fzf-bookmarks

fzf-bookmarks is a script which helps the user quickly access bookmarked directories and files. It offers fuzzy completion which is provided by fzf.

Dependencies

The only things required are:

• fzf
• awk
• sed

Optional Dependencies

• networkmanager/nmcli: This is optional and only needed if fzf-bookmarks is used with the -w, --wifi flag to select and connect to a new wifi network

Usage

This script needs to run in the same shell that it is invoked in. Therefore, it must be ran with the command source prepended to it. A helpful alias to do this would be alias fzf-bookmarks='source ~/path/to/fzf-bookmarks' which must be added to your .bashrc. If fzf-bookmarks is invoked without any flags provided, all bookmarks are shown without any filtering.

fzf-bookmarks currently supports the following options/flags:

• -a or --add: Add a directory to the bookmarks. This option requires the user to specify the name of the bookmark and optionally, a path. If no path is provided then the current folder is added to the bookmark list. NOTE: The bookmark name must be unique and it must not contain any spaces but the file path itself can have them.
• -f or --file: List all bookmarked only. When a file is selected, the config file located in ~/.config/fzf-bookmarks is checked for the corresponding filetype. If none is found, the default is used which attempts to open the file with $EDITOR.
• -d or --dir: List all directories bookmarked.
• -r or --remove: Erase a bookmark from the list. This option requires the user to specify the name of the bookmark. This can either be specified explicitly as an argument or if the flag is used without any arguments provided, fzf can be used.
• -w or --wifi: Use networkmanager to list all nearby wifi connections and select one to connect to it.
• -eraseall: Removes the bookmarks file and replaces it with a new one.
• -al or --alias: List all aliases and select one to be executed. Handy if you want to remind yourself of an alias quickly and execute it at the same time. All aliases are retrieved from the .bashrc file. A valid alias is considered to be one of the form alias myAliasName='someBashCommandHere'.
• -m or --man: List all manpages and visit the selected one.
• -h or --help: List all available options.
• --usage: List a small preamble regarding the usage of this program.

Config file

The config file for this program is automatically created upon its first startup. It is located in ~/.config/fzf-bookmarks along with the bookmarks file called bookmarks.

Initially, the file will contain only one filetype called DEFAULT which is set to $EDITOR. The only things which need to be added are the filetype and the corresponding program. If $EDITOR is a terminal one(vim, nano...), then it will be called in the current terminal/bash instance. If it is not then it will be run in the background with the & flag appended at the end of the command.

Another thing to note is that the filetype of the program is determined by looking at the file name starting from its last character until the first . is encountered. As an example myfile.png will have a filetype of png. On the other hand, if we create a file like myfile.txt.pdf then its file type will be pdf. If the filetype does not contain a . as in it is simply called something like myfile, then it will be assigned the filetype of DEFAULT.

Example config file

Here is an example config file:

c       $EDITOR
rs      $EDITOR
pdf     zathura
epub    zathura
png     vimiv
jpg     vimiv
txt     $EDITOR
DEFAULT $EDITOR

Possible Issues

There are three possible issues which have so far been detected:

1. If the user bookmarks a directory/file which has a & in its name then the bookmark will not be opened correctly since bash will interpret anything after the & as being another command.
2. The manpage feature requires mandb to have been created. This should not be a problem but if there is no output, call mandb -c to create the database.
3. When using fzf-bookmarks to select a new wifi network, there might be a delay before output is shown in fzf. This is not due to this script but instead due to networkmanager/nmcli scanning the network. The delay cannot be reduced in any way.