IMPORTANT

This will likely be the last update I make regarding features and bug fixes for this project, because this is just no longer the project that I work on

If anyone wants to maintain a fork, create an issue, I don't have admin rights in this repo, so the best i can do is link the readme to your fork.

Thank you to everyone for following the project and giving me inspiration to work on it for so long.

Additions

• -cs as an alias for -cS
• -csi as an alias for -cSI
• selection_meta_key for a way to change all ytfzf alt-* shortcuts to ctrl-* easily
• action_meta_key for a way to change all ytfzf ctrl-* shortcuts to alt-* easily
• $preview_window_width to specify how big the preview window should be

Fixes

• When scraping subscriptions, the whitespace in the channel url is not trimmed properly sometimes
• The last variable when setting previously exported variables is not used
• --preview-side could be something ytfzf can't handle, such as bottom, when it should be down
• trim_blank did not, in fact, trim the blanks, this is a feat of engineering
• Fix: #717, thumbnails dont load when scraping new page

Addons

yt-music

Fixes

• #714, utf-8 not kept intact

Additions

• support ueberzugpp sway, and wlroots image output methods
• the yt scraper has been readded to scrape youtube directly
• from-cache scraper, to scrape from ytfzf's cache.
  • to save to cache use --keep-cache
• --force-invidious to make it use the chosen invidious instance instead of converting to youtube links
• a file called created-at is kept in all cache directories to keep track of when it was created

Fixes

• --keep-cache does not keep cache
• M scraper does not work (#683 @gardockt)
• --channel-url does not work with https://www.youtube.com/channel/@channel
• use wayland instead of wlroots to align with ueberzugpp
• Fix syntax errors on macos (#662 @readmemyrights)
• Export FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS (#656 @jellelicht)
• Subscriptions trim_blank url #677 (#692 @calbrecht)
• next_page tabular tui did not know about COLUMNS AND LINES (#693 @calbrecht)

Code

• remove unused remove_quotes_on_var_value function

Changes

• ueberzugpp is now the main version of ueberzug that is recommended to use
  • ueberzug should still work

Features

• sixel thumbnail viewer

  • requires ueberzugpp
  • only works in terminals with sixel support, eg: wezterm, foot

• kitty thumbnail viewer

  • yes this was removed last update, however it now also requires ueberzugpp
  • only works in terminals with kitty support, eg: kitty

• iterm2 thumbnail viewer

  • requires ueberzugpp
  • only works in terminals with iterm2 support, eg: wezterm, iterm2

• when -d fails to download, a notification will be sent if notify_playing is 1

Addons

Extensions

• comments: detects if a video is playing in ytfzf and will scrape the comments for that video.

  • to use:
    1. have a ytfzf instance playing a video
    2. ytfzf -e comments

• auto-thumb: basic kitty/sixel/iterm2 detection support (just checks which terminal you are using)

Fixes

• thumbnail viewer not carried into submenu

• ytdl_opts does not work

• --sort does not work (is_sort=1 does)

• #699, thumbnails not downloading properly when quality is high

• -s, instead of asking for new search, it used the old search

• $enable_hist and $enable_search_hist variables do nothing (@futureisfoss #673)

• -a/-r/-S are now compatible with -D and other interfaces

• In ksh there is an error that says .../var-fifo [Interrupted system call]

• in some shells, it complains that there is a syntax error

• In the playlists extension, --rfp and --atp do not work

Code

• interface_scripting is now longer a thing, and has been replaced with an initial call to auto_select, then to run_interface if auto_select fails

For Package Maintainers

• the Makefile will now take care of changing the default YTFZF_SYSTEM_ADDON_DIR if it doesn't match PREFIX

---

Removed

• kitty thumbnail viewer is no longer builtin due to it not working with fzf in kitty version 0.27+ (see #636), it will remain an addon in case you have an older version of kitty.

Features

• add timezone for search history timestamp (@jpgichw #630)
• streams, and playlist tabs can be scraped with invidious-channel
• --disable-actions
  • Puts a blanket disable on all actions, including submenus, and the back button
• --sort=<name>
  • An easier way to load a sort name.
  • --sort=<0|1> will still turn sorting on/off

Addons

Interfaces

• sixel
  • Opens a very basic menu written in python but uses sixel to display thumbnails
• kitty
  • Opens the same menu as sixel, but uses the kitty protocol for thumbnails
• both sixel, and kitty require the sixel-menu folder.

