nnn

Noice is Not Noice, a noicer fork...

nnn in action! (click to play video)

nnn is probably the fastest and most resource-sensitive file manager you have ever used. It integrates seamlessly with your DE and favourite GUI utilities, has a unique navigate-as-you-type mode with auto-select, disk usage analyzer mode, bookmarks, contexts, application launcher, familiar navigation shortcuts, subshell spawning and much more.

Integrate utilities like sxiv or fzy easily, or use it as a vim file picker; nnn supports as many scripts as you need!

It runs on Linux, OS X, Raspberry Pi, Cygwin, Linux subsystem for Windows and Termux.

Quickstart and see how nnn simplifies those long desktop sessions... Missing a feature? Want to contribute? Head to the rolling ToDo list.

Love smart and efficient utilities? Explore my repositories. Buy me a cup of coffee if they help you.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Features
• Memory usage
• Installation
  • Dependencies
  • From a package manager
  • Release packages
  • From source
  • Shell completion
• Usage
  • Cmdline options
  • Keyboard shortcuts
  • Leader key
  • Contexts
  • Filters
  • Navigate-as-you-type mode
  • File indicators
  • Utility dependencies
  • Help
• Quickstart
• How to
  • add bookmarks
  • copy file paths
    • selection
    • to clipboard
  • cd on quit
  • (neo)vim plugin
  • run custom scripts
    • sample scripts
  • change dir color
  • integrate patool
  • work faster at rename prompt
  • set idle timeout
  • show hot plugged drives
  • tmux configuration
  • BSD terminal issue
  • Disable file open on navigation
• Why fork?
• Mentions
• Developers

FEATURES

• Modes
  • Basic, detail (default), disk usage analyzer (du)
  • Vim (or neovim) file picker (as a plugin)
• Navigation
  • Familiar, easy shortcuts (arrows, ~, -, &)
  • Navigate-as-you-type with auto-select directory
  • Contexts (aka tabs aka workspaces)
  • Bookmarks
  • Pin and visit a directory
• Sorting
  • Directories always listed on top
  • Sort by file name, modification time, size
  • Numeric order for numeric names (visit /proc)
• Search
  • Instant filtering with search-as-you-type
• Mimes
  • Open with desktop opener or specify a custom app
  • Create, list, extract archives (needs (p)atool)
  • Open all text files in EDITOR (optional)
• Information
  • Detailed stat-like file information
  • Media information (needs mediainfo/exiftool)
• Convenience
  • Create, rename files and directories
  • Select files across directories
  • Copy, move, delete selection
  • Batch rename/move/delete (needs vidir)
  • Show directories in custom color (default: blue)
  • Spawn a subshell in the current directory
  • Run custom scripts in the current directory
  • Change directory at exit (easy shell integration)
  • Edit file in EDITOR or open in PAGER
  • GUI app launcher (up to 2 space-separated args)
  • Terminal locker integration
• Unicode support
• Highly optimized, static analysis integrated code
• Available on many distros

MEMORY USAGE

nnn vs. ncdu memory usage in disk usage analyzer mode (400K files on disk):

  PID USER      PR  NI    VIRT    RES    SHR S  %CPU %MEM     TIME+ COMMAND
 5034 vaio      20   0   71628  59932   2412 S   0.0  0.7   0:01.22 ncdu /
 4949 vaio      20   0   14812   3616   2560 S   0.0  0.0   0:00.83 nnn -S /

nnn vs. midnight commander vs. ranger memory usage while viewing a directory with 13.5K files, sorted by size:

  PID USER      PR  NI    VIRT    RES    SHR S  %CPU %MEM     TIME+ COMMAND
31885 vaio      20   0  139720  91220   8460 S   0.0  1.1   0:02.96 /usr/bin/python -O /usr/bin/ranger
30108 vaio      20   0   72152  12468   7336 S   0.0  0.2   0:00.06 mc
30168 vaio      20   0   16476   5072   2640 S   0.0  0.1   0:00.22 nnn -c 1 -i

Intrigued? Find out HOW.

INSTALLATION

Dependencies

nnn needs libncursesw (on Linux or ncurses on OS X) and standard libc.

From a package manager

• Arch Linux (pacman -S nnn)
• Debian (apt-get install nnn)
• Fedora (dnf install nnn)
• FreeBSD (pkg install nnn)
• Gentoo (emerge nnn)
• Homebrew (brew install nnn)
• NixOS (nix-env -i nnn)
• OpenBSD (pkg_add nnn)
• openSUSE (and packages for several other distros) (zypper in nnn)
• Raspbian Testing (apt-get install nnn)
• Slackware (slackpkg install nnn)
• Solus (eopkg install nnn)
• Source Mage (cast nnn)
• Termux (pkg in nnn)
• Ubuntu (apt-get install nnn)
• Ubuntu PPA (apt-get install nnn)
• Void Linux (xbps-install -S nnn)

Release packages

Packages for Arch Linux, CentOS, Debian, Fedora, Solus, and Ubuntu are available with the latest stable release.

From source

To cook yourself, download the latest stable release or clone this repository (risky). Then install the dependencies and compile (e.g. on Ubuntu 16.04):

$ sudo apt-get install pkg-config libncursesw5-dev
$ make
$ sudo make install

PREFIX is supported, in case you want to install to a different location.

Instructions for Cygwin.

Shell completion

Search keyword and option completion scripts for Bash, Fish and Zsh can be found in respective subdirectories of scripts/auto-completion/. Please refer to your shell’s manual for installation instructions.

USAGE

Cmdline options

usage: nnn [-b key] [-c N] [-e] [-i] [-l]
           [-p file] [-S] [-v] [-h] [PATH]

The missing terminal file manager for X.

positional args:
  PATH   start dir [default: current dir]

optional args:
 -b key  bookmark key to open
 -c N    dir color, disables if N>7
 -e      use exiftool instead of mediainfo
 -i      start in navigate-as-you-type mode
 -l      start in light mode
 -p file copy selection to file (stdout if '-')
 -S      start in disk usage analyser mode
 -v      show program version
 -h      show this help

> indicates the currently selected entry in nnn.

Keyboard shortcuts

Press ? in nnn to see the list anytime.

 NAVIGATION
       ↑, k, ^P  Up             PgUp, ^U  Scroll up
       ↓, j, ^N  Down           PgDn, ^D  Scroll down
 Home, g, ^, ^A  First entry           ~  Go HOME
  End, G, $, ^E  Last entry            &  Start dir
 ←, Bksp, h, ^H  Parent dir            -  Last visited dir
    →, ↵, l, ^M  Open file/enter dir   .  Toggle show hidden
              /  Filter          Ins, ^I  Toggle nav-as-you-type
              b  Pin current dir      ^W  Go to pinned dir
              d  Toggle detail view   ^T  Next active context
          `, ^/  Leader key      LeaderN  Go to context N
            Esc  Exit prompt          ^L  Redraw, clear prompt
             ^G  Quit and cd           q  Quit context
          Q, ^Q  Quit                  ?  Help, config
 FILES
             ^O  Open with...          n  Create new
              D  File details         ^R  Rename entry
          ⎵, ^K  Copy entry path       r  Open dir in vidir
          Y, ^Y  Toggle selection      y  List selection
              P  Copy selection        X  Delete selection
              V  Move selection       ^X  Delete entry
              f  Archive entry         F  List archive
             ^F  Extract archive    m, M  Brief/full media info
              e  Edit in EDITOR        p  Open in PAGER
 ORDER
             ^J  Toggle du mode        S  Toggle apparent size
              s  Toggle sort by size   t  Toggle sort by mtime
 MISC
              o  Launch GUI app    !, ^]  Spawn SHELL in dir
              R  Run custom script     L  Lock terminal

Help & settings, file details, media info and archive listing are shown in the PAGER. Please use the PAGER-specific keys in these screens.

Leader key

The Leader key (` or ^/) provides a powerful multi-functional navigation mechanism. It is case-sensitive and understands contexts, bookmarks and handy location shortcuts.

Key	Function
1-4	Go to selected context
>, .	Go to next active context
«/kbd>, ,	Go to previous active context
key	Go to bookmarked location
~	Go to HOME directory
-	Go to last visited directory
&	Go to start directory
q	Quit context

Contexts

Contexts serve the purpose of exploring multiple directories simultaneously. 4 contexts are available. The status of the contexts are shown in the top left corner:

• the current context is in reverse
• other used contexts are underlined
• rest are unused

To switch to a context press the Leader key followed by the context number (1-4).

