Flat View

English | 日本語

Flat view swaps the pane’s listing for every file below the current directory, in one flat list. Run it again to go back.

Keys depend on your keymap preset — see Keymap Presets. It is also in the command palette (Tools → Command Palette…).

Photos/                          2024/trip/a.jpg
  2024/trip/a.jpg       →        2024/trip/b.jpg
  2024/trip/b.jpg                2025/c.jpg
  2025/c.jpg                     notes.txt
  notes.txt

What it is for

Anything you can do with a list works on the whole tree at once:

• Find what takes the space — sort by size (View → Sort By → Size).
• See what changed recently — sort by date (View → Sort By → Date).
• Collect files of one kind — filter by *.jpg (View → Filter…), select them all, and copy them to the other pane.

You can also view, edit, rename, delete, compare and get details as usual.

What is in the list

• Files only. Directories don’t get rows of their own, but every file inside them is listed.
• Each row is named by its path below the directory you started from, such as 2024/trip/a.jpg. Sort, filter and incremental search use that path, so 2024/* filters to one year.
• Hidden files follow the pane. Anything the pane hides (View → Show Hidden Files toggles it) is neither listed nor looked into.
• Symbolic links to directories are not followed, so a link that points back up the tree can’t make the list endless. A link to a file is listed.
• The pane header reads [Flat view] /the/directory.

Flattening only part of the tree

If items are selected when you turn on flat view, only those are flattened. Each selected directory contributes everything below it, and each selected file appears as itself. To flatten the whole directory, clear the selection first (Select → Clear Selection).

Large and remote trees

The progress dialog counts the files as they are found, and Esc stops the walk. Stopping leaves the pane as it was rather than showing part of the tree. Flat view works under ssh://, s3:// and inside archives, the same as any other location.

Going back

View → Flat View again, or Backspace, returns to the directory with the cursor on the item it was on.

Things to know

• The list is a snapshot. Files you delete, move or rename from the list drop out of it. Files added to the tree afterwards don’t appear until you leave the view and open it again.
• Copying out of the list is flat. Copying 2024/a.jpg and 2025/a.jpg to the other pane puts both directly into that directory, so the second one meets the first and you get the usual conflict dialog.
• Flat view works on directories. On a search-results pane or an imported list it says so and does nothing.

Changing the key

KEY_BINDINGS['flat_view'] = ['Ctrl-B']

Inside tmux, Ctrl-B is tmux’s prefix key and never reaches XeFM, so choose another key there. See Key Bindings.

Related

• Search options: View → Search Files… with * finds files by name across a tree, when you want to pick which ones.
• File lists: a list of paths from the clipboard, a command or a file.