[[https://gitter.im/treemacs/community][file:https://badges.gitter.im/Alexander-Miller/treemacs.png]] [[https://melpa.org/#/treemacs][file:https://melpa.org/packages/treemacs-badge.svg]] [[https://stable.melpa.org/#/treemacs][file:https://stable.melpa.org/packages/treemacs-badge.svg]]
[[file:screenshots/screenshot.png]]
Content :TOC:noexport:
[[#state-of-development][State of Development]]
[[#quick-feature-overview][Quick Feature Overview]]
[[#quick-start][Quick Start]]
[[#detailed-feature-list][Detailed Feature List]]
[[#installation][Installation]]
[[#configuration][Configuration]]
[[#keymap][Keymap]]
[[#compatibility][Compatibility]]
[[#faq][FAQ]]
[[#contributing][Contributing]]
[[#working-with-the-code-base][Working With The Code Base]]
[[#dependencies][Dependencies]]
State of Development
Treemacs is currently in an active - but low intensity - state of development. New features are worked on, PRs will be looked at and issues answered - eventually. My time budget is limited, so looking for new work just means looking at whatever is currently at the top of my inbox. If you feel like the ticket you've opened has gone unanswered for a while feel free to give it a bump - you are explicitly encouraged to do so.
Quick Feature Overview Treemacs is a file and project explorer similar to NeoTree or vim's NerdTree, but largely inspired by the Project Explorer in Eclipse. It shows the file system outlines of your projects in a simple tree layout allowing quick navigation and exploration, while also possessing basic file management utilities. Specifically a quick feature overview looks as follows:
** Fancy Gifs!
(The font used in the gifs is Fantasque Sans Mono)
Various ways to open files: [[file:screenshots/open-files.gif]]
Workspace administration with org-mode: [[file:screenshots/workspace-edit.gif]]
Automatic reaction to changes in the file system: [[file:screenshots/filewatch.gif]]
Automatic reaction to changes in git: [[file:screenshots/git.gif]]
Full-featured mouse interface: [[file:screenshots/mouse-interface.gif]]
Including moving and opening files via mouse drag: [[file:screenshots/mouse-drag.gif]]
Resizable icons: [[file:screenshots/icon-resize.gif]]
Quick Start If you don't care about reading the full readme here's a list of some bare bones basics to get you started:
Detailed Feature List ** Projects and Workspaces If you've previously used a different explorer like NeoTree or NerdTree - or an earlier version of treemacs for that matter - you are probably used to a display system wherein you see exactly a single file tree whose exact root you can arbitrarily change. This system makes it difficult to work on and switch between multiple projects. Treemacs used to (and still does) remedy that limitation by making every treemacs buffer unique to its frame, but it has now been redesigned to be able to display multiple file trees - projects - at once.
In treemacs a workspace is simply a (named) collection of projects, while a project mostly consists of 2 things: its location in the file system and its name. This is the info that you need to provide when you want to add a new project to your workspace. Just like projects you can add, remove, rename and switch between workspaces at any time.
This design approach has various advantages and disadvantages. It is now no longer possible to "free roam" in the file system with treemacs, i.e. you can no longer arbitrarily switch the single file tree's root to the directory at point or the current root's parent. Another restriction is that the same part of the file system may not appear more than once as part of the workspace. For example, it is not possible to have both /Documents and /Documents/ProjectX as projects in the same workspace, since internally treemacs heavily relies on every node having a unique natural key in its absolute path. Nonetheless the pros certainly outweigh the cons, as a multiroot setup allows to work on multiple projects with any combination concern/buffer separating frameworks, be it persp/perspective, eyebrowse, tab-bar-mode, or project.el/projectile. It also opens the potential for concurrent display not only of the file system, but e.g. the currently open buffers.
*** Workspace Selection When a workspace is first needed, treemacs will select a workspace in the following manner:
If the current buffer is editing a file then treemacs will try to find the first workspace with a project containing that file. If that fails treemacs will resort to using the /fallback workspace/ which is defined as simply the /first/ element in the list of all workspace.
The order of workspaces is the same that you see when calling ~treemacs-edit-workspaces~ (see next chapter). You can interactively set the fallback workspace by calling ~treemacs-set-fallback-workspace~.
This selection will happen when treemacs is first started (with a command like ~treemacs-select-window~) or when a function that requires the current workspace to be known is used (like adding or removing a project). *** Disabling workspaces & projects It is possible to disable a workspace or project so it won't appear in treemacs, but still remains a part of your loadout, keeping it visible when you go edit your workspaces. To do so simply start the name of the workspace or project with "COMMENT":
[[file:screenshots/disable-project.png]]
** Conveniently Editing Your Projects and Workspaces There are two ways to edit your projects and workspaces: call up single add/remove/rename/switch commands under either the ~C-c C-p~ or ~C-c C-w~ prefix, or call ~treemacs-edit-workspaces~ and edit your entire layout in the form of a single org-mode buffer.
The used org-format is quite simple: level 1 headlines are names of workspaces, level 2 headlines are names of projects in a workspace, and every project's path is given as a description list, starting with a ~-~ (and an optional leading space). Empty lines and lines starting with ~#~ are ignored, and everything else leads to an error.
You needn't worry about making mistakes either. If there's something wrong when you call ~treemacs-finish-edit~ (C-c C-c) then treemacs will point you at the incorrect line and tell you what's missing:
[[file:screenshots/workspace-edit.png]]
(Note that the list with the path property allows an indentation of 0 or 1 spaces only. The much greater visible indentation is caused by ~org-indent-mode~)
** Navigation without Projects and Workspaces
If a strict workspace and project structure, as described above, is too stringent for your use-case there are multiple other ways to use treemacs in a more "free-form" style:
** Frame Locality Treemacs buffers have a limited scope they are visible in: the frames they are created in. A treemacs buffer, once created, lives alongside and inside its frame, and is also destroyed with that frame. Calling ~treemacs~ while inside a new frame will create a new buffer for it, regardless how many other treemacs buffers already exist. While there can be multiple unique treemacs buffer they will all still show the same workspace and the same projects.
