supports 256 colors in a sense they are supported by UI
drawing library, whether you will be able to use all of them highly
depends on your terminal. To set up terminal properly, make sure that
$TERM in the environment you run vifm is set to name of 256-color ter‐
minal (on *nixes it can also be set via X resources), e.g.
xterm-256color. One can find list of available terminal names by list‐
ing /usr/lib/terminfo/. Number of colors supported by terminal with
current settings can be checked via "tput colors" command.
Here is the hierarchy of highlight groups, which you need to know for
using transparency:
JobLine
StatusLine
WildMenu
Border
CmdLine
ErrorMsg
Win
File name specific highlights
Directory
Link
BrokenLink
Socket
Device
Fifo
Executable
Selected
CurrLine
OtherLine
TopLine
TopLineSel
"none" means default terminal color for highlight groups at the first
level of the hierarchy and transparency for all others.
Here file name specific highlights mean those configured via globs ({})
or regular expressions (//). At most one of them is applied per file
entry, namely the first that matches file name, hence order of :high‐
light commands might be important in certain cases.
:history
:his[tory]
creates a pop-up menu of directories visited.
:his[tory] x
x can be:
d[ir] or . show directory history.
c[md] or : show command line history.
s[earch] or / show search history and search forward on l key.
f[search] or / show search history and search forward on l key.
b[search] or ? show search history and search backward on l key.
i[nput] or @ show prompt history (e.g. on one file renaming).
fi[lter] or = show filter history (see description of the "="
normal mode command).
:if
:if {expr1}
starts conditional block. Commands are executed until next
matching :else of :endif command if {expr1} evaluates to non-
zero, otherwise they are ignored. See also help on :else and
:endif commands.
Example:
if $TERM == "screen.linux"
highlight CurrLine ctermfg=lightwhite ctermbg=lightblack
else
highlight CurrLine cterm=bold,reverse ctermfg=black ctermbg=white
endif
:invert
:invert [f]
invert file name filter.
:invert? [f]
show current filter state.
:invert s
invert selection.
:invert o
invert sorting order of the primary sorting key.
:invert? o
show sorting order of the primary sorting key.
:jobs
:jobs shows menu of current backgrounded processes.
:let
:let $ENV_VAR = <expr>
sets environment variable. Warning: setting environment vari‐
able to an empty string on Windows removes it.
:let $ENV_VAR .= <expr>
append value to environment variable.
Where <expr> could be a single-quoted string, double-quoted string, an
environment variable, function call or a concatanation of any of them
in any order using the '.' operator. Any whitespace is ignored.
:locate
:locate filename
use "locate" command to create a menu of filenames. Selecting a
file from the menu will reload the current file list in vifm to
show the selected file. By default the command relies on the
external "locate" utility (it's assumed that its database is
already built), which can be customized by altering value of the
'locateprg' option.
:locate
repeats last :locate command.
:ls
:ls lists windows of active terminal multiplexer (only when terminal
multiplexer is used). This is achieved by issuing proper com‐
mand for active terminal multiplexer, thus the list is not han‐
dled by vifm.
:lstrash
:lstrash
displays a menu with list of files in trash. Each element of
the list is original path of a deleted file, thus the list can
contain duplicates.
:mark
:[range]ma[rk][?] x [/full/path] [filename]
Set mark x (a-zA-Z0-9) at /full/path and filename. By default
current directory is being used. If no filename was given and
/full/path is current directory then last file in [range] is
used. Using of macros is allowed. Question mark will stop com‐
mand from overwriting existing marks.
:marks
:marks create a pop-up menu of bookmarks.
:marks list ...
display the contents of the marks that are mentioned in list.
:messages
:mes[sages]
shows previously given messages (up to 50).
:mkdir
:mkdir[!] dir ...
creates directories with given names. "!" means make parent
directories as needed. Macros are expanded.
:move
:[range]m[ove][!?][ &]
move files to directory of other view. With "?" prompts for
destination file names in an editor. "!" forces overwrite.
:[range]m[ove][!] path[ &]
move files to directory specified with the path (absolute or
relative to directory of other view). "!" forces overwrite.
:[range]m[ove][!] name1 name2...[ &]
move files to directory of other view giving each next file a
corresponding name from the argument list. "!" forces over‐
write.
:nohlsearch
:noh[lsearch]
clear selection in current pane.
:normal
:norm[al][!] commands
execute normal mode commands. If "!" is used, user defined map‐
pings are ignored. Unfinished last command is aborted as if
<esc> or <c-c> was typed. A ":" should be completed as well.
Commands can't start with a space, so put a count of 1 (one)
before it.
:only
:on[ly]
switch to a one window view.
:popd
:popd remove pane directories from stack.
:pushd
:pushd[!] /curr/dir [/other/dir]
add pane directories to stack and process arguments like :cd
command.
:pushd exchange the top two items of the directory stack.
:pwd
:pw[d] show the present working directory.
:quit
:q[uit][!]
exit vifm (add ! to skip saving changes and checking for active
backgrounded commands).
:redraw
:redr[aw]
redraw the screen immediately.
:registers
:reg[isters]
display menu with registers content.
:reg[isters] list ...
display the contents of the numbered and named registers that
are mentioned in list (for example "az to display "", "a and "z
content).
:rename
:[range]rename[!]
rename files using vi to edit names. ! means go recursively
through directories.
:[range]rename name1 name2...
rename each of selected files to a corresponding name.
:restart
:restart
free a lot of things (histories, commands, etc.), reread
vifminfo and vifmrc files and run startup commands passed in the
argument list, thus losing all unsaved changes (e.g. recent his‐
tory or keys mapped in current session).
:restore
:[range]restore
restore file from trash directory, doesn't work outside one of
trash directories. See "Trash directory" section below.
:rlink
:[range]rlink[!?]
create relative symbolic links to files in directory of other
view. With "?" prompts for destination file names in an editor.
"!" forces overwrite.
:[range]rlink[!] path
create relative symbolic links of files in directory specified
with the path (absolute or relative to directory of other view).
"!" forces overwrite.
:[range]rlink[!] name1 name2...
create relative symbolic links of files in directory of other
view giving each next link a corresponding name from the argu‐
ment list. "!" forces overwrite.
:screen
:screen
toggle whether to use the terminal multiplexer or not.
A terminal multiplexer uses pseudo terminals to allow multiple
windows to be used in the console or in a single xterm. Start‐
ing vifm from terminal multiplexer with appropriate support
turned on will cause vifm to open a new terminal multiplexer
window for each new file edited or program launched from vifm.
This requires screen version 3.9.9 or newer for the screen -X
argument or tmux (1.8 version or newer is recommended).
:screen?
display whether integration with terminal multiplexers is
enabled.
Note: the command is called screen for historical reasons (when tmux
wasn't yet supported) and might be changed in future releases, or get
an alias.
:set
:se[t] display all options that differ from their default value.
:se[t] all
display all options.
:se[t] opt1=val1 opt2='val2' opt3="val3" ...
sets given options.
You can use following syntax:
- for all options - option, option? and option&
- for boolean options - nooption, invoption and option!
- for integer options - option=x, option+=x and option-=x
- for string options - option=x
- for string list options - option=x, option+=x and option-=x
- for enumeration options - option=x, option+=x and option-=x
- for set options - option=x, option+=x and option-=x
- for charset options - option=x, option+=x, option-=x and
option^=x
the meaning:
- option - turn option on (for boolean) or print its value (for
all others)
- nooption - turn option off
- invoption - invert option state
- option! - invert option state
- option? - print option value
- option& - reset option to its default value
- option=x or option:x - set option to x
- option+=x - add x to option
- option-=x - remove (or subtract) x from option
- option^=x - toggle x presence among values of the option
Option name can be prepended and appended by any number of
whitespace characters.
:shell
:sh[ell]
start a shell in current directory.
:sort
:sor[t]
display dialog with different sorting methods, when one can
select primary sorting key. When 'viewcolumns' options is empty
and 'lsview' is off, changing primary sorting key will also
affect view look (in particular the second column of the view
will be changed).
:source
:so[urce] file
read command-line commands from the file.
:split
:sp[lit]
switch to a two window horizontal view.
:sp[lit]!
toggle horizontal window splitting.
:sp[lit] path
splits the window horizontally to show both file directories.
Also changes other pane to path (absolute or relative to current
directory of active pane).
:substitute
:[range]s[ubstitute]/pattern/string/[flags]
for each file in range replace a match of pattern with string.
String can contain \0...\9 to link to capture groups (\0 - all match,
\1 - first group, etc.).
Pattern is stored in search history.
