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What is recommended file manager for i3wm?

asked 2012-06-08 00:52:51 +0000

updated 2012-06-08 09:28:01 +0000

I'm looking for suggestions of i3-friendly file manager which

  • fits well into the i3wm philosophy
  • lightweight
  • with no or very few dependencies
  • possibly fully-featured
  • easily or exclusively operated with keyboard
  • preferably graphical

For console, I consider Midnight Commander superior, but it's always good to learn about alternatives.

EDIT: Certainly, console itself is a very capable file manager what has been pointed in answers below. I should have clarified the question is about dedicated file management applications.

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answered 2012-06-08 15:07:34 +0000

miguel gravatar image

Ranger is a curses-based file manager with vi key bindings that has many features and performs most common tasks very quickly.

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Ranger is always the recommended answer to anything :)

lkraav gravatar imagelkraav ( 2012-07-08 20:24:01 +0000 )edit

Y like this: tilda + tmux + ranger

bitozoid gravatar imagebitozoid ( 2012-10-23 11:12:13 +0000 )edit

Thanks for the suggestion. Didn't know about it and it's such an amazing file manager.

tblups gravatar imagetblups ( 2013-04-14 14:21:32 +0000 )edit

I use ranger too

triplc gravatar imagetriplc ( 2014-06-13 01:56:38 +0000 )edit

Does Ranger handle mounting flash drives? I use PCManFM and it does that.

zwl gravatar imagezwl ( 2015-03-05 17:58:43 +0000 )edit
3

answered 2012-06-08 04:31:49 +0000

joepd gravatar image

BASH/ZSH ;)

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3

answered 2013-09-01 13:14:58 +0000

phairland gravatar image

I use double commander as well.

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answered 2012-06-11 20:39:09 +0000

sysadamin gravatar image

i like vifm. http://vifm.sourceforge.net/

console based, nicer-looking than MC, and vim keybindings.

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answered 2012-06-15 05:57:47 +0000

ROX is a lightweight GTK2 Filemanager, I use it on every of my machines.

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I just tried this one tonight and indeed it fits well in a tilling window manager. The pinboard feature is nice to have kind of a desktop on one workplace only. You may have a bar on all workplace and below the i3bar with the panel feature. The overall is indeed light‑weight.

Hibou57 gravatar imageHibou57 ( 2013-04-05 22:28:50 +0000 )edit
2

answered 2012-06-19 20:56:21 +0000

MeanEYE gravatar image

updated 2012-06-19 20:57:03 +0000

I am using my own file manager. Give it a shot. You might like it. :p

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Thanks! Despite I'm a bit sceptical about Python, your project looks very interesting. I'm going to give it a try. EDIT: After 5 minutes with Sunflower, it leaped to the first place on my list of the GUI twin panel file managers. Great work!

mloskot gravatar imagemloskot ( 2012-06-24 12:57:37 +0000 )edit

@mloskot Thanks, glad you like it. It's still a work in progress and features are still missing, but it's being worked on. If you need a feature, just make a new enhancement request on our issues list and have patience. :D

MeanEYE gravatar imageMeanEYE ( 2012-06-25 17:39:56 +0000 )edit

Wow! Missing features like doing dishes and walking the dog right? That thing looks fast, nicely laid out and incredibly intuitive. Nice work!

TheRaven gravatar imageTheRaven ( 2015-01-22 17:14:03 +0000 )edit
2

answered 2014-06-01 16:53:55 +0000

x3map gravatar image

Total Commander under wine !!!

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2

answered 2012-06-09 06:06:02 +0000

People might criticize me here, but if you need all that (full-featured), why don't just stick with nautilus? At least for personal use (thumbnails of files, images and videos, etc), it has everything I need.

But I agree that the i3wm philosophy might be more toward the terminal-ish styles people shared here (at work I also rely on old ls/cp/rm/mv commands too).

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I prefer using keyboard than mouse, thus I indicated the i3wm philosophy. Nautilus is fully-featured, but it is not even close to what I consider as file management ergonomy. Ideal combination of GUI with keyboard and features is Total Commander, but it's Windows-only. MC is close, but misses GUI.

mloskot gravatar imagemloskot ( 2012-06-09 15:56:58 +0000 )edit

Might sound odd, but I almost never use mouse, even under nautilus...

bruno.braga gravatar imagebruno.braga ( 2012-06-10 09:37:31 +0000 )edit

If nautilus doesn't cut it, you could give krusader a try.

BroX gravatar imageBroX ( 2012-07-27 22:16:17 +0000 )edit
2

answered 2012-06-09 17:53:10 +0000

polaris202 gravatar image

Try gentoo. It's graphical, lightweight, fully-featured. You can configure your favorite keybord shortcuts and much much more. And you don't need Gnome or some like that installed, just GTK.

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o thanks this is pretty awesome.

c1b3rh4ck gravatar imagec1b3rh4ck ( 2012-08-12 18:36:37 +0000 )edit
2

answered 2012-06-08 07:29:04 +0000

Michael gravatar image

I know people who are using pcmanfm or thunar or mc on the console. I dislike all file managers I know of, so I just stick with a shell and ls/cd/rm.

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Asked: 2012-06-08 00:52:51 +0000

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Last updated: Sep 08