Vifm - ArchWiki

# Vifm

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From the Vifm home page:

  Vifm is an ncurses based file manager with vi like keybindings/modes/options/commands/configuration, which also borrows some useful ideas from mutt.

If you use vi, Vifm gives you complete keyboard control over your files without having to learn a new set of commands.

## Installation

Install vifm from the official repositories.

Optional, for file previews:

- tree for directory previews
- mp3info for viewing information about mp3 files
- poppler for pdf previews

## Help file

Basic information about vifm is given in the help file. You can view it by opening vifm and typing

    :h

Another good source of information is the man page.

## Customizing Vifm

Vifm creates and populates a .vifm folder in your home directory containing the following:

- vifmrc - a well commented configuration file that can be edited to suit your working style.
- vifm-help.txt - the help text
- vifminfo - bookmarks and trash contents - it is not recommended to edit this file by hand
- Trash/ directory - self explanatory
- colors/ directory - color schemes
  - Default - well commented default color scheme - can be copied to create user-created color schemes

To get started, read the information avaliable in:

- `/usr/share/vifm/vifm.txt`
- `/usr/share/vifm/vifm-help.txt`

### Color schemes

The `~/.vifm/colors` directory contains the color schemes. The format is outlined in the file and follows vi/vim syntax highlight format. It is basically:

    highlight group cterm=attribute ctermfg=color ctermbg=color

An example colorscheme looks like:

    highlight Win cterm=none ctermfg=white ctermbg=black
    highlight Directory cterm=bold ctermfg=cyan ctermbg=none
    highlight Link cterm=bold ctermfg=yellow ctermbg=none
    highlight BrokenLink cterm=bold ctermfg=red ctermbg=none
    highlight Socket cterm=bold ctermfg=magenta ctermbg=none
    highlight Device cterm=bold ctermfg=red ctermbg=none
    highlight Fifo cterm=bold ctermfg=cyan ctermbg=none
    highlight Executable cterm=bold ctermfg=green ctermbg=none
    highlight Selected cterm=bold ctermfg=magenta ctermbg=none
    highlight CurrLine cterm=bold ctermfg=none ctermbg=blue
    highlight TopLine cterm=none ctermfg=black ctermbg=white
    highlight TopLineSel cterm=bold ctermfg=black ctermbg=none
    highlight StatusLine cterm=bold ctermfg=black ctermbg=white
    highlight WildMenu cterm=underline,reverse ctermfg=white ctermbg=black
    highlight CmdLine cterm=none ctermfg=white ctermbg=black
    highlight ErrorMsg cterm=none ctermfg=red ctermbg=black
    highlight Border cterm=none ctermfg=black ctermbg=white

You can also highlight different filetypes using regular expressions:

    highlight /^.*\.(mp3|ogg|oga|flac|m4a)$/ ctermfg=magenta
    highlight /^.*\.(jpg|jpeg|png|gif|tiff|webp|bmp|svg|svgz)$/ ctermfg=yellow
    highlight /^.*\.(zip|gz|bz2|xz|tar|tgz|tbz2|7z|rar|iso|rpm|deb)$/ ctermfg=red

### Key mapping

As of 0.6.2 you can customize key bindings in Vifm. These can be set from the command mode using the map command, like so:

     :map ] :s

However, these mappings will not be saved between sessions. To map a key permanently, place them in ~/vifm/vifmrc. More sample mappings can be seen at the end of that file.

### Opening filetypes in vifm

You can assign applications to filetypes in vifmrc, eg.

    filetype *.jpg,*.jpeg,*.png,*.gif feh %f 2>/dev/null &
    filetype *.md5 md5sum -c %f

Several defaults can be found in vifmrc. These can be edited or added to following the same format.

#### Browse images in current directory with Feh

    filextype *.jpg,*.jpeg,*.png,*.gif
           \ {View in feh}
           \ feh -FZ %d --start-at %d/%c 2>/dev/null

It will display your selected image in feh, but it will enable you to browse all other images in the directory as well, in their default order.

### User commands

You can also create custom commands in vifmrc, eg.

    command df df -h %m 2> /dev/null
    command diff vim -d %f %F

#### Creating symbolic links

    command link ln -s %d/%f %D

When you call

    :link

a link of the selected file is made in the other directory (if you are in split view). It even works with multiple files selected with visual (v) or tag (t).

#### Torrent creation

make a .torrent of the current file in the other tab's dir

    command mkt mktorrent -p -a [your announce url here] -o %D/%f.torrent %d/%f

### Marks

Marks can be set same as in vi. To set a mark for current file:

    m[a-z][A-Z][0-9]

Go to a file set for mark:

    '[a-z][A-Z][0-9]

Vifm will remember the marks between the sessions.

## Tips and tricks

### Useful key mappings

Single stroke to access command line

       nmap ; :

### Non-vim Users

`vifm` assumes that you are using `vim` and will throw errors if it doesn't find it. If you are using `vi` or `nvim` (Neovim), you need to edit your `~/.vifm/vifmrc` file. Comment out the line `set vicmd=vim` and replace it with `set vicmd=vi` or `set vicmd=nvim`. Note that, just like `.exrc`, comment lines are introduced by double quotes.

Category:

- File managers