Icons Overview

You may configure broot to display icons in two ways.

For this you need one of those in your broot config:

icon_theme: vscode

icon_theme = "vscode"

or

icon_theme: nerdfont

icon_theme = "nerdfont"

Here is a comparison, with nerdfont to the left and vscode at right:

Broot icon comparison

Nerdfont Icons:

Installation

  1. In order for the nerdfont setting to work you need to have a patched nerdfont installed and set as your font in the terminal emulator of your choice.
  2. After a successful installation, you need to add or uncomment the icon_theme: "nerdfont" line in broot's config file
  3. You should now be able to see icons when opening broot in your terminal.

Checking the font

If you want to make sure your nerdfont was installed correctly. Try printing out the utf code for the rust icon in your terminal:

Bash (and compatible):

echo -e "file_type_rust looks like \ue7a8"

This should display a rust icon

FAQ

Q: I don't see icons for my favourite common file type.

A: There could be three reasons why you don't see your file type icon

  1. check if your font was setup correctly. See Installation and #checking the font
  2. The iconset is limited by available nerdfont icons. Some icons simply don't exist as of yet. Eg. a vite or prettier icon. You can find available icons in the nerdfont cheat-sheet
  3. If both of those are true and you think you found an icon we mapped wrong or is missing, we welcome your contribution! Send us a message in the Miaou chat or create a pull request

Q: Why does broot show a generic icon for this very common file type?

A: The icon mappings aren't complete. You can help out very easily without any coding knowledge. Go to the github repository. Enter the directory corresponding to your theme. Inside data, edit extension_to_icon_name_map.rs and add a line corresponding to your extension. The first field would be the extensions you would like, and the second field should be referred from icon_name_to_icon_code_point_map.rs. Submit a PR.

Q: Can I set up a totally different set of icons or mappings ?

A: Broot can be configured for a different mapping or a different font, but this needs some coding and a new compilation. To get started, have a look at look at the resources/icons/nerdfont directory and, if necessary, come and chat on miaou.

If you want to map or remap icons, please go to nerdfont-cheat-sheet and search for an icon you would like to set in its place. In order to correctly fix the icon mapping you need a FILE_EXTENSION and a NERDFONT_ICON_CODE. For this example we are remapping the json file extension.

The first thing you need to do is find the "json" icon you want to map to in the cheatsheet and copy its iconCode ("the code inside the red box in the screenshot below"). Once done, find the corresponding file mapping in resources/icons/nerdfont by searching for your filetype in icon_name_to_icon_code_point_map: In this case its this line:

( "file_type_json", 0xe60b ),

As you can see: the icon is mapped by "0x" followed by your iconCode. After changing this you should be able to recompile broot and see your new icon. If this is a new file mapping or a missing icon. Please consider contributing!

nerdfont cheatsheet iconCode

Vscode Icons:

Checking the font

This feature needs the vscode font to be installed and available on your system.

It's possible the font was installed with broot's package, depending on the chosen package.

Here's how you can check its presence:

Bash (and compatible):

echo -e "file_type_rust looks like \U001002D2"

powershell

echo "Rust is `u{1002D2}"

If you see a rust gear icon, your terminal is displaying the correct font.

Setting up the font

If the font isn't installed, you may

Installation on linux:

Copy the vscode.ttf file to ~/.local/share/fonts.

Installation on Windows

Double click the vscode.ttf file icon and click on "Install font".

Setting up your broot config

In broot's config file, add or uncomment the icon_theme: "vscode" line.

FAQ

Q: I don't see icons for my favourite common file type.

A: This is a work in progress, you can help out

Q: Why isn't the icon mapping configurable?

A: For performance reasons, icon mapping is hardcoded. If this looks like a problem, please come and chat with us.

Q: Why does broot show a generic icon for this very common file type?

A: The icon mappings aren't complete. You can help out very easily without any coding knowledge. Go to the github repository. Enter the directory corresponding to your theme. Inside data, edit extension_to_icon_name_map.rs and add a line corresponding to your extension. The first field would be the extensions you would like, and the second field should be referred from icon_name_to_icon_code_point_map.rs. Submit a PR.

Q: Can I set up a totally different set of icons or mappings ?

A: Broot can be configured for a different mapping or a different font, but this needs some coding and a new compilation. To get started, have a look at look at the resources/icons directory and, if necessary, come and chat on miaou.