How to install and use fzf: the command-line fuzzy finder

On this episode of 'Coding Tip of the Day' I go through the process of installing, configuring and using the command-line fuzzy finder tool, fzf.

MY TECH

TECH ACCESSORIES

VIDEO GEAR

^ Note for the Amazon links above: as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

MUSIC

ABOUT ME
I'm a professional software engineer working at Amazon in New York City. I enjoy making videos about the tech industry so if you have a question please get in touch either through the comments or any of my socials and I'd be happy to help out. Thanks for checking out the channel!

FOLLOW ME

[GTXJason]

Do you know how to make it so that fuzzy searching also respects the .gitignore?

For example, when doing cd **<Tab> in a project with node_modules, I get a bunch of directories that I probably don't ever want to do it. Thanks in advance! Great video by the way.

[LeeWButler]

Thank you for the great intro vid. For folks watching this video now, note that adding the "--extended" option to your ".bashrc" or ".zshrc" file is no longer necessary per this quote from the top of "man fsf" output: "...extended-search mode, since 0.10.9, is enabled by default."

[pavelsapehin]

This video should be included to the official documentation page as "Quick Start" material for fzf. It's short and informative. Thanks a lot!

[krishnamalleboina]

Thank you so much this awesome detailed video on installing fzf

[hctrjs]

Awesome, I was lookig for something very similar. Thank you very much.

[MrGuiles]

Hi, which configuration do you have in bash that shows this cool prompt? Thanks!

[FlyingEbi]

Much more helpful than the Luke Smith video. PROPS

[somebodyoncetoldme]

How do I set ctrl+r to use fzf and not the vanilla search in bash?

[keoniili]

Great stuff and so well presented. Thanks...

The only problem I had was getting the 'git add<Ctrl-T>' function to work. It failed to skip the ignored files. I'm on a Macbook with my .zshrc in ~/.config/zsh/.zshrc.

I found a pretty neat one that did work: "git ls-files -m -o --exclude-standard | fzf -m --print0 | xargs -0 -o -t git add -p"

[relhage]

Any clue how to make fzf display hidden files (e.g dotfiles) in the fuzz search? I'm using bash not zsh, it would be nice to let it continue using the "find" command.

[yashsonune]

which font style you were using in this video?

[doktoren]

I enjoyed this :) I have a question, often when i git diff, i see long file paths to a file i want to vim into or something like that, and i use the mouse to select the path after typing git status. Is there a better way to copy the path to the file? Maybe using fzf? so that i wouldnt have to use my mouse to select the path?

[alef]

Woow you explained so good,
thank you!

[SnortDefence]

Hi thanks for the video, could you please help me to know how to i use this key binding on mac "export FZF_COMPLETION_OPTS='+c -x'" what is +c -x mean

[ElektroDrrrEL]

Thank you sir for a great video! very useful!

[matthewfelgate]

How have you got your name, path and github branch displayed like that in your terminal?

[iCorx]

fzf doesn't seem to work with absolute paths for me, do you have any idea why ?

[norcal]

Hey, can you tell me what the powerline/airline looking bar in your terminal is?

[SnortDefence]

What theme you are using may i know the theme name ?

[georgesmith]

i cannot cd to hidden directories, I tried the --hidden option but it does not work