The first time a context is entered, it copies the state of the last visited context. Each context remembers its start directory and last visited directory.

When a context is quit, the next active context is selected. If the last active context is quit, the program quits.

Filters

Filters support regexes to instantly (search-as-you-type) list the matching entries in the current directory.

Ways to exit filter prompt:

• press ^L to clear filter followed by Bksp (to clear the filter symbol, like vi)
  • at other prompts ^L followed by Enter discards all changes and exits prompt
• run a search with no matches and press Enter

Common use cases:

• to list all matches starting with the filter expression, start the expression with a ^ (caret) symbol
• type \.mkv to list all MKV files
• use .* to match any character (sort of fuzzy search)

If nnn is invoked as root or the environment variable NNN_SHOW_HIDDEN is set the default filter will also match hidden files.

Navigate-as-you-type mode

In this mode directories are opened in filter mode, allowing continuous navigation. Works best with the arrow keys.

In case of only one match and it’s a directory, nnn auto selects the directory and enters it in this mode. To disable this behaviour,

export NNN_NO_AUTOSELECT=1

File indicators

The following indicators are used in the detail view:

Indicator	File Type
/	Directory
*	Executable
|	Fifo
=	Socket
@	Symbolic Link
@/	Symbolic Link to directory
b	Block Device
c	Character Device

Utility dependencies

External dependency	Operation
xdg-open (Linux), open(1) (OS X), cygstart (Cygwin)	desktop opener
file	determine file type
cp, mv, rm, xargs (from findutils on Linux)	copy, move and remove files
mediainfo, exiftool	multimedia file details
atool, patool (integration)	create, list and extract archives
vidir (from moreutils)	batch rename, move, delete dir entries
vlock (Linux), bashlock (OS X), lock(1) (BSD)	terminal locker
$EDITOR (overridden by $VISUAL, if defined)	edit files (fallback vi)
$PAGER	page through files (fallback less)
$SHELL	spawn a shell, run script (fallback sh)

To edit all text files in EDITOR (preferably CLI, fallback vi):

export NNN_USE_EDITOR=1

Arguments to the $EDITOR, $PAGER and $SHELL should be combined together, e.g.,

export EDITOR='vim -xR'

Help

$ nnn -h
$ man nnn

To lookup keyboard shortcuts at runtime, press ?.

QUICKSTART

1. Install the utilities required for your regular activities.

2. Configure cd on quit.

3. Optionally open all text files in EDITOR (fallback vi):

   export NNN_USE_EDITOR=1
   

4. Run n.

5. Press ? for help on keyboard shortcuts anytime.

6. For additional functionality setup custom scripts.

HOW TO

add bookmarks

Set environment variable NNN_BMS as a string of key_char:location pairs (max 10) separated by semicolons (;):

export NNN_BMS='d:~/Documents;u:/home/user/Cam Uploads;D:~/Downloads/'

NOTE: Bookmark keys should be single-character to use them in combination with the Leader key.

copy file paths

selection

Use ^K to copy the absolute path of the file under the cursor.

To copy multiple absolute file paths:

• press ^Y (or Y) to enter selection mode. In this mode it’s possible to
  • cherry-pick individual files one by one by pressing ^K on each entry (works across directories and contexts); or,
  • navigate to another file in the same directory to select a range of files
• press ^Y (or Y) again to copy the paths and exit the selection mode

The files in the list can now be copied (P), moved (V) or removed (X).

To list the file paths copied to memory press y.

File paths are copied to the temporary file DIR/.nnncp, where DIR (by priority) is:

$HOME or,
$TMPDIR or,
/tmp

The path is shown in the help and configuration screen..

To use the copied paths from the cmdline, use command substitution. For example, if DIR above is /home/user:

# bash/zsh
ls -ltr `cat /home/user/.nnncp`
ls -ltr $(cat /home/user/.nnncp)

# fish
ls -ltr (cat /home/user/.nnncp)

An alias may be handy:

alias ncp='cat /home/user/.nnncp'

so you can easily handle files together:

# bash/zsh
ls -ltr `ncp`
ls -ltr $(ncp)

# fish
ls -ltr (ncp)

to clipboard

Along with default copy, nnn can pipe the absolute path of the current file or multiple files to a copier script. For example, you can use xsel on Linux or pbcopy on OS X. Here’s a sample copier script.