Extensions

• smart-thumb-download
  • Instead of downloading thumbnails into that current process' cache directory, save thumbnails in $YTFZF_CUSTOM_THUMBNAILS_DIR, that way when the same results are loaded again there is no need to download the thumbnails again.
• auto-thumb
  • Automatically picks a thumbnail viewer based on the terminal, and current xdg session (wayland/X11/tty)

Scrapers

• video-info gets information on a youtube video when provided a link.

Changes

• A warning will no longer be printed for a non-absolute channel link such as: @pewdiepie

• By default $YTFZF_LOGFILE is empty instead of /dev/stderr

• -q sets $search_source to hist instead of hist:$search_source, essentially it will not prompt you if nothign is selected from history

• url_handler_opts is handled with eval instead of pure word splitting

  • this allows for quoting strings.

• Video descriptions are no longer folded to fit on half the width.

• Changed how SI scrapes subscriptions

Fixes

• invidious-channel scraper, also used in -cSI.
• ueberzug thumbnail viewer is broken
• ctrl-p on busybox
• When running make install with a custom prefix, the default YTFZF_SYSTEM_ADDON_DIR is not changed, this is an unecessary burden on the packager and end user.
• -s does not use $search_source, always uses prompt
• -f with --format-selection=normal with youtube-dl is broken
• Only one missing dependency could be shown at a time
• Kitty thumbnail causing problems (@greenfoo #628)
• ard extension scraper

Code

• Remove the unused ueberzug fd 3

Features

• on_open_url_handler

  • Event function that is run right before the url handler is opened.
  • Takes in the urls that were opened as function arguments.

• Added much more information to ytfzf --help

Addons

Extensions

• subscription-manager, adds 2 options, --add-sub, and --remove-sub to help manage the subscriptions file.

Scrapers

• picture scraper, scrapes $XDG_PICTURES_HOME or if a search is given, will scrape that instead.
  • If :w or :wallpaper is given as the search, it will search possible wallpaper folders.
  • Export YTFZF_PICTURES_WALLPAPER_PATH with different paths separated by : to change this.
    • By default, it will search:
      1. /usr/share/wallpapers
      2. /usr/share/backgrounds
      3. ~/.local/share/wallpapers
      4. ~/.local/share/backgrounds

Thumbnail Viewers

• Added foot thumbnail viewer
  • Extremely basic, does not try to position itself in a correct location

Changes

• ytfzf instance information is stored in $YTFZF_TEMP_DIR instead of $cache_dir
  • $cache_dir is now only used if $keep_cache is 1, and for files such as search history.
  • $YTFZF_TEMP_DIR defaults to /tmp/ytfzf-$user-id
• alt-p is now ctrl-p and it doesn't leave the menu.
  • if you want it to be alt-p again set, next_page_action_shortcut="alt-p" in your config file.

Technical Changes

• sort_video_data_fn no longer takes in the old ytfzf line format, instead it takes in jsonl of videos.
  • Same goes for video_info_text
• The way previews work in fzf has been refactored completely to enable more possibilities with fzf
• search history is now a fake extension
• history is also a fake extension

Fixes

• long standing bug where -l doesn't save position in fzf

• some @channel youtube links dont find the correct uuid.

• some addons didn't have dependancy checks.

• Preview doesn't work when selecting multiple videos (#612)

• -s, --search-again is broken (#613)

Plans For Next Update

• Scraping shorts from a youtube channel
• making an addon to make --sort work with busybox (possibly using perl or another scripting language)
• viewed date for history (#626)

Features

• With the youtube-channel scraper, if the first word in the search is :videos, :streams, or :playlists it will scrape that tab from the channel.

