13 KiB
nnn
Noice is Not Noice, a noicer fork...
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Features
- Performance
- Installation
- Usage
- Quickstart
- How to
- Why fork?
- Mentions
- Developers
Introduction
nnn is a fork of noice, a blazing-fast lightweight terminal file browser with easy keyboard shortcuts for navigation, opening files and running tasks. noice is developed considering terminal based systems. There is no config file and mime associations are hard-coded. However, the incredible user-friendliness and speed make it a perfect utility on modern distros.
nnn can use the default desktop opener at runtime. It also comes with nlay - a customizable bash script to handle media types. It adds new navigation options, enhanced DE integration, a disk usage analyzer mode, comprehensive file details and much more. Add to that a huge performance boost. For a detailed comparison, visit nnn vs. noice.
If you want to edit a file in vim with some soothing music in the background while referring to a spec in your GUI PDF viewer, nnn got it! All from the same terminal session. Follow the instructions in the quickstart section and see how nnn simplifies those long desktop sessions...
Have fun with it! PRs are welcome. Check out #1.
Features
- Navigation
- Familiar shortcuts
- Jump HOME or to the last visited directory (as usual!)
- Jump to initial dir, chdir prompt, cd ..... (with . as PWD)
- Roll-over at edges, page through entries
- Disk usage analyzer mode
- Search
- Filter directory contents with search-as-you-type
- Desktop search (default catfish, customizable) integration
- Mimes
- Desktop opener integration
- Customizable bash script nlay to handle media type or action
- Information
- Basic and detail view
- Detailed file information
- Media information (needs mediainfo)
- Ordering
- Numeric order (1, 2, ... 10, 11, ...) for numeric names
- Sort by modification time, size
- Convenience
- Spawn a shell in the current directory
- Invoke file path copier (easy shell integration)
- Change directory at exit (easy shell integration)
- Open any file in EDITOR (fallback vi) or PAGER (fallback less)
- Unicode support
- Highly optimized code, minimal resource usage
Performance
nnn vs. ncdu memory usage while listing 438767 files in disk usage analyzer mode:
PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
22515 vaio 20 0 60348 48712 2240 S 0.0 0.6 0:01.11 ncdu /
22574 vaio 20 0 17588 4320 2584 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.44 nnn -d /
nnn vs. mc vs. ranger memory usage while viewing a directory with 11244 files, sorted by size:
PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
28450 vaio 20 0 93848 51548 7724 S 0.0 0.6 0:00.64 /usr/bin/python -O /usr/bin/ranger
27265 vaio 20 0 67188 13620 6908 S 0.0 0.2 0:00.16 mc
28360 vaio 20 0 20520 6932 2512 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.20 nnn
Installation
nnn needs libreadline, libncursesw (on Linux or ncurses on OS X) and standard libc.
-
Packages are available on
-
To cook yourself, download the latest stable release or clone this repository (risky). Then install the dependencies and compile (e.g. on Ubuntu 16.04):
$ sudo apt-get install libncursesw5-dev libreadline6-dev $ make $ sudo make install
Usage
Cmdline options
usage: nnn [-d] [-S] [-v] [h] [PATH]
The missing terminal file browser for X.
positional arguments:
PATH directory to open [default: current dir]
optional arguments:
-d start in detail view mode
-p path to custom nlay
-S start in disk usage analyzer mode
-v show program version and exit
-h show this help and exit
> indicates the currently selected entry in nnn.
Keyboard shortcuts
Key | Function
-+-
Up, k, ^P | Previous entry
Down, j, ^N | Next entry
PgUp, ^U | Scroll half page up
PgDn, ^D | Scroll half page down
Home, g, ^, ^A | Jump to first entry
End, G, $, ^E | Jump to last entry
Right, Enter, l, ^M | Open file or enter dir
Left, Bksp, h, ^H | Go to parent dir
~ | Jump to HOME dir
& | Jump to initial dir
- | Jump to last visited dir
o | Open dir in NNN_DE_FILE_MANAGER
/ | Filter dir contents
^/ | Search dir in catfish
c | Show change dir prompt
d | Toggle detail view
D | Toggle current file details screen
m | Show concise mediainfo
M | Show full mediainfo
. | Toggle hide .dot files
s | Toggle sort by file size
S | Toggle disk usage analyzer mode
t | Toggle sort by modified time
! | Spawn SHELL in PWD (fallback sh)
z | Run top
e | Edit entry in EDITOR (fallback vi)
p | Open entry in PAGER (fallback less)
^K | Invoke file name copier
^L | Force a redraw
? | Toggle help screen
q | Quit
Q | Quit and change directory
Filters
Filters support regexes to display only the matched entries in the current directory view. This effectively allows searching through the directory tree for a particular entry.
