FPick

FPick is a simple utility that allows users to access their OS file dialog from the CLI.

This is particularly useful for image / video browsing with scripts.

Download and Installation

Download the latest release for your system here.

Pick the binary that matches your OS:

• Windows — fpick-windows.exe
• macOS — fpick-macos
• Linux — fpick-linux

Windows

1. Download fpick-windows.exe from the releases page.
2. Rename it to fpick.exe.
3. Move it to a folder on your PATH (tutorial here) - for example, create C:\Tools\ and add it to your PATH via System Properties → Environment Variables.
4. Open a new terminal and run fpick to confirm it works.

Note: Windows SmartScreen may warn that the publisher is unverified the first time you run it, since the binary isn't code-signed. Click More info → Run anyway. If your antivirus flags it, this is a common false positive with PyInstaller binaries.

macOS

1. Download fpick-macos from the releases page.
2. Open Terminal and make it executable:

   chmod +x ~/Downloads/fpick-macos

3. Move it onto your PATH:

   sudo mv ~/Downloads/fpick-macos /usr/local/bin/fpick

4. Run fpick to confirm it works.

Note: Because the binary isn't notarized with Apple, Gatekeeper will block it on first launch. To allow it, either:

• Right-click the file in Finder → Open → Open (one-time bypass), or
• Run xattr -d com.apple.quarantine /usr/local/bin/fpick after moving it.

Linux

1. Download fpick-linux from the releases page.
2. Make it executable and move it onto your PATH:

   chmod +x ~/Downloads/fpick-linux
   sudo mv ~/Downloads/fpick-linux /usr/local/bin/fpick

3. Run fpick to confirm it works.

Note: fpick uses Tkinter for its file dialog, which depends on Tcl/Tk system libraries. On most desktop distros these are already present. If you get a Tcl/Tk error, install them:

• Debian/Ubuntu: sudo apt install tk
• Fedora: sudo dnf install tk
• Arch: sudo pacman -S tk

Install via pip (any OS)

If you have Python 3.10+ installed, you can skip the binary entirely:

pipx install fpick

This is the recommended option for developers — pipx handles isolation automatically and updates with pipx upgrade fpick. If you don't have pipx, install it with pip install --user pipx.

Example usage

Running a python script that takes an image or video file as an output:

python some_script.py `fpick`

For those unfamiliar with terminal use (I.E. the primary target for this tool):

# either way works
echo `fpick`  # the backticks are command substitution: the output of 'fpick' is passed as the argument to 'echo'
echo $(fpick) # more modern syntax for command substitution

Use the '-d' or '--directory' flags to return directories only:

Use the '-f' or '--file_extension' flags to filter by file extension:

To create a release build:

git tag v0.1.0 && git push origin v0.1.0

Any tag starting with v and numerical version number should work (?)