**fzy** is a fast, simple fuzzy text selector for the terminal with an advanced [scoring
algorithm](#sorting).
It's been kind of life-changing.
-@graygilmore
fzy works great btw
-@alexblackie
[](https://travis-ci.org/jhawthorn/fzy)
## Why use this over fzf, pick, selecta, ctrlp, ...?
fzy is faster and shows better results than other fuzzy finders.
Most other fuzzy matchers sort based on the length of a match. fzy tries to
find the result the user intended. It does this by favouring matches on
consecutive letters and starts of words. This allows matching using acronyms or
different parts of the path.
A gory comparison of the sorting used by fuzzy finders can be found in [ALGORITHM.md](ALGORITHM.md)
fzy is designed to be used both as an editor plugin and on the command line.
Rather than clearing the screen, fzy displays its interface directly below the current cursor position, scrolling the screen if necessary.
## Installation
### From source
make
sudo make install
The `PREFIX` environment variable can be used to specify the install location,
the default is `/usr/local`.
### Ubuntu/Debian 64-bit
wget https://github.com/jhawthorn/fzy/releases/download/0.8/fzy_0.8-1_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i fzy_0.8-1_amd64.deb
### Fedora/Redhat/CentOS
sudo yum install https://github.com/jhawthorn/fzy/releases/download/0.8/fzy-0.8-1.x86_64.rpm
### Arch Linux
fzy is available
[in the AUR](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/fzy/)
with a very simple
[PKGBUILD](https://aur.archlinux.org/cgit/aur.git/tree/PKGBUILD?h=fzy)
### OS X via Homebrew
brew tap jhawthorn/fzy
brew install fzy
## Usage
fzy is a drop in replacement for [selecta](https://github.com/garybernhardt/selecta), and can be used with its [usage examples](https://github.com/garybernhardt/selecta#usage-examples).
### Use with Vim
fzy can be integrated very simply in vim. There is also [fzy-vim](https://github.com/Dkendal/fzy-vim), a more fully featured vim plugin.
``` vim
function! FzyCommand(choice_command, vim_command)
try
let output = system(a:choice_command . " | fzy ")
catch /Vim:Interrupt/
" Swallow errors from ^C, allow redraw! below
endtry
redraw!
if v:shell_error == 0 && !empty(output)
exec a:vim_command . ' ' . output
endif
endfunction
nnoremap e :call FzyCommand("find -type f", ":e")
nnoremap v :call FzyCommand("find -type f", ":vs")
nnoremap s :call FzyCommand("find -type f", ":sp")
```
Any program can be used to filter files presented through fzy. [ag (the silver searcher)](https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher) can be used to ignore files specified by `.gitignore`.
``` vim
nnoremap e :call FzyCommand("ag . -l -g ''", ":e")
nnoremap v :call FzyCommand("ag . -l -g ''", ":vs")
nnoremap s :call FzyCommand("ag . -l -g ''", ":sp")
```
## Sorting
fzy attempts to present the best matches first. The following considerations are weighted when sorting:
It prefers consecutive characters: `file` will match file over filter.
It prefers matching the beginning of words: `amp` is likely to match app/models/posts.rb.
It prefers shorter matches: `abce` matches abcdef over abc de.
It prefers shorter candidates: `test` matches tests over testing.