zfm is a command line bookmark manager for Zsh built on top of fzf. It lets you bookmark files and directories in your system and rapidly access them.

It's intended to be a less intrusive alternative to z, autojump or fasd that doesn't pollute your prompt command (PS1) or create bookmarks behind the scenes: you have full control over what gets bookmarked and when, like bookmarks on a web browser.

Installation

Install fzf

zfm is built on top of fzf so you must install that first. Follow the instructions here.

Install zfm

Oh My Zsh

1. Clone the repo in Oh My Zsh's plugin directory:

git clone https://github.com/pabloariasal/zfm ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-~/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/plugins/zfm}

2. Activate the plugin in your .zshrc:

plugins=(zfm)

Antigen

Add this to your .zshrc:

antigen bundle pabloariasal/zfm

Manual (Git Clone)

1. Clone the repo

git clone https://github.com/pabloariasal/zfm ~/.zsh/zfm

2. Add the following to your .zshrc:

source ~/.zsh/zfm/zfm.zsh

Usage

Bookmark files and directories

$ zfm add ~/Downloads ~/Documents/wallpaper.png

List bookmarks

$ zfm list
/home/pablo/Downloads                [d]
/home/pablo/Documents/wallpaper.png  [f]

list only bookmarked files:

$ zfm list --files
/home/pablo/Documents/wallpaper.png  [f]

or directories:

$ zfm list --dirs
/home/pablo/Downloads  [d]

Enter a bookmark into the current command line buffer

To enter a bookmark into the current command line buffer, press ctrl+o. This will open a selection menu with all your bookmarks:

and enter your selection(s) into the current command line buffer:

cd into a bookmarked directory

Off course you can cd into a bookmarked directory, just press ctrl+p.

This will open a selection menu with all your bookmarked directories:

and directly jump to the directory you have selected:

Alternatively, you can type f followed by a pattern to directly jump to the directory matching the pattern (like autojump):

$ f down
/home/pablo/Downloads$

If the pattern is ambiguous a selection menu will be opened with the possible options.

Use in custom scripts

You can use zfm in scripts and aliases.

Example: Open a bookmarked file in Vim

For example, you can create an alias to open a bookmarked file with vim by adding this to your .zshrc:

alias of='vim $(zfm select --files --multi)'

Typing of will open a selection menu with all bookmarked files and directly open the selection in vim.

The option --multi allows you to select multiple entries.

Example: Open a bookmarked file using dmenu

You can create a script that opens a bookmarked file in dmenu:

#!/usr/bin/env zsh

selection=$(zfm list --files | dmenu | awk '{print \$1}')
gvim "$selection"
# or open in vim inside a terminal emulator
alacritty -e vim "$selection"

Edit Bookmarks

You can edit your bookmarks (add, delete, reorder) with:

zfm edit

This will open your bookmarks in a text editor (as defined by EDITOR) and let you manually edit, remove or reorder your bookmarks.

Commands

Command	Description	Extra Options
zfm list	List bookmarks	--files, --dirs
zfm add <path> [<path>...]	Add bookmarks
zfm select	Open bookmarks in FZF and print selection to stdout.	--files, --dirs, --multi
zfm query <pattern>	Print bookmark matching pattern to stdout. FZF selection menu will open if match is ambiguous.	--files, --dirs
zfm edit	Manually edit bookmarks in editor (respects EDITOR)
zfm fix	Remove bookmarked entries that no longer exist in the filesystem
zfm clear	Remove all bookmarks
f <pattern>	Jump to bookmark directory matching pattern, open selection if ambiguous

Options

Option	Description	Available for
--files	Restrict to just files	query, list, select
--dirs	Restrict to just dirs	query, list, select
--multi	Allow selecting multiple items	select

Key Bindings

Key Binding	Description
ctrl+o	Select one or multiple bookmarks and insert them into the current command line
ctrl+p	jump to selected directory

Variables

ZFM_NO_BINDINGS

Per default, zfm creates two key bindings, ctrl-p and ctrl-o. To disable the creation of key bindings, you can set the environment variable ZFM_NO_BINDINGS in your zshrc:

export ZFM_NO_BINDINGS=1

or if you wish so, you can rebind them to something else, see F.A.Q.

ZFM_BOOKMARKS_FILE

Sets the bookmarks file. Defaults to ~/.zfm.txt

export ZFM_BOOKMARKS_FILE='~/.my_bookmarks.txt'

F.A.Q

Why not autojump, z, fasd and others?

Because explicit is better than implicit. I don't want every single directory I visit to be bookmarked, I know which directories I visit the most and which files I need rapid access to.

I don't like the default key bindings, can I change them?

Sure, you can set the ZFM_NO_BINDINGS environment variable to disable keybindings or manually unbind them by putting this on your zshrc:

bindkey -r '^P'
bindkey -r '^O'

You can also rebind them to something more suitable to you:

bindkey -r '^P'
bindkey -r '^O'
bindkey '^A' zfm-cd-to-bookmark
bindkey '^E' zfm-insert-bookmark

Tip: you can use ctrl+v on your terminal window to display escape sequences of key bindings.

Contributing

If you change anything make sure to run the tests, bonus points if you enhance them:

Running the Tests

NOTE: you must have python 3.5 or higher installed

1. Install pipenv:

pip install --user pipenv

2. Run the tests

cd zfm
pipenv run pytest -q test