| sk(1) | General Commands Manual | sk(1) |
sk - sk - fuzzy finder in Rust
sk [--tac] [--no-sort] [-t|--tiebreak] [-n|--nth] [--with-nth] [-d|--delimiter] [-e|--exact] [--regex] [--algo] [--case] [-b|--bind] [-m|--multi] [--no-multi] [--no-mouse] [-c|--cmd] [-i|--interactive] [-I ] [--color] [--no-hscroll] [--keep-right] [--skip-to-pattern] [--no-clear-if-empty] [--no-clear-start] [--no-clear] [--show-cmd-error] [--layout] [--reverse] [--height] [--no-height] [--min-height] [--margin] [-p|--prompt] [--cmd-prompt] [--ansi] [--tabstop] [--info] [--no-info] [--inline-info] [--header] [--header-lines] [--history] [--history-size] [--cmd-history] [--cmd-history-size] [--preview] [--preview-window] [-q|--query] [--cmd-query] [--expect] [--read0] [--print0] [--print-query] [--print-cmd] [--print-score] [-1|--select-1] [-0|--exit-0] [--sync] [--pre-select-n] [--pre-select-pat] [--pre-select-items] [--pre-select-file] [-f|--filter] [--shell] [--tmux] [-h|--help] [-V|--version]
sk - fuzzy finder in Rust
sk is a general purpose command-line fuzzy finder.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
SKIM_DEFAULT_COMMAND
Default command to use when input is tty. On *nix systems, sk runs the command with sh -c, so make sure that it's POSIX-compliant.
SKIM_DEFAULT_OPTIONS
Default options. e.g. export SKIM_DEFAULT_OPTIONS="--multi"
EXTENDED SEARCH MODE
Unless specified otherwise, sk will start in "extended-search mode". In this mode, you can specify multiple patterns delimited by spaces, such as: 'wild ^music .mp3$ sbtrkt !rmx
You can prepend a backslash to a space (\ ) to match a literal space character.
Exact-match (quoted)
A term that is prefixed by a single-quote character (') is interpreted as an "exact-match" (or "non-fuzzy") term. sk will search for the exact occurrences of the string.
Anchored-match
A term can be prefixed by ^, or suffixed by $ to become an anchored-match term. Then sk will search for the lines that start with or end with the given string. An anchored-match term is also an exact-match term.
Negation
If a term is prefixed by !, sk will exclude the lines that satisfy the term from the result. In this case, sk per‐ forms exact match by default.
Exact-match by default
If you don't prefer fuzzy matching and do not wish to "quote" (prefixing with ') every word, start sk with -e or --exact option. Note that when --exact is set, '-prefix "unquotes" the term.
OR operator
A single bar character term acts as an OR operator. For example, the following query matches entries that start with core and end with either go, rb, or py.
Example: ^core go$ | rb$ | py$
EXIT STATUS
- 0: Normal exit
- 1: No match
- 2: Error
- 130: Interrupted with CTRL-C or ESC
Often used in combination with --no-sort
Often used in combination with --tac
Example: history | sk --tac --no-sort
- score: Score of the fuzzy match algorithm
- index: Prefers line that appeared earlier in the input stream
- begin: Prefers line with matched substring closer to the beginning
- end: Prefers line with matched substring closer to the end
- length: Prefers line with shorter length
Notes:
- Each criterion could be negated, e.g. (-index)
- Each criterion should appear only once in the list
[possible values: score, -score, begin, -begin, end, -end, length, -length, index, -index]
A field index expression can be a non-zero integer or a range expression ([BEGIN]..[END]). --nth and --with-nth take a comma-separated list of field index expressions.
Examples:
- 1: The 1st field
- 2: The 2nd field
- -1: The last field
- -2: The 2nd to last field
- 3..5: From the 3rd field to the 5th field
- 2..: From the 2nd field to the last field
- ..-3: From the 1st field to the 3rd to the last field
- ..: All the fields
See nth for the details
In regex format, default to AWK-style
- skim_v2: Latest skim algorithm, should be better in almost any case
- skim_v1: Legacy skim algorithm
- clangd: Used in clangd for keyword completion
[possible values: skim_v1, skim_v2, clangd]
Determines whether or not to ignore case while matching
[possible values: respect, ignore, smart]
You can customize key bindings of sk with --bind option which takes a comma-separated list of key binding expressions. Each key binding expression follows the following format: <key>:<action>
Example: sk --bind=ctrl-j:accept,ctrl-k:kill-line
AVAILABLE KEYS: (SYNONYMS)
- ctrl-[a-z]
- ctrl-space
- ctrl-alt-[a-z]
- alt-[a-zA-Z]
- alt-[0-9]
- f[1-12]
- enter (ctrl-m)
- space
- bspace (bs)
- alt-up
- alt-down
- alt-left
- alt-right
- alt-enter (alt-ctrl-m)
- alt-space
- alt-bspace (alt-bs)
- alt-/
- tab
- btab (shift-tab)
- esc
- del
- up
- down
- left
- right
- home
- end
- pgup (page-up)
- pgdn (page-down)
- shift-up
- shift-down
- shift-left
- shift-right
- alt-shift-up
- alt-shift-down
- alt-shift-left
- alt-shift-right
- any single character
ACTION: DEFAULT BINDINGS [NOTES]
- abort: ctrl-c ctrl-q esc
- accept(...): enter the argument will be printed when the binding is triggered
- append-and-select:
- backward-char: ctrl-b left
- backward-delete-char: ctrl-h bspace
- backward-kill-word: alt-bs
- backward-word: alt-b shift-left
- beginning-of-line: ctrl-a home
- clear-screen: ctrl-l
- delete-char: del
- delete-charEOF: ctrl-d
- deselect-all:
- down: ctrl-j ctrl-n down
- end-of-line: ctrl-e end
- execute(...): see below for the details
- execute-silent(...): see below for the details
- forward-char: ctrl-f right
- forward-word: alt-f shift-right
- if-non-matched:
- if-query-empty:
- if-query-not-empty:
- ignore:
- kill-line:
- kill-word: alt-d
- next-history: ctrl-n with --history or --cmd-history
- page-down: pgdn
- page-up: pgup
- half-page-down:
- half-page-up:
- preview-up: shift-up
- preview-down: shift-down
- preview-left:
- preview-right:
- preview-page-down:
- preview-page-up:
- previous-history: ctrl-p with --history or --cmd-history
- reload(...):
- select-all:
- toggle:
- toggle-all:
- toggle+down: ctrl-i tab
- toggle-in: (--layout=reverse ? toggle+up: toggle+down)
- toggle-out: (--layout=reverse ? toggle+down: toggle+up)
- toggle-preview:
- toggle-preview-wrap:
- toggle-sort:
- toggle+up: btab shift-tab
- unix-line-discard: ctrl-u
- unix-word-rubout: ctrl-w
- up: ctrl-k ctrl-p up
- yank: ctrl-y
Multiple actions can be chained using + separator.
Example: sk --bind 'ctrl-a:select-all+accept'
Special behaviors
With execute(...) and reload(...) action, you can execute arbitrary commands without leaving sk. For example, you can turn sk into a simple file browser by binding enter key to less command like follows:
sk --bind "enter:execute(less {})"
Note: if no argument is supplied to reload, the default command is run.
You can use the same placeholder expressions as in --preview.
If the command contains parentheses, sk may fail to parse the expression. In that case, you can use any of the following alternative notations to avoid parse errors.
- execute[...]
- execute'...'
- execute"..."
- execute:...
This is the special form that frees you from parse errors as it does not expect the clos‐ ing character. The catch is that it should be the last one in the comma-separated list of key-action pairs.
sk switches to the alternate screen when executing a command. However, if the command is ex‐ pected to complete quickly, and you are not interested in its output, you might want to use exe‐ cute-silent instead, which silently executes the command without the switching. Note that sk will not be responsive until the command is complete. For asynchronous execution, start your command as a background process (i.e. appending &).
