docstring.go

// Code generated by gen/docstring.sh DO NOT EDIT.

package main

var genDocString = `
lf is a terminal file manager.

Source code can be found in the repository at
https://github.com/gokcehan/lf.

This documentation can either be read from terminal using 'lf -doc' or
online at https://godoc.org/github.com/gokcehan/lf. You can also use 'doc'
command (default '<f-1>') inside lf to view the documentation in a pager.

You can run 'lf -help' to see descriptions of command line options.


Quick Reference

The following commands are provided by lf:

    quit                     (default 'q')
    up                       (default 'k' and '<up>')
    half-up                  (default '<c-u>')
    page-up                  (default '<c-b>' and '<pgup>')
    down                     (default 'j' and '<down>')
    half-down                (default '<c-d>')
    page-down                (default '<c-f>' and '<pgdn>')
    updir                    (default 'h' and '<left>')
    open                     (default 'l' and '<right>')
    top                      (default 'gg' and '<home>')
    bottom                   (default 'G' and '<end>')
    toggle
    invert                   (default 'v')
    unselect                 (default 'u')
    glob-select
    glob-unselect
    copy                     (default 'y')
    cut                      (default 'd')
    paste                    (default 'p')
    clear                    (default 'c')
    sync
    draw
    redraw                   (default '<c-l>')
    load
    reload                   (default '<c-r>')
    echo
    echomsg
    echoerr
    cd
    select
    delete         (modal)
    rename         (modal)   (default 'r')
    source
    push
    read           (modal)   (default ':')
    shell          (modal)   (default '$')
    shell-pipe     (modal)   (default '%')
    shell-wait     (modal)   (default '!')
    shell-async    (modal)   (default '&')
    find           (modal)   (default 'f')
    find-back      (modal)   (default 'F')
    find-next                (default ';')
    find-prev                (default ',')
    search         (modal)   (default '/')
    search-back    (modal)   (default '?')
    search-next              (default 'n')
    search-prev              (default 'N')
    mark-save      (modal)   (default 'm')
    mark-load      (modal)   (default "'")
    mark-remove    (modal)   (default '"')

The following command line commands are provided by lf:

    cmd-escape               (default '<esc>')
    cmd-complete             (default '<tab>')
    cmd-menu-complete
    cmd-menu-complete-back
    cmd-enter                (default '<c-j>' and '<enter>')
    cmd-interrupt            (default '<c-c>')
    cmd-history-next         (default '<c-n>')
    cmd-history-prev         (default '<c-p>')
    cmd-left                 (default '<c-b>' and '<left>')
    cmd-right                (default '<c-f>' and '<right>')
    cmd-home                 (default '<c-a>' and '<home>')
    cmd-end                  (default '<c-e>' and '<end>')
    cmd-delete               (default '<c-d>' and '<delete>')
    cmd-delete-back          (default '<backspace>' and '<backspace2>')
    cmd-delete-home          (default '<c-u>')
    cmd-delete-end           (default '<c-k>')
    cmd-delete-unix-word     (default '<c-w>')
    cmd-yank                 (default '<c-y>')
    cmd-transpose            (default '<c-t>')
    cmd-transpose-word       (default '<a-t>')
    cmd-word                 (default '<a-f>')
    cmd-word-back            (default '<a-b>')
    cmd-delete-word          (default '<a-d>')
    cmd-capitalize-word      (default '<a-c>')
    cmd-uppercase-word       (default '<a-u>')
    cmd-lowercase-word       (default '<a-l>')

The following options can be used to customize the behavior of lf:

    anchorfind     bool      (default on)
    autoquit       bool      (default off)
    dircounts      bool      (default off)
    dirfirst       bool      (default on)
    drawbox        bool      (default off)
    errorfmt       string    (default "\033[7;31;47m%s\033[0m")
    filesep        string    (default "\n")
    findlen        int       (default 1)
    globsearch     bool      (default off)
    hidden         bool      (default off)
    hiddenfiles    []string  (default '.*')
    icons          bool      (default off)
    ifs            string    (default '')
    ignorecase     bool      (default on)
    ignoredia      bool      (default on)
    incsearch      bool      (default off)
    info           []string  (default '')
    mouse          bool      (default off)
    number         bool      (default off)
    period         int       (default 0)
    preview        bool      (default on)
    previewer      string    (default '')
    cleaner        string    (default '')
    promptfmt      string    (default "\033[32;1m%u@%h\033[0m:\033[34;1m%d\033[0m\033[1m%f\033[0m")
    ratios         []int     (default '1:2:3')
    relativenumber bool      (default off)
    reverse        bool      (default off)
    scrolloff      int       (default 0)
    shell          string    (default 'sh' for unix and 'cmd' for windows)
    shellflag      string    (default '-c' for unix and '/c' for windows)
    shellopts      []string  (default '')
    smartcase      bool      (default on)
    smartdia       bool      (default off)
    sortby         string    (default 'natural')
    tabstop        int       (default 8)
    timefmt        string    (default 'Mon Jan _2 15:04:05 2006')
    truncatechar   string    (default '~')
    waitmsg        string    (default 'Press any key to continue')
    wrapscan       bool      (default on)
    wrapscroll     bool      (default off)

The following environment variables are exported for shell commands:

    f
    fs
    fx
    id
    PWD
    OLDPWD
    LF_LEVEL
    OPENER
    EDITOR
    PAGER
    SHELL

The following commands/keybindings are provided by default:

    unix                     windows
    cmd open &$OPENER "$f"   cmd open &%OPENER% %f%
    map e $$EDITOR "$f"      map e $%EDITOR% %f%
    map i $$PAGER "$f"       map i !%PAGER% %f%
    map w $$SHELL            map w $%SHELL%

