Provided by: feh_2.23.2-1build1_amd64 
NAME
feh — image viewer and cataloguer
SYNOPSIS
feh [options] [files | directories | URLs ...]
VERSION
This manual documents feh 2.23.2
Compile-time switches: libcurl support enabled, Xinerama support enabled, builtin EXIF support enabled
DESCRIPTION
feh is a mode-based image viewer. It is especially aimed at command line users who need a fast image
viewer without huge GUI dependencies, though it can also be started by (graphical) file managers to view an
image. By default (unless arguments or a filelist are specified), feh displays all files in the current
directory.
feh supports filelists, various image sorting modes, image captions, HTTP and more. It can be controlled
by configurable keyboard and mouse shortcuts, terminal input and signals.
In many desktop environments, feh can also be used as wallpaper setter.
EXIF tags are supported either using exiv2 / exifgrep via --info (see the USAGE EXAMPLES section), or as a
builtin feature by compiling feh with exif=1. In this build of feh, builtin EXIF support is enabled.
MODES
feh is based on various modes, which are selected at startup by command line options.
Slideshow mode is the default. It opens a window and displays the first image in it; the slideshow
position can be advanced (or otherwise changed) using keyboard and mouse shortcuts. In slideshow mode,
images can be deleted either from the filelist or from the disk, a changed filelist can also be saved to
the disk and reopened at a later time. An image can also be read from stdin via "feh -".
Montage mode forms a montage from the filelist. The resulting image can be viewed or saved, and its size
can be limited by height, width or both.
Index mode forms an index print from the filelist. Image thumbnails are shown along with the filename,
filesize and pixel size, printed using a truetype font of your choice. The resulting image can be viewed
or saved, and its size can be limited by height, width or both.
Thumbnail mode is like index mode, but the mini-images are clickable and open the selected image in a new
window.
Multiwindow mode shows images in multiple windows, instead of as a slideshow in one window. Don't use with
a large filelist ;)
List mode doesn't display images. Instead, it outputs an ls-style listing of the files in the filelist,
including image info such as size, number of pixels, type, etc. There is also a Customlist mode which
prints image info in a custom format specified by a printf-like format string.
feh can also list either all the loadable files in a filelist or all the unloadable files. This is useful
for preening a directory.
SUPPORTED FORMATS
feh can open any format supported by Imlib2, most notably jpeg, png, pnm, tiff, and bmp. The gif format is
also supported, but only for static images. In case of animations, only the first frame will be shown. If
the convert binary (supplied by ImageMagick) is available, it also has limited support for many other
filetypes, such as svg, xcf and otf. Use --magick-timeout num with a non-negative value to enable it.
OPTIONS
-A, --action [flag][[title]]action
Specify a shell command as an action to perform on the image. In slideshow or multiwindow mode,
the action will be run when the action_0 key is pressed, in list mode, it will be run for each
file. In loadable/unloadable mode, it will be run for each loadable/unloadable file, respectively.
In thumbnail mode, clicking on an image will cause the action to run instead of opening the image.
If flag is ";", feh will reload the current image instead of switching to the next one (slideshow
mode) or closing the window (multiwindow mode) after executing the action. If [title] is specified
(note the literal "[" and "]"), --draw-actions will display title instead of action in the action
list. Note that title must not start with a space. If it does, the action is handled as if it did
not have a title. This special case exists for backwards compatibility reasons and makes sure that
actions like "[ -L %F ] && foo" still work.
The action will be executed by /bin/sh. Use format specifiers to refer to image info, see FORMAT
SPECIFIERS for details. Example usage: "feh -A "mv ~/images/%N" *".
--action1 .. --action9 [flag][[title]]action
Extra actions which can be set and triggered using the appropriate number key.
--auto-rotate
(only if compiled with exif=1) Automatically rotate images based on EXIF data. Does not alter the
image files.
-Z, --auto-zoom
Zoom pictures to screen size in fullscreen / fixed geometry mode.
-x, --borderless
Create borderless windows.
--cache-size size
Set Imlib2 in-memory cache to size MiB. A higher cache size can significantly improve performance
especially for small slide shows, however at the cost of increased memory consumption. size must
be between 0 and 2048 MiB and defaults to 4.
-P, --cache-thumbnails
Enable thumbnail caching in ~/.thumbnails. Only works with thumbnails <= 256x256 pixels.
-K, --caption-path path
Path to directory containing image captions. This turns on caption viewing, and if captions are
found in path, which is relative to the directory of each image, they are overlayed on the
displayed image. E.g. with caption path "captions/", and viewing image "images/foo.jpg", the
caption will be looked for in "images/captions/foo.jpg.txt".
-L, --customlist format
Don't display images, print image info according to format instead. See FORMAT SPECIFIERS.
--cycle-once
Exit feh after one loop through the slideshow.
-G, --draw-actions
Draw the defined actions and what they do at the top-left of the image.
--draw-exif
(only if compiled with exif=1) display some EXIF information in the bottom left corner, similar to
using --info with exiv2 / exifgrep .
-d, --draw-filename
Draw the filename at the top-left of the image.
--draw-tinted
Show overlay texts (as created by --draw-filename et al) on a semi-transparent background to
improve their readability
-f, --filelist file
This option is similar to the playlists used by music software. If file exists, it will be read
for a list of files to load, in the order they appear. The format is a list of image filenames,
absolute or relative to the current directory, one filename per line.
If file doesn't exist, it will be created from the internal filelist at the end of a viewing
session. This is best used to store the results of complex sorts (-Spixels for example) for later
viewing.
Any changes to the internal filelist (such as deleting a file or it being pruned for being
unloadable) will be saved to file when feh exits. You can add files to filelists by specifying
them on the command line when also specifying the list.
If file is "-", feh will read the filelist from its standard input.
-e, --font font
Set global font. Should be a truetype font, resident in the current directory or the font
directory, and should be defined in the form fontname/points, like "myfont/12".
-C, --fontpath path
Specify path as extra directory in which to search for fonts; can be used multiple times to add
multiple paths.
--force-aliasing
Disable antialiasing for zooming, background setting etc.
-I, --fullindex
Same as index mode, but with additional information below the thumbnails. Works just like "feh
--index --index-info "%n\n%S\n%wx%h"". Enables MONTAGE MODE OPTIONS.
Note: This option needs to load all images to calculate the dimensions of the feh window, so when
using it with many files it will take a while before a feh window is visible. Use --preload to get
a progress bar.
-F, --fullscreen
Make the window fullscreen. Note that in this mode, large images will always be scaled down to fit
the screen, --zoom zoom only affects smaller images and never scales larger than necessary to fit
the screen size. The only exception is a zoom of 100, in which case images will always be shown at
100% zoom, no matter their dimensions.
When combined with --thumbnails, this option only affects images opened from the thumbnail
overview. The thumbnail list itself will still be windowed.
-g, --geometry [width x height] [+ x + y]
Limit (and don't change) the window size. Takes an X-style geometry string like 640x480 with
optional +x+y window offset. Note that larger images will be zoomed out to fit, but you can see
them at 1:1 by clicking the zoom button. Also note that this option does not enforce the geometry,
changing it by a tiling WM or manually is still possible. After each resize, the resulting window
size is used as the new size limit.
-Y, --hide-pointer
Hide the pointer (useful for slideshows).
-B, --image-bg style
Use style as background for transparent image parts and the like. Accepted values: checks, white,
black. The default for windowed mode is checks, while fullscreen defaults to black.
-i, --index
Enable Index mode. Index mode is similar to montage mode, and accepts the same options. It
creates an index print of thumbnails, printing the image name beneath each thumbnail. Index mode
enables certain other options, see INDEX AND THUMBNAIL MODE OPTIONS and MONTAGE MODE OPTIONS.
--info [flag]commandline
Execute commandline and display its output in the bottom left corner of the image. Can be used to
display e.g. image dimensions or EXIF information. Supports FORMAT SPECIFIERS. If flag is set to
";", the output will not be displayed by default, but has to be enabled by the toggle_info key.
-k, --keep-http
When viewing files using HTTP, feh normally deletes the local copies after viewing, or, if caching,
on exit. This option permanently stores them on disk, either in the directory specified by
--output-dir, or in the current working directory.
--insecure
When viewing files with HTTPS, this option disables strict hostname and peer checking. This allows
images on sites with self-signed certificates to be opened, but is no more secure than plain HTTP.
--keep-zoom-vp
When switching images, keep zoom and viewport settings (zoom level and X, Y offsets)
-l, --list
Don't display images. Analyze them and display an ls(1) - style listing. Useful in scripts to
hunt out images of a certain size/resolution/type etc.
-U, --loadable
Don't display images. Just print out their names if imlib2 can successfully load them. Returns
false if at least one image failed to load.
--magick-timeout timeout
Stop trying to convert unloadable files after timeout seconds. A negative value disables covert /
magick support altogether, a value of zero causes feh to try indefinitely. By default, magick
support is disabled. Note that feh may clutter /tmp with temporary files created by ImageMagick
for each failed conversion attempt. This is a known bug.
--max-dimension width x height
Only show images with width <= width and height <= height. If you only care about one parameter,
set the other to 0 (or a negative value).
-M, --menu-font font
Use font (truetype, with size, like "yudit/12") as menu font.
--min-dimension width x height
Only show images with width >= width and height >= height. If you only care about one parameter,
set the other to 0.
-m, --montage
Enable montage mode. Montage mode creates a new image consisting of a grid of thumbnails of the
images in the filelist. When montage mode is selected, certain other options become available.
See MONTAGE MODE OPTIONS.
-w, --multiwindow
Disable slideshow mode. With this setting, instead of opening multiple files in slideshow mode,
multiple windows will be opened; one per file.
--no-jump-on-resort
Don't jump to the first image after resorting the filelist.
-N, --no-menus
Don't load or show any menus.
--no-screen-clip
By default, window sizes are limited to the screen size. With this option, windows will have the
size of the image inside them. Note that they may become very large this way, making them
unmanageable in certain window managers.
--no-xinerama
Disable Xinerama support. Only makes sense when you have Xinerama support compiled in.
-j, --output-dir directory
Save files to directory (only useful with -k). By default, files are saved in the current working
directory.
-p, --preload
Preload images. This doesn't mean hold them in RAM, it means run through them and eliminate
unloadable images first. Otherwise they will be removed as you flick through. This also analyses
the images to get data for use in sorting, such as pixel size, type etc. A preload run will be
automatically performed if you specify one of these sort modes.
-q, --quiet
Don't report non-fatal errors for failed loads. Verbose and quiet modes are not mutually
exclusive, the first controls informational messages, the second only errors.
-z, --randomize
When viewing multiple files in a slideshow, randomize the file list before displaying. The list is
re-randomized whenever the slideshow cycles (that is, transitions from last to first image).
-r, --recursive
Recursively expand any directories in the commandline arguments to the content of those
directories, all the way down to the bottom level.
--no-recursive
Don't recursively expand any directories (enabled by default). Useful to override theme options.
-R, --reload int
Reload filelist and current image after int seconds. Useful for viewing HTTP webcams or frequently
changing directories. (Note that the filelist reloading is still experimental.)
If an image is removed, feh will either show the next one or quit. However, if an image still
exists, but can no longer be loaded, feh will continue to try loading it.
-n, --reverse
Reverse the sort order. Use this to invert the order of the filelist. E.g. to sort in reverse
width order, use -nSwidth.
-., --scale-down
Scale images to fit window geometry (defaults to screen size when no geometry was specified). Note
that the window geometry is not updated when changing images at the moment. This option is
recommended for tiling window managers. This option is ignored when in fullscreen and thumbnail
list mode.
In tiling environments, this also causes the image to be centered in the window.
--scroll-step count
Scroll count pixels whenever scroll_up, scroll_down, scroll_left or scroll_right is pressed. Note
that this option accepts negative numbers in case you need to inverse the scroll direction; see
KEYS CONFIG SYNTAX to change it permanently. Default: 20
-D, --slideshow-delay float
For slideshow mode, wait float seconds between automatically changing slides. Useful for
presentations. Specify a negative number to set the delay (which will then be float * (-1)), but
start feh in paused mode.
-S, --sort sort_type
The file list may be sorted according to image parameters. Allowed sort types are: name, filename,
dirname, mtime, width, height, pixels, size, format. For sort modes other than name, filename,
dirname, or mtime, a preload run will be necessary, causing a delay proportional to the number of
images in the list.
The mtime sort mode sorts images by most recently modified. To sort by oldest first, reverse the
filelist with --reverse.
-|, --start-at filename
Start the filelist at filename. Note that at the moment, filename must match an (expanded) path in
the filelist. So, if the file to be matched is passed via an absolute path in the filelist,
filename must be an absolute path. If the file is passed via a relative path, filename must be an
identical relative path. This is a known issue. See also USAGE EXAMPLES.