With if-query-empty and if-query-not-empty action, you could specify the action to execute de‐ pends on the query condition. For example:
sk --bind 'ctrl-d:if-query-empty(abort)+delete-char'
If the query is empty, skim will execute abort action, otherwise execute delete-char action. It is equal to ‘delete-char/eof‘.
Uses Tab and S-Tab by default for selection
Will be invoked using sh -c
Use --color to customize the color scheme of skim. The format is:
Format: [BASE_SCHEME][,COLOR:ANSI_VALUE]
Base Color Schemes
- dark: Default 256-color dark theme (default) - light: 256-color light theme - 16: Basic 16-color theme - bw: Minimal black & white theme (no colors, just styles) - molokai: Molokai-inspired 256-color theme
Color Customization
Colors can be specified in two ways:
- ANSI color code (0-255): --color=fg:232,bg:255 - RGB hex values: --color=fg:#FF0000 (red text)
Customizable UI Elements
- fg: Normal text foreground color - bg: Normal text background color - matched (or hl): Matched text in search results - matched_bg: Background of matched text - current (or fg+): Current line foreground color - current_bg (or bg+): Current line background color - current_match (or hl+): Matched text in current line - current_match_bg: Background of matched text in current line - spinner: Progress indicator color - info: Information line color - prompt: Prompt color - cursor (or pointer): Cursor color - selected (or marker): Selected item marker color - header: Header text color - border: Border color for preview/layout
Examples
- --color=light: Use light color scheme - --color=dark,fg:232,bg:255: Use dark scheme with custom colors - --color=current_bg:24: Default scheme with custom current line background - --color=dark,matched:#00FF00: Green matched text on dark theme - --color=fg:#FFFFFF,bg:#000000: Custom white-on-black color scheme
Effective only when the query string is empty
Line will start with the start of the matched pattern. Effective only when the query string is empty. Was designed to skip showing starts of paths of rg/grep results.
Example: sk -i -c "rg {} --color=always" --skip-to-pattern '[^/]*:' --ansi
Do not clear previous items if new command returns empty result. This might be useful to reduce flickering when typing new commands and the half-complete commands are not valid.
This is not the default behavior because similar use cases for grep and rg have already been op‐ timized where empty query results actually mean "empty" and previous results should be cleared.
Do not clear finder interface on exit. If skim was started in full screen mode, it will not switch back to the original screen, so you'll have to manually run tput rmcup to return. This option can be used to avoid flickering of the screen when your application needs to start skim multiple times in order.
*default: Display from the bottom of the screen
*reverse: Display from the top of the screen
*reverse-list: Display from the top of the screen, prompt at the bottom
[possible values: default, reverse, reverse-list]
Can either be a row count or a percentage
Useful when the height is set as a percentage
Ignored when --height is not specified
For each side, can be either a row count or a percentage of the terminal size
Format can be one of:
- TRBL
- TB,RL
- T,RL,B
- T,R,B,L
Example: 1,10%
- hidden: do not display info - inline: display info in the same row as the input - default: display info in a dedicated row above the input
[possible values: default, inline, hidden]
The given string will be printed as the sticky header. The lines are displayed in the given order from top to bottom regardless of --layout option, and are not affected by --with-nth. ANSI color codes are processed even when --ansi is not set.
The first N lines of the input are treated as the sticky header. When --with-nth is set, the lines are transformed just like the other lines that follow.
Format: sk --tmux <center|top|bottom|left|right>[,SIZE[%]][,SIZE[%]]
Depending on the direction, the order and behavior of the sizes varies:
- center: (width, height) or (size, size) if only one is provided
- top | bottom: (height, width) or height = size, width = 100% if only one is provided
- left | right: (width, height) or height = 100%, width = size if only one is provided
Note: env vars are only passed to the tmux command if they are either PATH or prefixed with RUST or SKIM
Load search history from the specified file and update the file on completion.
