Maybe(Bug): Files with Colon (:) in Filename Not Matched by fzf-lua.files()

[shricodev]

I'm running into a strange issue when using fzf-lua. I have a markdown file in my notes directory with the following name:

_14 Claude Code and Jules (_13 iteration with Jules): Claude Sonnet 4 vs. Gemini 2.5 Pro (recent).md

When I try to use the file picker through fzf-lua, I’m unable to locate this file if it contains a colon (:) in the name. Here's my config:

{
  '<leader>faf',
  function()
    require('fzf-lua').files { hidden = true, no_ignore = true }
  end,
  desc = '[FZF-Lua]: Fuzzily find all files',
},
{
  '<leader>ff',
  function()
    require('fzf-lua').files { hidden = true }
  end,
  desc = '[FZF-Lua]: Fuzzily find files',
},

Behavior

• If the file contains a colon (:), it does not show up in the results — even when I search using a very specific keyword from the filename.
• If I rename the file to remove the colon, it appears correctly in the picker results.

And the filename with a colon(:) is correctly matched with plain fzf in the terminal.

Reproduction

I've attached a quick demo video showing this behavior:
Screencast From 2025-06-12 00-06-07.webm

fzf-lua Version

Here's the version info:

Commit: 1977a76

It seems like the colon might be causing an issue with filename parsing or internal escaping logic, maybe related to how paths are handled when sent to fzf.

Expected

Files with colons in their names should be fully searchable and matchable like any other file.

Is there anything specific that I need to add in the config for fzf-lua to work with special characters? Maybe I'm missing something, so for now I've not opened an issue separately. If this is not expected behavior, we can open an issue with this discussion.

You can find my full config here.

[ibhagwan]

I don’t have this issue, colons should be matched, also looked at your config nothing seems out of the ordinary, it also seems all files are there as the total files in your video is always 328.

Can you also try with mini.sh?
What’s your fzf version?
What’s in your FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS?

I suspect you have --nth --delimiter=: in your FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS.

[shricodev]

I tried it with mini.sh, and it works. It perfectly matches the filename, even with the colon.

Here's all the fzf config, I've set up:

set -gx FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS "--height=50% --layout=reverse --bind ctrl-u:preview-page-up,ctrl-d:preview-page-down"

# Use this command to list files in the fzf window when simply run the 'fzf' command.
# Make sure to use the CTRL-T and ALT-C to its fullest.
set -gx FZF_DEFAULT_COMMAND "fd --hidden --strip-cwd-prefix --exclude .git"
set -gx FZF_CTRL_T_COMMAND "$FZF_DEFAULT_COMMAND"

set -gx FZF_CTRL_T_OPTS "--preview 'bat --color=always --style=numbers --line-range=:500 {}' --preview-window=right:noborder"
set -gx FZF_ALT_C_OPTS "--preview 'eza --tree --icons --color=always {} | head -n 200' --preview-window=right:noborder"

Not sure what's the reason it does not work in default. I don't have the --nth --delimiter=: set up as well.

Here's my config.fish file: https://github.com/shricodev/dotfiles/blob/main/roles/fish/files/config.fish

Fzf Version: 0.62.0 (d226d841)

[ibhagwan]

I tried it with mini.sh, and it works. It perfectly matches the filename, even with the colon.

Very odd, if it worked with mini.sh it’s not your shell or variables, most likely an issue with your config but I looked at it and it seems clean so I’m confused.

Are you using LazyVim or other plugins that might change the settings? Can you try running :FzfLua profiles (while in your config), select any of the default profiles and see if it works?

[shricodev]

It's pretty weird, but using a profile from the list of profiles, works.

Screencast.From.2025-06-12.20-19-59.mp4

But it does not work with my config. I'm not using any distro; it's all custom config. Any idea what could be causing the issue and what might help solve it?

[nenahp]

--delimiter changed by previewer:

fzf-lua/lua/fzf-lua/previewer/fzf.lua

Lines 48 to 64 in 58a587a

	function Previewer.base:fzf_delimiter()
	-- set delimiter to ':'
	-- entry format is 'file:line:col: text'
	local delim = self.opts.fzf_opts and self.opts.fzf_opts["--delimiter"]
	if not delim then
	delim = "[:]"
	elseif not delim:match(":") then
	if delim:match("%[.*%]") then
	delim = delim:gsub("%]", ":]")
	else
	-- remove surrounding quotes
	delim = delim:match("^'?(.*)'$?") or delim
	delim = "[" .. utils.rg_escape(delim):gsub("%]", "\\]") .. ":]"
	end
	end
	return delim
	end

Maybe builtin previewer parse the query in lua with no --delimiter set, so more robust to this.

[ibhagwan]

But it does not work with my config. I'm not using any distro; it's all custom config. Any idea what could be causing the issue and what might help solve it?

Try removing all options in your config and calling an empty setup that should be equivalent to the defaults, if this works, uncomment your config line by line to see where the issue is, if this doesn’t work my guess would be another plugin calling fzf-lua setup or adding some fzf options (unlikely but idk…).

[ibhagwan]

@nenahp nailed it, you’re using bat native which requires a delimiter to be set to : as fzf-lua can’t do any processing.

You can disable the --nth by setting fzf_opts = { ['- -nth'] = false } under files.

Also try bat instead of bat_native which is better, if the issue persists with bat, I’ll fix it when I get a chance.

[shricodev]

Correct. Setting previewer to either bat/bat_native was the culprit. Changing it to builtin works.

    winopts = {
-      preview = { default = 'bat', border = 'none' },
-      preview = { default = 'bat_native', border = 'none' },
+     preview = { border = 'none' },
    },

Thanks, @ibhagwan @nenahp

[ibhagwan]

Correct. Setting previewer to either bat/bat_native was the culprit. Changing it to builtin works.

    winopts = {
-      preview = { default = 'bat', border = 'none' },
-      preview = { default = 'bat_native', border = 'none' },
+     preview = { border = 'none' },
    },

Thanks, @ibhagwan @nenahp

I’ll fix it when I get a chance or you can use the —nth workaround.

[ibhagwan]

FYI, should work after c53ba4f.

The downside is we can no longer exclude the file icon from matching so you cannot use ^foo (files that start with foo), unfortunately, there’s no workaround that fixes both as we need the colon as delimiter for grep line/columns.

[shricodev]

The issue seems to persist, though. I'm on the latest 05eaee3 commit. Did you try it on a file with a colon? Neither the bat nor the bat_native seem to work. Reverting to the built-in previewer works, though, and I'm sticking to that for now.

[ibhagwan]

The issue seems to persist, though. I'm on the latest 05eaee3 commit. Did you try it on a file with a colon? Neither the bat nor the bat_native seem to work. Reverting to the built-in previewer works, though, and I'm sticking to that for now.

Yap, tested and working with both bat and bat_native: