fim(1) General Commands Manual fim(1)
NAME
fim - fbi (linux framebuffer imageviewer) improved
SYNOPSIS
fim [ options ] [--] files ...
... | fim [ options ] [--] [ files ] - ...
fim - [ options ] < file_name_list_text_file
fim -i [ options ] < image_file_name
fim -p [ options ] < fim_script_file_name
DESCRIPTION
fim displays the specified file(s) on the linux console using the framebuffer device. jpeg, ppm, gif, tiff, xwd, bmp and png are supported
directly. For 'xcf' (Gimp's) images, fim will try to use 'xcftopnm'. For '.fig' vectorial images, fim will try to use 'fig2dev'. For
'.dia' vectorial images, fim will try to use 'dia'. For '.svg' vectorial images, fim will try to use 'inkscape'. For other formats fim
will try to use ImageMagick's 'convert'.
Please note that the full documentation of fim is in the FIM.TXT file distributed in the source package. This man page only describes the
fim command line switches.
OPTIONS
-- The arguments before -- beginning with - will be treated as command line switches. All arguments after -- will be treated as file-
names regardlessly.
-a, --autozoom
Enable autozoom. fim will automagically pick a reasonable zoom factor when loading a new image. (as in fbi)
-b, --binary[=24|1]
Display (any filetype) binary files contents as they were raw 24 or 1 bits per pixel pixelmaps. Will pad with zeros. Regard this
as a toy..
-c {commands}, --execute-commands {commands}
The commands string will be executed before entering the interactive loop. Please note that if your commands are more complicated
than a simple 'next' or 'pornview' command, they must be quoted and escaped in a manner suitable for your shell!!
For example, -c '*2;2pan_up;display;while(1){bottom_align;sleep "1" ; top_align}'
(with the single quotes) will tell fim to first double the displayed image size, then pan two times up, then display the image ; and
then do an endless loop consisting of bottom and top aligning, alternated.
-d {device}, --device {device}
framebuffer device to use. Default is the one your vc is mapped to (as in fbi).
--dump-reference-help
Will dump to stdout the reference help.
-D, --dump-default-fimrc
The default fimrc file (the one hardcoded in the fim executable) is dumped on standard output and fim exits.
-E {scriptfile}, --execute-script {scriptfile}
The scriptfile will be executed right after the default initialization file is executed.
-f , --etc-fimrc
The /etc/fimrc file will be executed prior to any other configuration file. If not specified, it is *ignored*.
-F {commands}, --final-commands {commands}
The commands string will be executed after exiting the interactive loop of the program (right before terminating the program).
-h, --help
display help and terminate the program.
-i, --image-from-stdin
Will read one single image from the standard input (yes: the image, not the filename). May not work with all supported file for-
mats.
-m {mode}, --mode {mode}
name of the video mode to use video mode (must be listed in /etc/fb.modes). Default is not to change the video mode. In the past,
the XF86 config file (/etc/X11/XF86Config) used to contain Modeline information, which could be fed to the modeline2fb perl script
(distributed with fbset). On many modern xorg based systems, there is no direct way to obtain a fb.modes file from the xorg.conf
file. So instead one could obtain useful fb.modes info by using the (fbmodes (no man page AFAIK)) tool, written by bisqwit. An
unsupported mode should make fim exit with failure. But it is possible the kernel could trick fim and set a supported mode automat-
ically, thus ignoring the user set mode.
-N, --no-rc-file
No initialization file will be read (default is ~/.fimrc) at startup.
-p, --script-from-stdin
Will read commands from stdin prior to entering in interactive mode.
-o {device}, --output-device {device}
Will use the specified device as fim video output device, overriding automatic checks. The available devices depend on the original
configuration/compilation options, so you should get the list of available output devices issuing fim --version. It will probably
be a subset of {sdl, fb, aa, caca, dumb}.
--offset {offset}
Will use the specified offset (in bytes) for opening the specified files (useful for viewing images on damaged file systems).
-P, --text-reading
Enable textreading mode. This has the effect that fim will display images scaled to the width of the screen, and aligned to the
top. Useful if the images you are watching text pages, all you have to do to get the next piece of text is to press space (in the
default key configuration, of course).
-s {n}, --scroll {n}
set scroll steps in pixels (default is 50).
-S, --sanity-check
a quick sanity check before starting fim.
-t, --no-framebuffer
Fim will not use the framebuffer but the aalib (ascii art) driver instead (if you are curious, see (info aalib)). If aalib was not
enabled at tompile time, fim will work without displaying images at all.
-T {terminal}, --vt {terminal}
The terminal will be used as virtual terminal device file (as in fbi). See (chvt (1)), (openvt (1)) for more info about this. Use
(con2fb (1)) to map a terminal to a framebuffer device.
-v, --verbose
be verbose: show status bar.
-V, --version
display version and compile flags, and then terminate.
-w, --autowidth
Will adapt the image size to the screen size.
-W {scriptout}, --write-scriptout {scriptout}
All the characters that you type are recorded in the file {scriptout}, until you exit Fim. This is useful if you want to create
a script file to be used with "fim -c" or ":exec" (analogous to Vim's -s and ":source!"). If the {scriptout} file exists, it will
be not touched (as in Vim's -w).
- Reads file list from stdin.
Note that these the three standard input reading functionalities (-i,-p and -) conflict : if two or more of them occur in fim invo-
cation, fim will exit with an error and warn about the ambiguity.
See the section EXAMPLES below to read some useful (and unique) ways of employing fim.
