Search in ignored/excluded directories when nothing found in regular directories

[nickkadutskyi]

I want to achieve a similar behavior as in IntelliJ.
I want to have directories/files marked as excluded (not in .gitignore) so that the excluded paths and paths in .gitignore won't show up in fzf-lua files and live_grep but when there is nothing found I want to extend search to those excluded/ignored paths as well while staying in a current fzf-lua float.

Are there any tools to do that?

I would assume some sort of callback that has parameters to check if there are any results and then search again with different parameters to include ignored/excluded.

[ibhagwan]

You can toggle git ignore with alt-i, if you want this to toggle automatically you can hook fzf’s zero event (man fzf) which you can bind via keymap.fzf.

[nickkadutskyi]

Thanks for the fzf zero event tip, will try to implement using that.

[ibhagwan]

I already use alt-i but on top of that I want to add another set of excluded patterns. I see that there is file_ignore_patterns which works for my case (I can have a command that will add entires into this config or a function that reads those patterns from a file). But how would I implement a toggle for file_ignore_patterns similar to how alt-i works? (with icon in the top)

file_ignore_patterns should be easier as it doesn’t require changing the underlying command, the filtering is done in fzf-lua so all you need to do is modify file_ignore_patterns in the opts (2nd arg of the action callback).

[nickkadutskyi]

I went with adjusting a command and adding my Keymap in fzf-lua like this:

---@type boolean
local cmd_opts_is_excluded = true
local cmd_opts = {
    excluded = {
        files = {
            fd = utils.concat_exclude_ptrn(defaults.files.fd_opts, "--exclude ", "FZFLUA_EXCLUDE"),
            rg = utils.concat_exclude_ptrn(defaults.grep.rg_opts, "--glob !", "FZFLUA_EXCLUDE"),
            find = utils.concat_exclude_ptrn(defaults.grep.rg_opts, "\\! -path", "FZFLUA_EXCLUDE"),
        },
    },
    notexcluded = {
        files = {
            fd = defaults.files.fd_opts,
            rg = defaults.grep.rg_opts,
            find = defaults.grep.rg_opts,
        },
    },
}

and in actions.files

["ctrl-e"] = function(_, opts)
    cmd_opts_is_excluded = not cmd_opts_is_excluded
    fzf.files({
        resume = true,
        fd_opts = cmd_opts[cmd_opts_is_excluded and "excluded" or "notexcluded"].files.fd,
    })
end,

utils.concat_exclude_ptrn just goes through a comma separated list of patterns in FZFLUA_EXCLUDE and concatenates to the default fd/rg/find_opts.

This works fine but how would I also add a flag to float title?

Looking at code it seems like those flags are hardcoded:

fzf-lua/lua/fzf-lua/core.lua

Lines 947 to 951 in b45881a

	local patterns = {
	{ { utils.lua_regex_escape(opts.toggle_hidden_flag) or "%-%-hidden" }, "h" },
	{ { utils.lua_regex_escape(opts.toggle_ignore_flag) or "%-%-no%-ignore" }, "i" },
	{ { utils.lua_regex_escape(opts.toggle_follow_flag) or "%-L" }, "f" },
	}

Are there other good ways to make some indication that currently excluded paths are shown as well?

[ibhagwan]

Are there other good ways to make some indication that currently excluded paths are shown as well?

The flag values aren’t hardcoded but there is currently no option to add other flags other than h|i||f.

You can either add a custom fzf header (fzf_opts.--header) or with the latest fzf versions you can also change the border, fzf-lua uses its own neovim float win border but you can disable that with border=none and use fzf’s border instead with whatever values you want via fzf_opts.

[nickkadutskyi]

Thanks! I eventually went with changing the background of fzf (similar to how IntelliJ changes background)

[ibhagwan]

Thanks! I eventually went with changing the background of fzf (similar to how IntelliJ changes background)

Great idea :)