Output & templates

When you don't want the TUI — scripting, piping, shell functions — f:ist prints results instead. --list selects the output mode; --format shapes each line; --output-sep joins multiple results.

Overview

• --list prints the pane's contents and exits — one path per line by default.
• --format is a template applied to every printed path.
• --output-sep sets the separator between results (default: newline).

--list mode

fs :: --list .                # everything under the current directory
fs :: --list -t image .       # only images
fs : 'fn main' -p src/ --list # search matches
fs :dir -l                    # recent folders (bare -l = all)
fs :dir -l all                # every folder, including missing ones
fs --list .                   # the nav pane

Supported by the find pane (fs :: --list), the nav pane (fs --list), the search pane (fs : --list), and recent folders (fs :dir -l). Flags combine as usual — -t, -F/-f, --sort, etc.

The --format template

The template is applied per path. {} is the whole path; {s:e} with a delimiter slices it into components:

Template	/home/you/docs/report.md
{}	'/home/you/docs/report.md' — full path, single-quoted (quotes escaped)
{0=0}	/home/you/docs/report.md — full path, raw
{0:-1}	/home/you/docs — everything but the last component
{-1:0}	report.md — just the last component
{1:3}	home/you — a middle slice

Details:

• The delimiter chooses quoting: : quotes the slice, = emits it raw, . slices the current directory instead of the path.
• Indices are 0-based; negative counts from the end; 0 as the end means "to the end".
• Non-numeric specs ({a}, {name}) are left literal — the templates are indexes, not names.
• Backslash escapes the next character (e.g. \{).

--output-sep

Multiple results are joined with the separator (default newline):

fs :: --list -t f --output-sep ' ' .   # space-separated file names

Scripting pattern

The typical shell loop:

while IFS= read -r f; do
  echo "handling $f"
done < <(fs :: --list --format '{0=0}' .)

Use --format '{0=0}' for unquoted absolute paths. For interactive pickers in scripts, --alt-accept makes accept print instead of open (this is how the z shell function gets its results).

FAQ

What's the difference between --list and -l?

The same mode — :dir uses -l (--list), the panes use --list.

Why is my path quoted?

{} quotes by design — safe for shell interpolation. Use {0=0} when you need the plain path.

Why does {a} print literally?

Templates use numeric component indexes, not names. {0=0} is the full path; see the table above.