Emacs: fido and fido vertical mode (Minibuffer Name Completion)

By Xah Lee. Date: . Last updated: .

What is fido-mode

What is fido-vertical-mode

Relation to icomplete-mode

Both fido-mode and fido-vertical-mode are part of icomplete-mode. They first turn on icomplete-mode.

Using fido-mode and fido-vertical-mode

fido-mode
  • Activates icomplete-mode, but use flex match. That is, you can type any char that are contained in the name.
  • No need to press Tab.
  • Press Enter selects the first matched item and exit.
emacs fido mode 2022-04-08
emacs fido mode 2022-04-08
fido-vertical-mode

Activates fido-mode, but show choices vertically.

emacs fido vertical mode 2022-04-08
emacs fido vertical mode 2022-04-08

Difference between fido-mode and icomplete-mode

🛑 warning: Fido Mode, Copy or Rename File in Dired Overwrites

with fido mode on, when creating a file, or copying a file, etc in dired , be sure to press Ctrl+d to select current dir. Otherwise, if you press Enter, it selects current file choice and prompt to override file.

fido-vertical-mode keys

Ctrl+d
do not use any suggestion, but use the current typed. This is important, when you want to create a new file, dir, or dired for copy file, rename file. (corresponding command is badly named icomplete-fido-delete-char)
Enter
Select current choice
Alt+j
icomplete-fido-exit “Attempt to exit minibuffer immediately with current input.”
Alt+t
icomplete-force-complete “Complete the icomplete minibuffer.”
Ctrl+j
icomplete-force-complete-and-exit “Complete the minibuffer with the longest possible match and exit. Use the first of the matches if there are any displayed, and use the default otherwise.”
→
next choice
←
Prev choice
↓
next choice
↑
Prev choice
Ctrl+s
next choice
Ctrl+r
Prev choice
Ctrl+.
next choice
Ctrl+,
Prev choice
Ctrl+n
next choice
Ctrl+p
Prev choice
Alt+<
icomplete-vertical-goto-first
Alt+>
icomplete-vertical-goto-last