Available flags:
- i - ignore case (the 'ignorecase' and 'smartcase' options are not
used)
- I - don't ignore case (the 'ignorecase' and 'smartcase' options are
not used)
- g - substitute all matches in each file name (each g toggles this)
:[range]s[ubstitute]/pattern
substitute pattern with an empty string.
:[range]s[ubstitute]//string/[flags]
use last pattern from search history.
:[range]s[ubstitute]
repeat previous substitution command.
:sync
:sync [relative path]
change the other pane to the current pane directory or to some
path relative to the current directory. Using macros is
allowed.
:sync! change the other pane to the current pane directory and synchro‐
nize cursor position.
:sync! [location | cursorpos | localopts | filters | all]...
change enumerated properties of the other pane to match corre‐
sponding properties of the current pane. Arguments have the
following meanings:
- location - current directory of the pane;
- cursorpos - cursor position (doesn't make sense without
"location");
- localopts - all local options;
- filters - all filters;
- all - all of the above.
:touch
:touch file...
create file(s). Aborts on errors. Doesn't update time of
existing files. Macros are expanded.
:tr
:[range]tr/pattern/string/
for each file in range transliterate the characters which appear
in pattern to the corresponding character in string. When
string is shorter than pattern, it's padded with its last char‐
acter.
:trashes
:trashes
lists all valid trash directories in a menu. Only non-empty and
writable trash directories are shown. This is exactly the list
of directories that are cleared when :empty command is executed.
:trashes?
same as :trashes, but also displays size of each trash direc‐
tory.
:undolist
:undol[ist]
display list of latest changes. Use "!" to see actual commands.
:unlet
:unl[et][!] $ENV_VAR1 $ENV_VAR2 ...
remove environment variables. Add ! to omit displaying of warn‐
ings about nonexistent variables.
:version
:ve[rsion]
show menu with version information.
:vifm
:vifm same as :version.
:view
:vie[w]
toggle on and off the quick file view.
:vie[w]!
turn on quick file view if it's off.
:volumes
:volumes
only for MS-Windows
display menu with volume list. Hitting l (or Enter) key opens
appropriate volume in the current pane.
:vsplit
:vs[plit]
switch to a two window vertical view.
:vs[plit]!
toggle window vertical splitting.
:vs[plit] path
split the window vertically to show both file directories. And
changes other pane to path (absolute or relative to current
directory of active pane).
:windo
:windo [command...]
execute command for each pane (same as :winrun % command).
:winrun
:winrun type [command...]
execute command for pane(s), which is determined by type argu‐
ment:
- ^ - top-left pane
- $ - bottom-right pane
- % - all panes
- . - current pane
- , - other pane
:write
:w[rite]
write vifminfo file.
:wq
:wq[!] same as :quit, but ! only disables check of backgrounded com‐
mands.
:xit
:x[it][!]
will exit Vifm (add ! if you don't want to save changes).
:yank
:[range]y[ank] [reg] [count]
will yank files to the reg register.
:map lhs rhs
:map lhs rhs
map lhs key sequence to rhs in normal and visual modes.
:map! lhs rhs
map lhs key sequence to rhs in command line mode.
:cm[ap] lhs rhs
map lhs to rhs in command line mode.
:mm[ap] lhs rhs
map lhs to rhs in menu mode.
:nm[ap] lhs rhs
map lhs to rhs in normal mode.
:qm[ap] lhs rhs
map lhs to rhs in view mode.
:vm[ap] lhs rhs
map lhs to rhs in visual mode.
:map
:cm[ap]
list all maps in command line mode.
:mm[ap]
list all maps in menu mode.
:nm[ap]
list all maps in normal mode.
:qm[ap]
list all maps in view mode.
:vm[ap]
list all maps in visual mode.
:map beginning
:cm[ap] beginning
list all maps in command line mode that start with the begin‐
ning.
:mm[ap] beginning
list all maps in menu mode that start with the beginning.
:nm[ap] beginning
list all maps in normal mode that start with the beginning.
:qm[ap] beginning
list all maps in view mode that start with the beginning.
:vm[ap] beginning
list all maps in visual mode that start with the beginning.
:noremap
:no[remap] lhs rhs
map the key sequence lhs to {rhs} for normal and visual modes,
but disallow mapping of rhs.
:no[remap]! lhs rhs
map the key sequence lhs to {rhs} for command line mode, but
disallow mapping of rhs.
:cno[remap] lhs rhs
map the key sequence lhs to {rhs} for command line mode, but
disallow mapping of rhs.
:mn[oremap] lhs rhs
map the key sequence lhs to {rhs} for menu mode, but disallow
mapping of rhs.
:nn[oremap] lhs rhs
map the key sequence lhs to {rhs} for normal mode, but disallow
mapping of rhs.
:qn[oremap] lhs rhs
map the key sequence lhs to {rhs} for view mode, but disallow
mapping of rhs.
:vn[oremap] lhs rhs
map the key sequence lhs to {rhs} for visual mode, but disallow
mapping of rhs.
:unmap
:unm[ap] lhs
remove the mapping of lhs from normal and visual modes.
:unm[ap]! lhs
remove the mapping of lhs from command line mode.
:cu[nmap] lhs
remove the mapping of lhs from command line mode.
:mu[nmap] lhs
remove the mapping of lhs from menu mode.
:nun[map] lhs
remove the mapping of lhs from normal mode.
:qun[map] lhs
remove the mapping of lhs from view mode.
:vu[nmap] lhs
remove the mapping of lhs from visual mode.
Ranges
The ranges implemented include:
2,3 - from second to third file in the list (including it)
% - the entire directory.
. - the current position in the filelist.
$ - the end of the filelist.
't - the mark position t.
Examples:
:%delete
would delete all files in the directory.
:2,4delete
would delete the files in the list positions 2 through 4.
:.,$delete
would delete the files from the current position to the end of the
filelist.
:3delete4
would delete the files in the list positions 3, 4, 5, 6.
If a backward range is given :4,2delete - an query message is given and
user can chose what to do next.
The builtin commands that accept a range are :d[elete] and :y[ank].
Command macros
The command macros may be used in user commands.
%a User arguments. When user arguments contain macros, they are
expanded before preforming substitution of %a.
%c %"c The current file under the cursor.
%C %"C The current file under the cursor in the other directory.
%f %"f All of the selected files.
%F %"F All of the selected files in the other directory list.
%b %"b Same as %f %F.
%d %"d Full path to current directory.
%D %"D Full path to other file list directory.
%rx %"rx
Full paths to files in the register {x}. In case of invalid
symbol in place of {x}, it's processed with the rest of the line
and default register is used.
%m Show command output in a menu.
%M Same as %m, but l (or Enter) key is handled like for :locate and
:find commands.
%u Process command output as list of paths and compose custom view
out of it.
%U Same as %u, but implies less list updates inside vifm, which is
absence of sorting at the moment.
%S Show command output in the status bar.
%s Execute command in split window of active terminal multiplexer
(ignored if not running inside one).
%n Forbid using of terminal multiplexer to run the command.
%i Completely ignore command output.
The following dimensions and coordinates are in characters:
%px x coordinate of top-left corner of preview area.
%py y coordinate of top-left corner of preview area.
%pw width of preview area.
%ph height of preview area.
Use %% if you need to put a percent sign in your command.
Note that %m, %M, %s, %S, %i, %u and %U macros are mutually exclusive.
Only the last one of them on the command will take effect.
You can use file name modifiers after %c, %C, %f, %F, %b, %d and %D
macros. Supported modifiers are:
- :p - full path
- :u - UNC name of path (e.g. "\\server" in
"\\server\share"), Windows only. Expands to current computer name
for not UNC paths.
- :~ - relative to the home directory
- :. - relative to current directory
- :h - head of the file name
- :t - tail of the file name
- :r - root of the file name (without last extension)
- :e - extension of the file name (last one)
- :s?pat?sub? - substitute the first occurrence of pat with sub.
You can use any character for '?', but it must not occur in pat or
sub.
- :gs?pat?sub? - like :s, but substitutes all occurrences of pat with
sub.
See ':h filename-modifiers' in Vim's documentation for the detailed
description.
Using %x means expand corresponding macro escaping all characters that
have special meaning. And %"x means using of double quotes and escape
only backslash and double quote characters, which is more useful on
Windows systems.
Position and quantity (if there is any) of %m, %M, %S or %s macros in
the command is unimportant. All their occurrences are removed from the
resulting command.
%c and %f macros are expanded to file names only, when %C and %F are
expanded to full paths. %f and %F follow this in %b too.
:com move mv %f %D
set the :move command to move all of the files selected in the
current directory to the other directory.
