nfuzz

nfuzz is a Neovim plugin that enables fuzzy search on certain operations. A typical example is selecting a buffer to display in the current window. There are multiple ways to open a buffer: if the buffer number is known it can be opened directly via :b <nr>. Given that this is unlikely for all but the most often referenced buffers, a common alternative is to use Neovim's buffer name auto completion. As long as the sequence typed by the user uniquely identifies a buffer, Neovim will be able to open it. Even in such a case, though, the sequence must represent a contiguous part of the buffer's path, a property hard to achieve once many open buffers exist and files have identical names.

A common solution to problems like this is the application of fuzzy searching. Fuzzy search describes a search where the characters the user typed are searched for in the input list, but the only constraint is that those characters appear in the match in order they were supplied. Most importantly, the user is not required to supply a contiguous part of the intended result. For example, the search string fzy would match fuzzy, abc could match another beautiful cloud, or check could match check_output.

The nfuzz plugin brings fuzzy search to Neovim!

Installation

Installation typically happens by means of a plugin manager. For Vundle the configuration could look like this:

call vundle#begin('~/.config/nvim/bundle')
...
Plugin 'd-e-s-o/nfuzz' "<---- relevant line
...
call vundle#end()

To actually pull the plugin run :PluginInstall. Please adjust the above in accordance with the plugin manager you use.

Since most plugin managers are oblivious to the fact that they are use in conjunction with Neovim, and Neovim requires the creation of a manifest for all "remote" plugins, an additional command should be run after a restart of the editor:

:UpdateRemotePlugins

By default nfuzz uses fzy to facilitate the fuzzy search and fd to find files. See below for how to change those defaults.

Configuration

As is common for plugins, nfuzz exposes a set of functions providing its core functionality and users should define key bindings to invoke them. A sample configuration may look like this:

map <leader>b :call NfuzzBuffers()<CR>
map <leader>f :call NfuzzFiles()<CR>

In addition, the default fuzzy searcher as well as the program to find files can be configured through global variables:

" The fuzzy searcher to use.
let g:nfuzz_fuzzer = "fzy-tmux"
" The command to list all files below a set of directories.
let g:nfuzz_finder = "fd . --type=f --base-directory"