You can also use fzf with ripgrep to great effect:
[1]: https://github.com/junegunn/fzf/blob/master/ADVANCED.md#usin...
In Ugrep – a more powerful, fast, user-friendly, compatible grepjunegunn
fzf
Go2013–2026
junegunn / fzf
fzf
:cherry_blossom: A command-line fuzzy finder
210Distinct people
229Mentions
5Explicit recommenders
84.2KGitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
:cherry_blossom: A command-line fuzzy finder
GitHub
Where it is used
What people are saying
`ripgrep` is my favorite of the "new" linux utilities Yeah, but only when used together with fzf, the other favorite new cross-platform shell utility. I mean, after rg spits…
stinos used a recommendation phrase. 5 indexed comments match. This is a phrase match, not a verdict.
No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.
Also in these discussions
- burntsushi/ripgrep · linked in 8 of the same discussions
- sharkdp/fd · linked in 5 of the same discussions
- clvv/fasd · linked in 4 of the same discussions
Mentioned in the same Hacker News threads. That is not proof they are substitutes.
This week on Hacker News
Nov 8–Nov 15 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/15/2026, 10:01:16 PM UTC.
No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by year229 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2013-11-05 12:23:55 UTC to 2026-10-19 23:55:18 UTC.
* An incomplete calendar period is marked with an outlined bar. Its count is not directly comparable with a full period.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 2013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| 2014 | 2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 2015 | 2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 15 | 5 | 10 |
| 2016 | 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 10 | 2 | 8 |
| 2017 | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 22 | 7 | 15 |
| 2018 | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 23 | 3 | 20 |
| 2019 | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 22 | 2 | 20 |
| 2020 | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 25 | 1 | 24 |
| 2021 | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 34 | 2 | 32 |
| 2022 | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 26 | 1 | 25 |
| 2023 | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 19 | 0 | 19 |
| 2024 | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 14 | 2 | 12 |
| 2025 | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 10 | 2 | 8 |
| 2026 (partial) | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2027-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 5 | 0 | 5 |
From the project README
An excerpt from the repository, fetched Nov 12, 2026.
Read the project’s introduction
Show your love for fzf -- T-shirts, mugs, and stickers now available!
fzf is a general-purpose command-line fuzzy finder and an interactive terminal toolkit.
Whether you're selecting files, browsing command history, previewing data,
navigating complex datasets with fuzzy matching, or creating custom menus and
workflows, fzf provides the building blocks to turn shell scripts into rich
terminal applications.
Highlights
Portable // Distributed as a single binary for easy installation
Fast // Optimized to process millions of items in milliseconds
Programmable // Event-driven architecture for building custom terminal interfaces and workflows
Batteries-included // Comes with integrations for Bash, Zsh, Fish, Nushell, Vim, and Neovim
Table of Contents
Installation
Using Homebrew
Using Mise
Linux packages
Windows packages
Using git
Binary releases
Setting up shell integration
Vim/Neovim plugin
Upgrading fzf
Building fzf
Usage
Using the finder
Display modes
--height mode
--popup mode
Search syntax
Environment variables
Customizing the look
Options
Demo
Examples
Key bindings for command-line
Fuzzy completion
Files and directories
Process IDs
Host names
Environment variables / Aliases
Customizing fuzzy completion for bash and zsh
Customizing fzf options for completion
Customizing completion source for paths and directories
Supported commands (bash)
Custom fuzzy completion
Fuzzy completion for fish
Fuzzy completion for Nushell
Vim plugin
Advanced topics
Customizing for different types of input
Performance
Executing external programs
Turning into a different process
Reloading the candidate list
1. Update the list of processes by pressing CTRL-R
2. Switch between sources by pressing CTRL-D or CTRL-F
3. Interactive ripgrep integration
Preview window
Previewing an image
Tips
Respecting .gitignore
Fish shell
fzf Theme Playground
Related projects
License
Goods
Sponsors ❤️
Installation
Using Homebrew
You can use Homebrew (on macOS or Linux) to install fzf.
brew install fzf
ImportantTo set up shell integration (key bindings and fuzzy completion),
see the instructions below.
fzf is also available via MacPorts: sudo port install fzf
Using Mise
You can use mise to install fzf.
mise use -g fzf@latest
Linux packages
Package Manager
Linux Distribution
Command
APK
Alpine Linux
sudo apk add fzf
APT
Debian 9+/Ubuntu 19.10+
sudo apt install fzf
Conda
conda install -c conda-forge fzf
DNF
Fedora
sudo dnf install fzf
Nix
NixOS, etc.
nix-env -iA nixpkgs.fzf
Pacman
Arch Linux
sudo pacman -S fzf
pkg
FreeBSD
pkg install fzf
pkgin
NetBSD
pkgin install fzf
pkg_add
OpenBSD
pkg_add fzf
Portage
Gentoo
emerge --ask app-shells/fzf
Spack
spack install fzf
XBPS
Void Linux
sudo xbps-install -S fzf
Zypper
openSUSE
sudo zypper install fzf
ImportantTo set up shell integration (key bindings and fuzzy completion),
see the instructions below.
Windows packages
On Windows, fzf is available via Chocolatey, Scoop,
Winget, and MSYS2:
Package manager
Command
Chocolatey
choco install fzf
Scoop
scoop install fzf
Winget
winget install fzf
MSYS2 (pacman)
pacman -S $MINGW_PACKAGE_PREFIX-fzf
Using git
Alternatively, you can "git clone" this repository to any directory and run
install script.
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/junegunn/fzf.git ~/.fzf
~/.fzf/install
The install script will add lines to your shell configuration file to modify
$PATH and set up shell integration.
Binary releases
You can download the official fzf binaries from the releases page.
https://github.com/junegunn/fzf/releases
Setting up shell integration
Add the following line to your shell configuration file.
bash
# Set up fzf key bindings and fuzzy completion
eval "$(fzf --bash)"
zsh
# Set up fzf key bindings and fuzzy completion
source <(fzf --zsh)
fish
# Set up fzf key bindings
fzf --fish | source
Nushell -- Nushell does not support piping into source, so the install
script generates a file in the autoload directory. If you didn't use the
install script, you can manually set it up:
# Generate the integration script
mkdir ($nu.default-config-dir | path join "autoload")
fzf --nushell | save -f ($nu.default-config-dir | path join "autoload" "_fzf_integration.nu")
Note--bash, --zsh, --fish, and --nushell options are only available in
recent versions of fzf. If you have an older version of fzf, or want finer control, you can
source individual script files in the /shell directory. The
location of the files may vary depending on the package manager you use.
Please refer to the package documentation for more information.
(e.g. apt show fzf)
TipYou can disable CTRL-T, CTRL-R, or ALT-C bindings by setting the
corresponding *_COMMAND variable to an empty string when sourcing the
script. For example, to disable CTRL-R and ALT-C:
bash: FZF_CTRL_R_COMMAND= FZF_ALT_C_COMMAND= eval "$(fzf --bash)"
zsh: FZF_CTRL_R_COMMAND= FZF_ALT_C_COMMAND= source <(fzf --zsh)
fish: fzf --fish | FZF_CTRL_R_COMMAND= FZF_ALT_C_COMMAND= source
nushell: add to your env.nu:
$env.FZF_CTRL_R_COMMAND = ""; $env.FZF_ALT_C_COMMAND = ""
Setting the variables after sourcing the script will have no effect.
Vim/Neovim plugin
If you use vim-plug, add this to
your Vim configuration file:
Plug 'junegunn/fzf', { 'do': { -> fzf#install() } }
Plug 'junegunn/fzf.vim'
junegunn/fzf provides the basic library functions
fzf#install() makes sure that you have the latest binary
junegunn/fzf.vim is a separate project
that provides a variety of useful commands
To learn more about the Vim integration, see README-VIM.md.
TipIf you use Neovim and prefer Lua-based plugins, check out
fzf-lua.
Upgrading fzf
fzf is being actively developed, and you might want to upgrade it once in a
while. Please follow the instruction below depending on the installation
method used.
