nnn is a sweet terminal file manager. It looks like this:
We are going to use plugins, check if you have the files in ~/.config/nnn/plugins/. If not, clone the repository and copy them from the plugins folder.
Browsing
Use the arrow keys or the good old h j k l keys if you do not want to leave your home row.
For folders, left/right and h/l allow to go up and down in the tree. When you are on a file, use right or l to open the file (see the "Open everything" part a little bit further).
Tabs
See the [1 2 3 4] at the top of the image at the beginning of this article? They are tabs.
Use your keyboard's numbers to activate a tab and switch to it. Tab and Shift+Tab allows to cycle through activated tabs.
Open everything
The nuke plugin allows to open some files with a range of applications.
Here are a few elements (see the full list in the plugin comments):
- pdf: zathura (GUI), pdftotext, mutool, exiftool
- audio: mocplay (nnn plugin using MOC), mpv, media_client (Haiku), mediainfo, exiftool
- avi|mkv|mp4: smplayer, mpv (GUI), ffmpegthumbnailer, mediainfo, exiftool
- htm|html|xhtml: w3m, lynx, elinks
- json: jq, python (json.tool module)
- image/*: imv/sxiv (GUI), viu (https://github.com/atanunq/viu), img2txt, exiftool
- video/*: smplayer, mpv (GUI), ffmpegthumbnailer, mediainfo, exiftool
- audio/*: mocplay (nnn plugin using MOC), mpv, media_client (Haiku), mediainfo, exiftool
export GUI=1
export NNN_OPENER=~/.config/nnn/plugins/nuke
I use the GUI=1 variable because I can't live without zathura and mpv.
Tell nnn to use a CLI opener:
nnn -c
Then, when you hit right or l on a file, it will be opened with your favorite application.
Fuzzy find
I use the fzopen plugin which allows to find a file in the current subtree to open it (remember the "Open everything" part? :smile:).
export NNN_PLUG='o:fzopen'
Then, use ; (the "start a plugin" key) then o (the key set in NNN_PLUG). Then, just type the name of the file you are looking for and voilà!
File preview
I use the preview-tabbed plugin. The preview-tui is also a possibility.
We need to have tabbed installed.
export NNN_PLUG='t:preview-tabbed'
Tell nnn to use an automatic fifo file for the plugin:
nnn -a
Or set the path to one with the NNN_FIFO environment variable and run nnn.
Then, use ; (the "start a plugin" key) then t (the key set in NNN_PLUG). I use i3, a tiling window manager, so the screen gets split automagically to display the preview. You can then browse your files and the preview window will be updated.
Images
viu is quite a fun tool to display an image in a terminal. And nnn has the imgviu plugin for that!
export NNN_PLUG='v:imgviu'
Then, when you are on an image, use ; (the "start a plugin" key) then v (the key set in NNN_PLUG). Enjoy this pixel art of your images!
Icons
Since version 3.4, nnn can display icons. You just need... to compile nnn!
Key bindings
Type ? and you will see the keys you can use.
The wiki has a graphical map.
Want to change the bindings? Just change them in the source and compile nnn!
The end
Here is the whole configuration I currently use:
export NNN_OPENER=/home/user/.config/nnn/plugins/nuke
export NNN_PLUG='o:fzopen;v:imgviu;t:preview-tabbed'
export GUI=1
alias nnn="nnn -a -c"
I really enjoy nnn, it is really fast compared to ranger on my old computer.
Not having a configuration file is disturbing at the beginning, and maybe it is a force to make sure the configuration does not grow into a neverending list.
Here are a few links to go further:
😘 Thanks Rudy for your feedback!