How to preview images with imgcat on iTerm2?

[glaucocustodio]

Hey guys, I have:

$ fzf --version
0.38.0 (brew)

$ imgcat -v
imgcat 2.5.1

and would like to know how should I set up FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS to make fzf preview images with iTerm2's imgcat, currently I've this:

export FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS='
  --bind "ctrl-y:execute-silent(echo {+} | pbcopy)"
  --bind "ctrl-e:execute(echo {+} | xargs -o code)"
  --preview "([[ -f {} ]] && bat --theme=TwoDark --style=numbers --color=always --line-range :500 {})"
'

I've tried this but didn't work:

export FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS='
  --bind "ctrl-y:execute-silent(echo {+} | pbcopy)"
  --bind "ctrl-e:execute(echo {+} | xargs -o code)"
  --preview "
  if file --mime-type {} | grep -qF image/; then
    imgcat {}
  else
    bat --theme=TwoDark --style=numbers --color=always --line-range :500 {}
  fi
  "
'

[LangLangBart]

According to the changelog¹, the imgcat functionality was introduced in version 0.44.0.

Rather than using the iTerm2 imgcat script², it appears you are using eddieantonio's imgcat³.

1. Consider updating to version 0.44.0, and
2. modify the FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS as follows:
   • If you decide to use the iTerm2 imgcat script, please remove the --depth iterm2 flag from the FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS below.

export FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS='
  --bind "ctrl-y:execute-silent(echo {+} | pbcopy)"
  --bind "ctrl-e:execute(echo {+} | xargs -o code)"
  --preview "
  if file --mime-type {} | grep -qF image/; then
    imgcat --depth iterm2 --width $FZF_PREVIEW_COLUMNS --height $FZF_PREVIEW_LINES {}
  else
    bat --theme=TwoDark --style=numbers --color=always --line-range :500 {}
  fi
  "
'

Footnotes

1. CHANGELOG.md 0.44.0 ↩

2. iterm2.com/utilities/imgcat ↩

3. eddieantonio/imgcat ↩

[glaucocustodio]

thank you so much @LangLangBart, after updating brew (brew update) I was able to upgrade to fzf 0.46.1.

I tried iTerm2's imgcat but it didn't work, I ended up using eddieantonio/imgcat (which I installed with brew install imgcat) with FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS set as you posted

[LangLangBart]

Note

The maintainer recently pointed out in a comment that using the --preview flag is not recommended in the FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS.

The use of the --preview option in FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS is discouraged by me.
Source: @junegunn · Issue #3608

But, I have also included the --preview flag in my FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS. However, with a check to see if it's a file or a directory. If it's neither, for instance, a broken symlink file, there's a fallback solution.

This command was taken from the article: Boost Your Command-Line Productivity With Fuzzy Finder¹

--preview "([[ -f {} ]] && (bat --style=numbers --color=always {} || cat {})) ||
	([[ -d {} ]] && (tree -C {} | less)) ||
	echo {} 2> /dev/null | head -200"

---

PS: @junegunn, is the --preview command from the article something you would consider in your README.md ? The command can be found in 100's of repos on Github - github.com/search.

Footnotes

1. In 2020, this article was easily accessible. Now, you need to sign up for Medium or use web.archive.org to read it. ↩

[junegunn]

I still don't think it's a good idea. You end up wasting half the screen if you use fzf with a list of processes, kubernetes pods, git branches, shell commands, etc.

Also, head -200 part is not needed anymore since faf68db#diff-b335630551682c19a781afebcf4d07bf978fb1f8ac04c6bf87428ed5106870f5L595-L602.

[LangLangBart]

You end up wasting half the screen if you use fzf with a list of processes, kubernetes pods, git branches, shell commands, etc.

Ah, I understand your reasoning now. When the preview flag is not set in the FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS, no preview window will be shown at all. It really comes down to personal preferences, getting used to this setup, and optionally tweaking it with the --preview-window flag, for example on small windows. It's good to know that there's no harm done when placing the --preview flag in the FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS.