A CLI file explorer.

fex is a command-line file explorer inspired by Vim, exa and fzf, built with quick exploration and navigation in mind.

By using Vim-like keybindings, fex ends up being a near-effortless tool to zip around a file system:

• j, k to move to the pervious and next item
• h, l to move up or drop down a directory
• / to search for items
• : to run commands on the selected item

Index

• Installation
  • Using install.sh
  • From Source
  • macOS
  • Linux
• Setup
  • Zsh Setup
  • fex Default Command
• Config
  • Display Config
  • Search Config
  • Other Args
• Controls
  • Navigation Controls
  • Action Controls
  • File System Controls
  • Search Mode Controls
  • Command Mode Controls
  • Display Toggle Controls
• Platorm Support

Installation

Getting fex running involves:

1. Installing the fex executable.
2. Setting up the shell integration.

To get install the fex executable follow this section. For the shell integration go to the Setup section.

[!NOTE]

🚧 Installation using package managers (Homebrew, apt, etc) will be added.

Using install.sh

You can use install.sh script to download and setup fex.

Run the following bash one-liner to setup fex:

curl -fsSLO https://raw.githubusercontent.com/18alantom/fex/master/install.sh && bash install.sh

[!NOTE]

To uninstall fex:

1. Remove the $HOME/.fex directory.
2. Delete the lines pertaining to fex from your .bashrc or .zshrc file.

From Source

To install fex from source, you will need version zig version 0.13.0 installed. You can get it from here.

Once you had done that, compile the executable by using the following commands:

# Clone the fex repository
git clone https://github.com/18alantom/fex && cd fex

macOS

# Compile the fex executable for your system
zig build-exe -O ReleaseSafe main.zig

# Move the executable to usr bin
mv main /usr/local/bin/fex

Linux

# To be able to open files, you will need xdg-open from xdg-utils
sudo apt install xdg-utils

# Compile the fex executable for your system
zig build-exe -O ReleaseSafe main.zig -lc

# Move the executable to usr bin
mv main /usr/bin/fex

Setup

To use fex to its full extent it needs to be set up as a shell widget. This allows fex to:

• Be invoked using a key binding.
• Execute shell commands. For example cd to quit and change directory.

These are shell specific so you will need to set it up separately depending on the shell you use.

[!NOTE]

🚧 bash and fish shell support will be added.

Zsh Setup

To setup the Zsh widget for fex, first copy the file shell/.fex.zsh to your home directory. Then copy the following lines into your .zshrc:

# Source .fex.zsh if it's present
[ -f ~/.fex.zsh ] && source ~/.fex.zsh

# Bind CTRL-F to invoke fex (key binds can be custom)
bindkey '^f' fex-widget

[!TIP]

You can change which key is used to invoke fex by using the Zsh bindkey command. For example if you use Zsh vi mode, you can use bindkey -a 'f' fex-widget to invoke fex using the 'f' key when in command mode.

Reference:

• ZLE manpage (man zshzle), the ZLE BUILTINS section.
• Binding Keys and handling keymaps

fex Default Command

After you have set up fex for your shell, you can FEX_DEFAULT_COMMAND to change what flags fex is invoked using. For example:

# Sets time displayed to access time and hides icons
export FEX_DEFAULT_COMMAND="fex --time-type accessed --no-icons"

Config

You can configure fex by passing it args.

[!NOTE]

Config is picked up from the FEX_DEFAULT_COMMAND envvar and CLI args passed when calling fex. CLI args take precedence.

Display Config

Changes values displayed in an item line.

Search Config

This changes search behavior.

[!TIP]

fex uses smart case matching by default i.e case is ignored until you enter an upper case character.

Other Args

Controls

fex has three modes:

• Default: used to navigate around a file system and enter one of the other modes.
• Search: toggled with /, used to accept a query and find matching items in expanded directories.
• Command: toggled with :, used to accept a shell command that is executed on enter. fex needs to be setup as a shell widget for this to work, see Setup.

[!IMPORTANT]

Keys mentioned in angle-brackets such as <enter> show which key has to be pressed. Keys mentioned without such as cd are sequences that have to be typed.

Navigation Controls

Action Controls

File System Controls

Search Mode Controls

Type / in regular mode to initiate search mode.

Command Mode Controls

Type : in regular mode to initiate command mode.

Display Toggle Controls

Toggle displayed information.

Platform Support

fex should ideally compile and run on all macOS and Linux targets supported by Zig. Some features such as opening fs items work only on macOS for now.

Portions of fex code is platform specific and Windows compatibility has not been accounted for. This may be added in later.

Currently fex only has shell integration for Zsh. Fish and Bash integrations will be added.