recentz - A KISS, minimalized replacement of built-in recentf

Why

Because the behaviors of Emacs built-in recentf has frustrated me for over 10 years. I'm never able to understand what on earth it is doing.

What

A simple and stupid recents list, without any confusing behaviors -- just do what you mean, like any other IDE or editor. (I've falled into self-doubt for years whenever thinking that I have to implement such feature for a text editor in 2024.)

Characteristics

• Minimalized, no confusing behavior, no extra dependency (only relys on cl-lib). Fuzzy search is provided by Ido (Emacs built-in) or Helm (need installation).
• Never caches, even never stores anything in memory. (Everything are stored as a plaintext file in ~/.emacs.d/.recentz-data.)
• Never loses any item after exiting Emacs. (Even an unexpected exit or crash)
• Always synchronized recents list between multiple Emacs instances.
• Always automatically removes items which is no longer existed in file system.
• Recorded lists: files / directories / projects (directories controlled by VC, ex: git)

Note

1. Recentz always check the availabiliy (via file-exists-p) of each items in the list (and remove the non-existent-anymore items), so it should be better to run on SSD if you set a large items amount limit.
2. On the other hand, the availability of the items opened via TRAMP will never be checked nor removed.

Installation

(require 'recentz)
(setq recentz-ignore-path-patterns '("/COMMIT_EDITMSG$" "~$" "/node_modules/"))

;; If you prefer (Emacs built-in) Ido
(global-set-key (kbd "C-x C-r") 'recentz-files)  ;; Add universal argument prefix "C-u" (that is "C-u C-x C-r") can open the recent TRAMP-opened files instead.
(global-set-key (kbd "C-x C-d") 'recentz-directories)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-x C-p") 'recentz-projects)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-x C-S-r") 'recentz-tramp-files)        ;; Optional, because it's equivalient to C-u C-x C-r
(global-set-key (kbd "C-x C-S-d") 'recentz-tramp-directories)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-x C-S-p") 'recentz-tramp-projects)

;; If you prefer Helm
(global-set-key (kbd "C-x C-r") 'helm-recentz-files)   ;; Add universal argument prefix "C-u" (that is "C-u C-x C-r") can open the recent TRAMP-opened files instead.
(global-set-key (kbd "C-x C-d") 'helm-recentz-directories)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-x C-p") 'helm-recentz-projects)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-x C-S-r") 'helm-recentz-tramp-files)         ;; Optional, because it's equivalient to C-u C-x C-r
(global-set-key (kbd "C-x C-S-d") 'helm-recentz-tramp-directories)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-x C-S-p") 'helm-recentz-tramp-projects)

Tip

1. Ido and Helm have different UI and searching behaviors, you can try both and choose the one you prefer.
2. You don't need to enable ido-mode nor helm-mode globally. recentz only use their minibuffer completion feature, for easily filtering candidates list.

For Ido Users

Recommanded setups:

;; Show Ido items vertically
(setq ido-decorations (quote ("\n-> " "" "\n   " "\n   ..." "[" "]" " [No match]" " [Matched]" " [Not readable]" " [Too big]" " [Confirm]")))

;; Use up/down keys to navigate among Ido candidates
(defun my-ido-bind-key-for-vertical ()
  "Keybindings for vertically-displayed ido-mode candidates list.
(Use up/down to navigate among candidates)"
  (define-key ido-completion-map (kbd "<down>") 'ido-next-match)
  (define-key ido-completion-map (kbd "<up>")   'ido-prev-match))
(add-hook 'ido-setup-hook #'my-ido-bind-key-for-vertical)

For Helm Users

;; Behavior when helm splits frame
(setq helm-always-two-windows nil)
(setq helm-split-window-inside-p t)

You may also want to add .recentz-data into .gitignore, if you manage your .emacs.d via git:

cd ~/.emacs.d && echo ".recentz-data" >> .gitignore

License

GPLv3