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fuzzel(1) General Commands Manual fuzzel(1)

NAME

fuzzel - Wayland app launcher and picker

SYNOPSIS

fuzzel [OPTIONS]...

DESCRIPTION

As a launcher, fuzzel lists all available XDG applications in a searchable window.

With the --dmenu flag, fuzzel works like a general-purpose picker like dmenu, rofi or fzf. Options to choose from are provided on the STDIN and the selected option is printed to STDOUT.

The search box supports Emacs-like key bindings.

Many things can be configured with fuzzel.ini(5) or command line options:

--config=PATH

Path to configuration file, see fuzzel.ini(5) for details.

--check-config

Verify configuration and then exit with 0 if ok, otherwise exit with 1.

-n,--namespace=NAMESPACE

Specifies the namespace for the spawned layer shell surface. Useful for blocking fuzzel out from screencasts in your compositor if it shows sensitive information, such as passwords.

Default: launcher

--cache=PATH

Use a custom cache location. Fuzzel uses this file to cache the most commonly launched applications (to be able to sort them at the top).

You can also use this option to enable caching of dmenu entries. It is recommended that you use a separate cache file for each "type" of dmenu invocation; i.e. one for the browser history, another for emojis etc.

Set to /dev/null to disable caching.

Default: XDG_CACHE_HOME/fuzzel

-o,--output=OUTPUT

Specifies the monitor to display the window on. Autocompletion is available for zsh and fish, or you can list the available outputs with wlr-randr or with Sway using swaymsg -t get_outputs.

Example: DP-1

Default: Let the compositor choose output.

-f,--font=FONT[,FALLBACK1,FALLBACK2,...]

Comma separated list of primary font, and fallback fonts, in FontConfig format. See FONT FORMAT. Default: monospace.

--use-bold

Allow fuzzel to use bold fonts.

-D,--dpi-aware=no|yes|auto

When set to yes, fonts are sized using the monitor's DPI, making a font of a given point size have the same physical size, regardless of monitor.

In this mode, the monitor's scaling factor is ignored; doubling the scaling factor will not double the font size.

When set to no, the monitor's DPI is ignored. The font is instead sized using the monitor's scaling factor; doubling the scaling factor does double the font size.

Finally, if set to auto, fonts will be sized using the monitor's DPI if all monitors have a scaling factor of 1. If at least one monitor as a scaling factor larger than 1 (regardless of whether the fuzzel window is mapped on that monitor or not), fonts will be scaled using the scaling factor.

Note that this option typically does not work with bitmap fonts, which only contains a pre-defined set of sizes, and cannot be dynamically scaled. Whichever size (of the available ones) that best matches the DPI or scaling factor, will be used.

Also note that if the font size has been specified in pixels (:pixelsize=N, instead of :size=N), DPI scaling (dpi-aware=yes) will have no effect (the specified pixel size will be used as is). But, if the monitor's scaling factor is used to size the font (dpi-aware=no), the font's pixel size will be multiplied with the scaling factor.

Default: auto

--gamma-correct

Do gamma-correct blending in linear color space. This is how font glyphs are supposed to be rendered, but since nearly no applications or toolkits are doing it on Linux, the result may not look like you are used to.

Compared to the default (disabled), bright glyphs on a dark background will appear thicker, and dark glyphs on a light background will appear thinner.

FreeType can limit the effect of the latter, with a technique called stem darkening. It is only available for CFF fonts (OpenType, .otf) and disabled by default (in FreeType). You can enable it by setting the environment variable FREETYPE_PROPERTIES="cff:no-stem-darkening=0" before starting fuzzel.

Also be aware that many fonts have been developed on systems that do not do gamma-correct blending, and may therefore look thicker than intended when rendered with gamma-correct blending, since the font designer set the font weight based on incorrect rendering.

In order to represent colors faithfully, higher precision image buffers are required. For this reason, fuzzel uses 16-bit image buffers (instead of 8-bit) when gamma-correct blending is enabled.

It is not possible to enable gamma-correct blending in cairo enabled builds of fuzzel, since cairo does not support 16-bit image buffers.

-p,--prompt=PROMPT

Prompt to use. Default: > .

--prompt-only=PROMPT

Same as --prompt, but in --dmenu mode it also:
  • does not read anything from STDIN
  • sets --lines to 0

In non-dmenu mode it behaves exactly like --prompt.

--hide-prompt

Hide the prompt line, making the window smaller. Input is still accepted, but the prompt line is not displayed. This option cannot be used at the same time with --prompt-only.

--placeholder=TEXT

Text to display as placeholder in the input box. Default: empty.