To inform nnn of the executable copier script location:

export NNN_COPIER="/path/to/copier.sh"

cd on quit

To quit nnn and switch to the directory last opened follow the instructions below.

Pick the appropriate file for your shell from scripts/quitcd and add the contents to your shell’s rc file. You’ll need to spawn a new shell for the change to take effect. You should start nnn as n (or modify the function name to something else). To change directory on quit press ^G while exiting.

As you might notice, nnn uses the environment variable NNN_TMPFILE to write the last visited directory path. You can change it.

(neo)vim plugin

nnn can be used as a file picker/chooser within vim or neovim. Find the plugin here.

run custom scripts

nnn can invoke custom scripts with the currently selected file name as argument 1.

Export the path to the custom executable script:

export NNN_SCRIPT=/usr/local/bin/nscript

Press R to run the script in the current directory.

It’s possible to run multiple scripts with nnn as long as the scripts are in the same location and share the same prefix. To enable multiple scripts,

export NNN_MULTISCRIPT=1

With the example of NNN_SCRIPT above, some more scripts could be:

/usr/local/bin/nscript1
/usr/local/bin/nscript2
/usr/local/bin/nscriptcustom1
/usr/local/bin/nscriptcustom2
and so on...

Type the correct suffix when prompted on pressing the keybind R. To use the base script (NNN_SCRIPT), just press Enter.

sample scripts

• Open image files in current dir in sxiv:

  #!/usr/bin/env sh
  
  sxiv -q * >/dev/null 2>&1
  

• Fuzzy find files in fzy and open with xdg-open:

  #!/usr/bin/env sh
  
  xdg-open $(find -type f | fzy) >/dev/null 2>&1
  

change dir color

The default color for directories is blue. Option -c accepts color codes from 0 to 7 to use a different color:

0-black, 1-red, 2-green, 3-yellow, 4-blue, 5-magenta, 6-cyan, 7-white

Any other value disables colored directories.

integrate patool

On systems where atool is not available but patool is, drop two copies of the Python3 script natool as atool and apack somewhere in $PATH.

work faster at rename prompt

The rename prompt supports some bash-like command-line shortcuts - ^A, ^E, ^U. ^L clears the name.

set idle timeout

The terminal locker is disabled by default. To set the wait time in seconds, use environment variable NNN_IDLE_TIMEOUT.

show hot plugged drives

Enable volume management in your DE file manager and set removable drives or media to be auto-mounted when inserted. Then visit the usual mount point location (/mnt or /media/user) in nnn.

tmux configuration

nnn might not handle keypresses correctly when used with tmux (see issue #104 for more details). Set TERM=xterm-256color to address it.

BSD terminal issue

By default in OpenBSD & FreeBSD, stty maps ^Y to DSUSP. This means that typing ^Y will suspend nnn as if you typed ^Z (you can bring nnn back to the foreground by issuing fg) instead of entering multi-copy mode. You can check this with stty -a. If it includes the text dsusp = ^Y, issuing stty dsusp undef will disable this DSUSP and let nnn receive the ^Y instead.

Disable file open on navigation

In order to disable opening files on accidental navigation key (→ or l) press:

export DISABLE_FILE_OPEN_ON_NAV=1

To open files with this setting, press Enter.

WHY FORK?

nnn was initially forked from noice but is significantly different today. I chose to fork because:

• one can argue my approach deviates from the goal of the original project - keep the utility suckless. noice was rudimentary. In my opinion evolution is the taste of time.
• I would like to have a bit of control on what features are added in the name of desktop integration. A feature-bloat is the last thing in my mind. Check out nnn design considerations for more details.

MENTIONS

• FOSSMint
• Hacker News
• It’s FOSS
• LinuxLinks
• Ubuntu Full Circle Magazine - Issue 135

DEVELOPERS

1. Copyright © 2014-2016 Lazaros Koromilas
2. Copyright © 2014-2016 Dimitris Papastamos
3. Copyright © 2016-2018 Arun Prakash Jana