> Life is short, skim! Half of our life is spent on navigation: files, lines, commands… You need skim! It is a general fuzzy finder that saves you time. [](https://asciinema.org/a/pIfwazaM0mTHA8F7qRbjrqOnm) skim provides a single executable: `sk`. Basically anywhere you would want to use `grep`, try `sk` instead. # Table of contents - [Installation](#installation) - [Usage](#usage) - [As Filter](#as-filter) - [As Interactive Interface](#as-interactive-interface) - [Key Bindings](#key-bindings) - [Search Syntax](#search-syntax) - [Exit code](#exit-code) - [Customization](#customization) - [Keymap to redefine](#keymap) - [Sort Criteria](#sort-criteria) - [Color Scheme](#color-scheme) - [Misc](#misc) - [Advance Topics](#advance-topics) - [Interactive Mode](#interactive-mode) - [Executing external programs](#executing-external-programs) - [Preview Window](#preview-window) - [Fields Support](#fields-support) - [Use as a Library](#use-as-a-library) - [FAQ](#faq) - [How to ignore files?](#how-to-ignore-files) - [Some files are not shown in vim plugin](#some-files-are-not-shown-in-vim-plugin) - [Differences to fzf](#differences-to-fzf) - [How to contribute](#how-to-contribute) # Installation The skim project contains several components: 1. `sk` executable -- the core. 2. Vim/Nvim plugin -- to call `sk` inside Vim/Nvim. check [skim.vim](https://github.com/lotabout/skim.vim) for more Vim support. ## Package Managers | Distribution | Package Manager | Command | | -------------- | ----------------- | ---------------------------- | | macOS | Homebrew | `brew install sk` | | macOS | MacPorts | `sudo port install skim` | | Fedora | dnf | `dnf install skim` | | Alpine | apk | `apk add skim` | | Arch | pacman | `pacman -S skim` | | Gentoo | Portage | `emerge --ask app-misc/skim` | See [repology](https://repology.org/project/skim/versions) for a comprehensive overview of package availability. ## Install as Vim plugin Via vim-plug (recommended): ```vim Plug 'lotabout/skim', { 'dir': '~/.skim', 'do': './install' } ``` ## Hard Core Any of the following applies: - Using Git ```sh $ git clone --depth 1 git@github.com:lotabout/skim.git ~/.skim $ ~/.skim/install ``` - Using Binary: directly [download the sk executable](https://github.com/lotabout/skim/releases). - Install from [crates.io](https://crates.io/): `cargo install skim` - Build Manually ```sh $ git clone --depth 1 git@github.com:lotabout/skim.git ~/.skim $ cd ~/.skim $ cargo install $ cargo build --release $ # put the resulting `target/release/sk` executable on your PATH. ``` # Usage skim can be used as a general filter (like `grep`) or as an interactive interface for invoking commands. ## As filter Try the following ```bash # directly invoke skim sk # or pipe some input to it: (press TAB key select multiple items with -m enabled) vim $(find . -name "*.rs" | sk -m) ``` The above command will allow you to select files with ".rs" extension and open the ones you selected in Vim. ## As Interactive Interface `skim` can invoke other commands dynamically. Normally you would want to integrate it with [grep](https://www.gnu.org/software/grep/), [ack](https://github.com/petdance/ack2), [ag](https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher), or [rg](https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep) for searching contents in a project directory: ```sh # works with grep sk --ansi -i -c 'grep -rI --color=always --line-number "{}" .' # works with ack sk --ansi -i -c 'ack --color "{}"' # works with ag sk --ansi -i -c 'ag --color "{}"' # works with rg sk --ansi -i -c 'rg --color=always --line-number "{}"' ```  ## Key Bindings Some commonly used key bindings: | Key | Action | |------------------:|--------------------------------------------| | Enter | Accept (select current one and quit) | | ESC/Ctrl-G | Abort | | Ctrl-P/Up | Move cursor up | | Ctrl-N/Down | Move cursor Down | | TAB | Toggle selection and move down (with `-m`) | | Shift-TAB | Toggle selection and move up (with `-m`) | For full list of key bindings, check out the [man page](https://github.com/lotabout/skim/blob/master/man/man1/sk.1) (`man sk`). ## Search Syntax `skim` borrowed `fzf`'s syntax for matching items: | Token | Match type | Description | |----------|----------------------------|-----------------------------------| | `text` | fuzzy-match | items that match `text` | | `^music` | prefix-exact-match | items that start with `music` | | `.mp3$` | suffix-exact-match | items that end with `.mp3` | | `'wild` | exact-match (quoted) | items that include `wild` | | `!fire` | inverse-exact-match | items that do not include `fire` | | `!.mp3$` | inverse-suffix-exact-match | items that do not end with `.mp3` | `skim` also supports the