The following additional keybindings are provided by default:

    map zh set hidden!
    map zr set reverse!
    map zn set info
    map zs set info size
    map zt set info time
    map za set info size:time
    map sn :set sortby natural; set info
    map ss :set sortby size; set info size
    map st :set sortby time; set info time
    map sa :set sortby atime; set info atime
    map sc :set sortby ctime; set info ctime
    map se :set sortby ext; set info
    map gh cd ~
    map <space> :toggle; down


Configuration

Configuration files should be located at:

    os       system-wide             user-specific
    unix     /etc/lf/lfrc            ~/.config/lf/lfrc
    windows  C:\ProgramData\lf\lfrc  C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\lf\lfrc

Selection file should be located at:

    unix     ~/.local/share/lf/files
    windows  C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\lf\files

Marks file should be located at:

    unix     ~/.local/share/lf/marks
    windows  C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\lf\marks

History file should be located at:

    unix     ~/.local/share/lf/history
    windows  C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\lf\history

You can configure the default values of following variables to change these
locations:

    $XDG_CONFIG_HOME  ~/.config
    $XDG_DATA_HOME    ~/.local/share
    %ProgramData%     C:\ProgramData
    %LOCALAPPDATA%    C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local

A sample configuration file can be found at
https://github.com/gokcehan/lf/blob/master/etc/lfrc.example.


Commands

This section shows information about builtin commands. Modal commands do not
take any arguments, but instead change the operation mode to read their
input conveniently, and so they are meant to be assigned to keybindings.

    quit                     (default 'q')

Quit lf and return to the shell.

    up                       (default 'k' and '<up>')
    half-up                  (default '<c-u>')
    page-up                  (default '<c-b>' and '<pgup>')
    down                     (default 'j' and '<down>')
    half-down                (default '<c-d>')
    page-down                (default '<c-f>' and '<pgdn>')

Move the current file selection upwards/downwards by one/half a page/full
page.

    updir                    (default 'h' and '<left>')

Change the current working directory to the parent directory.

    open                     (default 'l' and '<right>')

If the current file is a directory, then change the current directory to it,
otherwise, execute the 'open' command. A default 'open' command is provided
to call the default system opener asynchronously with the current file as
the argument. A custom 'open' command can be defined to override this
default.

(See also 'OPENER' variable and 'Opening Files' section)

    top                      (default 'gg' and '<home>')
    bottom                   (default 'G' and '<end>')

Move the current file selection to the top/bottom of the directory.

    toggle

Toggle the selection of the current file or files given as arguments.

    invert                   (default 'v')

Reverse the selection of all files in the current directory (i.e. 'toggle'
all files). Selections in other directories are not effected by this
command. You can define a new command to select all files in the directory
by combining 'invert' with 'unselect' (i.e. 'cmd select-all :unselect;
invert'), though this will also remove selections in other directories.

    unselect                 (default 'u')

Remove the selection of all files in all directories.

    glob-select

Select files that match the given glob.

    glob-unselect

Unselect files that match the given glob.

    copy                     (default 'y')

If there are no selections, save the path of the current file to the copy
buffer, otherwise, copy the paths of selected files.

    cut                      (default 'd')

If there are no selections, save the path of the current file to the cut
buffer, otherwise, copy the paths of selected files.

    paste                    (default 'p')

Copy/Move files in copy/cut buffer to the current working directory.

    clear                    (default 'c')

Clear file paths in copy/cut buffer.

    sync

Synchronize copied/cut files with server. This command is automatically
called when required.

    draw

Draw the screen. This command is automatically called when required.

    redraw                   (default '<c-l>')

Synchronize the terminal and redraw the screen.

    load

Load modified files and directories. This command is automatically called
when required.

    reload                   (default '<c-r>')

Flush the cache and reload all files and directories.

    echo

Print given arguments to the message line at the bottom.

    echomsg

Print given arguments to the message line at the bottom and also to the log
file.

    echoerr

Print given arguments to the message line at the bottom in red color and
also to the log file.

    cd

Change the working directory to the given argument.

    select

Change the current file selection to the given argument.

    delete         (modal)

Remove the current file or selected file(s).

    rename         (modal)   (default 'r')

Rename the current file using the builtin method. A custom 'rename' command
can be defined to override this default.

    source

Read the configuration file given in the argument.

    push

Simulate key pushes given in the argument.

    read           (modal)   (default ':')

Read a command to evaluate.

    shell          (modal)   (default '$')

Read a shell command to execute.

(See also 'Prefixes' and 'Shell Commands' sections)

    shell-pipe     (modal)   (default '%')

Read a shell command to execute piping its standard I/O to the bottom
statline.

(See also 'Prefixes' and 'Piping Shell Commands' sections)

    shell-wait     (modal)   (default '!')

Read a shell command to execute and wait for a key press in the end.

(See also 'Prefixes' and 'Waiting Shell Commands' sections)

    shell-async    (modal)   (default '&')

Read a shell command to execute synchronously without standard I/O.

    find           (modal)   (default 'f')
    find-back      (modal)   (default 'F')
    find-next                (default ';')
    find-prev                (default ',')

Read key(s) to find the appropriate file name match in the forward/backward
direction and jump to the next/previous match.

(See also 'anchorfind', 'findlen', 'wrapscan', 'ignorecase', 'smartcase',
'ignoredia', and 'smartdia' options and 'Searching Files' section)

    search                   (default '/')
    search-back              (default '?')
    search-next              (default 'n')
    search-prev              (default 'N')

Read a pattern to search for a file name match in the forward/backward
direction and jump to the next/previous match.

(See also 'globsearch', 'incsearch', 'wrapscan', 'ignorecase', 'smartcase',
'ignoredia', and 'smartdia' options and 'Searching Files' section)

    mark-save      (modal)   (default 'm')

Save the current directory as a bookmark assigned to the given key.

    mark-load      (modal)   (default "'")

Change the current directory to the bookmark assigned to the given key. A
special bookmark "'" holds the previous directory after a 'mark-load', 'cd',
or 'select' command.

    mark-remove    (modal)   (default '"')

Remove a bookmark assigned to the given key.


