Sleek dmenu alternative written in Python and powered by curses.
pip install pmenu-lib
This package provides both a command-line tool and a Python library for creating interactive terminal menus.
The pmenu(list_of_options) function displays a menu and returns the selected option as a str, or None if the menu is closed without selecting an option.
from pmenu_lib import pmenu
options = ["Option 1", "Option 2", "Option 3"]
selected_option = pmenu(options)
if selected_option:
print(f"You selected: {selected_option}")
else:
print("No option selected")After installation, you can use pmenu from the command line:
pmenu "line1\nline2\nline3..."Or pass multiple arguments:
pmenu "option1" "option2" "option3"The selected option will be written to /tmp/pmenu (or equivalent temp directory on Windows).
0: Option selected successfully1: Menu closed without selection (ESC pressed)2: Invalid usage (no arguments provided)
- Up arrow: Highlight the previous menu entry
- Down arrow: Highlight the next menu entry
- Type to search: Filter options in real-time
- Backspace: Delete search characters
- Enter: Select the highlighted entry
- Esc: Close the menu without selecting
The pmenu_fm script included in this repository is an example of how pmenu can be integrated into a bash script to implement a simple file selector.
It uses lsd, a modern ls replacement, to get the list of files in the current directory and their associated icons. The list is then passed to pmenu, which displays a menu in the terminal window.
You can highlight a directory with the Up and Down keys, and change to the selected directory or xdg-open the selected file with the Enter key. The menu can be closed with the Esc key.