combination of tokens. - Whitespace has the meaning of `AND`. With the term `src main`, `skim` will search for items that match **both** `src` and `main`. - ` | ` means `OR` (note the spaces around `|`). With the term `.md$ | .markdown$`, `skim` will search for items ends with either `.md` or `.markdown`. - `OR` has higher precedence. So `readme .md$ | .markdown$` is grouped into `readme AND (.md$ OR .markdown$)`. In case that you want to use regular expressions, `skim` provides `regex` mode: ```sh sk --regex ``` You can switch to `regex` mode dynamically by pressing `Ctrl-R` (Rotate Mode). ## exit code | Exit Code | Meaning | |-----------|-----------------------------------| | 0 | Exit normally | | 1 | No Match found | | 130 | Abort by Ctrl-C/Ctrl-G/ESC/etc... | # Customization The doc here is only a preview, please check the man page (`man sk`) for a full list of options. ## Keymap Specify the bindings with comma separated pairs (no space allowed), example: ```sh sk --bind 'alt-a:select-all,alt-d:deselect-all' ``` Additionally, use `+` to concatenate actions, such as `execute-silent(echo {} | pbcopy)+abort`. See the _KEY BINDINGS_ section of the man page for details. ## Sort Criteria There are five sort keys for results: `score, index, begin, end, length`, you can specify how the records are sorted by `sk --tiebreak score,index,-begin` or any other order you want. ## Color Scheme It is a high chance that you are a better artist than me. Luckily you won't be stuck with the default colors, `skim` supports customization of the color scheme. ```sh --color=[BASE_SCHEME][,COLOR:ANSI] ``` The configuration of colors starts with the name of the base color scheme, followed by custom color mappings. For example: ```sh sk --color=current_bg:24 sk --color=light,fg:232,bg:255,current_bg:116,info:27 ``` See `--color` option in the man page for details. ## Misc - `--ansi`: to parse ANSI color codes (e.g., `\e[32mABC`) of the data source - `--regex`: use the query as regular expression to match the data source # Advanced Topics ## Interactive mode With "interactive mode", you could invoke command dynamically. Try out: ```sh sk --ansi -i -c 'rg --color=always --line-number "{}"' ``` How it works?  - Skim could accept two kinds of source: command output or piped input - Skim has two kinds of prompts: A query prompt to specify the query pattern and a command prompt to specify the "arguments" of the command - `-c` is used to specify the command to execute while defaults to `SKIM_DEFAULT_COMMAND` - `-i` is to tell skim open command prompt on startup, which will show `c>` by default. If you want to further narrow down the results returned by the command, press `Ctrl-Q` to toggle interactive mode. ## Executing external programs You can set up key bindings for starting external processes without leaving skim (`execute`, `execute-silent`). ```sh # Press F1 to open the file with less without leaving skim # Press CTRL-Y to copy the line to clipboard and aborts skim (requires pbcopy) sk --bind 'f1:execute(less -f {}),ctrl-y:execute-silent(echo {} | pbcopy)+abort' ``` ## Preview Window This is a great feature of fzf that skim borrows. For example, we use 'ag' to find the matched lines, once we narrow down to the target lines, we want to finally decide which lines to pick by checking the context around the line. `grep` and `ag` has an option `--context`, skim can do better with preview window. For example: ```sh sk --ansi -i -c 'ag --color "{}"' --preview "preview.sh {}" ``` (Note the [preview.sh](https://github.com/junegunn/fzf.vim/blob/master/bin/preview.sh) is a script to print the context given filename:lines:columns) You got things like this:  ### How does it work? If the preview command is given by the `--preview` option, skim will replace the `{}` with the current highlighted line surrounded by single quotes, call the command to get the output, and print the output on the preview window. Sometimes you don't need the whole line for invoking the command. In this case you can use `{}`, `{1..}`, `{..3}` or `{1..5}` to select the fields. The syntax is explained in the section "Fields Support". Last, you might want to configure the position of preview windows, use `--preview-window`. - `--preview-window up:30%` to put the window in the up position with height 30% of the total height of skim. - `--preview-window left:10:wrap`, to specify the `wrap` allows the preview window to wrap the output of the preview command. - `--preview-window wrap:hidden` to hide the preview window at startup, later it can be shown by the action `toggle-preview`. ## Fields support Normally only plugin users need to understand this. For example, you have the data source with the format: ```sh :: ``` However, you want to search `` only when typing in queries. That means when you type `21`, you want to find a `` that contains `21`, but not matching line number or column number. You can use `sk --delimiter ':' --nth 1` to achieve this. Also you can use `--with-nth` to re-arrange the order of fields. **Range Syntax** - `` -- to specify the `num`-th fields, starting with 1. - `start..` -- starting from the `start`-th fields, and the rest. - `..end` -- starting from the `0`-th field, all the way to `end`-th field, including `end`. - `start..end` -- starting from `start`-th field, all the way to `end`-th field, including `end`. ## Use as a library Skim can be used as a library in your Rust crates. First, add skim into your `Cargo.toml`: ```toml [dependencies] skim = "*" ``` Then try to run this simple example: ```rust extern crate skimmer; use skimmer::prelude::*; use std::io::Cursor; pub fn main() { let options = SkimOptionsBuilder::default() .height(Some("50%")) .multi(true) .build() .unwrap(); let input = "aaaaa\nbbbb\nccc".to_string(); // `SkimItemReader` is a helper to turn any `BufRead` into a stream of `SkimItem` // `SkimItem` was implemented for `AsRef` by default let item_reader = SkimItemReader::default(); let items = item_reader.of_bufread(Cursor::new(input)); // `run_with` would read and show items from the stream let selected_items = Skim::run_with(&options, Some(items)) .map(|out| out.selected_items) .unwrap_or_else(|| Vec::new()); for item in selected_items.iter() { print!("{}{}", item.output(), "\n"); } } ``` Given an `Option`, skim will read items accordingly, do its job and bring us back the user selection including the selected items, the query, etc. Note that: - `SkimItemReceiver` is `crossbeam::channel::Receiver>` - If it is none, it will invoke the given command and read items from command output - Otherwise, it will read the items from the (crossbeam) channel. Trait `SkimItem` is provided to customize how a line could be displayed, compared and previewed. It is implemented by default for `AsRef` Plus, `SkimItemReader` is a helper to convert a `BufRead` into `SkimItemReceiver` (we can easily turn a `File` for `String` into `BufRead`). So that you could deal with strings or files easily. Check more examples under [examples/](https://github.com/lotabout/skim/tree/master/examples) directory. # FAQ ## How to ignore files? Skim invokes `find .` to fetch a list of files for filtering. You can override that by setting the environment variable `SKIM_DEFAULT_COMMAND`. For example: ```sh $ SKIM_DEFAULT_COMMAND="fd --type f || git ls-tree -r --name-only HEAD || rg --files || find ." $ sk ``` You could put it in your `.bashrc` or `.zshrc` if you like it to be default. ## Some files are not shown in Vim plugin If you use the Vim plugin and execute the `:SK` command, you might find some of your files not shown. As described in [#3](https://github.com/lotabout/skim/issues/3), in the Vim plugin, `SKIM_DEFAULT_COMMAND` is set to the command by default: ```vim let $SKIM_DEFAULT_COMMAND = "git ls-tree -r --name-only HEAD || rg --files || ag -l -g \"\" || find ." ``` That means, the files not recognized by git will not shown. Either override the default with `let $SKIM_DEFAULT_COMMAND = ''` or find the missing file by yourself. # Differences to fzf [fzf](https://github.com/junegunn/fzf) is a command-line fuzzy finder written in Go and [skim](https://github.com/lotabout/skim) tries to implement a new one in Rust! This project is written from scratch. Some decisions of implementation are different from fzf. For example: 1. `skim` is a binary as well as a library while fzf is only a binary. 2. `skim` has an interactive mode. 3. `skim` supports pre-selection 4. The fuzzy search algorithm is different. 5. ~~UI of showing matched items. `fzf` will show only the range matched while `skim` will show each character matched.~~ (fzf has this now) 6. ~~`skim`'s range syntax is Git style~~: now it is the same with fzf. # How to contribute [Create new issues](https://github.com/lotabout/skim/issues/new) if you meet any bugs or have any ideas. Pull requests are warmly welcomed. # Troubleshooting ## No line feed issues with nix , FreeBSD, termux If you encounter display issues like: ```bash $ for n in {1..10}; do echo "$n"; done | sk 0/10 0/0.> 10/10 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2> 1 ``` For example - https://github.com/lotabout/skim/issues/412 - https://github.com/lotabout/skim/issues/455 You need to set TERMINFO or TERMINFO_DIRS to the path to a correct terminfo database path For example, with termux, you can add in your bashr: ``` export TERMINFO=/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/share/terminfo ```