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Thierry Volpiatto edited this page Sep 1, 2024 · 13 revisions

Finding Files

Usage

helm-find-files is Helm’s version of find-files; it allows easy navigation of file hierarchies.

By default, it is bound to <helm-prefix> C-x C-f. You can also find it in the menu (Tools > Helm > Files > Find files). For convenience, you should bind it to C-x C-f.

Using universal argument (C-u) displays a history of previously visited directories.

Navigation

helm-find-files starts at default-directory or thing-at-point, the latter of which it gets from ffap. If you are on a URL, mail address, etc., it will do the right thing.

Some common actions and corresponding keys are below:

Action Key
Move up C-p
Move down C-n
Persistent action C-z
Up directory C-l

Actions

Persistent action

C-j and C-z execute the persistent action, which differs depending on context. The persistent actions for different file types are below:

Type Persistent Action
File Shows file name in the Helm buffer.
Directory Steps into the directory.
Symlink Expand to symlink’s true name

Create

Navigate to the directory where you want to create the new file, then type the file’s name and hit RET. If the name ends in a slash (/), Helm prompts you to create a directory (possibly with parent directories).

Open files externally

In the action menu, the Open files externally action (bound to C-c C-x by default) can open a file with an external program.

Rename/move

Mark some files and select the Rename file(s) action in the action menu. If the new name is in the current directory, the file is renamed. If it is in another directory, the file is moved there.

Serial rename

Most of the time you will not need this and prefer Query replace on filenames or wdired.

You can rename files with a prefix and incremental numbering. Marked files will be renamed with the prefix and number starting at the one given.

Tip:

  • If you have more than 100 files to serial rename, start at 100 instead of 1 to have your directory sorted correctly.

Marked files are renamed in order of selection. If you mark files in directories other than the current one, the files will be moved or symlinked to the current one.

There are three methods to serial rename files:

Method Description
Rename Files in other directories are moved to the target directory.
Symlink Files in other directories are symlinked; those in the current directory are renamed.
Copy Files in other directories are copied to the target directory.

Example

Suppose we want to create a directory with many symlinks to images from multiple directories.

  1. Execute helm-find-files.
  2. Navigate to the parent directory of the target directory, create the target directory (with name ending in /), and hit RET.
  3. Navigate to images in other directories and mark them.
    • M-a marks all files in a directory.
  4. After marking all files, choose serial rename by symlinking from the action menu.
  5. Choose prefix and start number.
  6. Navigate to the target directory and hit RET.
  7. Confirm.

Mark files using wildcard

Use of wilcard is supported to give a set of files to an action:

e.g. You can copy all the files with .el extension by using *.el and then run your copy action.

You can do the same but with **.el (note the two stars), this will select recursively all .el files under current directory.

NOTE: When using an action that involve an external backend (e.g. grep), using ** is not advised (even if it works fine) because it will be slower to select all your files, you have better time letting the backend doing it, it will be faster. However, if you know you have not many files it is reasonable to use this, also using not recursive wilcard (e.g. *.el) is perfectly fine for this.

This feature (**) is activated by default with the option helm-file-globstar. The directory selection with **foo/ like bash shopt globstar option is not supported yet.

Query replace on filenames

You can rename your files by replacing only part of filenames matching a regexp. e.g Rename recursively all files with .JPG extension to .jpg: Use the helm-file-globstar feature described in previous section by entering at end of helm-find-files pattern **.JPG, then hit M-%, at first prompt enter JPG, at second jpg and hit RET.

Open a wdired buffer with marked files for edit

When you want to rename a set of files (marked) you can open a dired buffer with only those files, you can then edit these files as wanted by switching to wdired and use query-replace or iedit etc… To do this, mark some files and hit C-x C-q, to switch to wdired hit again C-x C-q (a shortcut is to use a prefix arg on first C-x C-q hit).

Copy/rename

With helm-find-files, you can mark files in different directories and copy or rename them to a target directory.

Mark some files in various directories and select the Copy file(s) or Rename file(s) action in the action menu.

Copy with Rsync

If you have a system compatible with Rsync and Rsync is installed you can use Rsync to sync files, it is recommended to use this for large files (e.g. movies, images etc…), see embeded helm-find-files documentation for more infos.

Symlink

Mark some files and select the Symlink file(s) or Relsymlink file(s) action in the action menu. A new helm-find-files session appears in which you can select where the symlink will be.

Hardlink

Mark some files and select the Hardlink file(s) action in the action menu. A new helm-find-files session appears in which you can select where the hardlink will be.

Follow file after action

A prefix argument on any of the following actions will follow the file:

  • Rename
  • Copy
  • Symlink
  • Hardlink

For example, when you want to copy a .elisp file somewhere and compile it there, hitting C-u RET will go to the destination with the file already marked. You can then select Byte compile lisp file(s) to compile it.

Insert file name

In any buffer (including the minibuffer, if enable-recursive-minibuffers is t), you can get insert the file name at point by selecting Complete at point from the action menu.

Ediff

Move cursor to a file and choose Ediff file in the action menu. A new helm-find-files session allows you to choose a second file with which to diff with the first.

The Ediff merge file action is similar, but allows merging files.

Eshell command on files

You can run eshell-command on a file or marked files. The command must accept a single file as an argument.

Completion is made on your Eshell aliases. This allow you to creating custom actions for helm-find-files.

Why Eshell?

We use Eshell because it:

  • Allows aliases
  • Accepts both shell commands and Emacs Lisp functions

Aliases

To create an alias in Eshell, enter the following at the prompt:

alias my_alias command $1

NOTE:

  • Don’t forget the escape the $.

See the Eshell aliases documentation for more information.

Problems starting Eshell

Most Eshell commands are available only after Eshell has been started once. To start Eshell on Emacs startup, add the following to your init file:

(add-hook 'emacs-startup-hook (lambda ()
                                (let ((default-directory (getenv "HOME")))
                                  (command-execute 'eshell)
                                  (bury-buffer))))

Browse images

helm-find-files and its persistent actions make for a fine image browser.

Requirements

The following requires image-dired (built-in) and ImageMagick.

  1. Navigate to a directory with images.
  2. Hit C-u C-z on first image.
  3. Turn on follow-mode with C-c C-f.

Now, you can navigate the image directory with the <up> and <down> arrow keys, or C-n and C-p. You can also use C-t to split windows vertically and C-}, C-{ to shrink/enlarge the Helm window.

In the action menu, there are actions to rotate an image.

Action Key
Rotate left M-l
Rotate right M-r

Browse archives with AVFS

If you have AVFS installed, you can browse archives in your .avfs directory once it is mounted with mountavfs.

Move to the archive filename and choose persistent action (C-z), and you will see a Helm buffer containing the archive’s sub-directories.

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