COMMON KEYS AND COMMANDS
cursor keys scroll large images
h,j,k,l scroll large images left,down,up,right
+, - zoom in/out
ESC, q quit
Tab toggle output console visualization
PgUp,p previous image
PgDn,n next image
Space next image if on bottom, scroll down instead
Return next image, write the filename of the current image to stdout on exit from the program.
m mirror
f flip
r rotate by 90 degrees
d,x,D,X diagonal scroll
C-w scale to the screen width
H scale to the screen heigth
m mark the current file for printing its name when terminating fim
:{number} jump to {number}^th image in the list
:^ jump to first image in the list
:$ jump to last image in the list
:*{factor} scale the image by {factor}
:{scale}% scale the image to the desired {scale}
:+{scale}% scale the image up to the desired percentage {scale} (relatively to the original)
:-{scale}% scale the image down to the desired percentage {scale} (relatively to the original)
/regexp entering the pattern {regexp} (with /) makes fim jump to the next image whose filename matches {regexp}
/*.png$ entering this pattern (with /) makes fim jump to the next image whose filename ends with 'png'
/png a shortcut for /.*png.*
!{cmd} executes the {cmd} string as a "/bin/sh" shell command
C-n after entering in search mode (/) and submitting a pattern, C-n (pressing the Control and the n key together) will jump to the next matching filename
C-c terminate instantaneously fim
T split horizontally the current window
V split vertically the current window
C close the currently focused window
H change the currently focused window with the one on the left
J change the currently focused window with the lower
K change the currently focused window with the upper
L change the currently focused window with the one on the right
U swap the currently focused window with the split sibling one (it is not my intention to be obscure, but precise : try V, m, U and see by yourself :) )
d move the image diagonally north-west
D move the image diagonally south-east
x move the image diagonally north-east
X move the image diagonally south-west
m mirror
f flip
r rotate
You can visualize all of the default bindings invoking fim --dump-default-fimrc | grep bind .
You can visualize all of the default aliases invoking fim --dump-default-fimrc | grep alias .
The Return vs. Space key thing can be used to create a file list while reviewing the images and use the list for batch processing later on.
All of the key bindings are reconfigurable; please see the default fimrc file for examples on this, or read the complete manual: the
FIM.TXT file distributed with fim.
AFFECTING ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
FBFONT (just like in fbi) a consolefont or a X11 (X Font Server - xfs) font file.
For instance, /usr/share/consolefonts/LatArCyrHeb-08.psfu.gz is a Linux console file.
Consult 'man setfont' for your current font paths.
NOTE : Currently xfs is disabled.
FBGAMMA (just like in fbi) gamma correction.
FRAMEBUFFER (just like in fbi) if set, will override user set framebuffer device file.
TERM (only in fim: see the default fimrc) will influence the output device selection algorithm, especially if $TERM=="screen"
COMMON PROBLEMS
fim needs read-write access to the framebuffer devices (/dev/fbN or /dev/fb/N), i.e you (our your admin) have to make sure fim can open the
devices in rw mode. The IMHO most elegant way is to use pam_console (see /etc/security/console.perms) to chown the devices to the user
logged in on the console. Another way is to create some group, chown the special files to that group and put the users which are allowed
to use the framebuffer device into the group. You can also make the special files world writable, but be aware of the security implica-
tions this has. On a private box it might be fine to handle it this way through.
If using udev, you can edit : /etc/udev/permissions.d/50-udev.permissions and set these lines like here :
# fb devices
fb:root:root:0600
fb[0-9]*:root:root:0600
fb/*:root:root:0600
fim also needs access to the linux console (i.e. /dev/ttyN) for sane console switch handling. That is obviously no problem for console
logins, but any kind of a pseudo tty (xterm, ssh, screen, ...) will not work.
EXAMPLES
find /mnt/media/ -name *.jpg | fim -
#will make fim read the file list from standard input.
find /mnt/media/ -name *.jpg | shuf | fim -
#will make fim read the file list from standard input, randomly permuted.
c cat script.fim | fim -p images/*
#will make fim read the script file script.fim from standard input prior to displaying files in the directory images
scanimage ... | tee scan.ppm | fim -i
#will make fim read the image scanned from a flatbed scanner as soon as it is read
fim * > selection.txt
#will output the file names marked interactively with 'm' in fim to a file.
fim * | fim -
#will output the file names marked with 'm' in fim to a second instance of fim, in which these could be marked again.
BUGS
fim has bugs. Please read the BUGS file shipped in the documentation directory to discover the known ones.
FILES
/usr/local/share/doc/fim/FIM.TXT
The Fim documentation files.
/etc/fimrc System wide Fim initialization file (executed on startup if no personal initialization file exist).
~/.fimrc Your personal Fim initialization file (executed on startup, if existent).
SEE ALSO
fimgs(1), fbset(1), con2fb(1), convert(1), vim(1), fb.modes(8), fbset(8), fbgrab(1), fbdev(4), setfont(8), xfs(1)
AUTHOR
Michele Martone <dezperado _ GUESS _ autistici.org> is the author of fim, "fbi improved".
Gerd Knorr <kraxel _ GUESS _ bytesex.org> is the original author of fbi, upon which this code is based.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (C) 2007-2009 Michele Martone <dezperado _ GUESS _ autistici.org>
Copyright (C) 1999-2000 Gerd Knorr <kraxel _ GUESS _ bytesex.org>
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,
Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.
(c) 2007-2009 Michele Martone fim(1)