Navigate and manipulate file system

See more details in Features and Documentation.

[!NOTE] This was previously hosted at a personal echasnovski GitHub account. It was transferred to a dedicated organization to improve long term project stability. See more details here.

⦿ This is a part of mini.nvim library. Please use this link if you want to mention this module.

⦿ All contributions (issues, pull requests, discussions, etc.) are done inside of 'mini.nvim'.

⦿ See whole library documentation to learn about general design principles, disable/configuration recipes, and more.

⦿ See MiniMax for a full config example that uses this module.

If you want to help this project grow but don't know where to start, check out contributing guides of 'mini.nvim' or leave a Github star for 'mini.nvim' project and/or any its standalone Git repositories.

Demo

https://github.com/nvim-mini/mini.nvim/assets/24854248/530483a5-fe9a-4e18-9813-a6d609fc89ff

Features

Navigate file system using column view (Miller columns) to display nested directories. See :h MiniFiles-navigation for overview.
Opt-in preview of file or directory under cursor.
Manipulate files and directories by editing text buffers: create, delete, copy, rename, move. See :h MiniFiles-manipulation for overview.
Use as default file explorer instead of netrw.
Configurable:
- Filter/prefix/sort of file system entries.
- Mappings used for common explorer actions.
- UI options: whether to show preview of file/directory under cursor, etc.
- Bookmarks for quicker navigation.

See :h MiniFiles-examples for some common configuration examples.

Notes:

This module is written and thoroughly tested on Linux. Support for other platform/OS (like Windows or MacOS) is a goal, but there is no guarantee.
This module silently reacts to not enough permissions:
- In case of missing file, check its or its parent read permissions.
- In case of no manipulation result, check write permissions.

Dependencies

For full experience needs (still works without any of suggestions):

Enabled 'mini.icons' module to show icons near file/directory names. Can fall back to using nvim-tree/nvim-web-devicons plugin.

Quick start

Navigation

Run :lua MiniFiles.open().
Navigate:
- Press j/k to navigate down/up.
- Press l to expand entry under cursor: show directory or open file in the most recent window.
- Press h to go to parent directory.
- Type m<char> to set directory path of focused window as bookmark <char>. Jump to it with '<char>. Go back to before the latest jump with ''.
- Type g? for more information about other available mappings and bookmarks.
- Move as in any other buffer ($, G, f/t, etc.).

For deeper overview, see :h MiniFiles-navigation.

Manipulation

Navigate to the directory in which manipulation should be done.
Edit buffer in the way representing file system action:
- Create file/directory: create new line like file or dir/.
- Create file/directory in the descendant directory: create new line like dir/file or dir/nested/.
- Delete file/directory: delete whole line representing that entry.
- Rename file/directory: change text to the right of that entry's icon.
- Copy file/directory: copy whole line and paste it in target directory.
- Move file/directory: cut whole line and paste it in target directory.
Press =; read confirmation dialog; confirm with y/<CR> or not confirm with n/<Esc>.

For deeper overview, see :h MiniFiles-manipulation.

Installation

This plugin can be installed as part of 'mini.nvim' library (recommended) or as a standalone Git repository.

There are two branches to install from:

main (default, recommended) will have latest development version of plugin. All changes since last stable release should be perceived as being in beta testing phase (meaning they already passed alpha-testing and are moderately settled).
stable will be updated only upon releases with code tested during public beta-testing phase in main branch.

Here are code snippets for some common installation methods (use only one):

'mini.nvim' library:

| Branch | Code snippet | |--------|-----------------------------------------------| | Main | Follow recommended 'mini.deps' installation | | Stable | Follow recommended 'mini.deps' installation |
Standalone plugin:

| Branch | Code snippet | |--------|-----------------------------------------------------------------| | Main | add('nvim-mini/mini.files') | | Stable | add({ source = 'nvim-mini/mini.files', checkout = 'stable' }) |

</details> <details> <summary>With <a href="https://github.com/folke/lazy.nvim">folke/lazy.nvim</a></summary>

'mini.nvim' library:

| Branch | Code snippet | |--------|-----------------------------------------------| | Main | { 'nvim-mini/mini.nvim', version = false }, | | Stable | { 'nvim-mini/mini.nvim', version = '*' }, |
Standalone plugin:

| Branch | Code snippet | |--------|------------------------------------------------| | Main | { 'nvim-mini/mini.files', version = false }, | | Stable | { 'nvim-mini/mini.files', version = '*' }, |

</details> <details> <summary>With <a href="https://github.com/junegunn/vim-plug">junegunn/vim-plug</a></summary>

'mini.nvim' library:

| Branch | Code snippet | |--------|------------------------------------------------------| | Main | Plug 'nvim-mini/mini.nvim' | | Stable | Plug 'nvim-mini/mini.nvim', { 'branch': 'stable' } |
Standalone plugin:

| Branch | Code snippet | |--------|-------------------------------------------------------| | Main | Plug 'nvim-mini/mini.files' | | Stable | Plug 'nvim-mini/mini.files', { 'branch': 'stable' } |

</details>

Important: don't forget to call require('mini.files').setup() to enable its functionality.

Note: if you are on Windows, there might be problems with too long file paths (like error: unable to create file <some file name>: Filename too long). Try doing one of the following:

Enable corresponding git global config value: git config --system core.longpaths true. Then try to reinstall.
Install plugin in other place with shorter path.

Default config

-- No need to copy this inside `setup()`. Will be used automatically.
{
  -- Customization of shown content
  content = {
    -- Predicate for which file system entries to show
    filter = nil,
    -- Highlight group to use for a file system entry
    highlight = nil,
    -- Prefix text and highlight to show to the left of file system entry
    prefix = nil,
    -- Order in which to show file system entries
    sort = nil,
  },

  -- Module mappings created only inside explorer.
  -- Use `''` (empty string) to not create one.
  mappings = {
    close       = 'q',
    go_in       = 'l',
    go_in_plus  = 'L',
    go_out      = 'h',
    go_out_plus = 'H',
    mark_goto   = "'",
    mark_set    = 'm',
    reset       = '<BS>',
    reveal_cwd  = '@',
    show_help   = 'g?',
    synchronize = '=',
    trim_left   = '<',
    trim_right  = '>',
  },

  -- General options
  options = {
    -- Whether to delete permanently or move into module-specific trash
    permanent_delete = true,
    -- Whether to use for editing directories
    use_as_default_explorer = true,
  },

  -- Customization of explorer windows
  windows = {
    -- Maximum number of windows to show side by side
    max_number = math.huge,
    -- Whether to show preview of file/directory under cursor
    preview = false,
    -- Width of focused window
    width_focus = 50,
    -- Width of non-focused window
    width_nofocus = 15,
    -- Width of preview window
    width_preview = 25,
  },
}

Mini.files

Install / Use

README