-T, --theme theme
Load options from config file with name theme - see THEMES CONFIG SYNTAX for more info. Note that
commandline options always override theme options. The theme can also be set via the program name
(e.g. with symlinks), so by default feh will look for a "feh" theme.
-t, --thumbnails
Same as Index mode, but the thumbnails are clickable image launchers. Note that --fullscreen and
--scale-down do not affect the thumbnail window. They do, however, work for image windows launched
from thumbnail mode. Also supports INDEX AND THUMBNAIL MODE OPTIONS as well as MONTAGE MODE
OPTIONS.
-~, --thumb-title string
Set title for windows opened from thumbnail mode. See also FORMAT SPECIFIERS.
-^, --title title
Set window title. Applies to all windows except those opened from thumbnail mode. See FORMAT
SPECIFIERS.
-u, --unloadable
Don't display images. Just print out their names if imlib2 can NOT successfully load them.
Returns false if at least one image was loadable.
-V, --verbose
output useful information, progress bars, etc.
-v, --version
output version information and exit.
--xinerama-index screen
Override feh's idea of the active Xinerama screen. May be useful in certain circumstances where the
window manager places the feh window on Xinerama screen A while feh assumes that it will be placed
on screen B.
In background setting mode: When used with any option other than --bg-tile: Only set wallpaper on
screen. All other screens will be filled black/white. This is most useful in a Xinerama
configuration with overlapping screens. For instance, assume you have two overlapping displays
(index 0 and 1), where index 0 is smaller. To center a background on the display with index 0 and
fill the extra space on index 1 black/white, use "--xinerama-index 0" when setting the wallpaper.
--zoom percent | max | fill
Zoom images by percent when in full screen mode or when window geometry is fixed. When combined
with --auto-zoom, zooming will be limited to the specified percent. Specifying max is like setting
--auto-zoom, using fill makes feh zoom the image like the --bg-fill mode.
MONTAGE MODE OPTIONS
These additional options can be used for index, montage and (partially) thumbnail mode.
-a, --alpha int
When drawing thumbnails onto the background, set their transparency level to int (0 - 255).
-b, --bg file | trans
Use file as background for your montage. With this option specified, the montage size will default
to the size of file if no size restrictions were specified. Alternatively, if file is "trans", the
background will be made transparent.
-X, --ignore-aspect
By default, the montage thumbnails will retain their aspect ratios, while fitting into thumb-
width/-height. This options forces them to be the size set by --thumb-width and --thumb-height.
This will prevent any empty space in the final montage.
-H, --limit-height pixels
Limit the height of the montage.
-W, --limit-width pixels
Limit the width of the montage, defaults to 800 pixels.
If both --limit-width and --limit-height are specified, the montage will be exactly width x height
pixels in dimensions.
-o, --output file
Save the created montage to file.
-O, --output-only file
Just save the created montage to file without displaying it.
-s, --stretch
Normally, if an image is smaller than the specified thumbnail size, it will not be enlarged. If
this option is set, the image will be scaled up to fit the thumbnail size. Aspect ratio will be
maintained unless --ignore-aspect is specified.
-E, --thumb-height pixels
Set thumbnail height.
-y, --thumb-width pixels
Set thumbnail width.
-J, --thumb-redraw n
Only relevant for --thumbnails: Redraw thumbnail window every n images. In feh <= 1.5, the
thumbnail image used to be redrawn after every computed thumbnail (so, it updated immediately).
However, since the redrawing takes quite long (especially for thumbnail mode on a large filelist),
this turned out to be a major performance penalty. As a workaround, the thumbnail image is redrawn
every 10th image now by default. Set n = 1 to get the old behaviour, n = 0 will only redraw once
all thumbnails are loaded.
INDEX AND THUMBNAIL MODE OPTIONS
--index-info format
Show image information based on format below thumbnails in index / thumbnail mode. See FORMAT
SPECIFIERS. May contain newlines. Use "--index-info ''" to display thumbnails without any info
text
Note: If you specify image-related formats (such as %w or %s), feh needs to load all images to
calculate the dimensions of its own window. So when using them with many files, it will take a
while before a feh window becomes visible. Use --preload to get a progress bar.
-@, --title-font font
Set font to print a title on the index, if no font is specified, no title will be printed.
BACKGROUND SETTING
In many desktop environments, feh can also be used as a background setter. Unless you pass the --no-fehbg
option, it will write a script to set the current background to ~/.fehbg. So to have your background
restored every time you start X, you can add "sh ~/.fehbg &" to your X startup script (such as ~/.xinitrc).
