Which file manager do you use and why?

This page summarizes the projects mentioned and recommended in the original post on /r/archlinux

Our great sponsors
  • WorkOS - The modern identity platform for B2B SaaS
  • InfluxDB - Power Real-Time Data Analytics at Scale
  • SaaSHub - Software Alternatives and Reviews
  • z.lua

    :zap: A new cd command that helps you navigate faster by learning your habits.

    Me too. I like it customizability and flexibility. It's even better when combined with the ranger-plugin that come z.lua, which I have bound to cj (I used auto-jump before this, which used that binding as well).

  • nnn

    n³ The unorthodox terminal file manager

    Ever tried nnn? It's also partially inspired by ranger, but is written in C (lf is written in Go). It's also way faster than ranger. So fast, in fact, that it can list a directory 2 times faster than ls.

  • WorkOS

    The modern identity platform for B2B SaaS. The APIs are flexible and easy-to-use, supporting authentication, user identity, and complex enterprise features like SSO and SCIM provisioning.

  • dragon

    Drag and drop source/target for X

    I use just the terminal (with no file manager, unless you can call coreutils like cd, ls, cp, mv, ... as a file manager), and dragon for drag and drop action, for which opening a full file manager is too much lol

  • broot

    A new way to see and navigate directory trees : https://dystroy.org/broot

    I use broot for getting overviews of directories and the like. Everything else is ripgrep

  • ripgrep

    ripgrep recursively searches directories for a regex pattern while respecting your gitignore

    I use broot for getting overviews of directories and the like. Everything else is ripgrep

  • joshuto

    ranger-like terminal file manager written in Rust

    There is joshuto, written in Rust. Not sure if it is fully there yet..

  • z

    z - jump around

    Have you been using z? Can't recommend it enough!

  • InfluxDB

    Power Real-Time Data Analytics at Scale. Get real-time insights from all types of time series data with InfluxDB. Ingest, query, and analyze billions of data points in real-time with unbounded cardinality.

  • ranger_udisk_menu

    This script draws menu to choose, mount and unmount drives using udisksctl and ncurses for ranger file manager

    Unrelated bonus plugin: I also really like this mounting menu/script for when I plug in a USB stick. It doesn't seem to be very well known, but it should be as I find it to be very handy. To install, follow th instructions on the GB page. You can add a binding like I did like this:

  • doublecmd

    Double Commander is a free cross platform open source file manager with two panels side by side.

    Double Commander. I like file managers with two panels and the tool offers many features. And it supports some plugins from Total Commander.

  • lf

    Terminal file manager

    When I started using lf it felt a bit still like work in progress but now it really looks mature and so much faster and stable than ranger.

  • clifm

    The shell-like, command line terminal file manager: simple, fast, extensible, and lightweight as hell.

    If you feel comfortable with the CLI, then a command line file manager seems like a natural choice. In this case, you can take a look at CliFM: half-way between your shell and a terminal file manager. You can find it in the AUR too.

NOTE: The number of mentions on this list indicates mentions on common posts plus user suggested alternatives. Hence, a higher number means a more popular project.

Suggest a related project

Related posts