Command Line Commands

This section shows information about command line commands. These should be
mostly compatible with readline keybindings. A character refers to a unicode
code point, a word consists of letters and digits, and a unix word consists
of any non-blank characters.

    cmd-escape               (default '<esc>')

Quit command line mode and return to normal mode.

    cmd-complete             (default '<tab>')

Autocomplete the current word.

    cmd-menu-complete

Autocomplete the current word, then you can press the binded key/s again to
cycle completition options.

    cmd-menu-complete-back

Autocomplete the current word, then you can press the binded key/s again to
cycle completition options backwards.

    cmd-enter                (default '<c-j>' and '<enter>')

Execute the current line.

    cmd-interrupt            (default '<c-c>')

Interrupt the current shell-pipe command and return to the normal mode.

    cmd-history-next         (default '<c-n>')
    cmd-history-prev         (default '<c-p>')

Go to next/previous item in the history.

    cmd-left                 (default '<c-b>' and '<left>')
    cmd-right                (default '<c-f>' and '<right>')

Move the cursor to the left/right.

    cmd-home                 (default '<c-a>' and '<home>')
    cmd-end                  (default '<c-e>' and '<end>')

Move the cursor to the beginning/end of line.

    cmd-delete               (default '<c-d>' and '<delete>')
    cmd-delete-back          (default '<backspace>' and '<backspace2>')

Delete the next character in forward/backward direction.

    cmd-delete-home          (default '<c-u>')
    cmd-delete-end           (default '<c-k>')

Delete everything up to the beginning/end of line.

    cmd-delete-unix-word     (default '<c-w>')

Delete the previous unix word.

    cmd-yank                 (default '<c-y>')

Paste the buffer content containing the last deleted item.

    cmd-transpose            (default '<c-t>')
    cmd-transpose-word       (default '<a-t>')

Transpose the positions of last two characters/words.

    cmd-word                 (default '<a-f>')
    cmd-word-back            (default '<a-b>')

Move the cursor by one word in forward/backward direction.

    cmd-delete-word          (default '<a-d>')

Delete the next word in forward direction.

    cmd-capitalize-word      (default '<a-c>')
    cmd-uppercase-word       (default '<a-u>')
    cmd-lowercase-word       (default '<a-l>')

Capitalize/uppercase/lowercase the current word and jump to the next word.


Options

This section shows information about options to customize the behavior.
Character ':' is used as the separator for list options '[]int' and
'[]string'.

    anchorfind     bool      (default on)

When this option is enabled, find command starts matching patterns from the
beginning of file names, otherwise, it can match at an arbitrary position.

    autoquit       bool      (default off)

Automatically quit server when there are no clients left connected.

    dircounts      bool      (default off)

When this option is enabled, directory sizes show the number of items inside
instead of the size of directory file. The former needs to be calculated by
reading the directory and counting the items inside. The latter is directly
provided by the operating system and it does not require any calculation,
though it is non-intuitive and it can often be misleading. This option is
disabled by default for performance reasons. This option only has an effect
when 'info' has a 'size' field and the pane is wide enough to show the
information. A thousand items are counted per directory at most, and bigger
directories are shown as '999+'.

    dirfirst       bool      (default on)

Show directories first above regular files.

    drawbox        bool      (default off)

Draw boxes around panes with box drawing characters.

    errorfmt       string    (default "\033[7;31;47m%s\033[0m")

Format string of error messages shown in the bottom message line.

    filesep        string    (default "\n")

File separator used in environment variables 'fs' and 'fx'.

    findlen        int       (default 1)

Number of characters prompted for the find command. When this value is set
to 0, find command prompts until there is only a single match left.

    globsearch     bool      (default off)

When this option is enabled, search command patterns are considered as
globs, otherwise they are literals. With globbing, '*' matches any sequence,
'?' matches any character, and '[...]' or '[^...] matches character sets or
ranges. Otherwise, these characters are interpreted as they are.

    hidden         bool      (default off)

Show hidden files. On unix systems, hidden files are determined by the value
of 'hiddenfiles'. On windows, only files with hidden attributes are
considered hidden files.

    hiddenfiles    []string  (default '.*')

List of hidden file glob patterns. Patterns can be given as relative or
absolute paths. Globbing supports the usual special characters, '*' to match
any sequence, '?' to match any character, and '[...]' or '[^...] to match
character sets or ranges. In addition, if a pattern starts with '!', then
its matches are excluded from hidden files.

    icons          bool      (default off)

Show icons before each item in the list. By default, only two icons, 🗀
(U+1F5C0) and 🗎 (U+1F5CE), are used for directories and files respectively,
as they are supported in the unicode standard. Icons can be configured with
an environment variable named 'LF_ICONS'. The syntax of this variable is
similar to 'LS_COLORS'. See the wiki page for an example icon configuration.

    ifs            string    (default '')

Sets 'IFS' variable in shell commands. It works by adding the assignment to
the beginning of the command string as 'IFS='...'; ...'. The reason is that
'IFS' variable is not inherited by the shell for security reasons. This
method assumes a POSIX shell syntax and so it can fail for non-POSIX shells.
This option has no effect when the value is left empty. This option does not
have any effect on windows.

    ignorecase     bool      (default on)

Ignore case in sorting and search patterns.

    ignoredia      bool      (default on)

Ignore diacritics in sorting and search patterns.

    incsearch      bool      (default off)

Jump to the first match after each keystroke during searching.

    info           []string  (default '')

List of information shown for directory items at the right side of pane.
Currently supported information types are 'size', 'time', 'atime', and
'ctime'. Information is only shown when the pane width is more than twice
the width of information.

    mouse          bool      (default off)

Send mouse events as input.

    number         bool      (default off)

Show the position number for directory items at the left side of pane. When
'relativenumber' is enabled, only the current line shows the absolute
position and relative positions are shown for the rest.

    period         int       (default 0)

Set the interval in seconds for periodic checks of directory updates. This
works by periodically calling the 'load' command. Note that directories are
already updated automatically in many cases. This option can be useful when
there is an external process changing the displayed directory and you are
not doing anything in lf. Periodic checks are disabled when the value of
this option is set to zero.

    preview        bool      (default on)

Show previews of files and directories at the right most pane. If the file
has more lines than the preview pane, rest of the lines are not read. Files
containing the null character (U+0000) in the read portion are considered
binary files and displayed as 'binary'.

    previewer      string    (default '') (not filtered if empty)

Set the path of a previewer file to filter the content of regular files for
previewing. The file should be executable. Five arguments are passed to the
file, first is the current file name; the second, third, fourth, and fifth
are width, height, horizontal position, and vertical position of preview
pane respectively. SIGPIPE signal is sent when enough lines are read. If the
previewer returns a non-zero exit code, then the preview cache for the given
file is disabled. This means that if the file is selected in the future, the
previewer is called once again. Preview filtering is disabled and files are
displayed as they are when the value of this option is left empty.

    cleaner        string    (default '') (not called if empty)

Set the path of a cleaner file. This file will be called if previewing is
enabled, the previewer is set, and the previously selected file had its
preview cache disabled. The file should be executable. One argument is
passed to the file; the path to the file whose preview should be cleaned.
Preview clearing is disabled when the value of this option is left empty.

    promptfmt      string    (default "\033[32;1m%u@%h\033[0m:\033[34;1m%d\033[0m\033[1m%f\033[0m")

Format string of the prompt shown in the top line. Special expansions are
provided, '%u' as the user name, '%h' as the host name, '%w' as the working
directory, '%d' as the working directory with a trailing path separator, and
'%f' as the file name. Home folder is shown as '~' in the working directory
expansion. Directory names are automatically shortened to a single character
starting from the left most parent when the prompt does not fit to the
screen.

    ratios         []int     (default '1:2:3')

List of ratios of pane widths. Number of items in the list determines the
number of panes in the ui. When 'preview' option is enabled, the right most
number is used for the width of preview pane.

    relativenumber bool      (default off)

Show the position number relative to the current line. When 'number' is
enabled, current line shows the absolute position, otherwise nothing is
shown.

    reverse        bool      (default off)

Reverse the direction of sort.

    scrolloff      int       (default 0)

Minimum number of offset lines shown at all times in the top and the bottom
of the screen when scrolling. The current line is kept in the middle when
this option is set to a large value that is bigger than the half of number
of lines. A smaller offset can be used when the current file is close to the
beginning or end of the list to show the maximum number of items.

    shell          string    (default 'sh' for unix and 'cmd' for windows)

Shell executable to use for shell commands. Shell commands are executed as
'shell shellopts shellflag command -- arguments'.

    shellflag      string    (default '-c' for unix and '/c' for windows)

Command line flag used to pass shell commands.

    shellopts      []string  (default '')

List of shell options to pass to the shell executable.

    smartcase      bool      (default on)

Override 'ignorecase' option when the pattern contains an uppercase
character. This option has no effect when 'ignorecase' is disabled.

    smartdia       bool      (default off)

Override 'ignoredia' option when the pattern contains a character with
diacritic. This option has no effect when 'ignoredia' is disabled.

    sortby         string    (default 'natural')

Sort type for directories. Currently supported sort types are 'natural',
'name', 'size', 'time', 'ctime', 'atime', and 'ext'.

    tabstop        int       (default 8)

Number of space characters to show for horizontal tabulation (U+0009)
character.

    timefmt        string    (default 'Mon Jan _2 15:04:05 2006')

Format string of the file modification time shown in the bottom line.

    truncatechar   string    (default '~')

Truncate character shown at the end when the file name does not fit to the
pane.

    waitmsg        string    (default 'Press any key to continue')

String shown after commands of shell-wait type.

    wrapscan       bool      (default on)

Searching can wrap around the file list.

    wrapscroll     bool      (default off)

Scrolling can wrap around the file list.


Environment Variables

The following variables are exported for shell commands: These are referred
with a '$' prefix on POSIX shells (e.g. '$f'), between '%' characters on
Windows cmd (e.g. '%f%'), and with a '$env:' prefix on Windows powershell
(e.g. '$env:f').

    f

Current file selection as a full path.

    fs

Selected file(s) separated with the value of 'filesep' option as full
path(s).

    fx

Selected file(s) (i.e. 'fs') if there are any selected files, otherwise
current file selection (i.e. 'f').

    id

Id of the running client.

    PWD

Present working directory.

    OLDPWD

Initial working directory.

    LF_LEVEL

The value of this variable is set to the current nesting level when you run
lf from a shell spawned inside lf. You can add the value of this variable to
your shell prompt to make it clear that your shell runs inside lf. For
example, with POSIX shells, you can use '[ -n "$LF_LEVEL" ] &&
PS1="$PS1""(lf level: $LF_LEVEL) "' in your shell configuration file (e.g.
'~/.bashrc').

    OPENER

If this variable is set in the environment, use the same value, otherwise
set the value to 'start' in Windows, 'open' in MacOS, 'xdg-open' in others.

    EDITOR

If this variable is set in the environment, use the same value, otherwise
set the value to 'vi' on unix, 'notepad' in Windows.

    PAGER

If this variable is set in the environment, use the same value, otherwise
set the value to 'less' on unix, 'more' in Windows.

    SHELL

If this variable is set in the environment, use the same value, otherwise
set the value to 'sh' on unix, 'cmd' in Windows.


Prefixes

The following command prefixes are used by lf:

    :  read (default)  builtin/custom command
    $  shell           shell command
    %  shell-pipe      shell command running with the ui
    !  shell-wait      shell command waiting for key press
    &  shell-async     shell command running asynchronously

The same evaluator is used for the command line and the configuration file
for read and shell commands. The difference is that prefixes are not
necessary in the command line. Instead, different modes are provided to read
corresponding commands. These modes are mapped to the prefix keys above by
default.


