dual-pane.yazi

dual-pane.yazi provides simple dual pane navigation for yazi, in a similar fashion to vifm or midnight commander.

Requirements

• Yazi v0.3

Installation

ya pack -a dawsers/dual-pane

Modify your ~/.config/yazi/init.lua to include:

require("dual-pane"):setup()

Options

The plugin supports the following options, which can be assigned during setup:

1. enabled: If true, the plugin is enabled at yazi's startup. The default value is false.

require("dual-pane"):setup({
  enabled = true,
})

Usage

The plugin needs to overwrite several key bindings to work well.

Choose your own key bindings or use these in your ~/.config/yazi/keymap.toml:

[manager]
prepend_keymap = [
    { on = [ "b", "t" ], run = "plugin --sync dual-pane --args=toggle", desc = "Dual-pane: toggle" },
    { on = [ "b", "b" ], run = "plugin --sync dual-pane --args=toggle_zoom", desc = "Dual-pane: toggle zoom" },
    { on = "<Tab>", run = "plugin --sync dual-pane --args=next_pane",  desc = "Dual-pane: switch to the other pane" },
    { on = "[", run = "plugin --sync dual-pane --args='tab_switch -1 --relative'",  desc = "Dual-pane: switch active to previous tab" },
    { on = "]", run = "plugin --sync dual-pane --args='tab_switch 1 --relative'",  desc = "Dual-pane: switch active to next tab" },
    { on = "1", run = "plugin --sync dual-pane --args='tab_switch 0'", desc = "Switch to the first tab" },
    { on = "2", run = "plugin --sync dual-pane --args='tab_switch 1'", desc = "Switch to the second tab" },
    { on = "3", run = "plugin --sync dual-pane --args='tab_switch 2'", desc = "Switch to the third tab" },
    { on = "4", run = "plugin --sync dual-pane --args='tab_switch 3'", desc = "Switch to the fourth tab" },
    { on = "5", run = "plugin --sync dual-pane --args='tab_switch 4'", desc = "Switch to the fifth tab" },
    { on = "6", run = "plugin --sync dual-pane --args='tab_switch 5'", desc = "Switch to the sixth tab" },
    { on = "7", run = "plugin --sync dual-pane --args='tab_switch 6'", desc = "Switch to the seventh tab" },
    { on = "8", run = "plugin --sync dual-pane --args='tab_switch 7'", desc = "Switch to the eighth tab" },
    { on = "9", run = "plugin --sync dual-pane --args='tab_switch 8'", desc = "Switch to the ninth tab" },
    { on = "t", run = "plugin --sync dual-pane --args='tab_create --current'",  desc = "Dual-pane: create a new tab with CWD" },
    { on = "<F5>", run = "plugin --sync dual-pane --args='copy_files --follow'",  desc = "Dual-pane: copy selected files from active to inactive pane" },
    { on = "<F6>", run = "plugin --sync dual-pane --args='move_files --follow'",  desc = "Dual-pane: move selected files from active to inactive pane" },
    { on = [ "b", "s" ], run = "plugin --sync dual-pane --args=save_config", desc = "Dual-pane: save current configuration" },
    { on = [ "b", "l" ], run = "plugin --sync dual-pane --args=load_config", desc = "Dual-pane: load saved configuration" },
    { on = [ "b", "r" ], run = "plugin --sync dual-pane --args=reset_config", desc = "Dual-pane: reset saved configuration" },
    { on = [ "b", "c" ], run = "plugin dual-pane --args='shell_fzf /home/dawsers/.config/yazi/dual-pane.txt'", desc = "Dual-pane: run command (use fzf)" },
    { on = [ "b", "i" ], run = "plugin dual-pane --args='shell_fzf --interactive /home/dawsers/.config/yazi/dual-pane.txt'", desc = "Dual-pane: run command interactively (use fzf)" },
]