--search=TEXT

Initial search/filter string. This option pre-fills the input box with the specified string, letting you pre-filter the result.

-i

Ignored; for compatibility with other, similar utilities (where -i means "case insensitive search").

--icon-theme=NAME

Icon theme to use. Note that this option is case sensitive; the name must match the theme's folder name.

Example: Adwaita.

Default: default.

-I,--no-icons

Do not render any icons.

--hide-before-typing

Hide application list until something is typed.

-F,--fields=FIELDS

Comma separated list of XDG Desktop entry fields to match against:

  • filename: the .desktop file's filename
  • name: the application's name (title)
  • generic: the application's generic name
  • exec: the applications's executable, as specified in the desktop file. Note: may include command line options as well.
  • keywords: the application's keywords
  • categories: the application's categories
  • comment: the application's comment

Default: filename,name,generic

--password=[CHARACTER]

Password input. Render all typed text as CHARACTER. If CHARACTER is omitted, a * will be used.

-T,--terminal=TERMINAL ARGS

Command to launch XDG applications with the property Terminal=true (htop, for example).

The command may contain the placeholder {cmd} which will be replaced with the actual command to be run. When {cmd} is present, the command is only substituted in those locations and is not appended at the end.

Examples:

  • foot -a '{cmd}' -T '{cmd}' {cmd} sets app-id and title to the command name, then executes it
  • xterm -e {cmd} executes the command in xterm
  • xterm -e (no {cmd}) uses old behavior: appends command after terminal args

Default: not set.

-a,--anchor=ANCHOR

Set window anchor, i.e. where on screen the window will be displayed. You can choose one from:

  • top-left
  • top
  • top-right
  • left
  • center
  • right
  • bottom-left
  • bottom
  • bottom-right

Default: center

--x-margin=MARGIN

Horizontal margin away from the anchor point in pixels. Default: 0.

Note: this option has no effect when anchor=center, top or bottom.

--y-margin=MARGIN

Vertical margin away from the anchor point in pixels. Default: 0.

Note: this option has no effect when anchor=center, left or right.

--select=STRING

Select the first entry that matches the given string (case insensitive).

--auto-select

Automatically select when only one match remains.

--select-index=INDEX

Select the entry with index, not compatible with --select.

-l,--lines=COUNT

The (maximum) number of matches to display. This dictates the window height. Default: 15.

--minimal-lines

Adjust the number of lines to display to the minimum of --lines and the number of input lines. Only effective in dmenu mode. This allows fuzzel to size itself to the actual number of input lines rather than always showing the full --lines rows.

-w,--width

Window width, in characters. Margins and borders not included. For variable width fonts this is an estimate, as the exact number of characters that will fit depends on which characters are being displayed. Default: 30.

--tabs=COUNT

Number of spaces a tab is expanded to. Default: 8.

-x,--horizontal-pad=PAD

Horizontal padding between border and icons and text. In pixels, subject to output scaling. Default: 40.

-y,--vertical-pad=PAD

Vertical padding between border and text. In pixels, subject to output scaling. Default: 8.

-P,--inner-pad=PAD

Vertical padding between prompt and match list. In pixels, subject to output scaling. Default: 0.

-b,--background=HEX

Background color. See COLORS. Default: fdf6e3ff.

-t,--text-color=HEX

Text color. See COLORS. Default: 657b83ff.

--prompt-color=HEX

Text (foreground) color of prompt character(s). See COLORS. Default: 586e75ff.

--placeholder-color=HEX

Text (foreground) color of the placeholder string. See COLORS. Default: 93a1a1ff.

--input-color=HEX

Text (foreground) color of input string. See COLORS. Default: 657b83ff.

-m,--match-color=HEX

The color of matching substring(s). As you start typing in the search box, the matching part in each application's name is highlighted with this color. See COLORS. Default: cb4b16ff.

-s,--selection-color=HEX

The color to use as background of the currently selected application. See COLORS. Default: eee8d5ff.

-S,--selection-text-color=HEX

The text color of the currently selected application. See COLORS. Default: 586e75ff.

-M,--selection-match-color=HEX

The color of matching substring(s) of the currently selected application. As you start typing in the search box, the matching part in each application's name is highlighted with this color. See COLORS. Default: cb4b16ff.

--selection-radius=INT

The border radius of the selection entry. Like border-radius, this is subjected to output scaling. A larger value means a rounder corner. 0 disables rounded corner. Default: 0.

--counter-color=HEX

The color of the match count stats printed at the right-hand side of the input prompt. See COLORS. Default: 93a1a1ff.