A treemacs buffer that does not belong to a frame may still be made visible by manually selecting in the buffer list. This would break various assumptions in treemacs' code base and effectively falls under undefined behaviour - a bad idea all around.
** Mouse Interface Treemacs handles left clicks in much the same way as modern graphical applications do: a single click sets the focus, a double click expands or collapses a directory or tag section node and visits a file/moves to a tag for a file/tag node.
Additionally tag sections can be expanded or collapsed by a single click on the file/tag section icon.
If you prefer to expand/collapse nodes with a single mouse click you can also use ~treemacs-single-click-expand-action~:
(with-eval-after-load 'treemacs (define-key treemacs-mode-map [mouse-1] #'treemacs-single-click-expand-action))
A right click popup-menu is also available:
[[file:screenshots/right-click.png]]
You can move and open files by dragging them with the mouse.
** Follow-mode ~treemacs-follow-mode~ is a global minor mode which allows the treemacs view to always move its focus to the currently selected file. This mode runs on an idle timer - the exact duration of inactivity (in seconds) before a move is called is determined by ~treemacs-tag-follow-delay~.
** Tag-follow-mode ~treemacs-tag-follow-mode~ is a global minor mode which extends and effectively replaces ~treemacs-follow-mode~. When activated it follows not just the current file, but also the current tag. This works alongside treemacs' integration with imenu, so all file types providing an imenu implementation are compatible.
This mode, like follow-mode, runs on an idle timer - the exact duration of inactivity (in seconds) before a move is called is determined by ~treemacs-tag-follow-delay~.
Note that in order to move to a tag in treemacs the treemacs buffer's window needs to be temporarily selected, which will reset ~blink-cursor-mode~'s timer if it is enabled. This will result in the cursor blinking seemingly pausing for a short time and giving the appearance of the tag follow action lasting much longer than it really does.
** Fringe-indicator-mode ~treemacs-fringe-indicator-mode~ is a global minor mode that displays a little icon in the fringe that moves with the cursor. It can make the selected line more visible if ~hl-line-mode~ doesn't stand out with your theme.
The indicator can either be permanently visible, or be only shown when the treemacs window is selected by calling it either with the ~always~ or ~only-when-focused~ argument. ** Git-mode ~treemacs-git-mode~ is a global minor mode which enables treemacs to check for files' and directories' git status information and highlight them accordingly (see also the ~treemacs-git-...~ faces). The mode is available in 3 variants: ~simple~, ~extended~ and ~deferred~:
The deferred variant is the same as extended, except the tasks of rendering nodes and highlighting them are separated. The former happens immediately, the latter after ~treemacs-deferred-git-apply-delay~ seconds of idle time. This may be faster (if not in truth then at least in appereance) as the git process is given a much greater amount of time to finish. The downside is that the effect of nodes changing their colors may be somewhat jarring, though this effect is largely mitigated due to the use of a caching layer.
When called interactively ~treemacs-git-mode~ will ask for the variant to use. In lisp code an appropriate symbol can be directly passed to the minor mode function:
(treemacs-git-mode 'deferred)
All versions use an asynchronous git process and are optimized to not do more work than necessary, so their performance cost should, for the most part, be the constant amount of time it takes to fork a subprocess. For repositories where this is not the case ~treemacs-max-git-entries~ (default value 5000) will limit the number of git status entries treemacs will process before ignoring the rest.
** Filewatch-mode ~treemacs-filewatch-mode~ is a global minor mode which enables treemacs to watch the files it is displaying for changes and automatically refresh itself when it detects a change in the file system that it decides is relevant.
A change event is relevant for treemacs if a new file has been created or deleted or a file has been changed and ~treemacs-git-mode~ is enabled. Events caused by files that are ignored as per ~treemacs-ignored-file-predicates~ are likewise counted as not relevant.
The refresh is not called immediately after an event was received, treemacs instead waits ~treemacs-file-event-delay~ ms to see if any more files have changed to avoid having to refresh multiple times over a short period of time. Treemacs will not refresh the entire view to make the detected changes visible, but will instead only make updates to the directories where the change(s) happened. Using this mode is therefore by far not as expensive as a full refresh on every change and save.
The mode only applies to directories opened after this mode has been activated. This means that to enable file watching in an already existing treemacs buffer it needs to be killed and rebuilt. Turning off this mode is, on the other hand, instantaneous - it will immediately turn off all existing file watch processes and outstanding refresh actions.
Known limitations:
** File Management Treemacs is no dired, but it supports the basic file management facilities of creating, deleting, moving, copying and renaming files.
It is also possible to mark multiple files to act on them. ~M-m~ will summon a hydra for bulk file actions. NOTE: The bulk action implementation is using treemacs' (yet to be documented) annotation api, which is set up to provide /permanent/ annotations like colouring based on flycheck's error/warning/info output. This means that marking files will likewise be permanent, even if you collapse the directories containing those files and they are no longer visible. ** Indent-guide-mode
~treemacs-indent-guide-mode~ is a simple visual helper based on the options provided by the ~treemacs-indentation~ and ~treemacs-indentation-string~ settings. Its appearance is dictated by ~treemacs-indent-guide-style~, the options are either ~line~:
[[file:screenshots/indent-guide-line.png]]
or ~block~:
[[file:screenshots/indent-guide-block.png]] ** Git-commit-diff-mode ~treemacs-git-commit-diff-mode~ will annotate git-tracked project to show how many commits the local repo is ahead or behind its remote counterpart:
[[file:screenshots/git-commit-diff.png]] ** Session Persistence Treemacs' sessions - your workspace and the projects it contains - are saved when Emacs shuts down and restored when treemacs is first loaded. This persistence process is fully automatic and independent, and should therefore be fully compatible with ~desktop-save-mode~.
The persisted state is saved under ~user-emacs-directory/.cache/treemacs-persist~ by default. The exact file location is saved in the variable ~treemacs-persist-file~.
If something goes wrong when loading the file the erroneous state will be saved in ~treemacs-last-error-persist-file~ for debugging.