Commands

Command	Arguments	Description
toggle		Enable/disable dual pane
toggle_zoom		While in dual pane, zoom into the active pane
next_pane		Make the other pane the active one
tab_switch	[n] and possibly --relative	Same as yazi's tab_switch
tab_create	[path], --current or none	Same as yazi's tab_create
copy_files	--force, --follow	Arguments like yazi's paste. Copies the selected or hovered file(s) from the current pane to the other one
move_files	--force, --follow	Arguments like yazi's paste. Moves the selected or hovered file(s) from the current pane to the other one, deleting the original ones
save_config		Saves the current view/tab configuration
load_config		Loads the stored view/tab configuration
reset_config		Resets the current view/tab configuration
shell	--block --interactive cmd	Runs a shell command after macro expansion
shell_fzf	--interactive cmd_file	Runs a shell command selected from cmd_file

Shell Commands

dual-pane supports running shell commands with macro expansion, similar to other dual pane file managers.

Macro	Meaning
%c	Current file under the cursor
%C	Current file under the cursor in the other pane
%f	All of the selected files (or current if none)
%F	All of the selected files (or current if none) in the other pane
%d	Full path to current directory
%D	Full path to current directory in the other pane

Each of the macros returns a full, absolute path, but it also supports several modifiers to select parts of the url.

Modifiers	Meaning
:n	File/directory name without parent path
:s	File/directory name stem
:e	File/directory name extension

shell

Runs a shell command supporting macro expansion.

Arguments:

• --block: runs the command in blocking mode; the command runs on the same terminal of yazi, "on top of it".
• --interactive: the command can be input/modified manually, through an input box. If there is a cmd, it will be fed into the input prompt where it can be modified before running.
• cmd: the command to run. For example:

[manager]
prepend_keymap = [
    { on = [ "c", "c" ], run = "plugin dual-pane --args='shell --block --interactive'", desc = "Dual-pane: run blocking command interactively" },
    { on = [ "c", "i" ], run = "plugin dual-pane --args='shell --interactive'", desc = "Dual-pane: run command interactively" },
    { on = [ "c", "d" ], run = "plugin dual-pane --args='shell --block nvim -d %c %C --interactive'", desc = "Dual-pane: diff files" },
    { on = [ "c", "D" ], run = "plugin dual-pane --args='shell --block nvim -c \"DirDiff %d %D\"'", desc = "Dual-pane: diff dirs" },
    { on = [ "c", "u" ], run = "plugin dual-pane --args='shell --block ouch decompress --dir=%D %f'", desc = "Dual-pane: decompress with ouch" },
    { on = [ "c", "p" ], run = "plugin dual-pane --args='shell --block ouch compress %f %D/%d:n.tar.gz'", desc = "Dual-pane: compress with ouch" },
]

shell_fzf

Runs a shell command selected from a list, using fzf. It supports macro expansion.

Arguments:

• --interactive: the selected command will be fed into the input prompt to be modified before running.
• cmd_file: the file containing the commands to choose from. This argument is simply the name of the file with absolute path.

The format of cmd_file is as follows:

• One command per line. The file can contain any number of commands.
• Each command provides, in this order, three fields.
  1. run: the command to run
  2. desc: a description of the command to make search easier
  3. block: true or false. Whether the command must be run in blocking mode or not.

For example:

/home/dawsers/.config/yazi/dual-pane.txt

run = "kitty", desc = "Dual-pane: terminal", block = false
run = "kitty nvim %f", desc = "Dual-pane: open in nvim", block = false
run = "nvim -d %c %C", desc = "Dual-pane: diff files", block = true
run = "nvim -c 'DirDiff %d %D'", desc = "Dual-pane: diff dirs", block = true
run = "ouch decompress --dir=%D %f", desc = "Dual-pane: decompress with ouch", block = true
run = "ouch compress %f %D/%d:n.tar.gz", desc = "Dual-pane: tar.gz compress with ouch", block = true
run = "ouch compress %f %D/%d:n.zip", desc = "Dual-pane: zip compress with ouch", block = true
run = "ouch compress %f %D/%d:n.7z", desc = "Dual-pane: 7z compress with ouch", block = true

