Dmenufm

A simple dmenu file manager written in POSIX-compliant shell script.

Distrotube introduce my project much better than I do.

Some gifs

Dependency

• awk, sed, cat, wc -l, rm, mkdir, touch in their POSIX-compliant version.
• xclip as clipboard
• tar; unlzma; bunzip2; unrar; unzip; uncompress; 7z; unxz; cabextract for extraction.

Installation

Put dmenufm in your $PATH.

Usage

1. Type dmenufm to launch, or assign dmenufm to your favorite hot key. You may supply a directory as an argument to start dmenufm in the specified directory.
2. ../ to go back to parent directory.
3. ./ to open your file manager in currend working directory (determined by xdg-open)
4. Choices with / are directory; choices without / are files.

Optional arguments for custom usage:
-d | --directory: dmenufm only show directories
-f | --file: dmenufm only show files
-D | --dotdirectory: dmenufm only show hidden directories
-F | --dotfile: dmenufm only hidden files
-p | --lastpath: dmenufm open on last working directory (cd on exit)
-h | --help: Show this message

Terminal

Terminal to open terminal in currend working directory. Should define terminal by adding export TERMINAL=<your terminal> to the end of your .bashrc file (or any other system configuration file, like .profile, zshrc, etc).

CD on exit

Use -p option:

dmenufm -p

Actions

Actions is the actions you can do.

PCP to copy path.

Example:

• current working directory is $HOME, if press ESC to leave dmenufm, then $HOME will be copied into xclip.
• You can browse into the any directory. Inside that directory, choose ./, and current working directory will be copied.

NEW to make new file / directory

Name with slash will consider as a directory; without as file.

• Example: Type dirname/ to create new directory, and filename to create new file.

MVR to move / rename file

• To move file to destination:
  • Choose source and destination to move your file. Enter the directory and choose ./ to confirm the destination.
  • Bulk Move for multi-selection
  • Bulk Move all to move all the content in the directory.
• To rename file:
  • After choosing source, in the destination, type your new name (No need to add slash even for directory), and press Shift+Return to confirm inputed new name.
  • Note: Shift+Return will confirm the input rather than patched menu item.

YAK to copy files

• The usage of this action is the same as MVR, but will copy the file instead of moving it.

LNK to create symbolic links

• The usage of this action is the same as MVR, but will create the symbolic link for the file instead of moving it.

DEL to remove

Delete directories or files.

• Bulk Delete for multi-selection
• Bulk Delete all to delete all the content in the directory.

TRH to put in trash.

• $HOME/.config/dmenufm/trash is the directory storing trashes for dmenufm.
• Move file to trash will generate a new dmenu prompt.
  • Choose any file to move to trash.
  • To move a directory to trash, enter the directory, and choose ./ to confirm this directory..
  • Bulk Trash for multi-selection
  • Bulk Trash all to delete all the content in the directory.
• Go to trash will move current working directory to trash directory.
• Empty trash will remove all files/directories in trash directory.

REM to rename files / directories

• Open the name of the selected files / directories to your $EDITOR / text editor.
  • Bulk Rename for multi-selection
  • Bulk Rename all to delete all the content in the directory.

HIS to record history

• history file stored in $HOME/.config/dmenufm/dmenufm_history.
• The maximum number of history is 5000.

BMK to store as bookmarks

• Choose the listed bookmark to enter that directory. Bookmarks are stored in $HOME/.config/dmenufm/dmenufm_bookmark
• Choose "Add BMK" to browse between directories using new dmenu prompt.
  • To add file to bookmark, choose files in new dmenu prompt.
  • To add directory to bookmark, enter the directory and choose ./ to confirm.
• Choose "Delete BMK" to delete one file/directory in bookmark.

CMD to store command

• Choose "Add CMD" to add both the command and command description in $HOME/.config/dmenufm/dmenufm_command.
• Choose "Delete CMD" to delete any command in $HOME/.config/dmenufm/dmenufm_command.
• Choose "Type and execute" to type and execute command.
• Choose any stored command to execute.

