How to make fzf's CTRL-T and ALT-C work with zsh4humans?

[sondhg]

Before I installed zsh4humans, I could use the CTRL-T and ALT-C keybinds for choosing files and directories, based on official fzf documentation. The relevant parts in my old .zshrc was like this:

source <(fzf --zsh)
export FZF_DEFAULT_COMMAND='fd --hidden --strip-cwd-prefix --exclude .git'
export FZF_CTRL_T_COMMAND='fd --hidden --strip-cwd-prefix --exclude .git'
export FZF_ALT_C_COMMAND='fd --type d --hidden --strip-cwd-prefix --exclude .git'

Even if I didn't include the last 3 lines inside my old .zshrc, CTRL-T and ALT-C of fzf would still work (I just wanted to use fd because it is great).

But since I install zsh4humans, these two keybinds do not work, whether I add the above lines to my new .zshrc or not. I tried to mimic the behaviors by doing these:

• Change zstyle ':z4h:fzf-complete' recurse-dirs 'no' to zstyle ':z4h:fzf-complete' recurse-dirs 'yes' in new .zshrc generated by zsh4humans. So when I type cd then hit Tab, it will show not only the directories in current level (e.g. ./dadfolder, ./momfolder), but also directories in levels deeper (e.g. ./dadfolder/child1/lol). This is not as convenient as just using ALT-C but at least it works.
• However, I couldn't mimic the CTRL-T behavior of original fzf. It should let me search for any file within any folder nested inside the current working directory, no matter how deeply nested they are. I tried a command like code then hit Tab to bring up fzf search, but it works badly: if a folder has dot in its name (e.g. .config), it will not let me search for all files underneath it unless I accept the .config, then keep hitting Tab multiple times to go deeper. This is very inconvenient. And it also does not respect ignore rules, so it searches for files in node_modules too. Before I use zsh4humans, I could config this using export FZF_CTRL_T_COMMAND='fd --hidden --strip-cwd-prefix --exclude .git', but as mentioned, I can't now.

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated! zsh4humans has been really great for me so far, I just need to find a workaround for this fzf keybind problem.

[romkatv]

For the first proble, see https://github.com/romkatv/zsh4humans/blob/master/tips.md#current-directory

For the second problem, try something like this: https://github.com/maximbaz/dotfiles/blob/cafb7a9f773fc8297b97f64fefe1c97b2efb58f0/modules/common/zsh/.zshrc#L10

[sondhg]

Thank you! These solved a lot of problems I encountered. From your recommendation, I modified and added to my .zshrc:

zstyle ':z4h:fzf-complete' recurse-dirs 'yes'
zstyle ':z4h:fzf-complete' fzf-bindings tab:repeat
zstyle ':z4h:fzf-complete' find-flags '(' -name '.git' -o -name 'node_modules' -o -name '.direnv' ')' -prune -print -o -print 

For anyone potentially checking out this issue, here is the Before and After I make these changes (mainly the zstyle ':z4h:fzf-complete' find-flags '(' -name '.git' -o -name 'node_modules' -o -name '.direnv' ')' -prune -print -o -print ):

• Before:

• After:

Now, the fzf tab completion is much better as it doesn't show thousands of results within node_modules and .git initially. That will only happen if I hit Tab on the node_modules or .git result in the pop-up. Really great improvement.

And that makes me wonder if some icing on the cake like shown in the following image can be achieved. Is there something I can do to make typical should-be-ignored directories like node_modules and .git never ever show up in the fzf tab completion, even if I type their names out?

[romkatv]

Yes, it's possible. Try invoking find with the arguments from above:

find '(' -name '.git' -o -name 'node_modules' -o -name '.direnv' ')' -prune -print -o -print 

That's what you see in file completions. You can modify the arguments to your liking. man find has the docs. I'm sure ChatGPT or similar can help, too. Once find produces the results you like, set those arguments via zstyle ':z4h:fzf-complete' find-flags.

[sondhg]

Actually that's what I already included:

zstyle ':z4h:fzf-complete' find-flags '(' -name '.git' -o -name 'node_modules' -o -name '.direnv' ')' -prune -print -o -print 

I also tried to remove -print after -prune in attempt to completely remove .git and node_modules from search result. I assumed the following would work because find '(' -name '.git' -o -name 'node_modules' -o -name '.direnv' ')' -prune -o -print does not output .git and node_modules when invoked:

zstyle ':z4h:fzf-complete' find-flags '(' -name '.git' -o -name 'node_modules' -o -name '.direnv' ')' -prune -o -print

but they still showup:

Not a big problem though, I just don't want to accidentally hit Tab on such should-be-ignored results. I'll try looking more into this for a solution. Thank you for the quick help everytime!

[romkatv]

Actually that's what I already included:

I know. I copied it from your message. I was trying to show the meaning of that line. These are arguments of find. So you can invoke find for testing, and you can read man find for docs.

Have you tried reading the entirety of man find? That's how I would do it. As a side effect of solving this particular problem, you'll learn a powerful tool that will be helpful in the future.

[sondhg]

I missed the GitHub notification on this issue, sorry for the late response. I did try going through man find for a day but I haven't figured out a solution myself just yet. I also went through fd documentation for possibly an easier solution, but I'm not sure whether the default search command of z4h's fzf can be switched from find to fd or not. In the end, I had to move on with work and studies so I decided to leave this as it is, at least for now, since it isn't too big of a problem for me. Trying to optimize little things for productivity often prevents me from actually being productive 😅. I'll take a look at this again someday and update the issue if I ever figured out a solution.

As a side effect of solving this particular problem, you'll learn a powerful tool that will be helpful in the future.

And thank you for this. I'm still a student and I'll remember this going forward with my programming studies.

[romkatv]

This:

find -name 'node_modules' -prune -o '(' -name '.git' -o -name '.direnv' ')' -prune -print -o -print