When enabled, CTRL-N and CTRL-P are automatically remapped to next-history and previous-history.
Load command query history from the specified file and update the file on completion.
When enabled, CTRL-N and CTRL-P are automatically remapped to next-history and previous-history.
Execute the given command for the current line and display the result on the preview window. {} in the command is the placeholder that is replaced to the single-quoted string of the current line. To transform the replace‐ ment string, specify field index expressions between the braces (See FIELD INDEX EXPRESSION for the details).
Examples:
sk --preview='head -$LINES {}'
ls -l | sk --preview="echo user={3} when={-4..-2}; cat {-1}"
--header-lines=1
sk overrides $LINES and $COLUMNS so that they represent the exact size of the preview window.
A placeholder expression starting with + flag will be replaced to the space-separated list of the selected lines (or the current line if no selection was made) individually quoted.
Examples:
sk --multi --preview='head -10 {+}'
git log --oneline | sk --multi --preview 'git show {+1}'
Note that you can escape a placeholder pattern by prepending a backslash.
Also, {q} is replaced to the current query string. {cq} is replaced to the current command query string. {n} is replaced to zero-based ordinal index of the line. Use {+n} if you want all index numbers when multiple lines are selected
Preview window will be updated even when there is no match for the current query if any of the placeholder ex‐ pressions evaluates to a non-empty string.
Format: [up|down|left|right][:SIZE[%]][:hidden][:+SCROLL[-OFFSET]]
Determine the layout of the preview window. If the argument ends with: hidden, the preview window will be hidden by default until toggle-preview action is triggered. Long lines are truncated by default. Line wrap can be enabled with : wrap flag.
If size is given as 0, preview window will not be visible, but sk will still execute the command in the background.
+SCROLL[-OFFSET] determines the initial scroll offset of the preview window. SCROLL can be either a numeric integer or a single-field index expression that refers to a numeric integer. The optional -OFFSET part is for adjusting the base offset so that you can see the text above it. It should be given as a numeric integer (-INTEGER), or as a denom‐ inator form (-/INTEGER) for specifying a fraction of the preview window height.
Examples:
# Non-default scroll window positions and sizes
sk --preview="head {}" --preview-window=up:30%
sk --preview="file {}" --preview-window=down:2
# Initial scroll offset is set to the line number of each line of
# git grep output *minus* 5 lines (-5)
git grep --line-number '' |
sk --delimiter: --preview 'nl {1}' --preview-window +{2}-5
# Preview with bat, matching line in the middle of the window (-/2)
git grep --line-number '' |
sk --delimiter: \
--preview 'bat --style=numbers --color=always --highlight-line {2} {1}' \
--preview-window +{2}-/2
Comma-separated list of keys that can be used to complete sk in addition to the default enter key. When this option is set, sk will print the name of the key pressed as the first line of its output (or as the second line if --print-query is also used). No line will be printed if sk is completed with the default enter key. If --expect option is specified multiple times, sk will expect the union of the keys. --no-expect will clear the list.
Example: sk --expect=ctrl-v,ctrl-t,alt-s --expect=f1,f2,~,@
Synchronous search for multi-staged filtering. If specified, skim will launch ncurses finder only after the input stream is complete.
Example: sk --multi | sk --sync
Check the doc for the detailed syntax: https://docs.rs/regex/1.4.1/regex/
Example: item1\nitem2
Generate completion script for the specified shell: bash, zsh, fish, etc. The output can be directly sourced or saved to a file for automatic loading. Examples: source <(sk --shell bash) (immediate use) sk --shell bash >> ~/.bash_completion (persistent use)
Supported shells: bash, zsh, fish, powershell, elvish
Note: While PowerShell completions are supported, Windows is not supported for now.
[possible values: bash, elvish, fish, powershell, zsh]
v0.18.0
| sk 0.18.0 | x86_64 |