Introduction to fzf - Fuzzy Finder

As you probably know, CTRL+R in the console will give you access to your HISTORY i.e. you'll retrieve the list of the commands you previously typed in your console. Just like using UP or DOWN keys but with a very small search engine.

And it makes the job but, honestly, this is really basic, no?

The Fuzzy Finder (aka fzf) command line utility will explode the possibilities linked to searching in the history but, in reality, this is just one of the consequences of installing fzf, which is so much more powerful.

Three articles on this blog build directly on fzf: FZF + ripgrep: Interactive Code Search with Live Preview, Master your ssh command and select the host from a list and ZSH Functions - Customizing Your Shell for Docker Management.

Let's have a look.

By pressing CTRL+R, you'll natively get a reverse search for your history. Start to type a command like ls in my example below and Linux will show you the last command used.

Seeing It in Action with Docker​

Before cloning anything on your machine, spin up a throwaway container with fzf already wired in and a small playground already built.

Build and run it:

$ docker build -t fzf-demo .
[+] Building 24.6s (9/9) FINISHED
✔ exporting to image
$ docker run --rm -it fzf-demo
🐳 root ~/demo #

You're already in /root/demo. Try the three shortcuts right away:

• Press CTRL+R and type github — the pre-seeded git clone https://github.com/junegunn/fzf-git.sh.git line turns up, exactly like the screenshots below.
• Press CTRL+T and type run — the four run*.sh.log files in logs/ appear, filtered live as you type.
• Press ALT+C to fuzzy-jump into nested/deep/folder without typing a single cd.
• Run fzf -m | xargs head -n 5, filter on run, select two or three files with TAB, press ENTER — the multi-select scenario from the "Getting a list of files" section below, ready to try without deleting anything real.

Installation​

The installation of fzf is simple, you just need to run git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/junegunn/fzf.git ~/.fzf && ~/.fzf/install and answer by Yes to two questions.

When done, close and restart a new console (so Linux will take into account changes made to your configuration files).

Playing with the history​

Now, press CTRL+R again and you'll get something much better:

Just like previously, start to type the command you would like to retrieve; in my case, I know, once, I've tried to install a repo from GitHub but don't remember the instruction so I'll start to type github:

If you look at the image, you'll see that fzf is searching for the g, i, t, h, u and b letters, not for the word. So the first line has the word git then there is a h somewhere and the word public so, ub are there.

This is handy since you don't need to remember the exact order of words in your previous command line, just type words in any particular order.

For me, just for this usage, the installation of fzf is already fully justified.

Getting a list of files​

Imagine you wish to display the content of a file so, you start to type cat and, oh, you don't remember well the exact filename. By pressing CTRL+T you'll get a list of files from the current directory and subdirectories:

You can navigate using UP and DOWN but also type some letters to filter the list.

On my machine, by starting to type doc I'll get the list of files, anywhere in the tree structure, with doc. I can continue and type doc.md to force the presence of letters md and thus, in my case, search for articles about Docker and having the extension .md.

Such use is handy since I don't first need to retrieve the exact name of the file I wanted to use. In this example it was for cat but, of course, it works for anything: type your command and press CTRL+T.

Here, using CTRL+T, you'll be able to select just one file. Imagine you wish to select more than one? For instance, you wish to run rm to remove more than one file.

By running fzf -m | xargs rm followed by ENTER, Fuzzy Finder will display the list of all files present in the current directory. Like previously, I can start to type and filter the list. In my example below, I've typed run.sh.log to retrieve logs and, in the list, I press TAB to select four files (see the red > character at the left). Then I press ENTER to validate my choice and ... files have been removed since my command was rm.

If I rerun the same command and the same filter, I can see that I now only retrieve three files, the ones I didn't select. The rm has worked correctly.

Now, instead of killing files, I'll just display the first five lines of each selected file: To do this, I'll execute fzf -m | xargs head -n 5. Filter on run.sh.log again, select the three files using TAB, press ENTER to validate my choice and tadaaa:

Keybindings​

• Ctrl+RShow the list of commands you've previously typed (your history thus), allow you to select a command by pressing ENTER.
• Ctrl+TDisplay the list of files in the current directory and sub-folders, allow you to select one or more files (just press TAB for a multiple selection) then press ENTER to return the list to the console.
• Alt+CGet the list of folders recursively of the current directory, allow you to select one and by pressing ENTER, fzf will jump in that folder.

Once these basics feel natural, fzf really shines when combined with other tools: see FZF + ripgrep for interactive code search with a live preview, or Master your ssh command and select the host from a list to stop typing hostnames from memory. If you specifically want richer history search — timestamps, exit codes, and working directory per command — Atuin is worth a look: it replaces the flat ~/.bash_history file with a SQLite database while keeping the same Ctrl+R shortcut.