nnn/plugins

nnn plugins

image preview with plugin thumb

Plugins extend the capabilities of nnn. They are executable scripts (or binaries) which nnn can communicate with and trigger. This mechanism fits perfectly with the fundamental design to keep the core file manager lean and fast, by delegating repetitive (but not necessarily file manager-specific) tasks to the plugins.

The currently available plugins are listed below.

Plugin (a-z)	Lang	Deps	Description
boom	sh	moc	Play random music from dir
dups	sh	find, md5sum, sort uniq xargs	List non-empty duplicate files in current dir
checksum	sh	md5sum, sha256sum	Create and verify checksums
dragdrop	sh	dragon	Drag/drop files from/into nnn
exetoggle	sh	chmod	Toggle executable status of hovered file
fzcd	sh	fzy/fzf (optional fd)	Change to the directory of a fuzzy-selected file/dir
fzy-open	sh	fzy, xdg-open	Fuzzy find a file in dir subtree and edit or xdg-open
getplugs	sh	curl	Update plugins
gutenread	sh	curl, unzip, w3m epr (optional)	Browse, download, read from Project Gutenberg
hexview	sh	xxd	View a file in hex in $PAGER
imgresize	sh	imgp	Resize images in dir to screen resolution
imgur	bash	-	Upload an image to imgur (from imgur-screenshot)
ipinfo	sh	curl, whois	Fetch external IP address and whois information
kdeconnect	sh	kdeconnect-cli	Send selected files to an Android device
mediainf	sh	mediainfo	Show media information
moclyrics	sh	ddgr, moc	Show lyrics of the track playing in moc
mocplay	sh	moc	Append (and/or play) selection/dir/file in moc
ndiff	sh	vimdiff	Diff for selection (limited to 2 for directories)
nmount	sh	pmount, udisks2	Toggle mount status of a device as normal user
notes	sh	-	Open a quick notes file/dir in $EDITOR
nwal	sh	nitrogen	Set image as wallpaper using nitrogen
oldbigfile	sh	find, sort	List large files by access time
organize	sh	file	Auto-organize files in directories by file type
pastebin	sh	-	Paste contents of a text a file ix.io
pdfview	sh	pdftotext/ mupdf-tools	View PDF file in $PAGER
picker	sh	nnn	Pick files and list one per line (to pipe)
pskill	sh	fzy, sudo/doas	Fuzzy list by name and kill process or zombie
pywal	sh	pywal	Set image as wallpaper, change terminal colorscheme
readit	sh	pdftotext, mpv, pico2wave	Read a PDF or text file aloud
ringtone	sh	date, ffmpeg	Create a variable bitrate mp3 ringtone from file
splitjoin	sh	split, cat	Split file or join selection
suedit	sh	sudoedit/sudo/doas	Edit file using superuser permissions
sxiv	sh	sxiv	View images in dir, set wallpaper, copy path (config)
thumb	sh	lsix	View thumbnail of an image or dir of images
transfer	sh	curl	Upload file to transfer.sh
treeview	sh	tree	Informative tree output in $EDITOR
uidgid	sh	ls, less	List user and group of all files in dir
upgrade	sh	curl	Upgrade nnn manually on Debian 9 Stretch
vidthumb	sh	ffmpegthumbnailer, lsix	Show video thumbnails in terminal
viuimg	sh	viu, less	View an image or images in dir in $PAGER

Installing plugins

The following command installs all plugins:

curl -Ls https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jarun/nnn/master/plugins/getplugs | sh

Plugins are installed to ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-$HOME/.config}/nnn/plugins. You can run the getplugs plugin later to update the plugins. It backs up earlier plugins.

NOTE: getplugs also downloads the launcher nlaunch and tries to place it at /usr/local/bin/ using sudo. If it fails you have to place nlauch manually somewhere in your $PATH.

Executing plugins

Method 1: Directly with :key:

export NNN_PLUG='o:fzy-open;p:mocplay;d:ndiff;m:nmount;n:notes;v:viuimg;t:thumb'

Now plugin fzy-open can be run with the keybind :o, mocplay can be run with :p and so on... The key vs. plugin pairs are shown in the help and config screen.

Method 2: Use the pick plugin shortcut to visit the plugin directory and execute a plugin. Repeating the same shortcut cancels the operation and puts you back in the original directory.

Running commands as plugin

To assign keys to arbitrary non-background cli commands (non-shell-interpreted) and invoke like plugins, add _ (underscore) before the command. For example:

export NNN_PLUG='x:_chmod +x $NNN;g:_git log;s:_smplayer $NNN;o:fzy-open'

Now :x can be used to make a file executable, :g can be used to the git log of a git project directory, :s can be used to preview a partially downloaded media file.

Notes:

1. Use single quotes for $NNN_PLUG so $NNN is not interpreted
2. $NNN should be the last argument (IF you want to pass the hovered file name)
3. (Again) add _ before the command

Access level of plugins

When nnn executes a plugin, it does the following:

• Change to the directory where the plugin is to be run ($PWD pointing to the active directory)
• Passes two arguments to the script:
  1. The hovered file’s name.
  2. The working directory (might differ from $PWD in case of symlinked paths; non-canonical). Note that the second argument is not passed in case of commands starting with _.
• Sets the environment variable NNN_PIPE used to control nnn active directory.

Plugins can also access the current selections by reading the .selections file in the config directory (See the ndiff plugin for example).

Create your own plugins

Plugins are a powerful yet easy way to extend the capabilities of nnn.

Plugins are scripts that can be written in any scripting language. However, POSIX-compliant shell scripts runnable in sh are preferred.

Each script has a Description section which provides more details on what the script does, if applicable.

The plugins reside in ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-$HOME/.config}/nnn/plugins.

Controlling nnn's active directory

nnn provides a mechanism for plugins to control its active directory. The way to do so is by writing to the pipe pointed by the environment variable NNN_PIPE. The plugin should write a single string in the format <number><path> without a newline at the end. For example, 1/etc. The number indicates the context to change the active directory of (0 is used to indicate the current context).

For convenience, we provided a helper script named .nnn-plugin-helper and a function named nnn_cd to ease this process. nnn_cd receives the path to change to as the first argument, and the context as an optional second argument. If a context is not provided, it is asked for explicitly. Usage examples can be found in the Examples section below.

Examples

There are many plugins provided by nnn which can be used as examples. Here are a few simple selected examples.

• Show the git log of changes to the particular file along with the code for a quick and easy review.

   #!/usr/bin/env sh
   git log -p -- "$1"
  

• Change to directory in clipboard using helper script

  #!/usr/bin/env sh
  . $(dirname $0)/.nnn-plugin-helper
  
  nnn_cd "$(xsel -ob)"
  

• Change direcory to the location of a link using helper script with specific context (current)

  #!/usr/bin/env sh
  . $(dirname $0)/.nnn-plugin-helper
  
  nnn_cd "$(dirname $(readlink -fn $1))" 0
  

• Change to arbitrary directory without helper script

  #!/usr/bin/env sh
  echo -n "cd to: "
  read dir
  
  echo -n "0$dir" > $NNN_PIPE
  

Contributing plugins

Please keep non-portable commands (like notify-send) commented so users from any other OS/DE aren’t surprised.

The plugins should be executable. Please add an entry in the table above.