-B,--border-width=INT

The width of the surrounding border, in pixels (subject to output scaling). Default: 1.

-r,--border-radius=INT

The corner curvature, subject to output scaling. Larger means more rounded corners. 0 disables rounded corners. Default: 10.

-C,--border-color=HEX

The color of the border. See COLORS. Default: 002b36ff.

--show-actions

Include desktop actions in the list. Desktop actions are alternative actions some desktop entries have. Examples include "New Window", "New Document", etc.

--match-mode=exact|fzf|fuzzy

Defines how what you type is matched. See fuzzel.ini(5) for details. The default is fzf.

--no-sort

Do not sort the result.

--counter

Display the match count.

--filter-desktop=[no]

Filter the visible desktop entries based on the value of XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP. If the optional parameter is "no", explicitly disables filtering (that is, it overrides the value in the config).

--fuzzy-min-length=VALUE

Search strings shorter than this will not by fuzzy matched. Default: 3.

--fuzzy-max-length-discrepancy=VALUE

Maximum allowed length difference between the search string, and a fuzzy match. Larger values result in more fuzzy matches. Default: 2.

--fuzzy-max-distance=VALUE

Maximum allowed levenshtein distance between the search string, and a fuzzy match. Larger values result in more fuzzy matches. Default: 1.

--line-height=HEIGHT

Override line height from font metrics. In points by default, but can be specified as pixels by appending 'px' (i.e. --line-height=16px). Default: not set.

--letter-spacing=AMOUNT

Additional space between letters. In points by default, but can be specified as pixels by appending 'px' (i.e. letter-spacing=5px). Negative values are supported. Default: 0.

--layer=top|overlay

Which layer to render the fuzzel window on. Valid values are top and overlay.

top renders above normal windows, but typically below fullscreen windows and lock screens.

overlay renders on top of both normal windows and fullscreen windows. Note that the order is undefined if several windows use the same layer. Since e.g. lock screens typically use overlay, that means fuzzel may or may not appear on top of a lock screen.

Default: overlay

--keyboard-focus=exclusive|on-demand

Keyboard focusing mode, valid modes are exclusive and on-demand.

exclusive locks keyboard focus to fuzzel, receiving all keyboard input until closed.

on-demand makes fuzzel focus like a regular window, allowing other windows to take keyboard focus by e.g. clicking on them. By default switching keyboard focus will immediately close fuzzel, using --no-exit-on-keyboard-focus-loss allows interacting with other windows while fuzzel is open.

Default: exclusive

--no-exit-on-keyboard-focus-loss

Do not exit when losing keyboard focus. This can be useful on compositors where enabling "focus-follows-mouse" causes fuzzel to exit as soon as the mouse is moved over another window. Sway (at least up to, and including 1.7) exhibits this behavior.

--launch-prefix=COMMAND

Command to launch XDG applications with. If set, fuzzel will pass the Desktop File ID of the chosen application (see the Desktop Entry specification) in the FUZZEL_DESKTOP_FILE_ID environment variables. Default: not set.

--list-executables-in-path

Include executables from the PATH environment variable. Applies to the normal application mode, not the dmenu mode.

--render-workers=COUNT

Number of threads to use for rendering. Set to 0 to disable multithreading. Default: the number of available logical CPUs (including SMT). Note that this is not always the best value. In some cases, the number of physical cores is better.

--match-workers=COUNT

Number of threads to use for matching. Set to 0 to disable multithreading. Default: the number of available logical CPUs (including SMT). Note that this is not always the best value. In some cases, the number of physical cores is better.

--delayed-filter-ms=TIME_MS

Time, in milliseconds, to delay refiltering when there are more matches than --delayed-filter-limit. Default: 300.

--delayed-filter-limit=N

When there are more matches than this, switch from immediate refiltering to delayed refiltering (see --delayed-filter-ms). Default: 20000.

--scaling-filter=FILTER

Scaling filter to use when down scaling PNGs. One of none, nearest, bilinear, box, linear, cubic, lanczos2, lanczos3 and lanczos3-stretched.

none, nearest and bilinear are the fastest options, but also have the worst looking results.

cubic, lanczos2, lanczos3 and lanczos3-stretched are the slowest options, with the best looking results.

box, and to some degree, linear, are in the middle, performance wise, while in most cases still being just as, or close to, as good as cubic and the lanczos filters.

Default: box

-d,--dmenu

dmenu compatibility mode. In this mode, the list entries are read from stdin (newline separated). The selected entry is printed to stdout. If the input string does not match any of the entries, the input string is printed as is on stdout.