As of feh 2.13, this script is executable, so "~/.fehbg &" will work as well.
Note that feh does not support setting the wallpaper of GNOME shell desktops. In this environment, you can
use "gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri file:///path" instead.
For the --bg-center and --bg-max options, you can use the --geometry option to specify an offset from one
side of the screen instead of centering the image. Positive values will offset from the left/top side,
negative values from the bottom/right. +0 and -0 are both valid and distinct values.
Note that all options except --bg-tile support Xinerama. For instance, if you have multiple screens
connected and use e.g. --bg-center, feh will center or appropriately offset the image on each screen. You
may even specify more than one file, in that case, the first file is set on screen 0, the second on screen
1, and so on.
Use --no-xinerama to treat the whole X display as one screen when setting wallpapers. You may also use
--xinerama-index to use feh as a background setter for a specific screen.
--bg-center
Center the file on the background. If it is too small, it will be surrounded by a black border
--bg-fill
Like --bg-scale, but preserves aspect ratio by zooming the image until it fits. Either a
horizontal or a vertical part of the image will be cut off
--bg-max
Like --bg-fill, but scale the image to the maximum size that fits the screen with black borders on
one side.
--bg-scale
Fit the file into the background without repeating it, cutting off stuff or using borders. But the
aspect ratio is not preserved either
--bg-tile
Tile (repeat) the image in case it is too small for the screen
--no-fehbg
Do not write a ~/.fehbg file
FORMAT SPECIFIERS
%f Image path/filename
%F Escaped image path/filename (for use in shell commands)
%h Image height
%l Total number of files in filelist
%L Temporary copy of filelist. Multiple uses of %L within the same format string will return the same
copy.
%m Current mode
%n Image name
%N Escaped image name
%o x,y offset of top-left image corner to window corner in pixels
%p Number of image pixels
%P Number of image pixels (kilopixels / megapixels)
%r Image rotation. A half right turn equals pi.
%s Image size in bytes
%S Human-readable image size (kB / MB)
%t Image format
%u Number of current file
%w Image width
%v feh version
%V Process ID
%z current image zoom
%% A literal %
CONFIGURATION
feh has three config files: themes for theme definitions, keys for key bindings and buttons for mouse
button bindings. It will try to read them from $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/feh/, which (when XDG_CONFIG_HOME is
unset) defaults to ~/.config/feh/. If the files are not found in that directory, it will also try
/etc/feh/.
All config files treat lines starting with a "#" character as comments. Note that mid-line comments are
not supported.
THEMES CONFIG SYNTAX
.config/feh/themes allows the naming of option groups, called themes.
It takes entries of the form "theme options ...", where theme is the name of the entry and options are the
options which will be applied when the theme is used.
Note that the option parser does not behave like a normal shell: filename expansion and backslash escape
sequences are not supported and passed to feh's option parser as-is. However, quoting of arguments is
respected and can be used for arguments with whitespace. So, the sequence "--info "foo bar"" works as
intended (that is, it display the string "foo bar"), whereas the option string "--info foo\ bar" will only
display "foo\" and complain about the file bar not existing. Please keep this in mind when writing theme
files.
An example entry is "imagemap -rVq --thumb-width 40 --thumb-height 30 --index-info '%n\n%wx%h'".
You can use this theme in two ways. Either call "feh -Timagemap *.jpg", or create a symbolic link to feh
with the name of the theme you want it to use. For the example above, this would be "ln -s `which feh `
~/bin/imagemap". Now just run "imagemap *.jpg" to use these options.
Note that you can split a theme over several lines by placing a backslash at the end of an unfinished line.
Command line options always override theme options.
KEYS CONFIG SYNTAX
.config/feh/keys defines key bindings. It has entries of the form "action [key1 [key2 [key3]]]".
Each key is an X11 keysym name as shown by xev(1), like "Delete". It may optionally start with modifiers
for things like Control, in which case key looks like mod-keysym (for example "C-Delete" for Ctrl+Delete or
"C-1-Delete" for Ctrl+Alt+Delete)
Available modifiers are C for Control, S for Shift and 1, 4 for Mod1 and Mod4. To match an uppercase
letter like "S" instead of "s", the Shift modifier is not required.