  • --type=live, --type=playlist, --type=video, and --type=all also all work

• the youtube-channel, and invidious-channel scrapers now accept @user channel links

  • Example: ytfzf -cyoutube-channel @pewdiepie
  • @user will also work with --channel-link
  • @user will also work in subscriptions files (but will print a warning)

• swayimg-hyprland thumbnail viewer, forces swayimg to work on hyprland

  • is a little hacky and will mess up rules you have for swayimg

Documentation

• The documentation misleadingly stated to set addon variables directly instead of using the load_* counterpart.
  • for example: the docs said to use url_handler=handler instead of load_url_handler "handler"

Changes

• Files stored in /tmp have a ytfzf prefix to be cleaner. (#596 @ammgws)

Technical

• Make the internal _get_request function a general utility function

Fixes

Bold = big fix.

• -c S

  • -cSI may still be broken depending on whether the invidious instance has updated to the newest version of invidious.

• Thumbnails did not take into account how many text lines were produced (this is especially noticeable if the video has a description)

• --preview-side was broken with swayimg

• --pages and --pages-start were broken with -c invidious-playlist

• Thumbnails don't load in busybox

• Playlists are out of order

• Custom keypress functions not returning correct exit code

• -c R does not work

• If $YTFZF_SYSTEM_ADDON_DIR does not exist, and --list-addons is used, an unnecessary error is printed.

Addons

Scrapers

ani-category

• works again! in conjunction with tthe new scraper, ani-gogohd-link

Known issues

• --pages no longer works with -cinvidious-channel, use -c invidious-playlist --pages=x https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=<channel-id> instead

Fixes

• The Ueberzug thumbnail viewer causes all output to be written to $ytfzf_thumbnail_log

Additions

Options

• --available-inv-instances
  • prints available invidious instances and exists
• --thumbnail-log
  • The file to print thumbnail viewer debug info to.

Docs

• Add the utility functions to the documentation.

Changes

• breaking change: on_search_<extention_name> has been renamed to ext_on_search_<extention_name> to avoid clashes with on_search_<search>

• Running make all does nothing for consistency with how make works (@brauliohms #577)

• Running make with gnu make will install doc and run the main install (@mathisto #586)

• Thumbnail viewers now print all non-thumbnail related information to $thumbnail_debug_log, which by default is /dev/null

• Internal change to the title_str internal function to not use dd (@mathisto #591)

Fixes

(bolded = noticeable issue)

• swayimg doesn't kill previous windows
• swayimg steals focus for a split second.
• Sometimes invidious instances without api are picked
• If $cache_dir is missing, ytfzf throws an error.
• interface does not carry to submenu
• $session_cache_dir and $session_temp_dir are unset in thumbnail viewers
• Typos in ytfzf(1) and ytfzf(5) (@brauliohms #575)
• --fullscreen and is_fullscreen mentioned in docs despite not existing.

Additions

• Invidious instances are picked at random to avoid everyone using the same server (@BSGalvan #571)
• scrape_next_page aka the (alt-p) shortcut has been implemented for scrape_invidious_search which is the main search function.
• If --notify-playing is enabled, after downloading a video with -d, there will be a notification saying download complete
• u scraper, similar to U scraper, but doesn't automatically play the video and exit.
• get_search_from_<src>: if search_source or --search-source is set to <src> the function will be run. It is supposed to set the variable _search to a search query
• display_text_<interface> and info_wait_prompt_<interface>
  • This way interfaces can decide how the user picks the option for info_wait, and how to display text in a copyable way.

Addons

Extensions

• playlists: manage local playlists

  • requires that the rfp and atp url handlers are put in either $YTFZF_SYSTEM_ADDON_DIR/url-handlers or ~/.config/ytfzf/url-handlers
  • This addon is intended to always be loaded, ie: add load_extension playlists to your config file.
  • create a playlist with --create-playlist=name
  • play a playlist with --playlist=name
  • add to a playlist with --atp=name search query
  • remove something from a playlist with --rfp=name
  • delete a playlist with --del-playlist=name
  • list playlists with --list-playlists
  • list items in a playlist with --list-titles

• bsm, integrates bash with ytfzf's search prompt (only works if /bin/sh points to bash), this allows for

  • bash's history expansion syntax in the search prompt, (eg: !! to mean last search)
  • pressing up/down to cycle through search history
  • ctrl-r to do history search

Url Handlers

• rfp: required for the playlists extension, removes items from a playlist.
• atp: required for the playlists extension, adds items to a playlist.