The %a macro is replaced with any arguments given to an alias command.
All arguments are considered optional.
:com lsl !!ls -l %a - set the lsl command to execute ls -l with
or without an argument.
:lsl<Enter>
will list the directory contents of the current directory.
:lsl filename<Enter>
will list only the given filename.
The macros can also be used in directly executing commands. ":!mv %f
%D" would move the current directory selected files to the other direc‐
tory.
Appending & to the end of a command causes it to be executed in the
background. Typically you want to run two kinds of external commands
in the background:
- GUI applications that doesn't fork thus block vifm (:!sxiv %f &);
- console tools that do not work with terminal (:!mv %f %D &).
You don't want to run terminal commands, which require terminal input
or output something in background because they will mess up vifm's TUI.
Anyway, if you did run such a command, you can use Ctrl-L key to update
vifm's TUI.
Rewriting the example command with macros given above with background‐
ing:
%m, %M, %s, %S, %u and %U macros cannot be combined with background
mark (" &") as it doesn't make much sense.
Command backgrounding
Copy and move operation can take a lot of time to proceed. That's why
vifm supports backgrounding of this two operations. To run :copy,
:move or :delete command in the background just add " &" at the end of
a command.
For each background operation a new thread is created. Currently job
cannot be stopped or paused.
You can see if command is still running in the :jobs menu. Back‐
grounded commands have progress instead of process id at the line
beginning.
Background operations cannot be undone.
Cancellation
Note that cancellation works somewhat different on Windows platform due
to different mechanism of break signal propagation. One also might
need to use Ctrl-Break shortcut instead of Ctrl-C.
There are two types of operations that can be cancelled:
- file system operations;
- mounting with FUSE (but not unmounting as it can cause loss of
data);
- calls of external applications.
Note that vifm never terminates applications, it sends SIGINT signal
and lets the application quit normally.
When one of set of operations is cancelled (e.g. copying of 5th file of
10 files), further operations are cancelled too. In this case undo
history will contain only actually performed operations.
Cancelled operations are indicated by "(cancelled)" suffix appended to
information message on statusbar.
File system operations
Currently the following commands can be cancelled: :alink, :chmod,
:chown, :clone, :copy, :delete, :mkdir, :move, :restore, :rlink,
:touch. File putting (on p/P key) can be cancelled as well. It's not
hard to see that these are mainly long-running operations.
Cancelling commands when they are repeated for undo/redo operations is
allowed for convenience, but is not recommended as further undo/redo
operations might get blocked by side-effects of partially cancelled
group of operations.
These commands can't be cancelled: :empty, :rename, :substitute, :tr.
Mounting with FUSE
It's not considered to be an error, so only notification on the status
bar is shown.
External application calls
Each of this operations can be cancelled: :apropos, :find, :grep,
:locate.
Patterns
:highlight, :filetype, :filextype and :fileviewer commands support both
globs and regular expressions as patterns to match file names or full
paths.
There are five possible ways to write them:
1. {comma-seperated-name-globs}
2. {{comma-seperated-path-globs}}
3. /name-regular-expression/[iI]
4. //path-regular-expression//[iI]
5. undecorated-pattern
The last form is implicitly refers to one of others. :highlight does
not accept undecorated form, while :filetype, :filextype and :file‐
viewer treat it as list of name globals.
Regular expression patterns are case insensitive by default.
"Globs" section below provides short overview of globs and some impor‐
tant points that one needs to know about them.
Globs
Globs are always case insensitive as it makes sense in general case.
*, ?, [ and ] are treated as special symbols in the pattern. E.g.
:filetype * less %c
matches all files. One can use character classes for escaping, so
:filetype [*] less %c
matches only one file name, the one which contains only asterisk sym‐
bol.
* means any number of any characters (possibly an empty substring),
with one exception: asterisk at the pattern beginning doesn't match dot
in the first position. E.g.
:fileviewer *.zip,*.jar zip -sf %c
associates using of zip program to preview all files with zip or jar
extensions as listing of their content.
? means any character at this position. E.g.
:fileviewer ?.out file %c
calls file tool for all files which has exactly one character before
their extension (e.g. a.out, b.out).
Square brackets designate character class, which means that whole char‐
acter class matches against any of characters listed in it. For exam‐
ple
:fileviewer *.[ch] highlight -O xterm256 -s dante --syntax c %c
makes vifm call highlight program to colorize source and header files
in C language for a 256-color terminal. Equal command would be
:fileviewer *.c,*.h highlight -O xterm256 -s dante --syntax c %c
Inside square brackets ^ or ! can be used for symbol class negotiation
and the - symbol to set a range. ^ and ! should appear right after the
opening square bracket. For example
:filetype *.[!d]/ inspect_dir
associates inspect_dir as additional handler for all directories that
have one character extension unless it's "d" letter. And
:filetype [0-9].jpg sxiv
associates sxiv picture viewer only for JPEG-files that contain single
digit in their name.
:set options
Local options
These are kind of options that are local to a specific view. So
you can set ascending sorting order for left pane and descending
order for right pane.
'aproposprg'
type: string
default: "apropos %a"
Specifies format for an external command to be invoked by the
:apropos command. The format supports expanding of macros, spe‐
cific for a particular *prg option, and %% sequence for insert‐
ing percent sign literally. This option should include the %a
macro to specify placement of arguments passed to the :apropos
command. If the macro is not used, it will be implicitly added
after a space to the value of this option.
'autochpos'
type: boolean
default: true
When disabled vifm will set cursor to the first line in the view
after :cd and :pushd commands instead of saved cursor position.
Disabling this will also make vifm clear information about cur‐
sor position in the view history on :cd and :pushd commands (and
on startup if 'autochpos' is disabled in the vifmrc). l key in
the ":history ." and ":trashes" menus is treated like :cd com‐
mand. This option also affects bookmarks so that navigating to
a bookmark doesn't restore cursor position.
'columns' 'co'
type: integer
default: terminal width on startup
Terminal width in characters.
'cdpath' 'cd'
type: string list
default: value of $CDPATH with commas instead of colons
Specifies locations to check on changing directory with relative
path that doesn't start with "./" or "../". When non-empty,
current directory is examined after directories listed in the
option.
This option doesn't affect completion of :cd command.
Example:
set cdpath=~
This way ":cd bin" will switch to "~/bin" even if directory
named "bin" exists in current directory, while ":cd ./bin" com‐
mand will ignore value of 'cdpath'.
'chaselinks'
type: boolean
default: false
When enabled path of view is always resolved to real path (with
all symbolic links expanded).
'classify'
type: string list
default: ":dir:/"
Specifies file name prefixes and suffixes depending on file
types. The format is: [{prefix}]:{filetype}:[{suffix}]. Either
{prefix} or {suffix} or both of them can be omitted (which is
the default for all unspecified file types), this means empty
{prefix} and/or {suffix}. {prefix} and {suffix} should consist
exactly of one character. Elements are separated by commas.
Neither prefixes nor suffixes are part of file names, so they
don't affect commands which operate on file names in any way.
Comma (',') character should not be used. List of file type
names can be found in the description of filetype() function.
'confirm' 'cf'
type: boolean
default: true
Ask about permanent deletion of files (on D or :delete! command
or on undo/redo operation).
'cpoptions' 'cpo'
type: charset
default: "fst"
Contains a sequence of single-character flags. Each flag
enables behaviour of older versions of vifm. Flags:
f - when included, running :filter command results in not
inverted (matching files are filtered out) and :filter! in
inverted (matching files are left) filter, when omitted, meaning
of the exclamation mark changes to the opposite;
s - when included, yy, dd and DD normal mode commands act on
selection, otherwise they operate on current file only;
t - when included, <tab> (thus <c-i>) behave as <space> and
switch active pane, otherwise <tab> and <c-i> go forward in the
view history.
'dotdirs'
type: set
default: nonrootparent
Controls displaying of dot directories. The following values
are possible:
- rootparent - show "../" in root directory of file system
- nonrootparent - show "../" in non-root directories of file
system
Note that empty directories always contain "../" entry regard‐
less of value of this option. "../" disappears at the moment at
least one file is created.
'fastrun'
type: boolean
default: false
With this option turned on you can run partially entered com‐
mands with unambiguous beginning using :! (e.g. :!Te instead of
:!Terminal or :!Te<tab>).
'fillchars' 'fcs'
type: string list
default: ""
Sets characters used to fill borders.
item default Used for
vborder:c ' ' left, middle and right vertical borders
If value is omitted, its default value is used. Example:
set fillchars=vborder:.