git: cd ~/.fzf && git pull && ./install
brew: brew update; brew upgrade fzf
macports: sudo port upgrade fzf
chocolatey: choco upgrade fzf
vim-plug: :Plu
Read the full README on GitHubWhat Hacker News says
19 sourcesIt's fast indeed. And I can't help keeping promoting the combination with fzf :) For those who want to try it out, this is a Powershell function but the same principle applies in any shell. Does ripgrep then puts fuzzy searching in the resulting files+text on top while showing context in bat:
function frg {
$result = rg --ignore-case --color=always --line-number --no-heading @Args |
fzf --ansi `
--color 'hl:-1:underline,hl+:-1:underline:reverse' `
--delimiter ':' `
--preview "bat --color=always {1} --theme='Solarized (light)' --highlight-line {2}" `
--preview-window 'up,60%,border-bottom,+{2}+3/3,~3'
if ($result) {
& ($env:EDITOR).Trim("`"'") $result.Split(': ')[0]
}
}
There are other ways to approach this, but for me this is a very fast way of nailing down 'I now someth
Read the rest
ing exists in this multi-repo project but don't know where exactly nor the exact name'
edit this comes out of https://github.com/junegunn/fzf/blob/master/ADVANCED.md and even though you might not want to use most of what is in there, it's still worth glancing over it to get ideas of what you could do with it
How about fzf? https://github.com/junegunn/fzf
In Show HN: I automated half of my typingNot exactly a shell script, but fzf with bash keybindings improved my shell experience more than anything.
https://github.com/junegunn/fzf#key-bindings-for-command-lin...
In Ask HN: Share a shell script you likeYou can pay for free software, but you don't need to.
ohmyzsh: https://opencollective.com/ohmyzsh
nvim: https://neovim.io/ supports donations via bitcoin, Open Collective, and GitHub Sponsors.
fzf: https://github.com/junegunn/fzf supports donation via GitHub Sponsors, PayPal, and buy me a coffee.
In Ask HN: Dev productivity tools you would pay forHave you tried out using ripgrep [0] or fzf [1]? 200ms is quite a lot for history search, I'd expect search to be 20ms or less. In fact, it should be instantaneous as it should all fit in memory really. I've been using fzf and the searches are all faster than my monitor can display frames (so less than 16ms), although I only have 10k entries on my history as I clear it up once in a while.
[0]: https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep
[1]: https://github.com/junegunn/fzf
In Cases where full scans are better than indexesThanks Conrad! That's really a huge game changer.
I'm now using atuin for shell history and fzf for fuzzy completion[0], works awesome! As Shell I use zsh with some plugins managed via antigen on my Linux Mint default terminal.
[0]: https://github.com/junegunn/fzf#fuzzy-completion-for-bash-an...
In So you've installed `fzf` – now what?> it's really not maintained
What do you mean by maintained? There are commits as recent as yesterday on the project: https://github.com/junegunn/fzf
In So you've installed `fzf` – now what?>Am I missing something?
Yes, the article misses what fzf actually is by focusing too much on the shell integrations. I hardly ever use those features, except for fzf-tab (which partially subsumes them).
Fundamentally, fzf is a well-behaved UNIX tool for choosing things. It does one thing well (choosing things), it communicates by simple text streams on stdin and stdout, and it integrates seamlessly with other text-based programs.
It's like an interactive, human-friendly version of grep that narrows down the possibilities on every keypress. You pass any newline-separated text to its stdin, and it will let you choose from among them. Whatever you choose will get written to stdout. This can be a single choice or multiple choices. You can customize the layout and even run arbitrary scripts when each option is selected (not chosen) to show a
Read the rest
preview.
Once you recognize it, "choosing things" shows up everywhere, so fzf can accelerate any terminal-based workflow. Examples of what I use it for:
- what unit tests to run
- what git branch/commit to check out
- what process to kill
- what wifi to connect to
- what todo list items to check off
- find an emoji and put it on the clipboard
- you're leaving your laptop and you want to choose among shutdown/restart/suspend/logout/lockscreen
- what files or options to pass into an arbitrary command (using fzf-tab)
Basically anything that, if it were in a GUI, would be shown as radio buttons or checkboxes or a dropdown menu.
You can use it in scripts/aliases, or you can just write a quick fzf command inline. I use it for so many things, it's hard to even recall them. It's part of my muscle memory now. Check the wiki on the fzf github, there are all kinds of examples. e.g. here's the one I use for killing processes[2].
