flexible, simple tools for minibuffer completion in Emacs

This repository contains:

Ivy, a generic completion mechanism for Emacs.

Counsel, a collection of Ivy-enhanced versions of common Emacs commands.

Swiper, an Ivy-enhanced alternative to isearch.

Ivy is a generic completion mechanism for Emacs. While it operates similarly to other completion schemes such as icomplete-mode, Ivy aims to be more efficient, smaller, simpler, and smoother to use yet highly customizable.

To try Ivy, just call M-x ivy-mode. This will enable generic Ivy completion, including specific completion for file and buffer names.

Install the ivy package from MELPA / GNU ELPA.

The manual is available as HTML.

After installing from MELPA, the manual is also available through the (ivy) Info node.

The source file for the Info page is here.

Ivy and Swiper wiki is here: the wiki.

(ivy-mode 1)
(setq ivy-use-virtual-buffers t)
(setq enable-recursive-minibuffers t)
(global-set-key "\C-s" 'swiper)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-c C-r") 'ivy-resume)
(global-set-key (kbd "<f6>") 'ivy-resume)
(global-set-key (kbd "M-x") 'counsel-M-x)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-x C-f") 'counsel-find-file)
(global-set-key (kbd "<f1> f") 'counsel-describe-function)
(global-set-key (kbd "<f1> v") 'counsel-describe-variable)
(global-set-key (kbd "<f1> l") 'counsel-find-library)
(global-set-key (kbd "<f2> i") 'counsel-info-lookup-symbol)
(global-set-key (kbd "<f2> u") 'counsel-unicode-char)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-c g") 'counsel-git)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-c j") 'counsel-git-grep)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-c k") 'counsel-ag)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-x l") 'counsel-locate)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-S-o") 'counsel-rhythmbox)
(define-key read-expression-map (kbd "C-r") 'counsel-expression-history)

ivy-mode ensures that any Emacs command using completing-read-function uses ivy for completion.

Counsel takes this further, providing versions of common Emacs commands that are customised to make the best use of ivy. For example, counsel-find-file has some additional keybindings. Pressing DEL will move you to the parent directory.

Swiper is an alternative to isearch that uses ivy to show an overview of all matches.

A helm version of swiper is also available: swiper-helm.

There's also a ten minute video demo.

Q: How do I enter an input that matches one of the candidates instead of this candidate? Example: create a file bar when a file barricade exists in the current directory.

A: Press C-M-j.

These package are subject to the same copyright assignment policy as Emacs itself, org-mode, CEDET and other packages in GNU ELPA. Any legally significant contributions can only be accepted after the author has completed their paperwork. Please see the request form if you want to proceed.

The copyright assignment isn't a big deal, it just says that the copyright for your submitted changes to Emacs belongs to the FSF. This assignment works for all projects related to Emacs. To obtain it, you need to send one email, then send one letter (if you live in the US, it's digital), and wait for some time (in my case, I had to wait for one month).

The basic code style guide is to use (setq indent-tabs-mode nil). It is provided for you in .dir-locals.el, please obey it.

Before submitting the change, run make compile and make test to make sure that it doesn't introduce new compile warnings or test failures. Also run M-x checkdoc to see that your changes obey the documentation guidelines.

Use your own judgment for the commit messages, I recommend a verbose style using magit-commit-add-log.