'findprg'
type: string
default: "find %s %a -print , -type d \( ! -readable -o ! -exe‐
cutable \) -prune"
Specifies format for an external command to be invoked by the
:find command. The format supports expanding of macros, spe‐
cific for a particular *prg option, and %% sequence for insert‐
ing percent sign literally. This option should include the %s
macro to specify placement of list of paths to search in and %a
or %A macro to specify placement of arguments passed to the
:find command. If some of the macros are not used, they will be
implicitly added after a space to the value of the option in the
following order: %s, %a. Note that when neither %a nor %A are
specified, it's %a which is added implicitly.
The macros can slightly change their meaning depending on :find
command arguments. When the first argument points to an exist‐
ing directory, %s is assigned all arguments and %a/%A are left
empty. Otherwise, %s is assigned a dot (".") meaning current
directory or list of selected file names, if any. %a/%A are
assigned arguments when first argument starts with a dash ("-"),
otherwise %a gets an escaped version of arguments, prepended by
"-name" (on *nix) or "-iname" (on Windows) predicate.
%a and %A macros contain almost the same value, the difference
is that %a can be escaped and %A is never escaped. %A is to be
used mainly on Windows, where shell escaping is a mess and can
break command execution.
Starting from Windows Server 2003 a where command is available,
one can configure vifm to use it in the following way:
set findprg="where /R %s %A"
As the syntax of this command is rather limited, one can't use
:find command with selection of more than one item in this case.
The command looks for files only completely ignoring directo‐
ries.
When using find port on Windows, another option is to setup
'findprg' like this:
set findprg="find %s %a"
'followlinks'
type: boolean
default: true
Follow links on l or Enter.
'fusehome'
type: string
default: "($TMPDIR | $TEMP | $TEMPDIR | $TMP)/vifm_FUSE/"
Directory to be used as a root dir for FUSE mounts. Value of
the option can contain environment variables (in form
"$envname"), which will be expanded (prepend it with a slash to
prevent expansion). The value should expand to an absolute
path.
If you change this option, vifm won't remount anything. It
affects future mounts only. See "Automatic FUSE mounts" section
below for more information.
'gdefault' 'gd'
type: boolean
default: false
When on, 'g' flag is on for :substitute by default.
'grepprg'
type: string
default: "grep -n -H -I -r %i %a %s"
Specifies format for an external command to be invoked by the
:grep command. The format supports expanding of macros, spe‐
cific for a particular *prg option, and %% sequence for insert‐
ing percent sign literally. This option should include the %i
macro to specify placement of "-v" string when inversion of
results is requested, %a or %A macro to specify placement of
arguments passed to the :grep command and the %s macro to spec‐
ify placement of list of files to search in. If some of the
macros are not used, they will be implicitly added after a space
to the value of the 'grepprg' option in the following order: %i,
%a, %s. Note that when neither %a nor %A are specified, it's %a
which is added implicitly.
See 'findprg' option for description of difference between %a
and %A.
Example of setup to use ack (http://beyondgrep.com/) instead of
grep:
set grepprg=ack\ -H\ -r\ %i\ %a\ %s
or The Silver Searcher (https://github.com/ggreer/the_sil‐
ver_searcher):
set grepprg=ag\ --line-numbers\ %i\ %a\ %s
'history' 'hi'
type: integer
default: 15
Maximum number of directories in the view history and lines in
the prompt, command line and search histories.
'hlsearch' 'hls'
type: boolean
default: true
Highlight all matches of search pattern.
'iec' type: boolean
default: false
Use KiB, MiB, ... instead of KB, MB, ...
'ignorecase' 'ic'
type: boolean
default: false
Ignore case in search patterns (:substitute, / and ? commands)
and characters after f and F commands. It doesn't affect file
filtering.
'incsearch' 'is'
type: boolean
default: false
When this option is set, search and view update for local filter
is be performed starting from initial cursor position each time
search pattern is changed.
'laststatus' 'ls'
type: boolean
default: true
Controls if status bar is visible.
'lines'
type: integer
default: terminal height on startup
Terminal height in lines.
'locateprg'
type: string
default: "locate %a"
Specifies format for an external command to be invoked by the
:locate command. The format supports expanding of macros, spe‐
cific for a particular *prg option, and %% sequence for insert‐
ing percent sign literally. This option should include the %a
macro to specify placement of arguments passed to the :locate
command. If the macro is not used, it will be implicitly added
after a space to the value of this option.
'mintimeoutlen'
type: integer
default: 150
The fracture of 'timeoutlen' in milliseconds that is waited
between subsequent input polls, which affects various asynchro‐
nous operations (detecting changes made by external applica‐
tions, monitoring background jobs, redrawing UI). There are no
strict guarantees, however the higher this value is, the less is
CPU load in idle mode.
'lsview'
type: boolean
default: false
type: local
When this option is set, directory view will be displayed in
multiple columns with file names similar to output of `ls -x`
command. See "ls-like view" section below for format descrip‐
tion.
'number' 'nu'
type: boolean
default: false
type: local
Print line number in front of each file name when 'lsview'
option is turned off. Use 'numberwidth' to control width of
line number. Also see 'relativenumber'.
'numberwidth' 'nuw'
type: integer
default: 4
type: local
Minimal number of characters for line number field.
'relativenumber' 'rnu'
type: boolean
default: false
type: local
Print relative line number in front of each file name when
'lsview' option is turned off. Use 'numberwidth' to control
width of line number. Various combinations of 'number' and
'relativenumber' lead to such results:
nonumber number
norelativenumber | first | 1 first
| second | 2 second
| third | 3 third
relativenumber | 1 first | 1 first
| 0 second |2 second
| 1 third | 1 third
'rulerformat' 'ruf'
type: string
default: "%l/%S "
Determines the content of the ruler. Its minimal width is 13
characters and it's right aligned. Following macros are sup‐
ported:
%l - file number
%L - total number of files in view (including filtered out
ones)
%- - number of filtered out files
%S - number of displayed files
%= - separation point between left and right align items
%% - percent sign
%[ - designates beginning of an optional block
%] - designates end of an optional block
Percent sign can be followed by optional minimum field width.
Add '-' before minimum field width if you want field to be right
aligned. Note ambiguity with number of filtered out files,
which can be resolved with the help of width field ("%0-").
Example:
set rulerformat='%2l-%S%[ +%0-%]'
'runexec'
type: boolean
default: false
Run executable file on Enter or l.
'scrollbind' 'scb'
type: boolean
default: false
When this option is set, vifm will try to keep difference of
scrolling positions of two windows constant.
'scrolloff' 'so'
type: integer
default: 0
Minimal number of screen lines to keep above and below the cur‐
sor. If you want cursor line to always be in the middle of the
view (except at the beginning or end of the file list), set this
option to some large value (e.g. 999).
'shell' 'sh'
type: string
default: $SHELL or "/bin/sh" or "cmd" (on MS-Windows)
Full path to the shell to use to run external commands.
'shortmess' 'shm'
type: charset
default: "p"
Contains a sequence of single-character flags. Each flag
enables shortening of some message displayed by vifm in the TUI.
Flags:
T - truncate status-bar messages in the middle if they are too
long to fit on the command line. "..." will appear in the mid‐
dle.
p - use tilde shortening in view titles.
'slowfs'
type: string list
default: ""
only for *nix
A list of mounter fs name beginnings (first column in /etc/mtab
or /proc/mounts) or paths prefixes for fs/directories that work
too slow for you. This option can be used to stop vifm from
making some requests to particular kinds of file systems that
can slow down file browsing. Currently this means don't check
if directory has changed, skip check if target of symbolic links
exists, assume that link target located on slow fs to be a
directory (allows entering directories and navigating to files
via gf).
Example for autofs root /mnt/autofs:
set slowfs+=/mnt/autofs
'smartcase' 'scs'
type: boolean
default: false
Overrides the ignorecase option if the search pattern contains
at least one upper case character. Only used when ignorecase
option is enabled. It doesn't affect file filtering.
'sort' type: string list
default: +name on *nix and +iname on Windows
type: local
Sets list of sorting keys (first item is primary key, second is
secondary key, etc.):
[+-]ext - extension
[+-]name - name (including extension)
[+-]iname - name (including extension, ignores case)
[+-]type - file type (dir/reg/exe/link/char/block/sock/fifo)
[+-]dir - directory grouping (directory < file)
[+-]gid - group id (*nix only)
[+-]gname - group name (*nix only)
[+-]mode - file type derived from its mode (*nix only)
[+-]perms - permissions string (*nix only)
[+-]uid - owner id (*nix only)
[+-]uname - owner name (*nix only)
[+-]size - size
[+-]atime - time accessed (e.g. read, executed)
[+-]ctime - time changed (changes in metadata, e.g. mode)
[+-]mtime - time modified (when file contents is changed)
Note: look for st_atime, st_ctime and st_mtime in "man 2 stat"
for more information on time keys.