Syntax

Characters from '#' to newline are comments and ignored:

    # comments start with '#'

There are three special commands ('set', 'map', and 'cmd') and their
variants for configuration.

Command 'set' is used to set an option which can be boolean, integer, or
string:

    set hidden         # boolean on
    set nohidden       # boolean off
    set hidden!        # boolean toggle
    set scrolloff 10   # integer value
    set sortby time    # string value w/o quotes
    set sortby 'time'  # string value with single quotes (whitespaces)
    set sortby "time"  # string value with double quotes (backslash escapes)

Command 'map' is used to bind a key to a command which can be builtin
command, custom command, or shell command:

    map gh cd ~        # builtin command
    map D trash        # custom command
    map i $less $f     # shell command
    map U !du -csh *   # waiting shell command

Command 'cmap' is used to bind a key to a command line command which can
only be one of the builtin commands:

    cmap <c-g> cmd-escape

You can delete an existing binding by leaving the expression empty:

    map gh             # deletes 'gh' mapping
    cmap <c-g>         # deletes '<c-g>' mapping

Command 'cmd' is used to define a custom command:

    cmd usage $du -h -d1 | less

You can delete an existing command by leaving the expression empty:

    cmd trash          # deletes 'trash' command

If there is no prefix then ':' is assumed:

    map zt set info time

An explicit ':' can be provided to group statements until a newline which is
especially useful for 'map' and 'cmd' commands:

    map st :set sortby time; set info time

If you need multiline you can wrap statements in '{{' and '}}' after the
proper prefix.

    map st :{{
        set sortby time
        set info time
    }}


Key Mappings

Regular keys are assigned to a command with the usual syntax:

    map a down

Keys combined with the shift key simply use the uppercase letter:

    map A down

Special keys are written in between '<' and '>' characters and always use
lowercase letters:

    map <enter> down

Angle brackets can be assigned with their special names:

    map <lt> down
    map <gt> down

Function keys are prefixed with 'f' character:

    map <f-1> down

Keys combined with the control key are prefixed with 'c' character:

    map <c-a> down

Keys combined with the alt key are assigned in two different ways depending
on the behavior of your terminal. Older terminals (e.g. xterm) may set the
8th bit of a character when the alt key is pressed. On these terminals, you
can use the corresponding byte for the mapping:

    map á down

Newer terminals (e.g. gnome-terminal) may prefix the key with an escape key
when the alt key is pressed. lf uses the escape delaying mechanism to
recognize alt keys in these terminals (delay is 100ms). On these terminals,
keys combined with the alt key are prefixed with 'a' character:

    map <a-a> down

Please note that, some key combinations are not possible due to the way
terminals work (e.g. control and h combination sends a backspace key
instead). The easiest way to find the name of a key combination is to press
the key while lf is running and read the name of the key from the unknown
mapping error.

Mouse buttons are prefixed with 'm' character:

    map <m-1> down  # primary
    map <m-2> down  # secondary
    map <m-3> down  # middle
    map <m-4> down
    map <m-5> down
    map <m-6> down
    map <m-7> down
    map <m-8> down

Mouse wheel events are also prefixed with 'm' character:

    map <m-up>    down
    map <m-down>  down
    map <m-left>  down
    map <m-right> down


Push Mappings

The usual way to map a key sequence is to assign it to a named or unnamed
command. While this provides a clean way to remap builtin keys as well as
other commands, it can be limiting at times. For this reason 'push' command
is provided by lf. This command is used to simulate key pushes given as its
arguments. You can 'map' a key to a 'push' command with an argument to
create various keybindings.

This is mainly useful for two purposes. First, it can be used to map a
command with a command count:

    map <c-j> push 10j

Second, it can be used to avoid typing the name when a command takes
arguments:

    map r push :rename<space>

One thing to be careful is that since 'push' command works with keys instead
of commands it is possible to accidentally create recursive bindings:

    map j push 2j

These types of bindings create a deadlock when executed.


Shell Commands

Regular shell commands are the most basic command type that is useful for
many purposes. For example, we can write a shell command to move selected
file(s) to trash. A first attempt to write such a command may look like
this:

    cmd trash ${{
        mkdir -p ~/.trash
        if [ -z "$fs" ]; then
            mv "$f" ~/.trash
        else
            IFS="'printf '\n\t''"; mv $fs ~/.trash
        fi
    }}

We check '$fs' to see if there are any selected files. Otherwise we just
delete the current file. Since this is such a common pattern, a separate
'$fx' variable is provided. We can use this variable to get rid of the
conditional:

    cmd trash ${{
        mkdir -p ~/.trash
        IFS="'printf '\n\t''"; mv $fx ~/.trash
    }}

The trash directory is checked each time the command is executed. We can
move it outside of the command so it would only run once at startup:

    ${{ mkdir -p ~/.trash }}

    cmd trash ${{ IFS="'printf '\n\t''"; mv $fx ~/.trash }}

Since these are one liners, we can drop '{{' and '}}':

    $mkdir -p ~/.trash

    cmd trash $IFS="'printf '\n\t''"; mv $fx ~/.trash

Finally note that we set 'IFS' variable manually in these commands. Instead
we could use the 'ifs' option to set it for all shell commands (i.e. 'set
ifs "\n"'). This can be especially useful for interactive use (e.g. '$rm $f'
or '$rm $fs' would simply work). This option is not set by default as it can
behave unexpectedly for new users. However, use of this option is highly
recommended and it is assumed in the rest of the documentation.


Piping Shell Commands

Regular shell commands have some limitations in some cases. When an output
or error message is given and the command exits afterwards, the ui is
immediately resumed and there is no way to see the message without dropping
to shell again. Also, even when there is no output or error, the ui still
needs to be paused while the command is running. This can cause flickering
on the screen for short commands and similar distractions for longer
commands.

Instead of pausing the ui, piping shell commands connects stdin, stdout, and
stderr of the command to the statline in the bottom of the ui. This can be
useful for programs following the unix philosophy to give no output in the
success case, and brief error messages or prompts in other cases.

For example, following rename command prompts for overwrite in the statline
if there is an existing file with the given name:

    cmd rename %mv -i $f $1

You can also output error messages in the command and it will show up in the
statline. For example, an alternative rename command may look like this:

    cmd rename %[ -e $1 ] && printf "file exists" || mv $f $1

Note that input is line buffered and output and error are byte buffered.


Waiting Shell Commands

Waiting shell commands are similar to regular shell commands except that
they wait for a key press when the command is finished. These can be useful
to see the output of a program before the ui is resumed. Waiting shell
commands are more appropriate than piping shell commands when the command is
verbose and the output is best displayed as multiline.


Asynchronous Shell Commands

Asynchronous shell commands are used to start a command in the background
and then resume operation without waiting for the command to finish. Stdin,
stdout, and stderr of the command is neither connected to the terminal nor
to the ui.


Remote Commands

One of the more advanced features in lf is remote commands. All clients
connect to a server on startup. It is possible to send commands to all or
any of the connected clients over the common server. This is used internally
to notify file selection changes to other clients.

To use this feature, you need to use a client which supports communicating
with a UNIX-domain socket. OpenBSD implementation of netcat (nc) is one such
example. You can use it to send a command to the socket file:

    echo 'send echo hello world' | nc -U /tmp/lf.${USER}.sock

Since such a client may not be available everywhere, lf comes bundled with a
command line flag to be used as such. When using lf, you do not need to
specify the address of the socket file. This is the recommended way of using
remote commands since it is shorter and immune to socket file address
changes:

    lf -remote 'send echo hello world'

In this command 'send' is used to send the rest of the string as a command
to all connected clients. You can optionally give it an id number to send a
command to a single client:

    lf -remote 'send 1234 echo hello world'

All clients have a unique id number but you may not be aware of the id
number when you are writing a command. For this purpose, an '$id' variable
is exported to the environment for shell commands. The value of this
variable is set to the process id of the client. You can use it to send a
remote command from a client to the server which in return sends a command
back to itself. So now you can display a message in the current client by
calling the following in a shell command:

    lf -remote "send $id echo hello world"

Since lf does not have control flow syntax, remote commands are used for
such needs. For example, you can configure the number of columns in the ui
with respect to the terminal width as follows:

    cmd recol %{{
        w=$(tput cols)
        if [ $w -le 80 ]; then
            lf -remote "send $id set ratios 1:2"
        elif [ $w -le 160 ]; then
            lf -remote "send $id set ratios 1:2:3"
        else
            lf -remote "send $id set ratios 1:2:3:5"
        fi
    }}

Besides 'send' command, there is a 'quit' command to quit the server when
there are no connected clients left, and a 'quit!' command to force quit the
server by closing client connections first:

    lf -remote 'quit'
    lf -remote 'quit!'

Lastly, there is a 'conn' command to connect the server as a client. This
should not be needed for users.


File Operations

lf uses its own builtin copy and move operations by default. These are
implemented as asynchronous operations and progress is shown in the bottom
ruler. These commands do not overwrite existing files or directories with
the same name. Instead, a suffix that is compatible with '--backup=numbered'
option in GNU cp is added to the new files or directories. Only file modes
are preserved and all other attributes are ignored including ownership,
timestamps, context, and xattr. Special files such as character and block
devices, named pipes, and sockets are skipped and links are not followed.
Moving is performed using the rename operation of the underlying OS. For
cross-device moving, lf falls back to copying and then deletes the original
files if there are no errors. Operation errors are shown in the message line
as well as the log file and they do not preemptively finish the
corresponding file operation.

File operations can be performed on the current selected file or
alternatively on multiple files by selecting them first. When you 'copy' a
file, lf doesn't actually copy the file on the disk, but only records its
name to a file. The actual file copying takes place when you 'paste'.
Similarly 'paste' after a 'cut' operation moves the file.

You can customize copy and move operations by defining a 'paste' command.
This is a special command that is called when it is defined instead of the
builtin implementation. You can use the following example as a starting
point:

        cmd paste %{{
            load=$(cat ~/.local/share/lf/files)
            mode=$(echo "$load" | sed -n '1p')
            list=$(echo "$load" | sed '1d')
            if [ $mode = 'copy' ]; then
                cp -R $list .
            elif [ $mode = 'move' ]; then
                mv $list .
            fi
    	rm ~/.local/share/lf/files
            lf -remote 'send clear'
        }}

Some useful things to be considered are to use the backup ('--backup')
and/or preserve attributes ('-a') options with 'cp' and 'mv' commands if
they support it (i.e. GNU implementation), change the command type to
asynchronous, or use 'rsync' command with progress bar option for copying
and feed the progress to the client periodically with remote 'echo' calls.

By default, lf does not assign 'delete' command to a key to protect new
users. You can customize file deletion by defining a 'delete' command. You
can also assign a key to this command if you like. An example command to
move selected files to a trash folder and remove files completely after a
prompt are provided in the example configuration file.


Searching Files

There are two mechanisms implemented in lf to search a file in the current
directory. Searching is the traditional method to move the selection to a
file matching a given pattern. Finding is an alternative way to search for a
pattern possibly using fewer keystrokes.

