sxiv - ArchWiki

# sxiv

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sxiv , Simple X Image Viewer is a lightweight and scriptable image viewer written in C.

## Installation

Install sxiv, which is available in the official repositories.

## Assigning keyboard shortcuts to sxiv

sxiv supports external key events. First you have to press `Ctrl-x` to send the next key to the external key-handler. The external key-handler requires an executable file `~/.config/sxiv/exec/key-handler` and passes the key combination pressed as well the name of the current image as arguments.

In this example, we will add the bindings `Ctrl+d` to execute `mv filename ~/.trash`, `Ctrl+c` to copy the current image's name to the clipboard with xclip, and `Ctrl+w` to set the current wallpaper with nitrogen.

    ~/.config/sxiv/exec/key-handler

    #!/bin/sh

    case "$1" in
    "C-d")
            mv "$2" ~/.trash ;;
    "C-r")
            convert -rotate 90 "$2" "$2" ;;
    "C-c")
            echo -n "$2" | xclip -selection clipboard ;;
    "C-w")
            nitrogen --save --set-zoom-fill "$2" ;;
    esac

Be sure to mark the script as executable

    $ chmod +x ~/.config/sxiv/exec/key-handler

Create `.trash` folder if it does not exist:

    $ mkdir ~/.trash

Tip: You may want to use a standards-compliant trashcan (like trash-cli or bashtrash) rather than `mv "$2" ~/.trash`.

## Tips and tricks

### Browse through images in directory after opening a single file

Place this script in `/usr/local/bin` and call it like this:

    $ scriptname a_single_image.jpg

Alternatively you can also install the script as a package from the AUR: sxiv-rifle.

As indicated in the comments of the script, it may be used to have this behavior when opening images from within ranger.

### Showing the image size in the status bar

Place the following executable script in `~/.config/sxiv/exec/image-info` and make sure that you have the exiv2 package installed:

    ~/.config/sxiv/exec/image-info

    #!/bin/sh

    # Example for ~/.config/sxiv/exec/image-info
    # Called by sxiv(1) whenever an image gets loaded,
    # with the name of the image file as its first argument.
    # The output is displayed in sxiv's status bar.

    s=" | " # field separator

    filename=$(basename "$1")
    filesize=$(du -Hh "$1" | cut -f 1)

    geometry=$(identify -format '%wx%h' "$1[0]")

    tags=$(exiv2 -q pr -pi "$1" | awk '$1~"Keywords" { printf("%s,", $4); }')
    tags=${tags%,}

    echo "${filesize}${s}${geometry}${tags:+$s}${tags}${s}${filename}"

## See also

- Arch Linux forum thread.

Category:

- Graphics and desktop publishing