Linux @lemmy.ml theodore @lemmy.world 12 mo. ago

What terminal file manager that you use, if any?

Long time nnn user right now. But interested in hearing some other people suggestions in case I missed something more interesting.

47 comments

ranger is another good one. I very rarely end up using a terminal file manager though.
- Yeah. I keep hearing a good things about ranger. Might give this a try soon
- I use ranger with zoxide plugin, very handy. I even use it inside neovim as well, using rnvimr plugin.
@theodore Midnight Commander
- Any spesific reason on choosing it?
  
  @theodore I've always used it I guess, back to Solaris, FreeBSD days, it does everything inc FTP
- Yep, midnight commander is hands down the best file manager I've ever used.
  
  With great respect, and speaking as someone who has used both very extensively, I would argue Total Commander (on Windows) has got the upper hand of all those traditional NC clones.
I generally I only do simple operations on the command line. A few cp, mv, ls... If I am doing much more than that I open a GUI manager.
- same.
  back on dos i used xtreegold for everything.
  but since moving to linux, it's never occurred to me to use one.
  
  this thread has got me wondering but not sure i can see the need.
  
  tab completion also makes handling directory structure easy enough.
lf is like ranger, but also very fast https://github.com/gokcehan/lf
- There is also joshuto, another ranger clone, written in rust.
  
  https://github.com/kamiyaa/joshuto
- I used ranger previously, but I'm an lf convert. It was a bit difficult to set some things up, but it's blazing fast and there are things about it I prefer.
I use the terminal to manage files. That's all
I consider ranger and fzf life changing, especially being able to get the full path of any file at my command prompt at a moment's notice. It's now as though navigating directories were gauche.
ranger and I have nothing but praise for it. That's as a Linux user of 15 years, formerly a bit of a skeptic about the use of such a tool. I use it not just as a file manager but as a platform for launching scripts and GUI programs via key bindings. I've pretty much turned it into a TUI desktop environment at this point. Because, yes, it is possible to do computing more efficiently than with a CLI alone, whatever the purists may say. For me, TUI tools are the sweet spot: less keystrokes, less memorizing, but also extremely hackable given that there's no GUI to deal with.

Addendum: and fzf in the scripts! Like someone else said, this simple little tool makes so much possible.
- I saw lf and nnn mentioned elsewhere and gave them a try, but they just didn't cut it compared to ranger.
  
  Same experience.
I used to use nnn but I've recently fallen in love with xplr but honestly about 90% of the time I just use ls, cp and mv (although I sometimes also use broot as well).
- I use broot all the time and appreciate that xplr is more plugin oriented or flexible is some ways, but don't really feel I need more than broot so haven't given xplr a proper try.
  
  As you use both, would you say there's a particular feature or task that has you reaching for xplr over broot?
  
  xplr I probably use more (like nnn) for the tasks I would normally reach for a GUI file manager where broot I use (probably under-use) it as a fancy tree and ls - i.e. still using standard terminal commands to actually do stuff vs just moving things around
Never been a fan of terminal file managers, I just use exa and cd. Also z for directory jumping.
mc
Most of the time I just use the commandline stuff (cd ls mv rm etc.) but I have vifm installed if I really want one
midnight commander, especially if i need to delete files/dirs with '-' and non-ascii characters. i do it without thinking.
Mostly ranger.
I use xplr and I love it!
dired inside emacsclient -t 😁
If you like vim keybindings check out ranger. It’s nice.
Midnight Commander
I've tried a bunch like ranger, lf, vifm, sfm and even some different ones like clifm. I always come back to nnn though. Nothing beats its speed and config options.
Coreutils, rsync. In more complex scenarios zmv from zsh.

Yes, I almost not use any GUI to manage my files.
zsh

Occasionally oil for neovim.
Ranger, mostly for bulk renaming
nnn master race
I’ve tried ranger for some while, pretty neat, but I haven’t tried other terminal file mangers tho
https://vifm.info

In this case, however, it cannot be said that I am using it as intended. The AUR helper I use, aurutils, uses Vifm to display the respective PKBUILD file during an update, for example.
I mostly use a gui file manager, but when I do use a terminal based one I use ranger. Haven't tried others, I just like this one.
Ranger with mount script.
- (I don't want drives to to be auto-mounted.)
I had straight up just never considered that terminal file explorers existed. This post has opened my eyes, and so here is my Saved comment. (Maybe one day, kbin will implement saving without commenting...)
I started with MC, went to nnn for a few months, then I moved to vifm.
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