Searching mechanism is implemented with commands 'search' (default '/'),
'search-back' (default '?'), 'search-next' (default 'n'), and 'search-prev'
(default 'N'). You can enable 'globsearch' option to match with a glob
pattern. Globbing supports '*' to match any sequence, '?' to match any
character, and '[...]' or '[^...] to match character sets or ranges. You can
enable 'incsearch' option to jump to the current match at each keystroke
while typing. In this mode, you can either use 'cmd-enter' to accept the
search or use 'cmd-escape' to cancel the search. Alternatively, you can also
map some other commands with 'cmap' to accept the search and execute the
command immediately afterwards. Possible candidates are 'up', 'down' and
their variants, 'top', 'bottom', 'updir', and 'open' commands. For example,
you can use arrow keys to finish the search with the following mappings:

    cmap <up>    up
    cmap <down>  down
    cmap <left>  updir
    cmap <right> open

Finding mechanism is implemented with commands 'find' (default 'f'),
'find-back' (default 'F'), 'find-next' (default ';'), 'find-prev' (default
','). You can disable 'anchorfind' option to match a pattern at an arbitrary
position in the filename instead of the beginning. You can set the number of
keys to match using 'findlen' option. If you set this value to zero, then
the the keys are read until there is only a single match. Default values of
these two options are set to jump to the first file with the given initial.

Some options effect both searching and finding. You can disable 'wrapscan'
option to prevent searches to wrap around at the end of the file list. You
can disable 'ignorecase' option to match cases in the pattern and the
filename. This option is already automatically overridden if the pattern
contains upper case characters. You can disable 'smartcase' option to
disable this behavior. Two similar options 'ignoredia' and 'smartdia' are
provided to control matching diacritics in latin letters.


Opening Files

You can define a an 'open' command (default 'l' and '<right>') to configure
file opening. This command is only called when the current file is not a
directory, otherwise the directory is entered instead. You can define it
just as you would define any other command:

    cmd open $vi $fx

It is possible to use different command types:

    cmd open &xdg-open $f

You may want to use either file extensions or mime types from 'file'
command:

    cmd open ${{
        test -L $f && f=$(readlink -f $f)
        case $(file --mime-type $f -b) in
            text/*) vi $fx;;
            *) for f in $fx; do xdg-open $f > /dev/null 2> /dev/null & done;;
        esac
    }}

You may want to use 'setsid' before your opener command to have persistent
processes that continue to run after lf quits.

Following command is provided by default:

    cmd open &$OPENER $f

You may also use any other existing file openers as you like. Possible
options are 'libfile-mimeinfo-perl' (executable name is 'mimeopen'), 'rifle'
(ranger's default file opener), or 'mimeo' to name a few.


Previewing Files

lf previews files on the preview pane by printing the file until the end or
the preview pane is filled. This output can be enhanced by providing a
custom preview script for filtering. This can be used to highlight source
codes, list contents of archive files or view pdf or image files as text to
name few. For coloring lf recognizes ansi escape codes.

In order to use this feature you need to set the value of 'previewer' option
to the path of an executable file. lf passes the current file name as the
first argument and the height of the preview pane as the second argument
when running this file. Output of the execution is printed in the preview
pane. You may want to use the same script in your pager mapping as well if
any:

    set previewer ~/.config/lf/pv.sh
    map i $~/.config/lf/pv.sh $f | less -R

For 'less' pager, you may instead utilize 'LESSOPEN' mechanism so that
useful information about the file such as the full path of the file can be
displayed in the statusline below:

    set previewer ~/.config/lf/pv.sh
    map i $LESSOPEN='| ~/.config/lf/pv.sh %s' less -R $f

Since this script is called for each file selection change it needs to be as
efficient as possible and this responsibility is left to the user. You may
use file extensions to determine the type of file more efficiently compared
to obtaining mime types from 'file' command. Extensions can then be used to
match cleanly within a conditional:

    #!/bin/sh

    case "$1" in
        *.tar*) tar tf "$1";;
        *.zip) unzip -l "$1";;
        *.rar) unrar l "$1";;
        *.7z) 7z l "$1";;
        *.pdf) pdftotext "$1" -;;
        *) highlight -O ansi "$1";;
    esac

Another important consideration for efficiency is the use of programs with
short startup times for preview. For this reason, 'highlight' is recommended
over 'pygmentize' for syntax highlighting. Besides, it is also important
that the application is processing the file on the fly rather than first
reading it to the memory and then do the processing afterwards. This is
especially relevant for big files. lf automatically closes the previewer
script output pipe with a SIGPIPE when enough lines are read. When
everything else fails, you can make use of the height argument to only feed
the first portion of the file to a program for preview. Note that some
programs may not respond well to SIGPIPE to exit with a non-zero return code
and avoid caching. You may add a trailing '|| true' command to avoid such
errors:

    highlight -O ansi "$1" || true

You may also use an existing preview filter as you like. Your system may
already come with a preview filter named 'lesspipe'. These filters may have
a mechanism to add user customizations as well. See the related
documentations for more information.


Changing Directory

lf changes the working directory of the process to the current directory so
that shell commands always work in the displayed directory. After quitting,
it returns to the original directory where it is first launched like all
shell programs. If you want to stay in the current directory after quitting,
you can use one of the example wrapper shell scripts provided in the
repository.

There is a special command 'on-cd' that runs a shell command when it is
defined and the directory is changed. You can define it just as you would
define any other command:

    cmd on-cd &{{
        # display git repository status in your prompt
        source /usr/share/git/completion/git-prompt.sh
        GIT_PS1_SHOWDIRTYSTATE=auto
        GIT_PS1_SHOWSTASHSTATE=auto
        GIT_PS1_SHOWUNTRACKEDFILES=auto
        GIT_PS1_SHOWUPSTREAM=auto
        git=$(__git_ps1 " (%s)") || true
        fmt="\033[32;1m%u@%h\033[0m:\033[34;1m%d\033[0m\033[1m%f$git\033[0m"
        lf -remote "send $id set promptfmt \"$fmt\""
    }}

If you want to print escape sequences, you may redirect 'printf' output to
'/dev/tty'. The following xterm specific escape sequence sets the terminal
title to the working directory:

    cmd on-cd &{{
        printf "\033]0; $PWD\007" > /dev/tty
    }}

This command runs whenever you change directory but not on startup. You can
add an extra call to make it run on startup as well:

    cmd on-cd &{{ # ... }}
    on-cd

Note that all shell commands are possible but '%' and '&' are usually more
appropriate as '$' and '!' causes flickers and pauses respectively.