An example from recently where I used it "inline": I was in the middle of debugging something in a Python project. I needed to temporarily remove a bunch of packages from the virtual envirnoment, but not all of them, to narrow down where the problem was coming from. After 20 seconds of trial and error (I forgot the syntax for tail) I had:
pip uninstall $(pip list | tail -n+3 | cut -d' ' -f1 | fzf -m)
This let me multi-select from the list of installed packages and uninstall them. Go down the list, boom-boom-boom, done. Pressing enter would uninstall my choices right away. Pressing tab would first expand the $() and replace it with the stdout of the pipeline inside, so the text after the prompt would become `pip uninstall requests numpy pandas ...` or whatever I chose, without running the `pip uninstall` part until I pressed enter. I tend to do the tab-expand trick a lot with multi-selections or with dangerous commands like rm, so I can double-check the full thing first before running it.
NB: in that pip example, the "fuzzy" part wasn't even relevant. All I did was use the up- and down- arrows to navigate the list .. there were only a few dozen entries so I didn't need the fuzzy-search. In fact, in most of my scripts I actually turn off the fuzzy matching and use the --exact flag, so that it just searches for exact substrings, whitespace-separated, order ignored. I find this makes its behaviour more predictable. e.g. if I want to find a pyproject.toml file from among all my files, in --exact mode I can just type "pypro" and it will show like
~/repos/foo/pyproject.toml
~/repos/bar/pyproject.toml
~/old-stuff/scripts/pyproject.toml
...
then I type "bar" to narrow it to the one in the "bar" repository, so my query is just "pypro bar". But unlike fuzzy mode, it doesn't show entries that just happen to have "b", "a", and "r" somewhere in the string, like something named
~/repos/big-archives/pyproject.toml
^ ^^
I have to type slightly more than I would with fuzzy-mode, but the lack of bad search results more than makes up for it.
This is what I mean when I say the core of fzf is "choosing things". It's not really about fuzzy-searching, despite the name.
[1] https://github.com/lincheney/fzf-tab-completion
[2] https://github.com/junegunn/fzf/wiki/Examples#processes
Something very close to this example is in the fzf “advanced” documentation at https://github.com/junegunn/fzf/blob/master/ADVANCED.md#usin...
In So you've installed `fzf` – now what?Here is the autojump function for fzf/bash
https://github.com/junegunn/fzf/wiki/examples#autojump
You'll have to comment out the j() function in /usr/share/autojump/autojump.sh
In So you've installed `fzf` – now what?This enables the C-r / M-c / C-t key bindings, but there's also a completion.bash file. This enables the "**" completion trigger, which can contextually complete paths, envvar names or PIDs in commands. (See "Fuzzy completion for bash and zsh" in fzf's readme [1]). Similarly, you can add to your .bashrc:
if [ -e /usr/share/doc/fzf/examples/completion.bash ]; then
source /usr/share/doc/fzf/examples/completion.bash
fi
/usr/share/doc/fzf/README.Debian explains this, as well as the setup for zsh, fish and vim.
[1]: https://github.com/junegunn/fzf#fuzzy-completion-for-bash-an...
In So you've installed `fzf` – now what?agreed. preview rips
i was confused how to adjust the width and figured it out, here’s where i asked, learned, and shared my figlet script
fzfont
https://github.com/junegunn/fzf/discussions/3211
https://asciinema.org/a/grALSk2M1tkVPiiyrAGCbdX5J (without width adjustment iirc)
In So you've installed `fzf` – now what?Thanks for this. I didn't know about the built-in-cd. For anyone on macOS trying to get Alt-C to work see https://github.com/junegunn/fzf/issues/164.
In So you've installed `fzf` – now what?fzf is super useful for navigating and switching git branches I realised today
[1]
function gbll(){
local tags branches target
branches=$(
git --no-pager branch --sort=-committerdate \
--format="%(if)%(HEAD)%(then)%(else)%(if:equals=HEAD)%(refname:strip=3)%(then)%(else)%1B[0;34;1mbranch%09%1B[m%(refname:short)%(end)%(end)" \
| sed '/^$/d') || return
tags=$(
git --no-pager tag | awk '{print "\x1b[35;1mtag\x1b[m\t" $1}') || return
target=$(
(echo "$branches"; echo "$tags") |
fzf --no-hscroll --no-multi -n 2 \
--ansi --preview="git --no-pager log -150 --pretty=format:%s '..{2}'") || return
git checkout $(awk '{print $2}' <<<"$target" )
}
[1]https://github.com/junegunn/fzf/wiki/Examples#git
In So you've installed `fzf` – now what?Showing the 15 most recent of 19 sources. Enable JavaScript to search and browse every indexed mention.