Interfaces

• implemented display_text and info_wait_prompt to the gui interface
  • this way a gui interface shows for text to be coppied instead of it being printed, and you dont have to type q/Q/m/Enter to continue.

Options

• -i same as --interface
• -u same as --url-handler
• -T same as --thumb-viewer
• -e same as --ext
• --search-source: sets the source for search query
  • A list of sources include:
  • args: commandline arguments
  • prompt: search prompt
  • hist: search history
  • next: used internally when multi_search is enabled
  • fn-args: used internally to mean the arguments passed to the function.
• --version-all: get the version of ytfzf and required dependencies.

Changes

• -IVJ now puts everything into 1 array.

Fixes

• -IVJ and -IR should now be significantly faster
• url handlers in $YTFZF_SYSTEM_ADDON_DIR/url-handlers are not loaded.
• checking if a selected url has an associated action is too loose.
• no error is printed if odysee_video_count > 50
• hist_file and search_hist_file ignore cache_dir if it was set in the config file

Deprecated

• use_search_hist=1, use search_source=hist instead
  • use_search_hist=0 does nothing

Technical

• Large refactor to how ytfzf handles scrapers,
  • there are no longer any builtin special cases to reduce code complexity.
  • handle_scrape_error occures for every scrape instead of at the end
• Large refactor to how searching works.
  • search query comes from a "source" now, by default that is the argumentspassed to the program, if no arguments are passed it uses the prompt source.
• Refactor to how -I, -L, and --info-wait work.
• Interfaces are no longer responsible for running handle_keypress, that now happens in the main loop after the interface is run.

Plans for Next Update

• on_search_<ext> will be changed to <ext>_on_search to prevent clashes with on_search_<search_query>

Additions

• A generic error for when a scraper fails
• When using -h, any extensions that have print_help_<ext-name>(), will also print help
• load_interface a command to load an interface the correct way instead of setting the intereface variable directly.
• load_thumbnail_viewer same as load_interface but for thumbnail viewers
• load_url_handler same as load_interface but for url handlers
• post_scrape() a function that happens after everything is scraped
• print_help_<ext-name>() an extension can print it's own help text
• YTFZF_CHECK_VARS_EXISTS can now be used instead of check_vars_exists

Addons

Extensions

• buttons - adds extra buttons that when clicked do things such as:
  • enable audio only
  • enable/disable detach
  • ...
• ipc - allows getting variables from ipc_file which is located in the session's cache dir, see $HOME/.cache/ytfzf
  • example usage:

echo "get is_audio_only" > ipc_file
cat "ipc_file.is_audio_only

^{yeah it's a bit clunky but working with sockets would be worse}

Changes

• w3m thumbnail preview is now an addon
• in interface_text if tput is not found, default to $COLUMNS, then 80 columns instead of defaulting to 80 immediately
• info wait uses quick_menu instead of the read command.
• handle_actions is much more efficient when handling many selections

Documentation

• Added example subscriptions file
• Added exit codes to ytfzf.1

Fixes

• curl adds a \r character causing weirdness when using --channel-link (issue: #557)
• get_missing_thumbnails always says all thumbnails are missing, causing them to be redownloaded every time the menu is loaded with the -l option enabled.
• remove_ansi_escapes removed more than just ansi escapes causing [ to be missing from text.
• Using new lines in exported variables or variables set before running ytfzf would cause errors (#552 @HoffsMH).
• line 163 unexpected operator when dependancy is not installed.
• custom_shortcut_binds not doing anything.
• __is_submenu does not save it's state when interface opens.
• Writing watch history uses the jq command less, and should be slightly faster, more so if many videos are selected.
• ytfzf assumes custom_info_wait_action_$info_wait_action exists.
• Makefile creates and deletes a file called ${PROG}.bak (issue: #556)
• the wrong invidious instance was used in the multi scraper.

Technical

• The codebase is shellcheck compliant (with many disable comments)
• refactor loading addons, such as interfaces, url_handlers, etc.. so that addons, or the user can just use load_<addon-type> addon-name.

Plans for next update

• resolving #379 by adding a margin on the side
• implementing next_page or the alt-p shortcut in the invidious_search scraper