** Terminal Compatibility When run in a terminal treemacs will fall back to a much simpler rendering system, foregoing its usual png icons and using simple ~+~ and ~-~ characters instead. The exact characters used are [[#custom-icons][highly customizable]].
** Tag View Treemacs is able to display not only the file system, but also tags found in individual files. The tags list is sourced using emacs' builtin imenu functionality, so all file types that emacs can generate an imenu index for are supported.
Imenu caches its result, so to avoid stale tag lists setting ~imenu-auto-rescan~ to t is recommended. Tags generated with the help of ~semantic-mode~ are likewise supported.
*** ggtags
Treemacs can show the tags produced by ggtags if you switch a buffer's imenu index function to use ggtags:
(setq-local imenu-create-index-function #'ggtags-build-imenu-index)
Current-Directory Awareness Treemacs always sets the ~default-directory~ variable based on the (nearest) path at the current node, falling back to your home directory when there is no node or path at point. That means that various commands like ~find-file~, ~ediff~ ~magit-status~ or ~helm-projectile-ag~ will correctly act based on the current directory or project context. Tramp Support Treemacs supports projects on remote directories, e.g. ~/scp:remote-server:path/to/directory~.
However tramp support has some restrictions: ~treemacs-use-collapsed-directories~ has no effect on remote directories. Org Support Treemacs supports storing links to its file nodes by means of ~org-store-link~. Theme Support Using a different treemacs theme works the same way as using a different Emacs theme: just call ~treemacs-load-theme~, either programmatically or interactively. In the former case you need to supply the name of the theme as a string, like this:
(treemacs-load-theme "Default")
Do keep in mind that by default treemacs' theme support is all theory: the standard installation includes only the default theme; this feature is meant to easily allow others to extend, create and distribute themes for treemacs.
A detailed explanation on modifying themes and icons can be found in the [[#customizing-themes-and-icons][Configuration]] section. ** Peeking If you want to look at files from within treemacs, without opening them with ~RET~ and switching to another window, you can do so with ~P~ which activates ~treemacs-peek-mode~. When peek-mode is active treemacs will automatically preview the file at point.
To quit peek-mode either press ~P~ again to disable it or open a file with ~RET~. Either way upon exiting peek-mode all files that have been opened due to peeking will be closed again (with the exception of the one that you opened with ~RET~, of course).
You can scroll the window being peeked (and in general ~other-window~ when you are in treemacs) with ~M-N/P~ or ~M-J/K~ if you use ~treemacs-evil~. ** Additional Packages Next to treemacs itself you can optionally install:
treemacs-evil Must be installed and loaded if you use evil. The keybindings and the cursor will not be setup properly otherwise. It'll also enable navigation with j/k instead of n/p. treemacs-projectile Allows to quickly add your projectile projects to the treemacs workspace. treemacs-magit A small utility package to fill the small gaps left by using filewatch-mode and git-mode in conjunction with magit: it will inform treemacs about (un)staging of files and commits happening in magit. treemacs-icons-dired Allows you to use treemacs icons in dired buffers with ~treemacs-icons-dired-mode~: [[file:screenshots/dired-icons.png]] treemacs-persp/treemacs-perspective Integration with persp-mode or perspective.el that allows treemacs buffers to be unique inside the active perspective instead of the default frame-based buffer scope. treemacs-tab-bar Integration with tab-bar-mode that allows treemacs buffers to be unique inside the active tab instead of the default frame-based buffer scope. * treemacs-all-the-icons Provides a theme using [[https://github.com/domtronn/all-the-icons.el][all-the-icons]]. Treemacs as a Framework Treemacs can be extended to display arbitrary nodes as well as be used as a general rendering backend for any tree-like structures. [[file:Extensions.org][See here]] for an extended tutorial and demonstration.
Treemacs is also available on MELPA. If you just want to quickly start using it grab the ~use-package~ example below, and customize it as needed (remove ~treemacs-evil~ if you don't use it, customize the keybindings to you taste, etc).
Either way keep in mind that treemacs has /no default keybindings/ for its globally callable initialization functions. Each user is supposed to select keybindings for functions like ~treemacs-find-file~ based on whatever they find convenient.
You can find an exhaustive overview of all functions, their keybindings and functions you need to bind yourself [[#keymap][below]].
The following ~use-package~ snippet includes a list of /all/ of treemacs' configuration options in their default setting. Setting them, or activating the minor modes yourself is not necessary, they are only listed here to encourage discoverability.
(use-package treemacs :ensure t :defer t :init (with-eval-after-load 'winum (define-key winum-keymap (kbd "M-0") #'treemacs-select-window)) :config (progn (setq treemacs-collapse-dirs (if treemacs-python-executable 3 0) treemacs-deferred-git-apply-delay 0.5 treemacs-directory-name-transformer #'identity treemacs-display-in-side-window t treemacs-eldoc-display 'simple treemacs-file-event-delay 2000 treemacs-file-extension-regex treemacs-last-period-regex-value treemacs-file-follow-delay 0.2 treemacs-file-name-transformer #'identity treemacs-follow-after-init t treemacs-expand-after-init t treemacs-find-workspace-method 'find-for-file-or-pick-first treemacs-git-command-pipe "" treemacs-goto-tag-strategy 'refetch-index treemacs-header-scroll-indicators '(nil . "^^^^^^") treemacs-hide-dot-git-directory t treemacs-indentation 2 treemacs-indentation-string " " treemacs-is-never-other-window nil treemacs-max-git-entries 5000 treemacs-missing-project-action 'ask treemacs-move-files-by-mouse-dragging t treemacs-move-forward-on-expand nil treemacs-no-png-images nil treemacs-no-delete-other-windows t treemacs-project-follow-cleanup nil treemacs-persist-file (expand-file-name ".cache/treemacs-persist" user-emacs-directory) treemacs-position 'left treemacs-read-string-input 'from-child-frame treemacs-recenter-distance 0.1 treemacs-recenter-after-file-follow nil treemacs-recenter-after-tag-follow nil treemacs-recenter-after-project-jump 'always treemacs-recenter-after-project-expand 'on-distance treemacs-litter-directories '("/node_modules" "/.venv" "/.cask") treemacs-project-follow-into-home nil treemacs-show-cursor nil treemacs-show-hidden-files t treemacs-silent-filewatch nil treemacs-silent-refresh nil treemacs-sorting 'alphabetic-asc treemacs-select-when-already-in-treemacs 'move-back treemacs-space-between-root-nodes t treemacs-tag-follow-cleanup t treemacs-tag-follow-delay 1.5 treemacs-text-scale nil treemacs-user-mode-line-format nil treemacs-user-header-line-format nil treemacs-wide-toggle-width 70 treemacs-width 35 treemacs-width-increment 1 treemacs-width-is-initially-locked t treemacs-workspace-switch-cleanup nil)
;; The default width and height of the icons is 22 pixels. If you are
;; using a Hi-DPI display, uncomment this to double the icon size.