Filters do not stack on top of each other. They are applied anew every time. There are 3 ways to reset a filter:
An empty filter expression, a search with no results or an extra backspace at the filter prompt (like vi).
If you want to list all matches starting with the filter expression (a common use case), start the expression with a ^ (caret) symbol.
If nnn is invoked as root the default filter will also match hidden files.
File type abbreviations
The following abbreviations are used in the detail view:
| Symbol | File Type |
|---|---|
/ |
Directory |
* |
Executable |
| |
Fifo |
= |
Socket |
@ |
Symbolic Link |
b |
Block Device |
c |
Character Device |
File handling
nnn is designed to play files using multiple strategies (in order of decreasing priority):
-
Set
NNN_OPENERto let a desktop opener handle it all. E.g.:export NNN_OPENER=xdg-open export NNN_OPENER="gio open" export NNN_OPENER=gvfs-open -
If nnn recognizes the file extension, it invokes nlay (which invokes the players). Default apps:
- mpv - audio and video
- viewnior - image
- zathura - pdf
- vim - plain text
- catfish - search
- to add, remove recognized extensions in nnn, see how to change file associations
-
If a file without any extension is a plain text file, it is opened in EDITOR (fallback vi)
-
Set
NNN_FALLBACK_OPENERas the fallback opener. E.g.:export NNN_FALLBACK_OPENER=xdg-open export NNN_FALLBACK_OPENER="gio open" export NNN_FALLBACK_OPENER=gvfs-open -
To enable the desktop file manager key, set
NNN_DE_FILE_MANAGER. E.g.:export NNN_DE_FILE_MANAGER=thunar export NNN_DE_FILE_MANAGER=nautilus -
mediainfo is required to view media information
Help
$ man nnn
To lookup keyboard shortcuts at runtime, press ?.
Quickstart
Add the following to your shell's rc file for the best experience:
-
If you want to open nnn in detail mode each time:
alias n='nnn -d' -
Set your preferred desktop opener as fallback. E.g.:
export NNN_FALLBACK_OPENER=xdg-open -
Set a desktop file manager to open directories with (if you need). E.g.:
export NNN_DE_FILE_MANAGER=thunar -
Start nnn.
n
How to
use cd .....
To jump to the nth level parent, with PWD at level 0, use n + 1 dots. For example, to jump to the 6 parent of the current directory, use 7 dots. If the number of dots would take you beyond / (which isn't possible), you'll be placed at /.
cd on quit
Pick the appropriate file for your shell from misc/quitcd and add the contents to your shell's rc file. You'll need to spawn a new shell for the change to take effect. You should start nnn as n (or modify the function name to something else).
As you might notice, nnn uses the environment variable NNN_TMPFILE to write the last visited directory path. You can change it.
customize nlay
nlay is a tiny standalone media type player by itself. To know how to customize or extend its functionality, please visit nlay on wiki.
copy current file path to clipboard
nnn can pipe the absolute path of the current file to a copier script. For example, you can use xsel on Linux or pbcopy on OS X.
Sample Linux copier script:
#!/bin/sh
echo -n $1 | xsel --clipboard --input
export NNN_OPENER:
export NNN_COPIER="/home/vaio/copier.sh"
Start nnn and use ^K to copy the absolute path (from /) of the file under the cursor to clipboard.
boost chdir prompt
nnn uses libreadline for the chdir prompt input. So all the fantastic features of readline (e.g. case insensitive tab completion, history, reverse-i-search) is available to you based on your readline configuration.
change file associations
If NNN_OPENER is not set, nnn tries to recognize a file by the file extension and invokes nlay. To change the extensions recognized by nnn, modify the assocs structure in config.def.h (it's easy). Then re-compile and install.
If you want to add a file extension mainline, please raise a bug. Without it nnn will not invoke nlay.
nlay has provisions (disabled by default) to handle a specific file extension too. However, the extension should be recognized by nnn first.
Why fork?
I chose to fork because:
- one can argue my approach deviates from the goal of the original project - keep the utility
suckless. In my opinion evolution is the taste of time. - I would like to have a bit of control on what features are added in the name of desktop integration. A feature-bloat is the last thing in my mind. Check out nnn design considerations for more details.
Mentions
Developers
- Copyright © 2014-2016 Lazaros Koromilas
- Copyright © 2014-2016 Dimitris Papastamos
- Copyright © 2016-2017 Arun Prakash Jana