Specifying an action without any keys unbinds it (i.e. the default bindings are removed).
Note: Do not use the same keybinding for multiple actions. When binding an action to a new key (or mouse
button), make sure to unbind it from its previous action, if present. feh does not check for conflicting
bindings, so their behaviour is undefined.
For a list of the action names, see KEYS. Note that not all of the key names used there correspond to X11
keysyms. Most notably, page up (Prior / Page_Up), page down (Next / Page_Down) and the keypad keys (KP_*)
do not.
KEYS
The following actions and default key bindings can be used in an image window. (The strings in [square
brackets] are the config action names). If feh is running inside a terminal and its standard input is not
used for images or filelists, key input from the terminal is also accepted. However, terminal input support
is currently limited to most alphanumeric characters (0-9 a-z A-Z and some more), return and backspace.
a [toggle_actions]
Toggle actions display (see --draw-actions)
A [toggle_aliasing]
Enable/Disable anti-aliasing
c [toggle_caption]
Caption entry mode. If --caption-path has been specified, then this enables caption editing. The
caption at the bottom of the screen will turn yellow and can be edited. Hit return to confirm and
save the caption, or escape to cancel editing. Note that you can insert an actual newline into the
caption using ⟨Ctrl+return⟩.
d [toggle_filenames]
Toggle filename display (see --draw-filename)
e [toggle_exif]
(only if compiled with exif=1) Toggle EXIF tag display
f [save_filelist]
Save the current filelist as "feh_PID_ID_filelist"
g [toggle_fixed_geometry]
Enable/Disable automatic window resize when changing images.
h [toggle_pause]
Pause/Continue the slideshow. When it is paused, it will not automatically change slides based on
--slideshow-delay.
i [toggle_info]
Toggle info display (see --info)
k [toggle_keep_vp]
Toggle zoom and viewport keeping. When enabled, feh will keep zoom and X, Y offset when switching
images.
m [toggle_menu]
Show menu. Use the arrow keys and return to select items, ⟨escape⟩ to close the menu.
n, ⟨space⟩, ⟨Right⟩ [next_img]
Show next image. Selects the next image in thumbnail mode.
o [toggle_pointer]
Toggle pointer visibility
p, ⟨BackSpace⟩, ⟨Left⟩ [prev_img]
Show previous image. Selects the previous image in thumbnail mode.
q, ⟨Escape⟩ [quit]
Quit feh
r [reload_image]
Reload current image. Useful for webcams
s [save_image]
Save the current image as "feh_PID_ID_FILENAME"
v [toggle_fullscreen]
Toggle fullscreen
w [size_to_image]
Change window size to fit current image size (plus/minus zoom, if set). In scale-down and fixed-
geometry mode, this also updates the window size limits.
x [close]
Close current window
z [jump_random]
Jump to a random position in the current filelist
[, ] [prev_dir, next_dir]
Jump to the first image of the previous or next sequence of images sharing a directory name in the
current filelist. Use --sort dirname if you would like to ensure that all images in a directory
are grouped together.
<, > [orient_3, orient_1]
In place editing - rotate the image 90 degrees (counter)clockwise. The rotation is lossless, but
may create artifacts in some image corners when used with JPEG images. Rotating in the reverse
direction will make them go away. See jpegtran(1) for more about lossless JPEG rotation. Note:
feh assumes that this feature is used to normalize image orientation. For JPEG images, it will
unconditionally set the EXIF orientation tag to 1 ("0,0 is top left") after every rotation. See
jpegexiforient(1) for details on how to change this flag.
_ [flip]
In place editing - vertical flip
| [mirror]
In place editing - horizontal flip
0 .. 9 [action_0 .. action_9]
Execute the corresponding action (0 = --action, 1 = --action1 etc.)
⟨Return⟩ [action_0]
Run the command defined by --action
⟨Home⟩ [jump_first]
Show first image
⟨End⟩ [jump_last]
Show last image
⟨page up⟩ [jump_fwd]
Go forward ~5% of the filelist
⟨page down⟩ [jump_back]
Go backward ~5% of the filelist
+ [reload_plus]
Increase reload delay by 1 second
- [reload_minus]
Decrease reload delay by 1 second
⟨Delete⟩ [remove]
Remove current file from filelist
⟨Ctrl+Delete⟩ [delete]
Remove current file from filelist and delete it
⟨keypad Left⟩, ⟨Ctrl+Left⟩ [scroll_left]
Scroll to the left
⟨keypad Right⟩, ⟨Ctrl+Right⟩ [scroll_right]
Scroll to the right
⟨keypad up⟩, ⟨Ctrl+Up⟩ [scroll_up]
Scroll up
⟨keypad Down⟩, ⟨Ctrl+Down⟩ [scroll_down]
Scroll down. Note that the scroll keys work without anti-aliasing for performance reasons, hit the
render key after scrolling to antialias the image.