Colors

lf tries to automatically adapt its colors to the environment. It starts
with a default colorscheme and updates colors using values of existing
environment variables possibly by overwriting its previous values. Colors
are set in the following order:

    1. default
    2. LSCOLORS (Mac/BSD ls)
    3. LS_COLORS (GNU ls)
    4. LF_COLORS (lf specific)

Please refer to the corresponding man pages for more information about
'LSCOLORS' and 'LS_COLORS'. 'LF_COLORS' is provided with the same syntax as
'LS_COLORS' in case you want to configure colors only for lf but not ls.
This can be useful since there are some differences between ls and lf,
though one should expect the same behavior for common cases.

You can configure lf colors in two different ways. First, you can only
configure 8 basic colors used by your terminal and lf should pick up those
colors automatically. Depending on your terminal, you should be able to
select your colors from a 24-bit palette. This is the recommended approach
as colors used by other programs will also match each other.

Second, you can set the values of environmental variables mentioned above
for fine grained customization. Note that 'LS_COLORS/LF_COLORS' are more
powerful than 'LSCOLORS' and they can be used even when GNU programs are not
installed on the system. You can combine this second method with the first
method for best results.

Lastly, you may also want to configure the colors of the prompt line to
match the rest of the colors. Colors of the prompt line can be configured
using the 'promptfmt' option which can include hardcoded colors as ansi
escapes. See the default value of this option to have an idea about how to
color this line.

It is worth noting that lf uses as many colors are advertised by your
terminal's entry in your systems terminfo or infocmp database, if this is
not present lf will default to an internal database. For terminals
supporting 24-bit (or "true") color that do not have a database entry (or
one that does not advertise all capabilities), support can be enabled by
either setting the '$COLORTERM' variable to "truecolor" or ensuring '$TERM'
is set to a value that ends with "-truecolor".

Default lf colors are mostly taken from GNU dircolors defaults. These
defaults use 8 basic colors and bold attribute. Default dircolors entries
with background colors are simplified to avoid confusion with current file
selection in lf. Similarly, there are only file type matchings and extension
matchings are left out for simplicity. Default values are as follows given
with their matching order in lf:

    ln  01;36
    or  31;01
    tw  01;34
    ow  01;34
    st  01;34
    di  01;34
    pi  33
    so  01;35
    bd  33;01
    cd  33;01
    su  01;32
    sg  01;32
    ex  01;32
    fi  00

Note that, lf first tries matching file names and then falls back to file
types. The full order of matchings from most specific to least are as
follows:

    1. Full Path (e.g. '~/.config/lf/lfrc')
    2. Dir Name  (e.g. '.git/') (only matches dirs with a trailing slash at the end)
    3. File Type (e.g. 'ln') (except 'fi')
    4. File Name (e.g. '.git*') (only matches files with a trailing star at the end)
    5. Base Name (e.g. 'README.*')
    6. Extension (e.g. '*.txt')
    7. Default   (i.e. 'fi')

For example, given a regular text file '/path/to/README.txt', the following
entries are checked in the configuration and the first one to match is used:

    1. '/path/to/README.txt'
    2. (skipped since the file is not a directory)
    3. (skipped since the file is of type 'fi')
    4. 'README.txt*'
    5. 'README.*'
    6. '*.txt'
    7. 'fi'

Given a regular directory '/path/to/example.d', the following entries are
checked in the configuration and the first one to match is used:

    1. '/path/to/example.d'
    2. 'example.d/'
    3. 'di'
    4. 'example.d*'
    5. 'example.*'
    6. '*.d'
    7. 'fi'

Note that glob-like patterns do not actually perform glob matching due to
performance reasons.

For example, you can set a variable as follows:

    export LF_COLORS="~/Documents=01;31:~/Downloads=01;31:~/.local/share=01;31:~/.config/lf/lfrc=31:.git/=01;32:.git=32:.gitignore=32:Makefile=32:README.*=33:*.txt=34:*.md=34:ln=01;36:di=01;34:ex=01;32:"

Having all entries on a single line can make it hard to read. You may
instead divide it to multiple lines in between double quotes by escaping
newlines with backslashes as follows:

    export LF_COLORS="\
    ~/Documents=01;31:\
    ~/Downloads=01;31:\
    ~/.local/share=01;31:\
    ~/.config/lf/lfrc=31:\
    .git/=01;32:\
    .git=32:\
    .gitignore=32:\
    Makefile=32:\
    README.*=33:\
    *.txt=34:\
    *.md=34:\
    ln=01;36:\
    di=01;34:\
    ex=01;32:\
    "

Having such a long variable definition in a shell configuration file might
be undesirable. You may instead put this definition in a separate file and
source it in your shell configuration file as follows:

    [ -f "/path/to/colors" ] && source "/path/to/colors"

See the wiki page for ansi escape codes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANSI_escape_code.


Icons

Icons are configured using 'LF_ICONS' environment variable. This variable
uses the same syntax as 'LS_COLORS/LF_COLORS'. Instead of colors, you should
put a single characters as values of entries. Do not forget to enable
'icons' option to see the icons. Default values are as follows given with
their matching order in lf:

    ln  🗎
    or  🗎
    tw  🗀
    ow  🗀
    st  🗀
    di  🗀
    pi  🗎
    so  🗎
    bd  🗎
    cd  🗎
    su  🗎
    sg  🗎
    ex  🗎
    fi  🗎

See the wiki page for an example icons configuration
https://github.com/gokcehan/lf/wiki/Icons.
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