Alternatively, you can symlink the fuzzel binary to dmenu. Fuzzel will then start in dmenu mode, without the --dmenu argument.

Fuzzel also supports PNG and SVG icons, using Rofi's extended dmenu protocol. To set an icon for an entry, append \0icon\x1f<icon-name>. Example:

echo -en "Firefox\0icon\x1ffirefox" | fuzzel --dmenu

Fallback icons using comma-separated values are also supported. When the primary icon is not found, subsequent icons in the list will be tried until one is successfully loaded. Example:

echo -en "Firefox\0icon\x1ffirefox,web-browser,application-x-executable" | fuzzel --dmenu

--dmenu0

Like --dmenu, but input is NUL separated instead of newline separated. Note that in this mode, icons are not supported.

--index

Print selected entry's index instead of its text. Index values start with zero for the first entry. dmenu mode only.

--with-nth=N|FMT

Display the N:th column (1-based, tab separated by default, see --nth-delimiter) of each input line. When selected, the full input line is printed on stdout. dmenu mode only.

The argument can also be a format string (i.e free-format text), where {N} expands to the N:th column. Ranges on the form {N..M} and {N..} (open-ended) are also supported.

Example:

printf "1\tFirst\n2\tSecond" | fuzzel -d --with-nth=2

This will display the entries First and Second. When one of them is selected, the full input line (tabs included) are printed on stdout.

Setting it to 0 is the same as not specifying --with-nth at all.

--accept-nth=N|FMT

Output the N:th column (1-based, tab separated by default, see --nth-delimiter) of each input line to stdout. dmenu mode only.

The argument can also be a format string (i.e free-format text), where {N} expands to the N:th column. Ranges on the form {N..M} and {N..} (open-ended) are also supported.

Example:

printf "1\tFirst\n2\tSecond" | fuzzel -d --accept-nth=2

This will display the entries 1 First and 2 Second. Depending on which one is selected, First or Second will be printed to stdout.

Setting it to 0 is the same as not specifying --accept-nth at all.

--nth-delimiter=CHARACTER

Field (column) delimiter for --with-nth and --accept-nth. Must be a single ASCII character.

Default: \t (tab)

-R,--no-run-if-empty

Exit immediately, without showing the UI, if stdin is empty. dmenu mode only.

--log-level={info,warning,error,none}

Log level, used both for log output on stderr as well as syslog. Default: warning.

--log-colorize=[{never,always,auto}]

Enables or disables colorization of log output on stderr.

--log-no-syslog

Disables syslog logging. Logging is only done on stderr.

--print-timing-info

Print timing information to help debug performance issues.

--no-mouse

Disable mouse input.

-v,--version

Show the version number and quit

SEARCH PATHS

Fuzzel searches for XDG .desktop files according to the XDG Base Directory Specification (see link at bottom), looking in the applications subdirectory of the paths given by XDG_DATA_DIRS and XDG_DATA_HOME. By default, these are:

  • ~/.local/share/applications
  • /usr/local/share/applitions
  • /usr/share/application

See the specification for details.

CONFIGURATION

fuzzel will search for a configuration file in the following locations, in this order:

  • XDG_CONFIG_HOME/fuzzel/fuzzel.ini (defaulting to ~/.config/fuzzel/fuzzel.ini if unset)
  • XDG_CONFIG_DIRS/fuzzel/fuzzel.ini (defaulting to /etc/xdg/fuzzel/fuzzel.ini if unset)

An example configuration file containing all options with their default value commented out will usually be installed to /etc/xdg/fuzzel/fuzzel.ini.

For more information, see fuzzel.ini(5).

LOCALIZATION

Fuzzel uses the localized strings from the .desktop files by default. To disable this, run fuzzel with LC_MESSAGES=C.

FONT FORMAT

The font is specified in FontConfig syntax. That is, a colon-separated list of font name and font options.

Examples:

  • Dina:weight=bold:slant=italic
  • Arial:size=12

COLORS

All colors must be specified as a RGBA quadruple, in hex format, without a leading '0x'.

EXAMPLES:

  • white: ffffffff (no transparency)
  • black: 000000ff (no transparency)
  • black: 00000010 (semi-transparent)
  • red: ff0000ff (no transparency)

The default color scheme is Solarized.

FILES

$XDG_CACHE_HOME/fuzzel

Stores a list of applications and their launch count. This allows fuzzel to sort frequently launched applications at the top.

$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/fuzzel-$WAYLAND_DISPLAY.lock

Lock file, used to prevent multiple fuzzel instances from running at the same time.

SEE ALSO

2025-08-27