Skip to main content

Custom Headers and Contextual Actions

Multi-action Menu via --expect​

--expect captures which key was pressed alongside the selection, allowing branching actions:

fzf file opener with multiple actions
fzf_open() {
  local file
  local key
  local out

  out=$(find . -type f | fzf \
    --expect=ctrl-v,ctrl-x,ctrl-o,ctrl-d \
    --header $'Enter: edit  Ctrl+V: vsplit  Ctrl+X: hsplit\nCtrl+O: xdg-open  Ctrl+D: delete')

  key=$(head -1 <<< "$out")
  file=$(tail -1 <<< "$out")

  [ -z "$file" ] && return

  case "$key" in
    ctrl-v) nvim -O "$file" ;;           # vertical split
    ctrl-x) nvim -o "$file" ;;           # horizontal split
    ctrl-o) xdg-open "$file" ;;          # GUI open
    ctrl-d)
      echo "Delete $file? [y/N]"
      read -r confirm
      [[ "$confirm" == "y" ]] && rm "$file"
      ;;
    *) nvim "$file" ;;
  esac
}

Persistent Multi-action Loop​

Stay in fzf, do multiple actions
fzf_manager() {
  while true; do
    local out key file

    out=$(find . -type f \
      | fzf \
        --expect=ctrl-d,ctrl-r,ctrl-y,esc \
        --preview 'bat --color=always {}' \
        --preview-window 'right:50%' \
        --header $'Enter: open  Ctrl+D: delete  Ctrl+R: rename\nCtrl+Y: copy path  Esc: quit')

    key=$(head -1 <<< "$out")
    file=$(tail -1 <<< "$out")

    case "$key" in
      esc|"")     break ;;
      ctrl-d)     rm -v "$file" ;;
      ctrl-r)
        read -rp "New name: " new_name
        mv "$file" "$(dirname $file)/$new_name"
        ;;
      ctrl-y)
        echo -n "$file" | xclip -selection clipboard
        echo "Copied: $file"
        ;;
      *)          nvim "$file" ;;
    esac
  done
}

Contextual Action Based on Filetype​

fzf_smart_open() {
  local file
  file=$(find . -type f | fzf \
    --preview '
      ext="${1##*.}"
      case "$ext" in
        png|jpg|gif) chafa --size=60x30 {} ;;
        pdf) pdftotext {} - | head -50 ;;
        zip|tar*) unzip -l {} 2>/dev/null || tar -tvf {} ;;
        *) bat --color=always --style=numbers {} ;;
      esac
    ')

  [ -z "$file" ] && return

  case "${file##*.}" in
    png|jpg|gif)  xdg-open "$file" ;;
    pdf)          xdg-open "$file" ;;
    md)           nvim "$file" ;;
    sh|bash)      bash "$file" ;;
    py)           python "$file" ;;
    *)            nvim "$file" ;;
  esac
}

What's Next​