'+' means ascending sort for this key, and '-' means descending
sort.
In case "name" ("iname" on Windows) is skipped, it will be added
at the end automatically.
Value of the option is checked to include default sorting key
(name on *nix, iname on Windows). When it is absent, the key is
appended to the value of the option.
Type key is somewhat similar in this regard but it's added
implicitly: when "type" is not specified, sorting behaves as if
it was the first key in the list. That's why if one wants sort‐
ing algorithm to mix directories and files, "type" should be
appended to sorting option, for example like this:
set sort+=type
or
set sort=-size,type
Value of the option is checked to include type key and default
sorting key (name on *nix, iname on Windows). Here is what hap‐
pens if one of them is missing:
- type key is added at the beginning;
- default key is added at the end;
all other keys are left untouched (at most they are moved).
This option also changes view columns according to primary sort‐
ing key set, unless 'viewcolumns' option is not empty.
'sortnumbers'
type: boolean
default: false
type: local
Natural sort of (version) numbers within text.
'statusline' 'stl'
type: string
default: ""
Determines the content of the status line (the line right above
command-line). Empty string means use same format like in pre‐
vious versions. Following macros are supported:
- %t - file name (considering value of the 'classify' option)
- %A - file attributes (permissions on *nix or properties on
Windows) %u - user name or uid (if it cannot be resolved)
- %g - group name or gid (if it cannot be resolved)
- %s - file size in human readable format
- %E - size of selected files in human readable format, same as
%s when no files are selected, except that it will never show
size of ../ in visual mode, since it cannot be selected
- %d - file modification date (uses 'timefmt' option)
- all 'rulerformat' macros
Percent sign can be followed by optional minimum field width.
Add '-' before minimum field width if you want field to be right
aligned. Example:
set statusline=" %t%= %A %10u:%-7g %15s %20d "
On Windows file properties include next flags (upper case means
flag is on):
A - archive
H - hidden
I - content isn't indexed
R - readonly
S - system
C - compressed
D - directory
E - encrypted
P - reparse point (e.g. symbolic link)
Z - sparse file
'sortorder'
type: enumeration
default: ascending
Sets sort order for primary key: ascending, descending.
'syscalls'
type: boolean
default: false
When disabled, vifm will rely on external applications to per‐
form file-system operations, otherwise system calls are used
instead (much faster). The feature is {EXPERIMENTAL} and {WORK-
IN-PROGRESS}. The option will be eventually removed. Mostly
*nix-like systems are affected.
'tabstop' 'ts'
type: integer
default: value from curses library
Number of spaces that a Tab in the file counts for.
'timefmt'
type: string
default: " %m/%d %H:%M"
Format of time in file list. See "man 1 date" or "man 3 strf‐
time" for details.
'timeoutlen' 'tm'
type: integer
default: 1000
The time in milliseconds that is waited for a mapped key in case
of already typed key sequence is ambiguous.
'trash'
type: boolean
default: true
Use trash directory. See "Trash directory" section below.
'trashdir'
type: string
default: "%r/.vifm-Trash,$VIFM/Trash" or if $VIFM/Trash doesn't
exist
"%r/.vifm-Trash,$XDG_DATA_HOME/vifm/Trash"
List of trash directory path specifications, separated with com‐
mas. Each list item either defines an absolute path to trash
directory or a path relative to a mount point root when list
element starts with "%r/". Value of the option can contain
environment variables (of form "$envname"), which will be
expanded (prepend $ with a slash to prevent expansion). Envi‐
ronment variables are expanded when the option is set.
When new file gets cut (deleted) vifm traverses each element of
the option in the order of their appearance and uses first trash
directory that it was able to create or that is already
writable.
Default value tries to use trash directory per mount point and
falls back to ~/.vifm/Trash on failure.
Will attempt to create the directory if it does not exist. See
"Trash directory" section below.
'tuioptions' 'to'
type: charset
default: "ps"
Each flag configures some aspect of TUI appearance. The flags
are:
p - when included, file list inside a pane gets additional sin‐
gle character padding on left and right sides;
s - when included, left and right borders (side borders, hence
"s" character) are visible.
'undolevels' 'ul'
type: integer
default: 100
Maximum number of changes that can be undone. Note that here
single file operation is used as a unit, not operation, i.e.
deletion of 101 files will exceed default limit.
'vicmd'
type: string
default: "vim"
The actual command used to start vi. Ampersand sign at the end
(regardless whether it's preceded by space or not) means back‐
grounding of command.
'viewcolumns'
type: string
default: ""
type: local
Format string containing list of columns in the view. When this
option is empty view columns to show are chosen automatically
using sorting keys (see 'sort') as a base. Value of this option
is ignored if 'lsview' is set. See "Column view" section below
for format description.
An example of setting the options for both panes (note vifm-
windo command):
windo set viewcolumns=-{name}..,6{size},11{perms}
'vixcmd'
type: string
default: value of 'vicmd'
The command used to start vi when in X. Ampersand sign at the
end (regardless whether it's preceded by space or not) means
backgrounding of command.
'vifminfo'
type: set
default: bookmarks
Controls what will be saved in the $VIFM/vifminfo file.
bookmarks - bookmarks, except special ones like '< and '>
tui - state of the user interface (sorting, number of
windows, quick
view state, active view)
dhistory - directory history
state - file name and dot filters and terminal multiplex‐
ers integration
state
cs - primary color scheme
savedirs - save last visited directory (requires dhistory)
chistory - command line history
shistory - search history (/ and ? commands)
phistory - prompt history
fhistory - history of local filter (see description of the
"=" normal mode
command)
dirstack - directory stack overwrites previous stack, unless
stack of
current session is empty
registers - registers content
options - all options that can be set with the :set command
(obsolete)
filetypes - associated programs and viewers (obsolete)
commands - user defined commands (see :command description)
(obsolete)
'vimhelp'
type: boolean
default: false
Use vim help format.
'wildmenu' 'wmnu'
type: boolean
default: false
Controls whether possible matches of completion will be shown
above the command line.
'wordchars'
type: string list
default: "1-8,14-31,33-255" (that is all non-whitespace charac‐
ters)
Specifies which characters in command-line mode should be con‐
sidered as part of a word. Value of the option is comma-sepa‐
rated list of ranges. If both endpoints of a range match, sin‐
gle endpoint is enough (e.g. "a" = "a-a"). Both endpoints are
inclusive. There are two accepted forms: character representing
itself or number encoding character according to ASCII table.
In case of ambiguous characters (dash, comma, digit) use numeric
form. Accepted characters are in the range from 0 to 255. Any
Unicode character with code greater than 255 is considered to be
part of a word.
The option affects Alt-D, Alt-B and Alt-F, but not Ctrl-W. This
is intentionally to allow two use cases:
- Moving by WORDS and deletion by words.
- Moving by words and deletion by WORDS.
To get the latter use the following mapping:
cnoremap <c-w> <a-b><a-d>
Also used for abbreviations.
'wrap' type: boolean
default: true
Controls whether to wrap text in quick view.
'wrapscan' 'ws'
type: boolean
default: true
Searches wrap around end of the list.
Mappings
Since it's not easy to enter special characters there are several spe‐
cial sequences that can be used in place of them. They are:
<cr> Enter key.
<esc> Escape key.
<space>
Space key.
<lt> Less-than character (<).
<nop> provides a way to disable a mapping (by mapping it to <nop>).
<bs> Backspace key (see key conflict description below).
<tab> <s-tab>
Tabulation and Shift+Tabulation keys.
<home> <end>
Home/End.
<left> <right> <up> <down>
Arrow keys.
<pageup> <pagedown>
PageUp/PageDown.
<del> <delete>
Delete key. <del> and <delete> mean different codes, but
<delete> is more common.
<c-a>,<c-b>,...,<c-z>,<c-[>,<c->,<c-]>,<c-^>,<c-_>
Control + some key (see key conflict description below).
<a-a>,<a-b>,...,<a-z>
<m-a>,<m-b>,...,<m-z> Alt + some key.
<a-c-a>,<a-c-b>,...,<a-c-z>
<m-c-a>,<m-c-b>,...,<m-c-z> only for *nix
Alt + Ctrl + some key.
<f0> - <f63>
Functional keys.
<c-f1> - <c-f12>
only for MS-Windows
functional keys with Control key pressed.
<a-f1> - <a-f12>
only for MS-Windows
functional keys with Alt key pressed.