[manager]
prepend_keymap = [
    { on = [ "b", "c" ], run = "plugin dual-pane --args='shell_fzf /home/dawsers/.config/yazi/dual-pane.txt'", desc = "Dual-pane: run command (use fzf)" },
    { on = [ "b", "i" ], run = "plugin dual-pane --args='shell_fzf --interactive /home/dawsers/.config/yazi/dual-pane.txt'", desc = "Dual-pane: run command interactively (use fzf)" },
]

Tutorial

This short tutorial is based on the key bindings above, but you can create your own.

When you start yazi, you can start dual-pane by pressing bt. It will create a dual pane view with the current directory on both panes if there is only one tab open, or the first and second tabs if there are more than one. If you want to use dual-pane as your default yazi view, you can set the enabled option in setup() as described above.

bt will exit dual-pane again (it is a toggle), while pressing bb will still keep you in dual pane mode, but zooming the active pane for better visibility. For example, you could use toggle-view.yazi to toggle on/off the preview or parent directory if you want more details.

<Tab> will change the active pane on each press. The header of the active pane will be colored differently for better visibility.

While in one of the panes, [ and ] will move the active tab back and forth. The tab indicator for each pane will mark the selected one. You can also use numbers from 1 to 9 to move to other tabs more quickly.

t will create a new tab with the current directory as cwd.

<F5> will copy the selected files (or the hovered one if there are none selected) from the active pane, to the current directory of the other pane.

<F6> will move the selected files (or the hovered one if there are none selected) from the active pane, to the current directory of the other pane.

When you are happy with your current tab/view configuration, you can save it to be reused in future sessions with bs. bl will load the stored configuration, and br will reset it.

You can also use the included shell commands that provide dual pane macro expansion for a better utilization of both panes.

I also use global marks defined in keymap.toml to navigate quickly to frequent directories, like this:

[namager]
prepend_keymap = [
    { on = [ "'", "<Space>" ], run = "cd --interactive",   desc = "Go to a directory interactively" },
    { on = [ "'", "h" ],       run = "cd ~",   desc = "Go to the home directory" },
    { on = [ "'", "c" ],       run = "cd ~/.config",   desc = "Go to the config directory" },
    { on = [ "'", "d" ],       run = "cd ~/Downloads",   desc = "Go to the Downloads directory" },
    { on = [ "'", "D" ],       run = "cd ~/Documents",   desc = "Go to the Documents directory" },
]

backward and forward keys like in vim:

[namager]
prepend_keymap = [
    # Backward/Forward
    { on = "<C-o>", run = "back",    desc = "Go back to the previous directory" },
    { on = "<C-i>", run = "forward", desc = "Go forward to the next directory" },
]

fuse-archive.yazi

[namager]
prepend_keymap = [
    # fuse-archive
    { on   = [ "<Right>" ], run = "plugin fuse-archive --args=mount", desc = "Mount selected archive" },
    { on   = [ "<Left>" ], run = "plugin fuse-archive --args=unmount", desc = "Unmount selected archive" },
]

and toggle-view.yazi

[namager]
prepend_keymap = [
    { on = "<C-1>", run = "plugin --sync toggle-view --args=parent", desc = "Toggle parent" },
    { on = "<C-2>", run = "plugin --sync toggle-view --args=current", desc = "Toggle current" },
    { on = "<C-3>", run = "plugin --sync toggle-view --args=preview", desc = "Toggle preview" },
]

There may be some incompatibilities between dual-pane and certain plugins or yazi commands. The reason is this plugin is not integrated in the core, and needs to hijack certain procedures to work as seamlessly as possible.

Additional Plugins for Extended Functionality

fuse-archive.yazi if you want to navigate compressed archives as if they were part of the file system.

toggle-view.yazi to quickly toggle on/off the parent, current or preview panels.