⟨Alt+Left [scroll_left_page]⟩
Scroll to the left by one page
⟨Alt+Right [scroll_right_page]⟩
Scroll to the right by one page
⟨Alt+Up [scroll_up_page]⟩
Scroll up by one page
⟨Alt+Down [scroll_down_page]⟩
Scroll down by one page
R, ⟨keypad begin⟩ [render]
Antialias the image. Opens the currently selected image in thumbnail mode.
⟨keypad +⟩, ⟨Up⟩ [zoom_in]
Zoom in
⟨keypad -⟩, ⟨Down⟩ [zoom_out]
Zoom out
*, ⟨keypad *⟩ [zoom_default]
Zoom to 100%
/, ⟨keypad /⟩ [zoom_fit]
Zoom to fit the window size
! [zoom_fill]
Zoom to fill the window size like --bg-fill
MENU KEYS
The following keys bindings are used for the feh menu:
⟨Escape⟩ [menu_close]
Close the menu
⟨Up⟩ [menu_up]
Highlight previous menu item
⟨Down⟩ [menu_down]
Highlight next menu item
⟨Left⟩ [menu_parent]
Highlight parent menu item
⟨Right⟩ [menu_child]
Highlight child menu item
⟨Return⟩, ⟨space⟩ [menu_select]
Select highlighted menu item
BUTTONS CONFIG SYNTAX
.config/feh/buttons. This works like the keys config file: the entries are of the form "action [binding]".
Each binding is a button number. It may optionally start with modifiers for things like Control, in which
case binding looks like mod-button (for example C-1 for Ctrl + Left button).
Note: Do not use the same button for multiple actions. feh does not check for conflicting bindings, so
their behaviour is undefined. Either unbind the unwanted action, or bind it to another unused button. The
order in which you bind / unbind does not matter, though.
For the available modifiers, see KEYS CONFIGURATION SYNTAX.
BUTTONS
In an image window, the following buttons may be used (The strings in [square brackets] are the config
action names). Additionally, all actions specified in the KEYS section can also be bound to a button.
unbound [reload]
Reload current image
1 ⟨left mouse button⟩ [pan]
pan the current image
2 ⟨middle mouse button⟩ [zoom]
Zoom the current image
3 ⟨right mouse button⟩ [toggle_menu]
Toggle menu
4 ⟨mousewheel down⟩ [prev_img]
Show previous image
5 ⟨mousewheel up⟩ [next_img]
Show next image
Ctrl+1 [blur]
Blur current image
Ctrl+2 [rotate]
Rotate current image
unbound [zoom_in]
Zoom in
unbound [zoom_out]
Zoom out
MOUSE ACTIONS
Default Bindings: When viewing an image, mouse button 1 pans the image (moves it around) or, when only
clicked, moves to the next image (slideshow mode only). Quick drags with less than 2px of movement per
axis will be treated as clicks to aid graphics tablet users. Mouse button 2 zooms (click and drag
left->right to zoom in, right->left to zoom out, click once to restore zoom to 100%) and mouse button 3
opens the menu.
Ctrl+Button 1 blurs or sharpens the image (drag left to blur, right to sharpen); Ctrl+Button 2 rotates the
image around the center point.
A note about pan and zoom modes: In pan mode, if you reach a window border but haven't yet panned to the
end of the image, feh will warp your cursor to the opposite border so you can continue panning.
When clicking the zoom button and immediately releasing it, the image will be back at 100% zoom. When
clicking it and moving the mouse while holding the button down, the zoom will be continued at the previous
zoom level. The zoom will always happen so that the pixel on which you entered the zoom mode remains
stationary. So, to enlarge a specific part of an image, click the zoom button on that part.