<s-f1> - <s-f12>
only for MS-Windows
functional keys with Shift key pressed.
Note that due to the way terminals process their input, several key‐
board keys might be mapped to single key code, for example:
- <cr> and <c-m>;
- <tab> and <c-i>;
- <c-h> and <bs>;
- etc.
Most of the time they are defined consistenly and don't cause sur‐
prises, but <c-h> and <bs> are treated differently in different envi‐
ronments (although they match each other all the time), that's why they
correspond to different keys in vifm. As a consequence, if you map <c-
h> or <bs> be sure to map the other one to the same combination so that
the mapping will work in all environments.
vifm removes whitespace characters at the beginning and end of com‐
mands. That's why you may want to use <space> at the end of rhs in
mappings. For example:
cmap <f1> man<space>
will put "man " in line when you hit the <f1> key in the command line
mode.
Expression syntax
Supported expressions is a subset of what VimL provides.
Expression syntax summary, from least to most significant:
expr1 expr2 == expr2 equal
expr2 != expr2 not equal
expr2 > expr2 greater than
expr2 >= expr2 greater than or equal
expr2 < expr2 smaller than
expr2 <= expr2 smaller than or equal
expr2 expr3 . expr3 .. string concatenation
expr3 - expr3 unary minus
+ expr3 unary plus
! expr3 logical NOT
expr4 number number constant
"string" string constant, \ is special
'string' string constant, ' is doubled
&option option value
$VAR environment variable
function(expr1, ...) function call
".." indicates that the operations in this level can be concatenated.
expr1
-----
expr2 {cmp} expr2
Compare two expr2 expressions, resulting in a 0 if it evaluates to
false or 1 if it evaluates to true.
equal ==
not equal !=
greater than >
greater than or equal >=
smaller than <
smaller than or equal <=
Examples:
'a' == 'a' == 1
'a' > 'b' == 1
'a' == 'b' == 0
'2' > 'b' == 0
2 > 'b' == 1
2 > '1b' == 1
2 > '9b' == 0
-1 == -'1' == 1
0 == '--1' == 1
expr2
-----
expr3 . expr3 .. string concatenation
Examples:
'a' . 'b' == 'ab'
'aaa' . '' . 'c' == 'aaac'
expr3
-----
- expr3 unary minus
+ expr3 unary plus
! expr3 logical NOT
For '-' the sign of the number is changed.
For '+' the number is unchanged.
For '!' non-zero becomes zero, zero becomes one.
A String will be converted to a Number first.
These operations can be repeated and mixed. Examples:
--9 == 9
---9 == -9
-+9 == 9
!-9 == 0
!'' == 1
!'x' == 0
!!9 == 1
expr4
-----
number number constant
-----
Decimal number. Examples:
0 == 0
0000 == 0
01 == 1
123 == 123
10000 == 10000
string
------
"string" string constant
Note that double quotes are used.
A string constant accepts these special characters:
\b backspace <bs>
\e escape <esc>
\n newline
\r return <cr>
\t tab <tab>
\\ backslash
\" double quote
Examples:
"\"Hello,\tWorld!\""
"Hi,\nthere!"
literal-string
--------------
'string' string constant
Note that single quotes are used.
This string is taken as it is. No backslashes are removed or have a
special meaning. The only exception is that two quotes stand for one
quote.
Examples:
'All\slashes\are\saved.'
'This string contains doubled single quotes ''here'''
option
------
&option option value
Examples:
echo 'Terminal size: '.&columns.'x'.&lines
if &columns > 100
Any valid option name can be used here (note that "all" in ":set all"
is a pseudo option). See ":set options" section above.
environment variable
--------------------
$VAR environment variable
The String value of any environment variable. When it is not defined,
the result is an empty string.
Examples:
'This is my $PATH env: ' . $PATH
'vifmrc at ' . $MYVIFMRC . ' is used.'
function call
-------------
function(expr1, ...) function call
See "Functions" section below.
Examples:
"'" . filetype('.') . "'"
filetype('.') == 'reg'
Functions
USAGE RESULT DESCRIPTION
executable({expr}) Integer Checks whether {expr} command avail‐
able.
expand({expr}) String Expands special keywords in {expr}.
filetype({fnum}) String Returns file type from position.
has({property}) Integer Checks whether instance has {prop‐
erty}.
system({command}) String Executes shell command and returns
its output.
executable({expr})
If {expr} is absolute or relative path, checks whether path destination
exists and refers to an executable, otherwise checks whether command
named {expr} is present in directories listed in $PATH. Checks for
various executable extensions on Windows. Returns boolean value
describing result of the check.
Example:
" use custom default viewer script if it's available and installed
" in predefined system directory, otherwise try to find it elsewhere
if executable('/usr/local/bin/defviewer')
fileview * /usr/local/bin/defviewer %c
else
if executable('defviewer')
fileview * defviewer %c
endif
endif
expand({expr})
Expands environment variables and macros in {expr} just like it's done
for command-line commands. Returns a string. See "Command macros"
section above.
Examples:
" percent sign
:echo expand('%%')
" the last part of directory name of the other pane
:echo expand('%D:t')
" $PATH environment variable (same as `:echo $PATH`)
:echo expand('$PATH')
filetype({fnum})
The result is a string, which represents file type and is one of the
list:
exe executables
reg regular files
link symbolic links
dir directories
char character devices
block block devices
fifo pipes
sock *nix domain sockets
? unknown file type (should never appear)
Parameter {fnum} can have following values:
- '.' to get type of file under the cursor in the active pane
has({property})
Allows examining internal parameters from scripts to e.g. figure out
environment in which application is running. Returns 1 if property is
true/present, otherwise 0 is returned. Currently the following proper‐
ties are supported (anything else will yield 0):
unix runs in *nix-like environment (including Cygwin)
win runs on Windows
Usage example:
" skip user/group on Windows
if !has('win')
let $RIGHTS = '%10u:%-7g '
endif
execute 'set' 'statusline=" %t%= %A '.$RIGHTS.'%15E %20d "'
system({command})
Runs the command in shell and returns its output (joined standard out‐
put and standard error streams). All trailing newline characters are
stripped to allow easy appending to command output. Ctrl-C should
interrupt the command.
Usage example:
" command to enter .git/ directory of git-repository (when ran inside one)
command! cdgit :execute 'cd' system('git rev-parse --git-dir')
Menus and dialogs
General
j, Ctrl-N - move down.
k, Ctrl-P - move up.
Enter, l - select and exit the menu.
Ctrl-L - redraw the menu.
Escape, Ctrl-C, ZZ, ZQ, q - quit.
In all menus
The following set of keys has the same meaning as in normal mode.
Ctrl-B, Ctrl-F
Ctrl-D, Ctrl-U
Ctrl-E, Ctrl-Y
/, ?
n, N
[count]G, [count]gg
H, M, L
zb, zt, zz
zh - scroll menu items [count] characters to the right.
zl - scroll menu items [count] characters to the left.
zH - scroll menu items half of screen width characters to the right.
zL - scroll menu items half of screen width characters to the left.
: - enter command line mode for menus (currently only :exi[t], :q[uit],
:x[it] and :{range} are supported).
b - interpret content of the menu as list of paths and use it to create
custom view in place of previously active pane. See "Custom views"
section below.
Below is description of additional commands and reaction on selection
in some menus and dialogs.
Apropos menu
Selecting menu item run man on a given topic. Menu won't be closed
automatically to allow view several pages one by one.
Command-line mode abbreviations menu
Type dd on an abbreviation to remove it.
Color scheme menu
Selecting name of a color scheme applies it the same way as if ":col‐
orscheme <name>" was executed on the command-line.
Commands menu
Selecting command executes it with empty arguments (%a).
dd on a command to remove.
Bookmarks menu
Selecting bookmark navigates to it.
dd on a bookmark to remove.
Trash menu
r on a file name to restore it from trash.
Directory history and Trashes menus
Selecting directory name will change directory of the current view as
if :cd command was used.
Directory stack menu
Selecting directory name will rotate stack to put selected directory
pair at the top of the stack.
Filetype menu
Commands from vifmrc or typed in command-line are displayed above empty
line. All commands below empty line are from .desktop files.
Grep, find, locate and user menu with navigation (%M macro)
gf - navigate previously active view to currently selected item.
Leaves menu mode except for grep menu. Pressing Enter key has the same
effect.
e - open selected path in the editor, stays in menu mode.
Grep menu
Selecting file (via Enter or l key) opens it in editor set by 'vicmd'
at given line number. Menu won't be closed automatically to allow
viewing more than one result.
See above for "gf" and "e" keys description.
Command-line history menu
Selecting an item will execute it as command-line command or search
query.