;;(treemacs-resize-icons 44)
(treemacs-follow-mode t)
(treemacs-filewatch-mode t)
(treemacs-fringe-indicator-mode 'always)
(when treemacs-python-executable
(treemacs-git-commit-diff-mode t))
(pcase (cons (not (null (executable-find "git")))
(not (null treemacs-python-executable)))
(`(t . t)
(treemacs-git-mode 'deferred))
(`(t . _)
(treemacs-git-mode 'simple)))
(treemacs-hide-gitignored-files-mode nil))
:bind
(:map global-map
("M-0" . treemacs-select-window)
("C-x t 1" . treemacs-delete-other-windows)
("C-x t t" . treemacs)
("C-x t d" . treemacs-select-directory)
("C-x t B" . treemacs-bookmark)
("C-x t C-t" . treemacs-find-file)
("C-x t M-t" . treemacs-find-tag)))(use-package treemacs-evil :after (treemacs evil) :ensure t)
(use-package treemacs-projectile :after (treemacs projectile) :ensure t)
(use-package treemacs-icons-dired :hook (dired-mode . treemacs-icons-dired-enable-once) :ensure t)
(use-package treemacs-magit :after (treemacs magit) :ensure t)
(use-package treemacs-persp ;;treemacs-perspective if you use perspective.el vs. persp-mode :after (treemacs persp-mode) ;;or perspective vs. persp-mode :ensure t :config (treemacs-set-scope-type 'Perspectives))
(use-package treemacs-tab-bar ;;treemacs-tab-bar if you use tab-bar-mode :after (treemacs) :ensure t :config (treemacs-set-scope-type 'Tabs))
| Variable | Default | Description | |------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | treemacs-indentation | 2 | The number of times each level is indented in the file tree. If specified as '(INTEGER px), indentation will be a single INTEGER pixels wide space. | | treemacs-indentation-string | " " | The string that is used to create indentation when ~treemacs-indentation~ is not specified as pixels. | | treemacs-width | 35 | Width of the treemacs window. | | treemacs-wide-toggle-width | 70 | Width of the treemacs window when using ~treemacs-extra-wide-toggle~. | | treemacs-width-increment | 1 | When resizing, this value is added or substracted from the window width. | | treemacs-show-hidden-files | t | Dotfiles will be shown if this is set to t and be hidden otherwise. | | treemacs-follow-after-init | t | When non-nil follow the currently selected file after initializing the treemacs buffer, regardless of ~treemacs-follow-mode~ setting. | | treemacs-expand-after-init | t | When non-nil expand the first project after treemacs is first initialsed. | | treemacs-sorting | alphabetic-asc | Indicates how treemacs will sort its files and directories. (Files will always be shown after directories.) | | treemacs-ignored-file-predicates | (treemacs--std-ignore-file-predicate) | List of predicates to test for files and directories ignored by Emacs. Ignored files will never be shown in the treemacs buffer. | | treemacs-pre-file-insert-predicates | nil | List of predicates to test for files and directories not to be rendered. Unlike ~treemacs-ignored-file-predicates~ these predicates apply when files' git status information is available. | | treemacs-file-event-delay | 2000 | How long (in milliseconds) to collect file events before refreshing. See also ~treemacs-filewatch-mode~. | | treemacs-goto-tag-strategy | refetch-index | Indicates how to move to a tag when its buffer is dead. | | treemacs-default-visit-action | treemacs-visit-node-no-split | Default action for opening a node (e.g. file, directory, tag). ~treemacs-visit-file-default~ action in ~treemacs-*-actions-config~ calls this function. | | treemacs-RET-actions-config | Prefers visiting nodes over closing/opening | Alist defining the behaviour of ~treemacs-RET-action~. | | treemacs-TAB-actions-config | Prefers closing/opening nodes over visiting | Alist defining the behaviour of ~treemacs-TAB-action~. | | treemacs-doubleclick-actions-config | Closes/opens tags and visits files | Alist defining the behaviour of ~treemacs-doubleclick-action~. | | treemacs-collapse-dirs | 0 | Collapse this many directories into one, when possible. A directory is collapsible when its content consists of nothing but another directory. | | treemacs-silent-refresh | nil | When non-nil a completed refresh will not be announced with a log message. This applies both to manual refreshing as well as automatic (due to ~treemacs-filewatch-mode~). | | treemacs-silent-filewatch | nil | When non-nil a refresh due to ~filewatch-mode~ will cause no log message. | | treemacs-is-never-other-window | nil | Prevents treemacs from being selected with ~other-window~. | | treemacs-position | left | Position of treemacs buffer. Valid values are ~left~, ~right~. | | treemacs-tag-follow-delay | 1.5 | Delay in seconds of inactivity for ~treemacs-tag-follow-mode~ to trigger. | | treemacs-tag-follow-cleanup | t | When non-nil ~treemacs-tag-follow-mode~ will keep only the current file's tags visible. | | treemacs-project-follow-cleanup | nil | When non-nil ~treemacs-follow-mode~ will keep only the current project expanded and all others closed. | | treemacs-no-png-images | nil | When non-nil treemacs will use TUI string icons even when running in a GUI. | | treemacs-python-executable | (treemacs--find-python3) | Python 3 binary used by treemacs. | | treemacs-recenter-after-file-follow | nil | Decides if and when to call ~recenter~ when ~treemacs-follow-mode~ moves to a new file. | | treemacs-recenter-after-tag-follow | nil | Decides if and when to call ~recenter~ when ~treemacs-tag-follow-mode~ moves to a new tag. | | treemacs-recenter-after-project-jump | 'always | Decides if and when to call ~recenter~ when navigating between projects. | | treemacs-recenter-after-project-expand | 'on-distance | Decides if and when to call ~recenter~ when expanding a project node. | | treemacs-recenter-distance | 0.1 | Minimum distance from window top/bottom (0.1 = 10%) before treemacs calls ~recenter~ in tag/file-follow-mode. | | treemacs-pulse-on-success | t | When non-nil treemacs will pulse the current line as a success indicator, e.g. when creating a file. | | treemacs-pulse-on-failure | t | When non-nil treemacs will pulse the current line as a failure indicator, e.g. when failing to find a file's tags. | | treemacs-elisp-imenu-expression | [too large to list] | The imenu expression treemacs uses in elisp buffers. | | treemacs-persist-file | ~/.emacs.d/.cache/treemacs-persist | Path to the file treemacs uses to persist its state. | | treemacs-last-error-persist-file | ~/.emacs.d/.cache/treemacs-persist-at-last-error | Path to the file treemacs uses to persist its state. | | treemacs-space-between-root-nodes | t | When non-nil treemacs will separate root nodes with an empty line. | | treemacs-wrap-around | t | When non-nil treemacs will wrap around at the buffer edges when moving between lines. | | treemacs--fringe-indicator-bitmap | [vertical bar] | The fringe bitmap used by the fringe-indicator minor mode. | | treemacs-deferred-git-apply-delay | 0.5 | Seconds of idle time for git highlighting to apply when using the deferred ~treemacs-git-mode~. | | treemacs-file-follow-delay | 0.2 | Delay in seconds of idle time for treemacs to follow the selected window. | | treemacs-display-in-side-window | t | When non-nil treemacs will use a dedicated [[https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/elisp/Side-Windows.html][side-window]]. | | treemacs-max-git-entries | 5000 | Maximum number of git status entries treemacs will process. Anything above that number will be ignored. | | treemacs-missing-project-action | ask | When a persisted project is missing from filesystem, ~ask~ will prompt for action, ~keep~ will keep the project in the project list, and ~remove~ will remove it from it without prompt. | | treemacs-show-cursor | nil | When non-nil the cursor will stay visible in the treemacs buffer. | | treemacs-git-command-pipe | "" | Text to be appended to treemacs' git command. Useful for filtering with something like grep. | | treemacs-no-delete-other-windows | t | Prevents the treemacs window from being deleted by commands like ~delete-other-windows~ and ~magit-status~. | | treemacs-eldoc-display | 'simple | Enables eldoc display of the file path at point. Requires ~eldoc-mode~. | | treemacs-bookmark-title-template | "Treemacs - ${project}: ${label}" | When using ~bookmark-set~ in Treemacs, the default template for a bookmark label. The following patterns are available: "${project}", "${label}", "${label:N}", ${label-path}", "${label-path:N}", "${file-path}", "${file-path:N}". | | treemacs-file-extension-regex | Text after last period | Determines how treemacs detects a file extension. Can be set to use text after first or last period. | | treemacs-directory-name-transformer | identity | Transformer function that is applied to directory names before rendering for any sort of cosmetic effect. | | treemacs-file-name-transformer | identity | Transformer function that is applied to file names before rendering for any sort of cosmetic effect. | | treemacs-user-mode-line-format | nil | When non-nil treemacs will use it as a mode line format (otherwise format provided by ~spaceline~, ~moody-mode-line~ and ~doom-modeline~ will be used or, finally, "Treemacs" text will be displayed) | | treemacs-user-header-line-format | nil | When non-nil treemacs will use it as a header line format | | treemacs-move-forward-on-expand | nil | When non-nil treemacs will move to the first child of an expanded node. | | treemacs-workspace-switch-cleanup | nil | Indicates which, if any, buffers should be deleted on a workspace switch. Valid values are ~nil~, ~files~, ~all~. | | treemacs-read-string-input | 'from-child-frame | Indicates whether simple string input like project names should be read from a child frame or the minibuffer. | | treemacs-expand-added-projects | t | Indicates whether newly added projects should be expanded. | | treemacs-imenu-scope | 'everything | Determines which items treemacs' imenu function will collect. | | treemacs-litter-directories | ("/node_modules" "/.venv" "/.cask") | List of directories affected by ~treemacs-cleanup-litter~. | | treemacs-width-is-initially-locked | t | Indicates whether the treemacs windows starts with a locked width or not. | | treemacs-select-when-already-in-treemacs | 'move-back | Indicates how ~treemacs-select-window~ behaves when treemacs is already selected. | | treemacs-text-scale | nil | Scaling for text in treemacs, used via ~text-scale-increase~. | | treemacs-indent-guide-style | line | Appearance option for ~treemacs-indent-guide~, either a thin line or a thick block. | | treemacs-find-workspace-method | 'find-for-file-or-pick-first | Determines how treemacs selects the workspace when it first starts. | | treemacs-header-scroll-indicators | '(nil . "^^^^^^") | Indicators used for ~treemacs-indicate-top-scroll-mode~. | | treemacs-hide-dot-git-directory | t | Indicates whether ~.git~ directories should always be hidden. | | treemacs-project-follow-into-home | nil | Indicates whether ~treemacs-project-follow-mode~ can follow into the $HOME directory. | | treemacs-move-files-by-mouse-dragging | t | When non-nil treemacs will move files by dragging with your mouse inside treemacs. |
* Faces Treemacs defines and uses the following faces: | Face | Based on | Description | |----------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | treemacs-directory-face | font-lock-function-name-face | Face used for directories. | | treemacs-directory-collapsed-face | treemacs-directory-face | Face used for collapsed part of directories. | | treemacs-file-face | default | Face used for files. | | treemacs-root-face | font-lock-constant-face | Face used for project roots. | | treemacs-root-unreadable-face | treemacs-root-face | Face used for local unreadable project roots. | | treemacs-root-remote-face | font-lock-function-name-face, treemacs-root-face | Face used for readable remote (Tramp) project roots. | | treemacs-root-remote-unreadable-face | treemacs-root-unreadable-face | Face used for unreadable remote (Tramp) project roots. | | treemacs-root-remote-disconnected-face | warning, treemacs-root-face | Face used for disconnected remote (Tramp) project roots. | | treemacs-tags-face | font-lock-builtin-face | Face used for tags. | | treemacs-help-title-face | font-lock-constant-face | Face used for the title of the helpful