SIGNALS
In slideshow mode, feh handles the following signals:
SIGUSR1
Switch to next image
SIGUSR2
Switch to previous image
USAGE EXAMPLES
Here are some examples of useful option combinations. See also: ⟨http://feh.finalrewind.org/examples/⟩
feh ~/Pictures
Show all images in ~/Pictures
feh -r ~/Pictures
Recursively show all images found in ~/Pictures and subdirectories
feh -rSfilename ~/Pictures
Same as above, but sort by filename. By default, feh will show files in the order it finds them on
the hard disk, which is usually somewhat random.
feh -t -Sfilename -E 128 -y 128 -W 1024 ~/Pictures
Show 128x128 pixel thumbnails, limit window width to 1024 pixels.
feh -t -Sfilename -E 128 -y 128 -W 1024 -P -C /usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-dejavu/ -e DejaVuSans/8
~/Pictures
Same as above, but enable thumbnail caching in ~/.thumbnails and use a smaller font.
feh -irFarial/14 -O index.jpg ~/Pictures
Make an index print of ~/Pictures and all directories below it, using 14 point Arial to write the
image info under each thumbnail. Save the image as index.jpg and don't display it, just exit.
Note that this even works without a running X server
feh --unloadable -r ~/Pictures
Print all unloadable images in ~/Pictures, recursively
feh -f by_width -S width --reverse --list .
Write a list of all images in the directory to by_width, sorted by width (widest images first)
feh -w ~/Pictures/holidays
Open each image in ~/Pictures/holidays in its own window
feh -FD5 -Sname ~/Pictures/presentation
Show the images in .../presentation, sorted by name, in fullscreen, automatically change to the
next image after 5 seconds
feh -rSwidth -A "mv %F ~/images/%N" ~/Pictures
View all images in ~/Pictures and below, sorted by width, move an image to ~/image/image_name when
enter is pressed
feh --start-at ./foo.jpg .
View all images in the current directory, starting with foo.jpg. All other images are still in the
slideshow and can be viewed normally
feh --start-at foo.jpg *
Same as above
feh --info "exifgrep '(Model|DateTimeOriginal|FNumber|ISO|Flash)' %F | cut -d . -f 4-" .
Show some EXIF information, extracted by exifprobe/exifgrep
feh --action 'rm %F' -rl --max-dim 1000x800
Recursively remove all images with dimensions below or equal to 1000x800 pixels from the current
directory.
DEPENDENCIES
feh requires the jpegtran and jpegexiforient binaries (usually distributed in "libjpeg-progs" or similar)
for lossless rotation.
To view images from URLs such as http://, you need feh compiled with libcurl support (enabled by default).
See the VERSION section.
BUGS
On systems with giflib 5.1.2, feh may be unable to load gif images. For affected mips, mipsel and arm
devices, gif support is completely broken, while on x86 / x86_64 gifs can usually only be loaded if they
are the first image in the filelist. This appears to be a bug in giflib, see
⟨https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=813729⟩ for details. Workaround: Use --magick-timeout 5
(or some other positive value) to load gifs with imagemagick instead, or downgrade to giflib 5.1.1, or
upgrade to giflib 5.1.4.
Thumbnail mode is somewhat inefficient, and because of that not nearly as fast as it could be.
--scale-down does not take window decorations into account and may therefore make the window slightly too
large.
When enabled, --magick-timeout may clutter /tmp with temporary files produced by ImageMagick. This happens
whenever an image is not loaded due to the conversion taking longer than the specified timeout.
REPORTING BUGS
If you find a bug, please report it to ⟨derf+feh@finalrewind.org⟩ or via
⟨http://github.com/derf/feh/issues⟩. You are also welcome to direct any feh-related comments/questions/...
to #feh on irc.oftc.net.
Please include the feh version ⟨the output of "feh --version"⟩, steps to reproduce the bug and, if
necessary, images to reproduce it.
FUTURE PLANS
Plans for the following releases:
• Make zoom options more intuitive
LICENSE
Copyright (C) 1999, 2000 by Paul Duncan. Copyright (C) 1999, 2000 by Tom Gilbert (and various
contributors). Copyright (C) 2010-2016 by Daniel Friesel (and even more contributors).
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and
associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including
without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the
following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies of the Software and
its documentation and acknowledgment shall be given in the documentation and software packages that this
Software was used.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT
LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO
EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF
CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER
DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
Current developer: Daniel Friesel ⟨derf@finalrewind.org⟩
Original author (no longer developing): Tom Gilbert ⟨feh_sucks@linuxbrit.co.uk⟩
See also: http://feh.finalrewind.org