Volumes menu
Selecting a drive navigates previously active pane to the root of that
drive.
Fileinfo dialog
Enter, q - close dialog
Sort dialog
h, Space - switch ascending/descending.
q - close dialog
Attributes (permissions or properties) dialog
h, Space - check/uncheck.
q - close dialog
Item states:
- * - checked flag.
- X - means that it has different value for files in selection.
- d (*nix only) - (only for execute flags) means u-x+X, g-x+X or o-x+X
argument for the chmod program. If you want to remove execute right
from all files, but preserve it for directories, set all execute
flags to 'd' and check 'Set Recursively' flag.
Custom views
Definition
Normally file views contain list of files from a single directory, but
sometimes it's useful to populate them with list of files that do not
belong to the same directory, which is what custom views are for.
Presentation
Custom views are still related to directory they were in before custom
list was loaded. Path to that directory (original directory) can be
seen in the title of a custom view.
Files in same directory have to be named differently, this doesn't hold
for custom views thus seeing just file names might be rather confusing.
In order to give an idea where files come from and when possible, rela‐
tive paths to original directory of the view is displayed, otherwise
full path is used instead.
Custom views normally don't contain any inexistent files.
Navigation
Custom views have some differences related to navigation in regular
views.
gf - acts similar to gf on symbolic links and navigates to the file at
its real
location.
h, gh - return to the original directory.
Opening ".." entry also causes return to the original directory.
History
Custom list exists only while it's visible, once left one can't return
to it, so there is no appearances of it in any history.
Filters
Only local filter affects content of the view. This is intentional,
presumably if one loads list, precisely that list should be displayed
(except for inexistent paths, which are ignored).
Search
Although directory names are visible in listing, they are not search‐
able. Only file names are taken into account (might be changed in
future, searching whole lines seems quite reasonable).
Sorting
Contrary to search sorting by name works on whole visible part of file
path.
Highlight
Whole file name is highlighted as one entity, even if there are direc‐
tory elements.
Updates
Reloads can occur, though they are not automatic due to files being
scattered among different places. On a reload, inexistent files are
removed and meta-data of all other files is updated.
Once custom view forgets about the file, it won't add it back even if
it's created again. So not seeing file previously affected by an oper‐
ation, which was undone is normal.
Operations
All operations that add files are forbidden for custom views. For
example, moving/copying/putting files into a custom view doesn't work,
because it doesn't make much sense.
On the other hand, operations that use files of a custom view as a
source (e.g. yanking, copying, moving file from custom view, deletion)
and operations that modify names are all allowed.
Startup
On startup vifm determines several variables that are used during the
session. They are determined in the order they appear below.
On *nix systems $HOME is normally present and used as is. On Windows
systems vifm tries to find correct home directory in the following
order:
- $HOME variable;
- $USERPROFILE variable;
- a combination of $HOMEDRIVE and $HOMEPATH variables.
vifm tries to find correct configuration directory by checking the fol‐
lowing places:
- $VIFM variable;
- parent directory of the executable file (on Windows only);
- $HOME/.vifm directory;
- $APPDATA/Vifm directory (on Windows only);
- $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/vifm directory;
- $HOME/.config/vifm directory.
vifm tries to find correct configuration file by checking the following
places:
- $MYVIFMRC variable;
- vifmrc in parent directory of the executable file (on Windows only);
- $VIFM/vifmrc file.
Configure
See "Startup" section above for the explanations on $VIFM and $MYV‐
IFMRC.
The vifmrc file contains commands that will be executed on vifm
startup. There are two such files: global and local. Global one is at
{prefix}/etc/vifm/vifmrc, see $MYVIFMRC variable description for the
search algorithm used to find local vifmrc. Global vifmrc is loaded
before the local one, so that the later one can redefine anything con‐
figured globally.
Use vifmrc to set settings, mappings, filetypes etc. To use multi line
commands precede each next line with a slash (whitespace before slash
is ignored, but all spaces at the end of the lines are saved). For
example:
set
\smartcase
equals "setsmartcase". When
set<space here>
\ smartcase
equals "set smartcase".
The $VIFM/vifminfo file contains session settings. You may edit it by
hand to change the settings, but it's not recommended to do that, edit
vifmrc instead. You can control what settings will be saved in
vifminfo by setting 'vifminfo' option. Vifm always writes this file on
exit unless 'vifminfo' option is empty. Bookmarks, commands, histo‐
ries, filetypes, fileviewers and registers in the file are merged with
vifm configuration (which has bigger priority).
Generally, runtime configuration has bigger priority during merging,
but there are some exceptions:
- directory stack stored in the file is not overwritten unless some‐
thing is changed in vifm session that performs merge;
- each bookmark is marked with a timestamp, so that newer value is
not overwritten by older one, thus no matter from where bookmark
comes, the newer one wins.
The $VIFM/scripts directory can contain shell scripts. vifm modifies
it's PATH environment variable to let user run those scripts without
specifying full path. All subdirectories of the $VIFM/scripts will be
added to PATH too. Script in a subdirectory overlaps script with the
same name in all its parent directories.
The $VIFM/colors/ and {prefix}/etc/vifm/colors/ directories contain
color schemes. Available color schemes are searched in that order, so
on name conflict the one in $VIFM/colors/ wins.
Each color scheme should have ".vifm" extension. This wasn't the case
before and for this reason the following rules apply during lookup:
- if there is no file with .vifm extension, all regular files are
listed;
- otherwise only files with .vifm extension are listed (with the
extension being truncated).
Automatic FUSE mountsvifm has a builtin support of automated FUSE file system mounts. It is
implemented using file associations mechanism. To enable automated
mounts, one needs to use a specially formated program line in filetype
or filextype commands. Currently two formats are supported:
1) FUSE_MOUNT This format should be used in case when all information
needed for mounting all files of a particular type is the same. E.g.
mounting of tar files don't require any file specific options.
Format line:
FUSE_MOUNT|mounter %SOURCE_FILE %DESTINATION_DIR [%FOREGROUND]
Example filetype command:
:filetype FUSE_MOUNT|fuse-zip %SOURCE_FILE %DESTINATION_DIR
2) FUSE_MOUNT2 This format allows one to use specially formatted files
to perform mounting and is useful for mounting remotes, for example
remote file systems over ftp or ssh.
Format line:
FUSE_MOUNT2|mounter %PARAM %DESTINATION_DIR [%FOREGROUND]
Example filetype command:
:filetype FUSE_MOUNT2|sshfs %PARAM %DESTINATION_DIR
Example file content:
root@127.0.0.1:/
All % macros are expanded by vifm at runtime and have the following
meaning:
- %SOURCE_FILE is replaced by full path to selected file;
- %DESTINATION_DIR is replaced by full path to mount directory, which
is created by vifm basing on the value of 'fusehome' option;
- %PARAM value is filled from the first line of file (whole line),
though in the future it can be changed to whole file content;
- %FOREGROUND means that you want to run mount command as a regular
command (required to be able to provide input for communication with
mounter in interactive way).
%FOREGROUND is an optional macro. Other macros are not mandatory, but
mount commands likely won't work without them.
%CLEAR is obsolete name of %FOREGROUND, which is still supported, but
might be removed in future. Its use is discouraged.
The mounted FUSE file systems will be automatically unmounted in two
cases:
- when vifm quits (with ZZ, :q, etc. or when killed by signal);
- when you explicitly leave mount point going up to its parent direc‐
tory (with h, Enter on "../" or ":cd ..") and other pane is not in
the same directory or its child directories.
View lookvifm supports displaying of file list view in two different ways:
- in a table mode, when multiple columns can be set using 'view‐
columns' option (see "Column view" section below for details);
- in a multicolumn list manner which looks almost like `ls -x` com‐
mand output (see "ls-like view" section below for details).
The look is local for each view and can be chosen by changing value of
the 'lsview' boolean option.
Depending on view look some of keys change their meaning to allow more
natural cursor moving. This concerns mainly h, j, k, l and other simi‐
lar navigation keys.
Also some of options can be ignored if they don't affect view display‐
ing in selected look. For example value of 'viewcolumns' when 'lsview'
is set.
ls-like view
When this view look is enabled by setting 'lsview' option on, vifm will
display files in multiple columns. Number of columns depends on the
length of the longest file name present in current directory of the
view. Whole file list is automatically reflowed on directory change,
terminal or view resize.
View looks close to output of `ls -x` command, so files are listed left
to right in rows.
In this mode file manipulation commands (e.g. d) don't work line-wise
like they do in Vim, since such operations would be uncommon for file
manipulating tasks. Thus, for example, dd will remove only current
file.