hydra. | | treemacs-help-column-face | font-lock-keyword-face | Face used for the column headers of the helpful hydra. | | treemacs-git--face | various font lock faces | Faces used by treemacs for various git states. | | treemacs-term-node-face | font-lock-string-face | Face for directory node symbols used by treemacs when it runs in a terminal. | | treemacs-on-success-pulse-face | :fg #111111 :bg #669966 | Pulse face used when pulsing on a successful action. | | treemacs-on-failure-puse-face | :fg #111111 :bg #ab3737 | Pulse face used when pulsing on a failed action. | | treemacs-marked-file-face | :fg #f0c674 :bg #ab3737 | Face for files marked for bulk file management. | | treemacs-fringe-indicator-face | cursor | Face for the fringe indicator. | | treemacs-header-button-face | font-lock-keyword-face | Face for header buttons. | | treemacs-git-commit-diff-face | font-lock-comment-face | Face used for ~treemacs-indicate-top-scroll-mode~ annotations. | | treemacs-window-background-face | default | Face used for the background of the treemacs window. | | treemacs-hl-line-face | hl-line | Face used for hl-line overlay inside the treemacs buffer. |
** Evil compatibility To make treemacs get along with evil-mode you need to install and load ~treemacs-evil~. It does not define any functions or offer any configuration options, making sure it is loaded is sufficient.
** Customizing Themes and Icons *** Creating and Modifying Themes Creating and modifying themes and icons is all done in a single step using dedicated macros.
To create a theme use ~treemacs-create-theme~. It requires the name of the theme and accepts 3 optional keyword arguments: the directory the theme's icons are stored in (if it's using png icons), the name of the theme it's extending and the config, a final form that's responsible for creating all the theme's icons. A config will typically consist of nothing but calls to ~treemacs-create-icon~:
(treemacs-create-theme "Default" :icon-directory (treemacs-join-path treemacs-dir "icons/default") :config (progn (treemacs-create-icon :file "root-open.png" :fallback "" :extensions (root-open)) (treemacs-create-icon :file "root-closed.png" :fallback "" :extensions (root-closed)) (treemacs-create-icon :file "emacs.png" :fallback "🗏 " :extensions ("el" "elc")) (treemacs-create-icon :file "readme.png" :fallback "🗏 " :extensions ("readme.md")) (treemacs-create-icon :file "src-closed.png" :fallback "📁 " :extensions ("src-closed")) (treemacs-create-icon :file "src-open.png" :fallback "📂 " :extensions ("src-open")) (treemacs-create-icon :icon (all-the-icons-icon-for-file "yaml") :extensions ("yml" "yaml"))))
The ~:file~ argument is relative to the icon directory of the theme being created. When not using image icons the ~:icon-directory~ argument can be omitted and the ~:file~ argument can be switched for ~:icon~ to supply the icon string directly. The TUI fallback is also optional, " " is used by default. Finally the list of extensions determines which file extensions the icon should be used for.
For treemacs an extension is either the entire file name or the text after the last period (unless ~treemacs-file-extension-regex~ is customized). This means it can match normal file names like "init.el", extensionless file names like "Makefile". Because the full name is checked first it is possible to give special files their own icon, for example "Readme.md" can use a different icon than normal markdown files.
Directories can likewise have their own icons. In that case you just need to give the directory's name and the suffix "-open" or "-closed", like the "src" directory in the example above.
Instead of a string extension a symbol can also be used. In this case treemacs will also create a variable for that icon named ~treemacs-icon-$symbol~. Treemacs uses several such icon variables and any new theme should define their own versions (it's not extending the default theme). The following icons are used:
Analogous to creating a new theme ~treemacs-modify-theme~ can be used to change, or add to, an existing theme:
(treemacs-modify-theme "Default" :icon-directory "/other/icons/dir" :config (progn (treemacs-create-icon :icon "+" :extensions (dir-closed)) (treemacs-create-icon :icon "-" :extensions (dir-open))))
Finally keep in mind that treemacs' icons are all buffer-local values, and will most likely not be defined when trying to access their values directly. When you need to programmatically access some of treemacs' icons you should use ~treemacs-get-icon-value~:
(treemacs-get-icon-value 'root-closed nil "Default") (treemacs-get-icon-value "org" t)
*** Custom Icons
Treemacs also offers a quick and straighforward way to add a (gui) icon to the currently active theme, without caring for its name or declaring icon directories:
(defvar treemacs-custom-html-icon (all-the-icons-icon-for-file "name.html")) (treemacs-define-custom-icon treemacs-custom-html-icon "html" "htm")
Important: There is a restriction that all icons must must be exactly 2 characters long. That's including the space that will separate an icon from the filename.
If you want to create an icon based on an image you can use ~treemacs-define-custom-image-icon~ instead:
(treemacs-define-custom-image-icon "/path/to/icon.png" "htm" "html")
For icons of directories two icon variants are needed: one for an open and one for a closed directory state. These can be indicated with a simple ~"-open"~ and ~"-closed"~ suffix. For example the following lines will add special icons for directories named "scripts":
(treemacs-define-custom-icon "X " "scripts-closed") (treemacs-define-custom-icon "Y " "scripts-open")
**** Icons according to ~auto-mode-alist~ For some file extensions, like ".cc" or ".hh", it is not immediately obvious which major mode will open these files, and thus which icon they should be assigned. Treemacs offers the option that automate this decision based on ~auto-mode-alist~. You can use the function ~treemacs-map-icons-with-auto-mode-alist~ to change the assigned icons for a list of file extensions based on the major mode the icons are mapped to in ~auto-mode-alist~.