CMD Notes:

GUI application will open only one windows, and terminal application will open a terminal for this command.

If there is no terminal opened for your terminal application, you need to modify executecmd function in dmenufm.

executecmd () {
	software=$(printf '%s' "$1" | awk -F ' ' '{print $1}')
	if < $(locate $software.desktop | tail -n 1) grep "Terminal=false"; then
		printf '%s' "$1" | ${SHELL:-"/bin/sh"} &
	else
		$TERMINAL -e $1 | ${SHELL:-"/bin/sh"} &
	fi
}

$TERMINAL -e $1 is the one you need to modify.

Open files

Files are opened using xdg-open. If you have any trouble, go to troubleshooting on xdg-open

For compressions, now you can choose the compression, and it will extract into a new directory named by the compression.

Configuration

There are many environment variables you can use to conigure dmenufm by exporting them in your system or shell configuration file.

The default options are as follows:

# FILES LOCATION
export FM_PATH="$HOME/.config/dmenufm"
export FM_TRASH="$FM_PATH/trash"
export FM_BMKFILE="$FM_PATH/dmenufm_bookmark"
export FM_CMDFILE="$FM_PATH/dmenufm_command"
export FM_HISFILE="$FM_PATH/dmenufm_history"
export FM_LASTPATH="$FM_PATH/dmenufm_lastpath"
export FM_REMFILE="$FM_PATH/dmenufm_bulk_rename"
# Max number for history
export FM_MAX_HIS_LENGTH=5000
# FONTS
export FM_GENERIC_FONT="Monospace-15"
export FM_NOTIF_FONT="Monospace-25"
export FM_DANGER_FONT="Monospace-20"
# COLORs
export FM_GENERIC_COLOR="#005577"
export FM_ACTION_COLOR_LV1="#33691e"
export FM_ACTION_COLOR_LV2="#FF8C00"
export FM_ACTION_COLOR_BULK="#CB06CB"

Note

If you hate GUIarrowy world like me, based on man dmenu, you can

• Ctrl-n to go up,
• Ctrl-p to go down,
• Ctrl-y to paste from primary X selection
  • Everything your "are selecting" can be paste into dmenu by this hot key.
• Meta-h to go up,
• Meta-l to go down,
• Meta-k to go one page up,
• Meta-j to go one page down,

where Meta is also called Alt.

Troubleshooting

Why some of my GUI app will open in terminal?

For GUI application like sxiv, default setting will open sxiv in a new terminal. In total, 2 windows will be opened.

This is because sxiv.desktop has no Terminal=false entry.

To fix this, use

< $(locate sxiv.desktop | tail -n 1) sudo $EDITOR

to open .desktop file in your editor, and add

Terminal=false

You can replace sxiv to any GUI application which has the same issue.

Why files do not open in the right application

dmenufm use xdg-open to open files in the default application.

To open in the application that you want, you need to

1. find the filetype (minor/major) of the file
2. Set xdg-open default applications.

For example, I am using sxhkd. So I need to modify sxhkdrc. However, it is not opened in nvim.desktop, but in firefox.desktop.

So I

1. find the filetype:

   # Go to directory
   cd ~/.config/sxhkd
   # find the filetype
   xdg-mime query filetype sxhkdrc

   Find filetype text/x-matlab
2. Set xdg-open default applications:

   xdg-mime default nvim.desktop text/x-matlab

and you are all set.

I want to configure the color and font of dmenufm

You can export the following environment variables in your shell or system configuration file:

# FONTS
export FM_GENERIC_FONT="Monospace-15"
export FM_NOTIF_FONT="Monospace-25"
export FM_DANGER_FONT="Monospace-20"
# COLORs
export FM_GENERIC_COLOR="#005577"
export FM_ACTION_COLOR_LV1="#33691e"
export FM_ACTION_COLOR_LV2="#FF8C00"
export FM_ACTION_COLOR_BULK="#CB06CB"

Change the font / font size / color in the "" to customize the appearance of dmenufm.

TODO

• Compress directory and extract files to different format.
• Support MacOS (darwin)