Column view
View columns are described by a comma-separated list of column descrip‐
tions, each of which has the following format
[ '-' ] [ fw ( [ '.' tw ] | '%' ) ] '{' type '}' '.'{0,3}
where fw stands for full width and tw stands for text width.
So it basically consists of four parts:
1. Optional alignment specifier
2. Optional width specifier
3. Mandatory column name
4. Optional cropping specifier
Alignment specifier
It's an optional minus sign as the first symbol of the string.
Specifies type of text alignment within a column. Two types are sup‐
ported:
- left align
set viewcolumns=-{name}
- right align (default)
set viewcolumns={name}
Width specifier
It's a number followed by a percent sign, two numbers (second one
should be less than or equal to the first one) separated with a dot or
a single number.
Specifies column width and its units. There are tree size types:
- absolute size - column width is specified in characters
set viewcolumns=-100{name},20.15{ext}
results in two columns with lengths of 100 and 20 and a reserved
space of five characters on the left of second column.
- relative (percent) size - column width is specified in percents of
view width
set viewcolumns=-80%{name},15%{ext},5%{mtime}
results in three columns with lengths of 80/100, 15/100 and 5/100 of
view width.
- auto size (default) - column width is automatically determined
set viewcolumns=-{name},{ext},{mtime}
results in three columns with length of one third of view width.
There is no size adjustment to content, since it will slow down ren‐
dering.
Columns of different sizing types can be freely mixed in one view.
Though sometimes some of columns can be seen partly or be completely
invisible if there is not enough space to display them.
Column name
This is just a sort key surrounded with curly braces, e.g.
{name},{ext},{mtime}
{name} and {iname} keys are the same and present both for consistency
with 'sort' option.
Empty curly braces ({}) are replaced with the default secondary column
for primary sort key. So after the next command view will be displayed
almost as if 'viewcolumns' is empty, but adding ellipsis for long file
names:
set viewcolumns=-{name}..,6{}.
Cropping specifier
It's from one to three dots after closing curly brace in column format.
Specifies type of text truncation if it doesn't fit in the column.
Currently tree types are supported:
- truncation - text is truncated
set viewcolumns=-{name}.
results in truncation of names that are too long too fit in the
view.
- adding of ellipsis - ellipsis on the left or right are added when
needed
set viewcolumns=-{name}..
results in that ellipsis are added at the end of too long file
names.
- none (default) - text can pass column boundaries
set viewcolumns=-{name}...,{ext}
results in that long file names can partially be written on the ext
column.
Color schemes
The color schemes in vifm can be applied in two different ways:
- as the primary color scheme;
- as local to a pane color scheme.
Both types are set using :colorscheme command, but of different forms:
- :colorscheme color_scheme_name - for the primary color scheme;
- :colorscheme color_scheme_name directory - for local color schemes.
Look of different parts of the TUI (Text User Interface) is determined
in this way:
- Border, TopLineSel, TopLine, CmdLine, ErrorMsg, StatusLine, JobLine
and WildMenu are always determined by the primary color scheme;
- CurrLine, Selected, Directory, Link, BrokenLink, Socket, Device,
Executable, Fifo and Win are determined by primary color scheme and
a set of local color schemes, which can be empty.
There might be a set of local color schemes because they are structured
hierarchically according to file system structure. For example, having
the following piece of file system:
~
`-- bin
|
`-- my
Two color schemes:
# ~/.vifm/colors/for_bin
highlight Win cterm=none ctermfg=white ctermbg=red
highlight CurrLine cterm=none ctermfg=red ctermbg=black
# ~/.vifm/colors/for_bin_my
highlight CurrLine cterm=none ctermfg=green ctermbg=black
And these three commands in the vifmrc file:
colorscheme Default
colorscheme for_bin ~/bin
colorscheme for_bin_my ~/bin/my
File list will look in the following way for each level:
- ~/ - Default color scheme
black background
cursor with blue background
- ~/bin/ - mix of Default and for_bin color schemes
red background
cursor with black background and red foreground
- ~/bin/my/ - mix of Default, for_bin and for_bin_my color schemes
red background
cursor with black background and green foreground
Trash directoryvifm has support of trash directory, which is used as temporary storage
for deleted files or files that were cut. Using trash is controlled by
the 'trash' option, and exact path to the trash can be set with
'trashdir' option. Trash directory in vifm differs from the system-
wide one by default, because of possible incompatibilities of storing
deleted files among different file managers. But one can set
'trashdir' to "~/.local/share/Trash" to use a "standard" trash direc‐
tory.
There are two scenarios of using trash in vifm:
1. As a place for storing files that were cut by "d" and may be
inserted to some other place in file system.
2. As a storage of files, that are deleted but not purged yet.
The first scenario uses deletion ("d") operations to put files to trash
and put ("p") operations to restore files from trash directory. Note
that such operations move files to and from trash directory, which can
be long term operations in case of different partitions or remote
drives mounted locally.
The second scenario uses deletion ("d") operations for moving files to
trash directory and :empty command-line command to purge all previously
deleted files.
Deletion and put operations depend on registers, which can point to
files in trash directory. Normally, there are no nonexistent files in
registers, but vifm doesn't keep track of modifications under trash
directory, so one shouldn't expect value of registers to be absolutely
correct if trash directory was modified not by operation that are meant
for it. But this won't lead to any issues with operations, since they
ignore nonexistent files.
Client-Server
vifm supports remote execution of command-line mode commands as well as
remote changing of directories. This is possible using --remote com‐
mand-line argument.
To execute a command remotely combine --remote argument with -c <com‐
mand> or +<command>. For example:
vifm--remote -c 'cd /'
vifm--remote '+cd /'
To change directory not using command-line mode commands one can spec‐
ify paths right after --remote argument, like this:
vifm--remote /
vifm--remote ~
vifm--remote /usr/bin /tmp
At the moment there is no way of specifying, which instance of vifm
should arguments be sent. The main purpose of --remote argument is to
provide support of using vifm as a single-instance application.
Plugin
Plugin for using vifm in vim as a file selector.
Commands:
:EditVifm select a file or files to open in the current buffer.
:SplitVifm split buffer and select a file or files to open.
:VsplitVifm vertically split buffer and select a file or files to
open.
:DiffVifm select a file or files to compare to the current file
with
:vert diffsplit.
:TabVifm select a file or files to open in tabs.
Each command accepts up to two arguments: left pane directory and right
pane directory. After arguments are checked, vifm process is spawned
in a special "file-picker" mode. To pick files just open them either
by pressing l, i or Enter keys, or by running :edit command. If no
files are selected, file under the cursor is opened, otherwise whole
selection is passed to the plugin and opened in vim.
The plugin have only two settings. It's a string variable named
g:vifm_term to let user specify command to run GUI terminal. By
default it's equal to 'xterm -e'. And another string variable named
g:vifm_exec, which equals "vifm" by default and specifies path to
vifm's executable. To pass arguments to vifm use g:vifm_exec_args,
which is empty by default.
To use the plugin copy the vifm.vim file to either the system wide
vim/plugin directory or into ~/.vim/plugin.
If you would prefer not to use the plugin and it is in the system wide
plugin directory add
let loaded_vifm=1
to your ~/.vimrc file.
Reserved
The following command names are reserved and shouldn't be used for user
commands.
g[lobal]
v[global]
ENVIRONMENT
VIFM Points to main configuration directory (usually ~/.vifm/).
MYVIFMRC
Points to main configuration file (usually ~/.vifm/vifmrc).
These environment variables are valid inside vifm and also can be used
to configure it by setting some of them before running vifm.
When $MYVIFMRC isn't set, it's made as $VIFM/vifmrc (exception for Win‐
dows: vifmrc in the same directory as vifm.exe has higher priority than
$VIFM/vifmrc).
See "Startup" section above for more details.
VIFM_FUSE_FILE
On execution of external commands this variable is set to the
full path of file used to initiate FUSE mount of the closes
mount point from current pane directory up. It's not set when
outside FUSE mount point. When vifm is used inside terminal
multiplexer, it tries to set this variable as well (it doesn't
work this way on its own).
SEE ALSOvifm-convert-dircolors(1), vifm-pause(1), vifmrc-converter(1)
Website: http://vifm.info/
Wiki: http://wiki.vifm.info/
Esperanto translation of the documentation by Sebastian Cyprych:
http://cyprych.neostrada.pl/tekstoj/komputiloj/vifm-help.eo.html
AUTHOR
Vifm was written by ksteen <ksteen@users.sourceforge.net>
And currently is developed by xaizek <xaizek@openmailbox.org>
vifm 0.8 July 09, 2015 VIFM(1)