~treemacs-map-icons-with-auto-mode-alist~ takes 2 arguments: first a list of file extensions, then an alist that decides which icon should be used for which mapped major mode. For example, the code to decide the icons for ".hh" and ".cc" files with ~auto-mode-alist~ would look like this:
(treemacs-map-icons-with-auto-mode-alist '(".cc" ".hh") `((c-mode . ,(treemacs-get-icon-value "c")) (c++-mode . ,(treemacs-get-icon-value "cpp"))))
**** GUI vs TUI It is possible to force treemacs to use the simple TUI icons in GUI mode by setting ~treemacs-no-png-images~ to t.
* Resizing Icons If your emacs has been compiled with Imagemagick support, or you're using Emacs >= 27.1, you can arbitrarily change the size of treemacs' icons by (interactively or programmatically) calling ~treemacs-resize-icons~. all-the-icons indent issues Depending on your font you may experience the problem of treemacs' icons seemingly jumping around left and right when they are expanded and collapsed when using the all-the-icons theme. The straighforward solution is to use a different font. You may also try a workaround of using a different font that applies only to the TAB characters used to align treemacs' all-the-icons-based icons. To do that do not load ~treemacs-all-the-icons~ with ~require~. Instead use the following alternative provided by treemacs itself:
(treemacs-load-all-the-icons-with-workaround-font "Hermit")
The Hermit font used here is just an example - you will need to pick a font that is available on your system and does not suffer from the tab width issue.
This line will load ~treemacs-all-the-icons~ (it must not have been loaded previously) and enable the all-the-icons theme. The given font argument will be used as the font for the alignment tabs used for the icons, hopefully alleviating the indentation problem. In addition ~treemacs-indentation~ and ~treemacs-indentation-string~ will be set to 1 and a (font-changed) TAB character respectively, so customizing them is (probably) not possible.
| Action | Description | |------------------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------| | treemacs | Show/Hide/Initialize treemacs. | | treemacs-bookmark | Find a bookmark in treemacs. | | treemacs-find-file | Find and focus the current file in treemacs. | | treemacs-find-tag | Find and focus the current tag in treemacs. | | treemacs-select-window | Select the treemacs window if it is visible. Call ~treemacs~ if it is not. | | treemacs-select-directory | Select a single directory | | treemacs-delete-other-windows | Same as ~delete-other-windows~, but will not delete the treemacs window. | | treemacs-show-changelog | Opens a buffer showing the changelog. | | treemacs-load-theme | Load a different icon theme. | | treemacs-icon-catalogue | Showcases all themes and their icons. | | treemacs-narrow-to-current-file | Close everything except the view on the current file. | | treemacs-create-workspace-from-project | Create a new workspace containing only the current project. | |------------------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------| | treemacs-projectile | Add a project from projectile to treemacs. | | treemacs-add-and-display-current-project | Add current project to treemacs and open it. | | treemacs-add-and-display-current-project-exclusively | Add current project to treemacs and open it, deleting all others. | | treemacs-select-scope-type | Select the scope of treemacs buffers in which they are unique |
** Default keymaps
Treemacs' keybindings are distributed to several keymaps, based on common keybindings:
*** Project Keybinds (Prefix ~C-c C-p~)
| Key | Action | Description | |-------------------+----------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------| | C-c C-p a | treemacs-add-project-to-workspace | Select a new project to add to the treemacs workspace. | | C-c C-p p | treemacs-projectile | Select a projectile project to add to the workspace. | | C-c C-p d | treemacs-remove-project-from-workspace | Remove project at point from the workspace. | | C-c C-p r | treemacs-rename-project | Rename project at point. | | C-c C-p c c | treemacs-collapse-project | Collapse project at point. | | C-c C-p c o/S-TAB | treemacs-collapse-all-projects | Collapse all projects. | | C-c C-p c o | treemacs-collapse-all-projects | Collapse all projects except the project at point. |
*** Workspaces Keybinds (Prefix ~C-c C-w~)
| Key | Action | Description | |-----------+---------------------------------+----------------------------------------| | C-c C-w r | treemacs-rename-workspace | Rename a workspace. | | C-c C-w a | treemacs-create-workspace | Create a new workspace. | | C-c C-w d | treemacs-remove-workspace | Delete a workspace. | | C-c C-w s | treemacs-switch-workspace | Switch the current workspace. | | C-c C-w e | treemacs-edit-workspaces | Edit workspace layout via org-mode. | | C-c C-w n | treemacs-next-workspace | Switch to the next workspace. | | C-c C-w f | treemacs-set-fallback-workspace | Select the default fallback workspace. |
*** Node Visit Keybinds (Prefix ~o~)
| Key | Action | Description | |--------+--------------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | ov | treemacs-visit-node-vertical-split | Open current file or tag by vertically splitting ~next-window~. | | oh | treemacs-visit-node-horizontal-split | Open current file or tag by horizontally splitting ~next-window~. | | oo/RET | treemacs-visit-node-no-split | Open current file or tag, performing no split and using ~next-window~ directly. | | oc | treemacs-visit-node-close-treemacs | Open current file or tag, performing no split and using ~next-window~ directly, and close treemacs. | | oaa | treemacs-visit-node-ace | Open current file or tag, using ace-window to decide which window to open the file in. | | oah | treemacs-visit-node-ace-horizontal-split | Open current file or tag by horizontally splitting a window selected by ace-window. | | oav | treemacs-visit-node-ace-vertical-split | Open current file or tag by vertically splitting a window selected by ace-window. | | or | treemacs-visit-node-in-most-recently-used-window | Open current file or tag in the most recently used window. | | ox | treemacs-visit-node-in-external-application | Open current file according to its mime type in an external application. Linux, Windows and Mac are supported. |
