4 ms·

Am I the only one that tried fzf as a replacement to the default Ctrl+R behavior, then switched back? I'm perfectly satisfied with the default Ctrl+R functiona

Am I the only one that tried fzf as a replacement to the default Ctrl+R behavior, then switched back? I'm perfectly satisfied with the default Ctrl+R functionality, to the point that fzf seemed to add visual clutter without any value. I guess I was never let down by inverse search. Context: I'm using Linux and doing SWE and SRE work, and constantly live in the terminal.

andelink 4y ago
The default ctrl+r behavior doesn't allow me to scroll up through my history of matches, which is always disappointing. Often it's some random incantation I'm trying to search for that shares a prefix with other more common commands and the default ctrl+r requires me to type out far enough to be unique, which defeats the purpose of history search. Maybe I'm missing some essential behavior that I'm not familiar with.
- babuskov 4y ago
  I don't know if the version I have is somewhat special, but I can simply keep pressing ctrl+r to search "up" for the next match. So, type: ctrl+r, prefix, and then keep pressing ctrl+r to find everything that matches the prefix.
- Izkata 4y ago
  > that shares a prefix ctrl+r matches any part of the line, not just the commands / start of the line. I'm often using it on a unique argument I remember last using the command with.
jnsaff2 4y ago
For me (in a similar role to you) Ctrl+R is the main reason of having fzf. Quality of Life improvement is immense.
bloopernova 4y ago
Imagine you have a bunch of different for loops and you want to get the one that ran a specific command. You can use something like "history | grep for | grep command" or you can use fzf. Ctrl-r, type "f o r <space>" then type "c o m m" and you'll quickly narrow down the search results. It's the fuzziness that really beats ordinary ctrl-r, being able to search on multiple fragments of text is just fantastic.
kubanczyk 4y ago
Not a hard choice. So far I stick to the vanilla C-r, same as you. But I also remember that I can C-r /fzf/ and it will search back to the command: source /usr/share/doc/fzf/examples/key-bindings.bash which will instantly upgrade my search capabilities, if I'm stuck. Which doesn't really happen that much. I think the main part of my vanilla C-r experience is that I trained myself to remember commands differently. I somehow remember exact char-to-char tokens, like the "/fzf/" substring above. Or for a more extreme example "ose -p d" when I try to find: docker compose -p devenv exec myservice /bin/sh Weirdly, I kinda know that if used "se -p d" instead (shorter) it would land me on a wrong command (so, not shorter).
olejorgenb 4y ago
It's inconceivable to me that someone could prefer the default behavior, but to each their own :)
varenc 4y ago
I initially felt the same way and found it cluttered. Though I still left fzf-history around and bound it Ctrl+Alt+R so Ctrl+R could still be the default. In zsh I just did this with `bindkey '^[^R' fzf-history-widget`. Over time I eventually found myself using Ctrl+Alt+R more and more so I made it the default and now Ctrl+Alt+R is still 'old school' history search for me.
dtgriscom 4y ago
There's a potential well of habit that you have to climb out of before you start getting a benefit. If you don't put in the energy to try it for a while, you'll slide back down into the well.
fallat 4y ago
When I learned what Ctrl-R was originally, by mistake, I was like damn... maybe the majority of shell users just have no idea how to drive bash. No wonder people lose their shit over it, it's like trying to drive a car but you're never told the car can go in reverse and the rear view mirror is just tucked up into the roof!
asicsp 4y ago
I don't like the `Ctrl+r` interface. Instead, I use these settings in `.inputrc`. Type the command I want and use arrow keys (I prefer matching from start of the command, but you can match anywhere too). # use up and down arrow to match search history based on typed starting text "\e[A": history-search-backward "\e[B": history-search-forward # if you prefer to search anywhere in the command "\e[A":history-substring-search-backward "\e[B":history-substring-search-forward

andelink 4y ago

The default ctrl+r behavior doesn't allow me to scroll up through my history of matches, which is always disappointing. Often it's some random incantation I'm trying to search for that shares a prefix with other more common commands and the default ctrl+r requires me to type out far enough to be unique, which defeats the purpose of history search. Maybe I'm missing some essential behavior that I'm not familiar with.

babuskov 4y ago
I don't know if the version I have is somewhat special, but I can simply keep pressing ctrl+r to search "up" for the next match. So, type: ctrl+r, prefix, and then keep pressing ctrl+r to find everything that matches the prefix.
Izkata 4y ago
> that shares a prefix ctrl+r matches any part of the line, not just the commands / start of the line. I'm often using it on a unique argument I remember last using the command with.

jnsaff2 4y ago

For me (in a similar role to you) Ctrl+R is the main reason of having fzf. Quality of Life improvement is immense.

bloopernova 4y ago

Imagine you have a bunch of different for loops and you want to get the one that ran a specific command. You can use something like "history | grep for | grep command" or you can use fzf. Ctrl-r, type "f o r <space>" then type "c o m m" and you'll quickly narrow down the search results. It's the fuzziness that really beats ordinary ctrl-r, being able to search on multiple fragments of text is just fantastic.

kubanczyk 4y ago

Not a hard choice. So far I stick to the vanilla C-r, same as you. But I also remember that I can C-r /fzf/ and it will search back to the command: source /usr/share/doc/fzf/examples/key-bindings.bash which will instantly upgrade my search capabilities, if I'm stuck. Which doesn't really happen that much. I think the main part of my vanilla C-r experience is that I trained myself to remember commands differently. I somehow remember exact char-to-char tokens, like the "/fzf/" substring above. Or for a more extreme example "ose -p d" when I try to find: docker compose -p devenv exec myservice /bin/sh Weirdly, I kinda know that if used "se -p d" instead (shorter) it would land me on a wrong command (so, not shorter).

olejorgenb 4y ago

It's inconceivable to me that someone could prefer the default behavior, but to each their own :)

varenc 4y ago

I initially felt the same way and found it cluttered. Though I still left fzf-history around and bound it Ctrl+Alt+R so Ctrl+R could still be the default. In zsh I just did this with `bindkey '^[^R' fzf-history-widget`. Over time I eventually found myself using Ctrl+Alt+R more and more so I made it the default and now Ctrl+Alt+R is still 'old school' history search for me.

dtgriscom 4y ago

There's a potential well of habit that you have to climb out of before you start getting a benefit. If you don't put in the energy to try it for a while, you'll slide back down into the well.

fallat 4y ago

When I learned what Ctrl-R was originally, by mistake, I was like damn... maybe the majority of shell users just have no idea how to drive bash. No wonder people lose their shit over it, it's like trying to drive a car but you're never told the car can go in reverse and the rear view mirror is just tucked up into the roof!

asicsp 4y ago

I don't like the `Ctrl+r` interface. Instead, I use these settings in `.inputrc`. Type the command I want and use arrow keys (I prefer matching from start of the command, but you can match anywhere too). # use up and down arrow to match search history based on typed starting text "\e[A": history-search-backward "\e[B": history-search-forward # if you prefer to search anywhere in the command "\e[A":history-substring-search-backward "\e[B":history-substring-search-forward