Overview

This project uses fzf in a floating terminal to replace dmenu in several use-cases. The benefit is to use the same fuzzy-matching algorithm in all applications. From the shell, in vim and when navigating windows with quickswitch: https://github.com/OliverUv/quickswitch-for-i3/

FZF_selector

Use fzf as a selector similar to dmenu

In addition to the settings from FZF_launcher this accepts input from standard input and populates fzf with entries from any command. The output from fzf is saved to a file and later output from the selector after the terminal with fzf exits.

Any script can be used to populate the floating fzf selector and the selection can be put to use with any script. See the included fzf_launcher for an example.

The structure of an invocation is $source | fzf_selector [fzf settings] | $sink

$source needs to generate newline-separated entries on std-out and $sink needs to consume the output via a pipe. xargs can be used if the desired sink program takes input on the command line.

Refer to fzf's manual for available settings and flags. And note that due to shell escaping and quoting inside the scripts, multi-word values need to be escaped as ` fzf_selector --prompt 'one two :'

i3 binding

bindsym $mod+Tab exec ~/bin/gits/quickswitch-for-i3/quickswitch.py --dmenu fzf_selector

usage combined with quickswitch

quickswitch: https://github.com/OliverUv/quickswitch-for-i3/

$ quickswitch.py --dmenu fzf_selector <extra arguments>

screenshot

FZF launcher

Use fzf as a launcher similar to dmenu_run. As per https://medium.com/njiuko/using-fzf-instead-of-dmenu-2780d184753f .

Three scripts are composed as well as some i3 rules to display the launcher in a floating terminal.

• fzf_launcher.sh the launcher, creates a new terminal window with a specific window class. This populates fzf with all the binaries in $PATH and launches the selection

  This is a wrapper script around fzf_selector

• listbins.sh prints all binaries in $PATH

• start_independent_process.py start a process in the background and disowns it so it survives when the launcher process exits.

i3 rules

for_window [class = "URxvt" instance = "FloatingTerminal$"] floating enable

Some terminals might require different rules, use xprop to find the required window information about the terminal.

i3 binding

bindsym $mod+space exec fzf_launcher

screenshot

Troubleshooting

During development of these scripts I had trouble getting them to run properly when launched from i3. That is because i3 and my shells have different $PATH values. The spawned URxvt terminal would then only flicker and no select properly from the input. To solve this make sure that the shells spawned by i3 can find all the necessary scripts. This includes fzf, if fzf is installed in a non-standard location.

I have the following symlinks:

lrwxrwxrwx  ~/bin/fzf -> ~/.fzf/bin/fzf
lrwxrwxrwx  ~/bin/fzf_launcher.sh -> ~/repos/floating_fzf/bin/fzf_launcher.sh
lrwxrwxrwx  ~/bin/fzf_selector.sh -> ~/repos/floating_fzf/bin/fzf_selector.sh
lrwxrwxrwx  ~/bin/listbins.sh -> ~/repos/floating_fzf/bin/listbins.sh
lrwxrwxrwx  ~/bin/start_independent_process.py -> ~/repos/floating_fzf/bin/start_independent_process.py

with i3 config:

bindsym $mod+space exec fzf_launcher.sh
set $quickswitch ~/bin/gits/quickswitch-for-i3/quickswitch.py --dmenu fzf_selector.sh
bindsym $mod+Tab exec $quickswitch

Contribution

Pull requests are welcome, as well as information and issues found when used in different setups.