*** Toggle Keybinds (Prefix ~t~)
| Key | Action | Description | |-----+-------------------------------------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | th | treemacs-toggle-show-dotfiles | Toggle the hiding and displaying of dotfiles. | | ti | treemacs-hide-gitignored-files-mode | Toggle the hiding and displaying of gitignored files. | | tw | treemacs-toggle-fixed-width | Toggle whether the treemacs window should have a fixed width. See also treemacs-width. | | tf | treemacs-follow-mode | Toggle ~treemacs-follow-mode~. | | ta | treemacs-filewatch-mode | Toggle ~treemacs-filewatch-mode~. | | tv | treemacs-fringe-indicator-mode | Toggle ~treemacs-fringe-indicator-mode~. | | td | treemacs-git-commit-diff-mode | Toggle ~treemacs-git-commit-diff-mode~. |
*** Copy Keybinds (Prefix ~y~)
| Key | Action | Description | |-----+--------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------------------| | ya | treemacs-copy-absolute-path-at-point | Copy the absolute path of the node at point. | | yr | treemacs-copy-relative-path-at-point | Copy the path of the node at point relative to the project root. | | yp | treemacs-copy-project-path-at-point | Copy the absolute path of the project root for the node at point. | | yf | treemacs-copy-file | Copy the file at point. |
*** General Keybinds
| Key | Action | Description |
|----------+---------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| ? | treemacs-common-helpful-hydra | Summon a helpful hydra to show you treemacs' most commonly used keybinds. |
| C-? | treemacs-advanced-helpful-hydra | Summon a helpful hydra to show you treemacs' rarely used, advanced keybinds. |
| j/n | treemacs-next-line | Go to the next line. |
| k/p | treemacs-previous-line | Go to the previous line. |
| M-J/N | treemacs-next-line-other-window | Go to the next line in ~next-window~. |
| M-K/P | treemacs-previous-line-other-window | Go to the previous line in ~next-window~.. |
|
Aside from this there are the following known incompatibilities:
FAQ
I don't need multiple projects, can treemacs just always show me the current project I'm in?
Yes, see the section about [[#navigation-without-projects-and-workspaces][Navigation without Projects and Workspace]].
How do I hide files I don't want to see?
You need to define a predicate function and add it to ~treemacs-ignored-file-predicates~. This function accepts two arguments, a file's name and its absolute path, and must return non-nil when treemacs should hide that file.
For example, the code to ignore files either called "foo" or located in "/x/y/z/" would look like this:
(with-eval-after-load 'treemacs
(defun treemacs-ignore-example (filename absolute-path) (or (string-equal filename "foo") (string-prefix-p "/x/y/z/" absolute-path)))
(add-to-list 'treemacs-ignored-file-predicates #'treemacs-ignore-example))
How do I keep treemacs from showing files that are ignored by git?
You can use ~treemacs-hide-gitignored-files-mode~ (bound to ~ti~) to switch between hiding and displaying of gitignored files. Git-mode /must/ be enabled for this feature to work.
Why am I seeing no file icons and only +/- for directories?
Treemacs will permanently fall back on its simple TUI icons if it detects that the emacs instance it is run in cannot create images. You can test this by evaluating ~(create-image "" 'png)~. If this code returns an error like "Invalid image type ´png´" your emacs does not support images.
How do I get treemacs to stop telling me when it's been refreshed, especially with filewatch-mode?
See ~treemacs-silent-refresh~ and ~treemacs-silent-filewatch~.
ENOSPC / No space left on device / no file descriptor left
You may run into this error when you use filewatch-mode. The solution is to increase the number of allowed user watches, as described [[https://stackoverflow.com/questions/16748737/grunt-watch-error-waiting-fatal-error-watch-enospc][here for Linux]] and [[https://wilsonmar.github.io/maximum-limits/][here for Mac]].
You will also want to see what's responsible for setting all those file watches in the first place, since treemacs only watches the expanded directories it is displaying and so won't produce more than a couple dozen watches at best.
Why is treemacs warning me about not being able to find some background colors and falling back to something else?
Treemacs needs those colors to make sure that background colors of its icons correctly align with hl-line-mode. Png images' backgrounds are not highlighted by hl-line-mode by default, treemacs is manually correcting this every time hl-line's overlay is moved. To make that correction work it needs to know two colors: the current theme's ~default~ background, and its ~hl-line~ background color. If treemacs cannot find hl-lines's background color it falls back to the default background color. If it cannot even find the default background it will fall back to #2d2d31. The warnings serve to inform you of that fallback.
If your theme does not define a required color you can set it yourself before treemacs loads like this:
(set-face-attribute 'hl-line nil :background "#333333")
If you just want to disable the warnings you can do so by defining the variable ~treemacs-no-load-time-warnings~. Its exact value is irrelevant, all that matters is that it exists at all. Since the warnings are issues when treemacs is first being loaded the variable must be defined before treemacs is initialized. This is best achieved by adding the line ~(defvar treemacs-no-load-time-warnings t)~ to treemacs' use-package ~:init~ block.
Can I expand everything under a node?
Yes, you just need to expand it with a [[https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/PrefixArgument][prefix argument]]. Closing nodes with a prefix argument works as well. In this case treemacs will forget about the nodes opened below the one that was closed and not reopen them automatically.
Broken display of CJK characters
If you are seeing raw bytes like ~\316~ instead of proper CJK characters like [[https://github.com/Alexander-Miller/treemacs/issues/863][in this issue]] you have to set the proper language environment, e.g.:
(set-language-environment 'Chinese-GB18030)
Contributing Contributions are very much welcome, but should fit the general scope and style of treemacs. The following is a list of guidelines that should be met (exceptions confirm the rule):
Treemacs uses cask to setup a local testing environment and a Makefile that simplifies compiling and testing the codebase. First run ~cask install~ to locally pull treemacs' dependencies. Then you can use the following Makefile targets:
Finally if you want to just add an icon you can take [[https://github.com/Alexander-Miller/treemacs/commit/94df3e36af865dab2c76b549b1a61f418e3bf5be][this commit]] as an example (though the icons have since been moved into their own module in ~treemacs-icons.el~).
If you want to delve into the treemacs' code base, check out [[https://github.com/Alexander-Miller/treemacs/wiki][the wiki]] for some general pointers.